Textbooks wont Die the Way Tablets Do

Shivapriya Chandu
Mrs.Scott
March 7th, 2015
3rd hour

Textbooks wont Die the Way Tablets Do

Search Story:
It was the morning of April 16th 2023. I ran to my desk, hoping to
quickly finish reading the last few pages of my reading novel. I tried to turn

my tablet on and type in the passcode, but it froze. I waited for five minutes
before I got my device working. I opened up my iBooks app, but it kept
crashing. I really hoped that there was another way to read besides my
undependable tablet. Tablets and textbooks have been a hot topic for over a
decade. Currently the majority of people, especially students all want to
suddenly become a continuous user of technology in schools. Unfortunately
it will not be until a few years that people realize the dangerous and
unbeneficial factors that the tablet offers. Textbooks should remain as the
primary source of learning for students.
I have always found the topic of tablets versus textbooks very
interesting and I have a very strong opinion regarding it. Before I started my
research, I knew that tablets were very expensive to afford in schools
compared to textbooks, and that they cause different types of health
problems. From my experience, I knew that tablets offered a variety of
distractions for students but textbooks have landmarks which help students
remember information better. I wanted to learn more information about
tablets and textbooks in schools because I have always wanted to prove to
my friends that textbooks are more beneficial and helpful for the amazing
journey of education.
The first day of researching did not go as smooth as I had expected. I
had a hard time trying to figure out what keywords to search about. From
that day, I had only collected about one source. On the second day, the

inquiry process went much better than day one. I found three to four sources
that were very helpful. Over the span of these two days, I overcame a few
challenges. For example, finding sources on my side of the argument was a
little difficult; especially on the MeL databases. There was a lot of information
and statistics of the opposing argument. After a few more days of working, I
was on a roll. Doing the CRAP tests really helped me find efficient sources
and it helped my research a lot. Later, the time had come to start writing the
thesis statement and the final outline. I am proud that I have a strong thesis
statement, and that it is creative and well thought out. I am glad that I did
not write down the first thing that came to mind as my thesis statement.
Writing the outline went well also. Writing the outline was a big boost to
getting started to organize my notecards under each heading. Writing
notecards was the probably the easiest step in my opinion. I had collected
over 50 notecards in a span of around only three days! Soon, it came time to
conduct an interview or poll. I had chosen the interview, but it was harder to
do than it looks.
Interview Results:
For my interview, I interviewed Prasanna Munusur. She is the mother of
a sixth grader who is given an iPad in school. I interviewed her because I
knew that she would have a huge opinion regarding tablets and textbooks in
schools. After I picked my interviewee, it was time to figure out the questions
I was going to ask her during my interview. The first question was simply

weather she liked textbooks and tablets, and if she preferred one over the
other. I continued some questions which were and that involved the
environment, our health etc. After creating eight questions to ask, I felt that I
would be ready for my interview. Although I had emailed my interviewee a
copy of my questions asking her to answer the questions through that, she
contacted me and told me that she would prefer to do an over-the-phone
interview. Before I knew it, the interview had begun. I told my interviewee to
answer the questions in the most detailed and explained way possible.
Throughout our 25 minute interview, I received a lot of helpful and useful
information regarding textbooks. The best part is that Ms. Prasanna was not
biased about the topic. I loved the fact that she gave information on both
sides of the argument; she supported textbooks in one question but then
supported tablets for the next. This technique of my interviewee was a great
idea and I feel like a learnt more and got more information that way. She told
me that she thinks that tablets offer many distractions, and everyday her
child gets distracted by apps on the device. She explained to me how she
believes that listening to music with lyrics can be distracting to the brain,
while doing homework, but that instrumental music is okay. She also gave
me information on how radioactive vibrations and waves from wireless
devices affect our brains and skulls. She did say that she does not think that
tablets are more expensive, and stated that it depends on the how the
student handles the tablet. She kept repeating about how she believed that a

student should have control over their use of tablets; and they should be
able to distinguish between right and wrong.

Search Findings:
Prices for tablets are more expensive when compared to textbooks. An
average high school has a total budget of $77 million and paying so much of
that money for tablets is not worth it. When an individual looks at the whole
scenario of an educations price, he/she will only then realize how cheap
textbooks really are. The annual content cost per student per class with
tablets is $71.55 versus $14.26 for print textbook (Rotella). Some people
may say that $71.55 is not that much to pay for technology; but they have to
remember that this is only PER CLASS PER STUDENT. The average high
school has 752 students and each will take about 6 classes. After doing many
calculations based on the information provided, it is figured that the total
amount of money spent on tablets would be around $322,833 while
textbooks would only cost $64,341 just for students. The teachers cannot be
forgotten. The average highschool has 43 teachers. The teachers would add
$3,076.65 for tablets but only add $613.18 for textbooks. This is a difference
of over $260,000 for the amount of teachers and students combined, which
is a lot of money. Secondly, not only is the device expensive, the Wi-Fi is
more expensive than one thinks. These [advanced wireless access points]

