# Your thoughts on using tablets in education (elementary-high school) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148 "2014-10-12T22:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/61 "2014-10-18T05:01:48Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > You know, I have a Kindle Library of maybe 500 books, and most of them are pretty dense political science and anthropology tomes. I really do not feel impaired by reading them on a screen. Could these studies be working with people who just aren’t used to it? even sven, this where I want to move to. I’m at the point in life where I have to pare down the physical bulk of my library. Only concern I have is that (I think) Kindle eBooks don’t have illustrations or pics and can’t handle PDFs. Am I correct about this? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/62 "2014-10-18T10:27:02Z")
My Kindle Fire handles pictures and even video. PDF’s are a bit problematic - you can zoom in if you need to, but large format documents and books required you to scroll around a page. So… handle them somewhat, but not perfectly. Black-and-white e-ink Kindles I think don’t do pictures or PDFs. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/63 "2014-10-18T11:59:45Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > even sven, this where I want to move to. I’m at the point in life where I have to pare down the physical bulk of my library. Only concern I have is that (I think) Kindle eBooks don’t have illustrations or pics and can’t handle PDFs. Am I correct about this? You can read a Kindle book on pretty much any device. It wouldn’t be unusual for me to read on my phone during the commute, read a chapter via the online cloud reader on my work computer during lunch, and go home and was on my iPad at night. Kindle books can also synch with the audiobook version, so I may even listen to the book while I work out. I have an actual physical Kindle, but I don’t pull it out much unless I am doing rough travel where the multi-week battery life if a lifesaver. So the Kindle isn’t the best way to read PDFs, but it doesn’t really affect me. Illustrations are hit and miss, but mostly miss. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/64 "2014-10-18T16:05:48Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Black-and-white e-ink Kindles I think don’t do pictures or PDFs. E-ink Kindles do display pictures (in black and white, of course)—if whoever converted the book to digital form included them in the file. The quality of digitalization varies quite a bit from ebook to ebook: some are very nicely formatted, with all the original illustrations and diagrams in reasonably high resolution, while others are riddled with errors (often as a result of the OCR scanning process with little or no proofreading). If I remember correctly, e-ink Kindles can natively read PDFs, but in a really clunky and hard-to-use fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/65 "2014-10-19T04:10:28Z")
Thank you Broomstick, even sven and Thudlow Boink regarding my question about Kindle eBooks. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/66 "2014-10-21T03:03:23Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Kindle books can also synch with the audiobook version, so I may even listen to the book while I work out. even sven - But Kindle readers don’t support audio books, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/67 "2014-10-21T03:23:36Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > even sven - But Kindle readers don’t support audio books, correct? The Kindle Keyboard did, but none of the (e-ink) Kindle readers currently sold do. By the way, FWIW Amazon seems to have just recently dropped the “Kindle” from the name of their Fire line of tablets and is using it only for (e-ink) ereaders. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/68 "2014-10-21T10:56:30Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > even sven - But Kindle readers don’t support audio books, correct? I’m pretty sure my Kindle Fire does, but since I don’t do audio books I’ve never tried it. It plays music and videos just fine. So… depends on the Kindle I guess. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/69 "2014-10-21T12:15:12Z")
I listen to audiobooks on my phone or iPad. Back when I had much more boring work, I used to use the old Kindle keyboard text-to-speech pretty intensively. I think it helps to separate Kindle books from Kindle devices in your head. Kindle devices are one way to consume Kindle books, but far from the only way. I rarely pick one up. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/70 "2014-12-01T06:52:58Z")
[Here’s the link.](http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2014/12/01/google-unseats-apple-in-u-s-classrooms-as-chromebooks-beat-ipads/) ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/71 "2014-12-01T11:12:56Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > tech in schools can be a great tool if used properly. Problem is, deploying them never seems to be well thought out. It’s as if the mindset is: > > 1. Hand out tablets to all the students. > 2. ??? > 3. Success! > > also, it’s my opinion that they should be kept in the classroom and doled out at the start of the day instead of letting the kids keep them with them. It’s moronic to hand out expensive, highly desirable items to adolescents and teens (an age group comprised mostly of irresponsible, destructive thieves) and then wonder why these things get broken or disappear. One problem with that is they all need to be plugged into a charger almost every night so in a classroom of 25 kids you need alot of charger stations. Plus eventually the kids will need to use them for work at home. Also wasnt there a case where a schools principal was able to remotely access the kids computers when they were at home and could turn on the computers camera and take pictures? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148/72 "2014-12-01T13:48:56Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > One problem with that is they all need to be plugged into a charger almost every night so in a classroom of 25 kids you need alot of charger stations. Plus eventually the kids will need to use them for work at home. > > Also wasnt there a case where a schools principal was able to remotely access the kids computers when they were at home and could turn on the computers camera and take pictures? They make bulk charging stations, and kids taking them home presumably have access to electricity. Not seeing the problem. Computers have been abused. So have kids in classrooms. Scary world out there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-using-tablets-in-education-elementary-high-school/701148.md?page=3)