Revised Tablet Story

            Imagine a future world with no paper. A world where you can simply pull a thin, powerful, touch-screen computer from your bag and instantly have access to any document, any map, and any book you could possibly dream of.

There’s no need to imagine it any longer, the future is now, as the Apple Ipad and Samsung Galaxy have stormed the tablet computer market.

            The tablets are widely popular for their gaming capabilities but teachers and students everywhere look for ways to involve them in the learning process.

            Penny Rice, instructional technology specialist at the Faculty Technology Development Center, said, “I know of several teachers here [Ole Miss] that use tablet computers to give power-point presentations.”

According to the USM’s school newspaper, Southern Miss NOW, the University has partnered with Blackboard Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications America to distribute 1,000 Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet Computers to specially selected students in the fall semester of 2011.The students will be from the Honors College, McNair Scholars, Southern Style and Gulf Coast sections of the university.

The tablets come preloaded with Blackboard Mobile Learn and will allow the students to access syllabi, textbooks, grades, schedules, and maps.

Will Ole Miss follow the University of Southern Mississippi’s lead and provide its students with tablets to assist in their studies?

“I haven’t heard of any plans along those lines,” said Rice.

Junior accounting major, Will Beasley is open to the idea of going paper-less.

“It would be an improvement,” Beasley said. “I’ve spent well over $2,000 on textbooks alone.”

A base-model tablet costs about $400 and electronic versions of textbooks can cost anywhere from $30 to $40, quite a bit cheaper than the hardback books from the bookstore.

            “Electronic textbooks are definitely on the rise, Rice said. “We’ll continue to see more of them as the years go on.”

Could tablets mean the end of physical textbooks or is it just an idea that will never become a reality?

“I’m not really sure – in my opinion they [textbooks] will eventually be pushed out and things will go to all electronic,” Beasley said.

            The benefits of the tablets computers in students’ hands are numerous. It would mean a lot less to carry if they downloaded their textbooks and it would be a cheaper, easier way to access the textbooks said Beasley.

According to Beasley, there are some cons to go along with the benefits: The tablets could break, get viruses, or even be stolen; therefore, the students could access their textbooks. There is also a danger of some of the more “tech-savvy” students hacking their tablets, that way they could be used for things other than their intended purposes.

             Ole Miss isn’t ready for tablets but colleges everywhere are always looking for ways to improve the learning process. Are tablets the future of learning?