The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks by Margaret Rock - Article Example

Tablet and Textbook in US Schools There has been a debate in recent years over how possible it is to apply the tablet technology in the educational sector. In the backdrop of this discussion, book publishers, players in the technology industry and the federal government have all started analyzing how a large-scale introduction of tablets into schools will affect different areas of their operation. In the text The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks, Margaret Rock uses this social background as a platform on which she explores the potential impact of this adoption on the classroom, as we know it today. Though a report by FCC had shown that large-scale application of the tablets project would help save $3 billion a year in the educational sector, the author claims that other areas of infrastructural system, together with the effects the tablets will have on learning and teaching of students were factors to consider before making any decision. Whether this project is adopted in schools or not, the author aims to increase the public awareness on different issues that will help make an informed decision. The text is an argument by Margaret Rock that looks at the advantage and disadvantages of tablet versus textbook use in school. The author seeks to prove the issue of savings alone should not inform the decision to adopt the tablet project. other issues like the ability of the available infrastructure to support the large-scale adoption and the effect the project will have on student knowledge acquisition are also important. The author is a managing editor of Mobiledia website and a B.A. in English graduate from Loyola University. She draws from both her studies in English and her experience as a reporter and a marketing and public relations specialist to write on matters of how technology affects our daily lives. In this text, the author relies on her own knowledge of technology in addition to other sources like the FCC report and the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt test on algebra to come up with an argument about the factors to consider before adoption of the tablet project into the educational sector. The purpose for Margaret Rock’s argument is to present the audience with the analysis of how both the digital and print medium affect education. She attempts to answer some of the pertinent questions that are essential in drawing a conclusion on the benefit of this technology to education system. She provides evidence based analytical insights about tablets and improved learning, potential hidden costs due to the implementation of tablet project, savings for schools that can result from the project and the inevitability of tablets finding its way into education sector. All this analysis has the purpose of directing those interested to make a choice on the way forward by choosing to remain with the print content in learning, change from print to digital content or find an accommodating ground to explore both forms of learning in education. The author chose an online medium as the appropriate way to pass her arguments to her audience. This is appropriate since many people who are interested with the application of tablet and other computer technologies in various areas of human activities are mostly likely to look for such information from the internet. The further used Mobiledia website as it has curved its niche as one of the best providers of news on technological applications. Margaret Rock targets everyone interested in education and technology as her audience. Since she presented her text through the website, she intended this information to reach those who have knowledge on how to use computers and the internet. Such an audience provides informed judgment on how effective the tablet can be in the schools since they can use the technology themselves. In this case, the audience is not specific since the information presented affects a large pool of people who for example can be pupils, teachers, parents, print publishers, technological firms, the government and taxpayers in general since the government expenditure into the project affect them. In this text, Margaret Rock uses logos to persuade the audience on how the tablet can find useful application in the education sector. The author has begun the outline of the text by highlighting the background to her analysis. She points out the consideration by the government, technology industry and publishers to adopt in US schools a large-scale tablet project as the basis of her argument. She goes on to give the reasons for this consideration as the report by FCC that indicated a possible three billion dollar savings on education expenditure if the tablet project was to be adopted. The author then focuses attention to the hidden cost due to infrastructural requirements for the adoption to be successful. The next part of the text is about the question of whether the tablets could really improve learning where the author bases her arguments on studies conducted by Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and that of Kate Garland. The author concludes by accepting that it is inevitable the tablets will find a place in the education sector, what needs to be done is for stakeholders to develop a framework to determine the role that tablets will play in learning and teaching. The author presents strong arguments supported by different statistical evidence in the area of study. For example, the author uses the findings by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that indicated 20 per cent improvement in performance of the students who used tablets compared to those who used books to prove that there is an improvement in learning due to introduction of tablets in schools. Further, the author uses his appeals to pathos to sway the audience to believe that the use of tablets will benefit learners. To achieve this, Margaret Rock gives her evidence based on how students with special needs were benefiting from the use of tablets in schools. She presents the evidence from schools that offered special education had reported improved learning capabilities of their students. According to her, advocates for the learning needs of children with special needs were ‘desperate’ in their efforts to find ways of bridging existing educational gaps in children with learning issues She points out the benefit of the apps that are supported by the tablets by pointing out that such apps help autistic children develop skills. Further, the author claims that there are tablet apps that can assist children in several other ways like those with language delay to find a voice, other she urges overcame confusing social circumstances and experienced a reduced stress level. Additionally, Margaret Rock claims that there are apps that improve children’s fine-motor skills, which they need for them to write and manipulate small objects. Claims that tablets improve learning for children with disabilities appeal to the audience’s emotions. Since the audience feels compassionate about anything that affects the learning of children with disability, the author takes advantage of it to make them support her arguments, knowing they would not want to oppose something that will help such vulnerable group of children. The author relies heavily on the emotions of the audience so that she does not present evidence for her claim that tablets were helping children with disabilities learn better and improve their motor skills. This appeal to the emotions of the audience makes the information presented unreliable, as the author does not reinforce it with documented evidence. In providing answers for counter arguments, the author does not fully justify why the tablets should be adopted in schools. For example, although she proves that tablets improve learning, she fails to show how sustainable the project is since she does not provide a solution for the lack of adequate infrastructure. After highlighting the fact that funds available to schools cannot meet infrastructural demands, the author moves on to point out that ‘educators are betting big that the transition is worth it’. This answer does not offer any solution to the need for more funds for the project to be sustainable. The author should have included evidence from what students and parents had to say. The author presented evidence from technology firms, educators and the government but failed to include the opinions that parents have. Although parents who can afford would easily finance the project, it is not known how parents who were not financially able felt about the project. Given that the author had pointed out schools inability to sustain the project, she ought to have included such parents to determine whether they were ready to help fund the project. Overall, the author has shown that the adoption of tablets in schools is a worthy cause that needs serious thought. Work Cited Rock, Margaret. “The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks”. Mobiledia. 04 April 2012. Web. 10 October 2013. Read More