Dear Next President,

I would like to bring to your attention that tablets would be a much better learning resource in the classroom than print textbooks. Right now, most public schools use textbooks to teach, and I think you should change that. Tablets should replace textbooks for our country’s benefit.

My reason behind that is textbooks can become quickly outdated, they are very heavy, and students do not do as good on tests compared to others that took the same test while studying with electronic books. This is a big problem. If you introduce tablets, students will perform better in school.

Some people say that having technology in class can get in the way of learning and make teaching more burdensome. They might say this because students get too distracted from their lessons. In some cases, they may be right, but in a study by PBS, they concluded that 77% of teachers found technology to increase their students’ motivation to learn. If the students do not have motivation to learn, they will not study, resulting in lower overall test scores. Studying on a tablet would give more help to students.

One problem that textbooks possess is that they cannot be updated to show new content. Once they are printed, the information cannot be changed unless it is in a whole new book. Textbooks can become quickly outdated. However, books on a tablet can be updated to show new material. This is especially good for subjects like computer science or biology as these topics are constantly changing.

Tablets are great for reading while travelling, and that is great for busy kids with homework. They are much lighter than traditional textbooks, and can go with you virtually anywhere. In another survey, 73% of people said that they do not use print copies as much as electronic copies and that they like electronic ones better. I agree with them because, when travelling, you can buy an eBook and get it instantly to begin reading. Students can get all of their homework done electronically and have it turned in from home.

Using digital textbooks can help improve our country’s test scores. There was a study in a classroom in California, and they concluded that the students who studied on online textbooks scored 20% higher than the others who studied on print textbooks. It is important to this country because if we want to compete globally, we will perform better using digital textbooks.

If tablets are used in schools, students will learn more, they will learn faster, and they will learn more efficiently. President Obama once said, “I want all students to be able to learn from digital textbooks." This is significant because he knows that it is important and he is working to make education better. I ask that you, Next President, will take his lead and make technology a part of classroom learning.

Sincerely,

Sara

8th Grade

Evart Middle School

Evart, MI