typically run in the $500 range. A school will need 30 of these to support 800
users (Wilson). Also this cost is usually written per month. So the total
amount of money for Wi-Fi for a year is around $6,000. The worst part about
the Wi-Fi is that if there are any issues with it, the technology cannot be used
and therefore students cannot do or learn anything. As a result, students who
continuously have technical issues experience less education and miss
educational lessons, therefore hurting their learning. Textbooks, on the other
hand, can be easily fixed by tape and many students do not experience
many issues with them. The expensive prices of Wi-Fi and tablets lead onto
something called a digital divide. This happens when schools have trouble
affording the high prices that this technology costs. Some people find it crazy
that schools would pay for more expensive technology, when the simple, and
much cheaper textbooks that have been in use for generations over
generations are still as helpful and provide us with many different types of
information.
Tablets offer a variety of distractions to every student. Once a
students focus shifts, it is very hard to bring it back. Social media is one of
the number one ways that students will get distracted from doing homework,
studying or reading an eBook. Fifty-nine percent of students state that they
are always busy checking out their favorite social- media sites (Strang). It is
very absurd that adults tell students to avoid going on social- media while
working, yet, everything is offered right in front of their faces. This is like
asking someone to not eat the hot and freshly made pizza while putting it

right under their noses. E-mail notifications can affect your concentration
(Crow). When students are studying on their tablets and an email pops up
from a sports coach, teacher or any other news that excites them appears;
they will be compelled to open it. Adding on to the idea of distractions from
friends, let us talk about how texts affect a student. Many people get
distracted by texts from friends and tweets from celebrities. Sixty present
[students] claimed that texting is a major cause for distraction (Strang).
When a student starts engaging in a conversation through texting, it will take
that student a long time to finish the conversation because he/she would not
want to hurt the other persons feeling by taking too long to reply. When
your friend texts you a birthday invitation, of course you will want to reply.
When students get stressed over an assignment and get frustrated they will
immediately turn to something they call relaxing games. Forty-five
percent noted that students are distracted by games (Strang). By the time
students are done playing games on their tablets, they have completely lost
interest in their original assignment and start to get all lazy about. As
mentioned before, it is hard to bring a students focus back once it has
shifted. One of the most harmful features that a tablet offers to a student is
its search engines, such as Google and Bing. Not only do these websites
distract students from their work, but they offer many different homework
answers. By using the search engine tool, students are cheating themselves
as well as the teacher by not using their own brains for information but using
stored information in technology. More than half (52%) admit to some form

of cheating involving the internet and many dont consider it a big deal
(Toppo). Although many may say that cheating from search engines is not a
form of distraction, it is because it is diverting you from the real purpose of
what you are supposed to be doing. When comparing all of this information
to what textbooks offer to us, you will be shocked. Textbooks may be very
simple, yet they still give us information and there is no way one can be
distracted when reading a book on a printed page. When you contemplate
the topic, we think that that we benefit more from more modern technology,
but thats not true; just make ourselves believe that it is more effective.
In addition to the variety number of distractions that the tablet offers,
it also may be the cause of many different diseases and pains in the human
body. Many health risks will not be noticeable, but it will lead to huge
amounts of pain. Because of the repetitive motion that children use with
their thumb, some may receive something called the De Quervian Syndrome.
The constant movement of using the thumb is not good for a students
mental and even physical health. Adding on to this, putting inward pressure
on the middle nerve of the wrist is also very dangerous. This syndrome is
known as the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and it is one of the best-known
diseases in the category regarding the wrist. It is very harmful to the hand if
your wrist is bent way too much inward or outward. The Computer Vision
Syndrome causes eyestrain, headaches, blurred vision, and dry eyes (not
blinking often while looking at a screen). This can be caused by the dim and
low-resolution screens. Many students do not know what the brightness of

their screen should be at each time of the day. If the brightened is too low
and students do not raise it, it will surely damage your eyes, some more than
others. Some symptoms can be caused by dryness. Many students use their
tablet in the wrong lighting as well. There will be places in which students sit
down that will have glare and this results in students squinting at the paper,
which is directly a cause to eyestrain. Students are told to never sit down in
arid places when sing a tablets because it may cause unwanted symptoms.
This leads on to another important health concerning aspect of the use of
tablets is the posture and position in which people use their iPad in. It is good
to use any electronic devices, especially tablets, at a 90 degrees angle to be
safe. Yet, students will slouch over their tablets which is not good to a
students health. Another very dangerous thing regarding the tablet is that
everything is wireless. Students in schools may say that it is very efficient
but it is actually very scary. Since everything is wireless, everything that
humans comprehend through the tablet goes through our brain as
radioactive waves and vibrations. To create one tablet, you need the
extraction of 33 pounds of minerals, 79 gallons of water and 100 kilowatts
hours of fossil fuel resulting in 66 pounds of carbon dioxide. Not only are
tablets very harmful to us, but the way they affect the environment around
us will scar us greatly.
Tablets are becoming something that students want, more than what
they actually need. Paying thousands of dollars for technology that crashes
repetitively is not worth it. If school officials continue to replace textbooks

with these undependable pieces of technology, the future generations will

surely suffer the consequences. Since tablets offer very high prices, too
many distractions and dangerous health risks, textbooks should remain an
indispensable source of education.