The benefits of tablets in the classroom are flexible seating options, less paper usage, engagement through educational games, less grading, and improvement of the student’s technical skills.
Education in today’s world has to be mobile. At the beginning of the pandemic, many students were sent home to complete online school work without the ability at home to do the work. During the lockdown, we learned that learning does not simply have to take place within schools, and assignments no longer have just to be done on paper. Tablets have provided a way for students to do their work at home and within the school.
The days of having a traditional class set of textbooks are one thing that is quickly coming to an end. Education is evolving into the digital realm using these devices to help children prepare for the future.
There are many inexpensive tablets available (scroll down to find my four favorite tablets classrooms) that provide students with the ability to access online material from wherever they are.
The 5 Great Benefits of Tablets in the Classroom
Statistics show educators that we are preparing students for jobs that have not yet been created. What a sobering thought! However, we know which direction the world is going, which is in the way of technological advancement.
While there are many different benefits of tablets in the classroom, such as no bulky textbooks and cool virtual games, we have broken down five of what we feel are the most important ones:
1 . Flexibility of Learning and Flexible Seating
With a tablet, you can utilize flexible seating plans efficiently within your classroom. Got beanbags in the corner? No problem! Most of my students like to sit in a beanbag researching their next project.
A laptop computer can often be challenging to navigate, requires many updates, and is bulky. While the laptop serves its purpose well in different instances, it may not fit your learning flexibility needs.
Students can take the tablets home, and learning can occur anywhere. Students and teachers can learn via Zoom, send an email, complete homework, and even read books online from wherever they are learning or teaching.
2 . Go Paperless in Your Classroom
There is nothing hated as much as a paper jam in the printer! So the very idea of being paperless (or almost) in the classroom is very appealing. Through different learning platforms that can be accessed through tablets, students can do their work.
For example, a student completing an assignment through Google Classroom can read any attachments (no textbook!) and complete an assignment through a Google form. Students can display their reading comprehension skills with an assessment all through a tablet and ZERO paper!
3 . Less Grading (Woot, Woot!)
“I love grading all these quizzes,”…said no teacher ever! One of the major (and I mean MAJOR) benefits of using tablets in schools is the fact that much of the grading that at one time took so much energy can be done through learning platforms on these devices. As mentioned above, platforms such as Google Classroom make this a possibility.
One example of this is the blessed Google Form. When I make an assignment in Google Classroom, it is usually done through a form that collects the students’ names/email, all done with a portable tablet. Students, using tablets, can complete the form from wherever.
The form records that student’s name/email and grades the assignment for me. I can then get on my device and check their grade without the hassle of taking home a thousand papers that hadn’t been graded.
4 . Improve Student Technology Skills
One of the main benefits of using tablets in the classroom is that students learn technology skills that will allow them to succeed in the future. These tablets contain digital learning applications for students to use. Using these devices now is quickly preparing students for more technological advancement years down the road.
5 . Interactive Games and Learning Apps
What will help a student learn better than a new interactive game? Because of the increasing need in school, many tablets have applications geared toward growing student skills in any content.
Using tablets to access apps that promote learning, precisely one content taught, is remarkable. Further, students having the ability to learn to code or read may easily be one of the best things teachers can use for their students.
What Is the Best Tablet for Classroom Use?
Ok, so now you are convinced that you must acquire a set of new tablets for your classroom (or maybe a bunch for the school).
If you aren’t sure about which tablet you would like or would work better, we’ve got you covered! Here we have provided our top 4 choices for tablets for the classroom to help you decide.
Product | Features | |
Author's Choice  | Apple iPad Pro
| |
 | Microsoft Surface Pro
| |
 | Samsung Galaxy Tab S7
| |
 | Amazon Fire HD 10
|
There are so many different technology grants and funding websites available to schools and teachers who require funding help! Getting the funding for these things may use a lot of time and energy to create a proposal; however, a new set of tablets in the classroom or school would be hugely beneficial.
With all of that said, how do you pick suitable tablets for your students? First of all, consider how you want to use the device in the first place.
Are you wanting to have digital textbooks available or wanting a device for online research purposes? Maybe you need a device that can do that and provide students with the ability to do homework, read books they like, or even play content-based games.
Second, what kind of apps do you want your device to have? Do you want a completely digital library for your class? Are these tablets to be sent home with the student to be able to access homework from home? Maybe, you need a combination of all these things!
Are Tablets Good for Students?
Everything in moderation is something to consider. Technology can be a great good in my classroom experience, or it can seem like the greatest of evils. Sometimes these digital devices can seem as though they are more of a burden than a benefit.
It is essential to recognize if a tablet will be a distraction to a student and hinder them, which, in that case, needs a different instruction method.
This is where the concept of personalized education comes into effect. If the goal of using tablets in the first place is to help students learn, we need to recognize that all students learn differently. For example, I have some students that do well with their laptops in the classroom, but I have somewhere technology is a huge distraction, and they need different types of instruction (for example, using textbooks).
Final Thoughts
At first, tablets don’t have to be expensive. There are several tablets for teachers for under $150.
Using tablets in the classroom show great benefits and becomes more and more common. Over the last ten years, traditional education has rapidly shifted into the unknown world of online classrooms like Zoom and virtual learning platforms.
In general, purchasing one or many tablets for students in schools (or outside of school) is a big deal! There is a lot of thought and purpose in choosing the correct devices for any school.
Teachers are having a more difficult time helping students learn because they aren’t in the classroom anymore, forming relationships and building rapport—these tablets arrow at learning, even in these difficult and scary times.
Teachers can still reach their students and have “face-to-face” conversations, just as students can still get the help they require with the school. In this pendulum shift with education, these devices can be the difference in our student’s lives on both an academic and a social-emotional level.
