Are tablets the solution to educational issues? #edcmooc

The second week of the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC is focused on futuristic visions of technology and education.

What is happening now in the sphere of learning technology, and what might happen in the future?

In some of the films (A day made of glass, Productivity future vision), we can see happy families and happy students learning and playing with smart tablets; they use tablets for everything and in every moment of the day and these objects are depicted as the ultimate solution to issues of comunication, learning and working.

I have found on the Internet some articles on the use of tablets in educational projects: these articles are an interesting counterpart to the utopistic view of the videos mentioned above.

eLimu: ‘T’ is for tablet computer

The first article is quite critical on the real usefulness of tablets and technologies in general for education.

One of the main problem is that there is too much emphasis on technology: tablet are useful and engaging for children, but there is a need for strong and contextualised educational content. Making relevant educational, grade-specific content is still a challenge.

Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves

The second article is more enthusiastic. The goal of the One laptop per child project is “to see if illiterate kids with no previous exposure to written words can learn how to read all by themselves, by experimenting with the tablet and its preloaded alphabet-training games, e-books, movies, cartoons, paintings, and other programs.”

The children after several months were able to use the tablets and write some simple words on their own. But it is required more time to reach conclusions about the possibility that children can learn from tablets without teachers.

The aim of the preject, anyway, is an utopistic one in itself and starts from the assumption that technology alone can be the solution for education.

I do not know if tablets can be the answer to educational needs: surely I agree that they are completely useless without good contents, i.g. good apps or intelligent games specifically designed for a particular audience and for specific learning goals.

Anyway, tablets and devices like these are extremely fascinating, not only for their educational potential. Looking at the movies A day made of glass and Productivity future vision you can not wait to have one and moreover it gives you a sense of ‘power’, for the possibiliy to be connected with everyone and everything, and this is exactly the impression that the two movies want to give.

On the other side, the idea of education that emerges from the movies is rather poor: the life of the dinosaurs, the differences of colours, how to make a cake. So, a tablet plus a good content can be a solution, maybe!