Sorry I should have phrased it better than I have, I hope the following makes what I meant clearer.
I do agree with your statement that a tablet has more functionalities than any given book. Indeed, as you point out, a tablet can contain thousands of them.
What I tried and failed to express was that, in an educational setting, these functionalities are sometimes poorly used. This obviously depends on the teacher, if there is one.
It is not clear to me how teachers are supposed to use a tablet to enhance their classes, and in my (admittedly limited) experience, they are left to their own devices or with poor guidance to say the least. It could be that teachers more familiar with technology (beyond just using it) know what to do with it while teaching, but to which extent? I would have assumed that using tablets instead of books is at least as expensive; is this cost worth it in terms of gains?
In the Alan Kay interview which has already been linked in this thread[0]:
[quote]
I said, “If we’re gonna do a personal computer”—and that’s what I wanted PARC to do and that’s what we wound up doing [with the Alto]—”the children have to be completely full-fledged users of this thing.”
Think about what this means in the context of say, a Mac, an iPhone, an iPad. They aren’t full-fledged users. They’re just television watchers of different kinds.
[/quote]
That doesn't sound so promising in terms of education, unless I am missing something. From time to time, I see parents leaving their phone or tablet to their kid, who invariably plays some game like candy crush. How do you transform a device that was made for entertainment into an educational tool?
There have also been stories in the past about big tech leaders sending their children to "boring" schools without much in terms of technology, and mostly pen and paper, which suggests that better technology is not necessarily better for education.
Regarding the more limited scope of "just reading", I read a lot on my phone, but it is easier for me to get distracted since I can do so many things with a phone or a tablet. Granted it's the user's fault, but you don't need any self-discipline when using a simple book, which is at least one advantage.
I do agree with your statement that a tablet has more functionalities than any given book. Indeed, as you point out, a tablet can contain thousands of them.
What I tried and failed to express was that, in an educational setting, these functionalities are sometimes poorly used. This obviously depends on the teacher, if there is one.
It is not clear to me how teachers are supposed to use a tablet to enhance their classes, and in my (admittedly limited) experience, they are left to their own devices or with poor guidance to say the least. It could be that teachers more familiar with technology (beyond just using it) know what to do with it while teaching, but to which extent? I would have assumed that using tablets instead of books is at least as expensive; is this cost worth it in terms of gains?
In the Alan Kay interview which has already been linked in this thread[0]:
[quote]
I said, “If we’re gonna do a personal computer”—and that’s what I wanted PARC to do and that’s what we wound up doing [with the Alto]—”the children have to be completely full-fledged users of this thing.”
Think about what this means in the context of say, a Mac, an iPhone, an iPad. They aren’t full-fledged users. They’re just television watchers of different kinds.
[/quote]
That doesn't sound so promising in terms of education, unless I am missing something. From time to time, I see parents leaving their phone or tablet to their kid, who invariably plays some game like candy crush. How do you transform a device that was made for entertainment into an educational tool?
There have also been stories in the past about big tech leaders sending their children to "boring" schools without much in terms of technology, and mostly pen and paper, which suggests that better technology is not necessarily better for education.
Regarding the more limited scope of "just reading", I read a lot on my phone, but it is easier for me to get distracted since I can do so many things with a phone or a tablet. Granted it's the user's fault, but you don't need any self-discipline when using a simple book, which is at least one advantage.
[0]: https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-ab...
Edit: I should have seen that TeMPOraL's comment already says it all: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16836634