Diversification of Education at Conflicting Viewpoints Essay Example

Different people perceive diversification of education at conflicting viewpoints. Some are for the embrace of the evolution of technological devices while some are still in the handprint era bringing different opinions in exploiting textbooks and tablets as teaching or learning aids. In the United States of America, textbook publishing companies constitute of an approximately US$11 billion of the GDP, with leading publishing companies constitution of over 80 percent of the global handbook industry and information leverage. On the other hand, the tablet industry in the US industry folds a share of US$18 billion of the industry's GDP. In the American population about 53 percent of adults and 81 percent of teenagers aged between seventeen and eighteen years, as well as 42 percent of children aged below ten years utilize tablets to access information that was previously sourced from textbooks (Procon.org). It's against this backdrop that this resume will make a conflicting viewpoint essay exploring the different arguments and counter-arguments on the use of tables versus textbooks in education.

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The use of tablets to exploit e-reading among other electronic facilities for learners in every educational level of K -12 schools have in recent age overtakes the print textbooks with the multiple advantages available in digital textbooks. Students and teachers accessing e-reading resources on tablets claim to have vast information and ease of using the knowledge at their disposal through tablets more than print textbook users (Procon.org). A tablet has a virtue of holding hundreds of textbooks with cheaper accessibility than print textbooks because of the environmental conservation among other logistics properties associated with printing read materials.

However, on an opponent argument against tablets shows how expensive it is to acquire them as well as cause numerous distractions for students during learning because of the ease to break among other reading deviations than print textbooks users. Having a tablet gadget also requires reliable internet service provision among other related logistics to have a functional reading session or efficient access to e-reading material therefore with internet or electricity outage or interruption means that learning is interrupted. Again utilization of tablets especially among teenagers and young children will have multiple interruptions during reading sessions when their attention is deviated by pop-up menus and other user interactive features in-built in the tablet sway away from the learners from consistent learning. In this sense, using print textbooks gives students a serene environment in reading without interruptions as is the case in tablet e-reading. In the inkblot argument on the two-sided coin on the reading avenues using tablets versus print, textbooks bring out pros and cons of using each mode of reading over the other to show the conflicting viewpoints for and against the utilization both print and e-books in reading (Elbow, 2006).

Initially, tablets help learners access more learning resources within limited time fulfilling the learning objective at 80 percent more efficient than the students perusing hardcopies. However, the handheld technological devices have multiple vices associated with users' health concerns. One of the health issues attributed to reading on tablets and other technological devices include fatigue, vision syndrome, neck and back pains, as well as musculoskeletal disorders attributed to posture and duration while using tablet devices. Unlike print textbooks that have limited to none user instigated syndrome due to extensive use.

Due to the multiple facilitation and access on hundreds of e-books on tablets makes them relatively cheap to access in reference to print textbooks that are rather expensive in relation to buying cost and access cost. Following the diverse accessibility of e-textbooks on tablets different shipping and renting companies like Kindle, Amazon, and Scribd ease the access and availability of millions of books worldwide for international learning audience, therefore, tablets have made e-reading a global village for reduced challenges in buying or renting reading materials from any learning discipline with limited access time (Procon.org). Again, reading e-books on tablets is more user-friendly than using print textbooks because when one reader makes learning notes and highlights on the reading facility they are able to make reversible clean up without affecting future readers of the same content even on the same device because of the delete and other user-friendly interactive option and interfaces. On the other hand, using print textbooks a reader will make permanent or semi-permanent marking when highlighting keynotes that will affect or influence readers using the same reading resources in the future. Furthermore, print textbooks have the disadvantage of wear and tear over time because they are physically mishandled by the user, unlike the e-textbooks that are infinite accessible for the readers.

Reading resources provided in print textbooks are properly classified for the different levels of learners and learning needs or capabilities of students unlike e-reading resources provided on tablets that have standardized resources which could at times be too complex for junior learners. Much scholastic expertise prefers that young child and other learners with special learning need to utilize cautiously prepared print learning resources and textbooks because they are sub-cautiously accustomed to their needs. Contrarily, e-reading resources on tablets fail to cater for the special needs of different learning categories with the biased presentation of universally regulated information for all categories of learners.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the positive and negative attributes that show the conflicting viewpoints on the use and adoption of tablets versus textbook brings out the different educational perception that one of the arguments for or against the use of digital technology or traditional print resources varies on individual understanding of the features offered by both methods of learning.

References

Elbow, Peter. (2006)." The Believing Game and How to Make Conflicting Opinions More Fruitful." A chapter in Nurturing the Peacemakers in Our Students: A Guide to Teaching Peace, Empathy, and Understanding. Chris Weber, editor. Heinemann.

Procon.org, (2019) Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues. Education: textbooks versus Tablets. Retrieved from https://tablets-textbooks.procon.org/ on 13th January 2019.