Ok, just to clarify, I’m talking about these tablets…
An iPad 2
Not these tablets…
Does anyone else find this slightly creepy?
My business teacher likes to think of himself as the technology guy. You know the type right? The type of person who’s first reaction to an unresponsive computer is not turn it off then turn it back on again, but to fiddle with the circuit board. Well, I’m pretty sure computers have a circuit board…
So recently he’s taken it upon himself to educate us on the wonders of tablets. I mean it’s clearly the obvious thing to teach a junior cert class about. Teaching the subject is sooooo mainstream…
According to him, tablets can do anything. They’ll cure world hunger, and make our school lives better, all in one go! He’s head of the small band of teachers in my school who are convinced that tablets and ebooks are the future. But I’m fairly sure they’re wrong.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against ebooks. I have a Kindle myself, and I think it’s great. Just not for school.
First there’s the obvious issue of the price. If the books or the tablet were free, the heck yeah, go for it, embrace the technology! But they’re not. Books are expensive enough without having to buy a tablet on top of it. I mean £200 (I’m using pounds because I can’t seem to find a euro button on my keyboard. Does that seem like a bad omen to anyone?) is remarkably cheap for a tablet. On top of that, you still have to buy the books. They’re not much cheaper than the actual paper books!
Second, tablets are valuable, but fragile. I can’t speak for anywhere else, but I wouldn’t put any money on a tablet surviving more than a week at my school. It’s not that my school’s rough, but with 600+ teenagers in a building, it’s a tad rambunctious. I don’t like the idea of telling my parents that they have to buy me a new tablet, because my old one got lost, or broken. It’s just not a good plan.
Lastly, I don’t even like tablets. I don’t have one, but I’ve messed with enough in stores to know that:
- It’s almost impossible to type on them.
- It’s almost impossible to go online on a tablet without clicking (or tapping) something accidentally.
- Tablets are really only good for games.
So that’s my rant against tablets. I hope you found it exceedingly grumpy, and that after reading it, you are now inspired to have a more cynical outlook on life. Because as one of my close friends said the other day, critical thinking really is a life skill.
So until next time just remember:
Many keyboards don’t have a euro symbol on them, and jazz hands make everything better.
Cynicalisbest 
€ € €
Try alt and 2.
Lately, I’ve had one of my best friends and my sister very excited about buying tablets. They both asked me (the nerd) what I thought about it. I told them simply that I didn’t understand why someone would want to buy something like that when a laptop can do so much more for the same price, or sometimes even cheaper. Both of them gave the same answer, “Well, I don’t do all that much that requires a computer.”
Okay…and what about typing? Answer…”I’ll just buy a keyboard to attach to it.”
So my follow-up question was, “So you’re going to turn the tablet into a very tiny, battery draining, lack of disc drive, 1 USB port having, ghetto laptop?”
Sadly, I didn’t get through to either one of them. My sister bought a tablet and as far as I know, she doesn’t often use it and my friend is having problems getting used to using hers because it’s definitely not as user friendly as a computer.
I think you’re right…the only thing they’re really good for is playing games on them.
I like your description “a very tiny, battery draining, lack of disc drive, 1 USB port having, ghetto laptop”. I’m going to have to use that sometime…
It makes it sound very tired. ‘Ghetto laptop…’