Dear Next President,

Since 2013 & 2014 iPads have been given to students in school. At first using iPads in the classroom looked very fair for everyone and looked like a good way to learn. But I think iPads should not be given to student in the school. What's the point of giving technology to student and telling them to learn. Why is it that we need iPads in the first place? What's the benefit of having ipads in the school? How are the ipads not helping student learn in the classroom? What's the financial difference between iPads and other materials like textbooks?

Some people say using iPads makes it easy to communicate between teachers and students. According to Jordan Catapano, “Instead of trading stacks of papers with one another – and taking the necessary time and resources for this process – we can exchange files. This can drastically reduce the amount of time spent grading paper materials.” Jordan Catapano also said, “Students are notorious for claiming “I lost it” or “I was absent when you gave that out. When they have iPads, however, they can’t use this excuse: All materials are available electronically at all times." Even though it's true that iPads makes it easy to communicate between teachers and students it is way better to communicate in person. If you communicate in person you understand the situation better. It's true that student make excuse for losing papers and all. Even if the student have the materials electronically at all times there will always be excuse the student will make. If they lost the paper the teachers can tell them is their fault for not handling it properly. But if they make excuses like this “I didn't have internet at home,” “My charger is not working,” “My iPad was not working,” “I wasn't able to access the materials.” Then what will the teacher do? So using paper makes it difficult for student to make lot of excuses. Using paper make it difficult to make excuses because if the students were to lose paper it’s because he/she didn’t take responsibility. If the student wasn’t present on a particular day that is an excuse, and the teacher should consider that.

The financial difference between ipads and textbook is that ipads is more expensive. iPads are electronic they can be damaged easily for example if you were to drop it in the water, the iPads is gone, but if it was a book you might be able to dry it. Books can also be used for many years, iPads can be damaged in a few years. According to R A Johnston, “When iPads replace textbooks, they are perhaps least effective. Downloading an ebook to an iPad does the same thing that a textbook does, but one book is probably less expensive per year than the iPad. Tyre quotes another education writer, Lee Wilson, to the effect that textbooks may be about 20% the cost of iPads, and textbooks can be used many years in a row without electronic damage.” Students are losing ipads. Losing ipads makes it difficult to replace it because ipads are very expensive.

Giving iPads to student looked a good way to learn at first. iPads make it easier for teachers to communicate but is better to communicate in person. iPads make it easier for students to make lot of excuses while paper make it hard to make excuses. iPads are also more expensive than books. I know that having ipads in the school have a lot of advantages but what's the point if the student is not using the advantage.  

Sincerely, 

Tola