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Should schools invest in electronic books rather than regular textbooks?

Versha Suresh Kavitha,The Young Vision Ambassador (Since Sep 2018), Gulf Asian English School –Sharjah.

In today’s world, the advancement of technology is so great that it has become one of the basic necessities in our life. Today’s young generation grow up surrounded by gadgets and technology. Students see themselves as digital natives. To cope with the world, they require some investment in e-books.

Transformation of regular books to e-books entirely may not be the right solution, as there are bigger worries about children being exposed to technology. Moreover, children will lag behind in developing social interactions. It comes to a point that interactions have become virtual. With this trend, teachers and parents might assume that students’ familiarity with technologies may mean that they prefer e-books for better potential learning outcomes. But researchers have found that this is not true.

While new forms of classroom technology such as e-books and gadgets are more accessible and portable, this clearly does not mean that students are better served with knowledge; rather, students are simply learning the ability to utilise the materials.

For a primary kid, it’s more important to learn through actions, conversations, activities and healthy play, as this is the natural and healthy way that a human brain learns. This could be seen when learning through regular textbooks. But when it comes to secondary and higher secondary education, these sectors do require some investment in electronic books, projectors, computers, etc., as it’s the right time to gather experience to cope with the world.

The aim of e-books is to simplify and enhance learning experiences. On the whole, there should be partial investment in e-books over regular textbooks. Therefore, in my opinion, the investment in e-books is to be made for the higher-grade classes.