How students will use ed-tech devices for learning should determine what kinds of devices school leaders should buy
What kind of mobile device should schools invest in for their students? The answer depends on how students will use the technology for learning, experts say.
“Tablets are great for lots of things, and so are laptops; the trick is to identify the right tool for the job at hand,” said Julie Evans, CEO of the nonprofit group Project Tomorrow.
“If your primary curricular objective is to have kids do a lot of writing, you are better served by purchasing a low-cost netbook or laptop than a tablet,” Evans said. “To purchase tablets and then realize you need to add on keyboards indicates, to me, that maybe you did not do the up-front thinking that you should.”
For the past 11 years, Evans’ organization has polled K-12 students about their experiences using technology, both at home and in school. This national survey, called “Speak Up,” also asks parents, teachers, and administrators about their ed-tech attitudes and experiences, and it’s the largest survey of its kind.
Students are “way out in front of all of us on this,” Evans added. “We asked the students last year to identify for us their preferred device for a variety of academic tasks. The results pointed to a differentiation of devices that they wanted to use, based upon the inherent capabilities and roles of the devices.”
(Next page: Which devices are best suited to which kinds of tasks)
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