There are plenty of reasons for high school students to spend time with laptop computers…they are young people near enough to entry level jobs (which use these sorts of tools), and since most middle and high school students already are well trained in using text based forms of communications (i.e. typing) the advantages in using a tablet like the iPad seem less valuable.
For younger learners (i.e. from ages 2-12) and elementary school students, the iPad dos offer some real value. I think that the best way to show this would be to look at this video (I saw it on Digitized.com)
How will iPad picture books affect young reader’s literacy?
http://digital-storytime.com/wp/?p=114
And why does the effect of digital app books on literacy really matter? Only 3% of kids in a recent Scholastic study were reading on iPad’s in 2010, for instance. However, having talked to many parents with iPads, the transition from print to digital has been so natural compared to reading eBooks on a laptop, that I suspect it will be the wave of the very near future. I found reading eBooks on my laptop to be fun once in awhile with my child before I had an iPad, but with the iPad our family made an almost seamless transition to reading digital books nearly every day. The size of the device, the touch screen, battery life and of course the selection and ease of downloading book apps has made digital picture books a natural substitute for print books for the first time for many families like ours.
Top 10 iPhone and iPad apps for young children
http://www.autisable.com/737188828/top-10-iphone-and-ipad-apps-for-young-children
I considered writing something about this topic, but it is so self evidently worthwhile…at least if you are interested in early child enrichment, that the video (see above) is enough for me…do you agree?
