Why Tablets Will Change The Future Of Education

Everyone has seen young children using mobile phones and tablets. But what many people don’t know is that tablets are an amazing tool for education. There are three main elements that make tablets so useful for learning.

Since experts in the field of education have said things like “tablets in particular have the potential to open up the world’s rich store of information to willing minds and expert instruction,” we want to dive a little deeper into the elements that make tablets an ideal way for children to learn:

LOW COSTS

When compared to past or present technologies that schools have relied on for teaching, the price point of tablets is already far more accessible. And falling tablet prices is a trend that will only continue to accelerate as more companies enter the market and the price of hardware components go even lower. This factor has allowed KLiCWow to build its initiative of getting the right learning tool into the hands of every child specifically around tablets.

USER-FRIENDLY INTERFACE

As an assistant research professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education explains, “touch-screen technology has allowed younger kids and earlier learners to interface with computers and digital resources in a way that previous technology was not always practical for.”
Young children have always had the ability to learn from interactive software. What they didn’t have before was the ability to use the hardware required to access interactive software. Instead of being hindered by a mouse, keyboard or joystick, children can easily be taught to use a tablet with the finger swipes and presses that come to them intuitively.
While young children’s ability to learn through the user-friendly interfaces of tablets is very exciting, one important caveat is building these skills now is essential. Research has already shown that children who don’t develop competencies early have a hard time making up for it later and often hit a slump towards the end of elementary school.

APPS TAILORED FOR LEARNING

There are already studies which have confirmed that children learn more effectively via tablets. One study from Maine found that students who learned with tablets for several weeks scored higher on early literacy assessments than students who didn’t use any technology. Another study found that after using an educational literacy app for two weeks, 5- to 7-year-olds’ vocabulary scores for a selection of words included in the app increased more than 20 percent.
To learn more about how tablets can help shape children’s learning habits and futures, please take a look at KLiCWow’s Early Learners page.