A battle is ongoing between the traditional printed books and notebooks that students used to write on against laptops and tablets. About 3 years ago, one of the best schools here (La Salle) had required their students to bring a laptop (or tablet) and do away with the printed books and paper notebooks. Students are to read lessons via the digital version in their laptops and write notes using word processor on their laptops too. And if those laptops have portable wifi then they have the information highway at the tip of their fingers. They can simply Google anything that needs a definition or meaning. Truly that is a big change in the educational system.
School kids here are often using a computer or tablet as well, and in many ways that seems to be an inprovement. I remember having to pack all of those heavy books around each day when I was in school, and an armload home at night so I could do my homework. And if you forgot one that you needed, then you were just out of luck for getting that part of your homework done. This way, much of it can be done on the tablet, and only a small device to carry around. Of course, it is harder to use the old excuse that "the dog ate my homework"; but I am sure that there are contemporary excuses that work for not getting your homework done when using the computer. As for myself, I enjoy reading with my Kindle when I am just reading a novel, or similar book. If it is a book that I want to read for research and be able to refer back to a lot, then I do like to have a printed copy because it is easier for me to flip through and find a highlighted page in the book than to try and do the same procedure with the digital book.
I love and appreciate technology. However, my fondest childhood memories are those that include books. I read from an early age, and I grew up loving the feel and even the smell of book paper, both new and old. I practically raised my children in the public library, even though they had a computer. I just don't think anything can take the place of a physical book, at least not for me.
Wife and I aren't book readers, but do take a glance at a couple of magazines that we get (AARP and AAA Auto Club). Actually, both of us would've loved to have had today's technology back when we were in high school and college. I really thank God that we both like today's technology (computers, plus). But, both of our jobs have depended on knowing/using computers and we darn good at it.
Being computer and tech-challenged, I find it amazing to readily have access to knowledge and research just because we can. I have dictionary and Thesaurus Apps on my phone. My students/children can have access to them at their fingertips anytime, e.g. in a grocery while reading an ingredient, they ask me what they mean. Viola! Google , Oxford or Wordage Info. With Kindle whitepaper, my husband and I nearly bought our daughter one last week. But didn't get to. We still prefer paperbacks for their love of reading.
One thing that I really love is that we can almost instantly find out the answer to ANY question in a few minutes just by using the internet. The answer or explanation is usually as close as a little "googling". My go-to place on the internet for information is now Youtube. Someone has put a tutorial for almost anything that you want to learn about on Youtube. Want to bake a chocolate cake, or maybe build your own log cabin, try Youtube. It is all on there. And when news happens somewhere in the world, there is usually someone with a cell phone or dashcam around to record the happening, and post it online for people to see. I also like that I can read online newspapers from so many different countries, and not get just the same information that all of our news-media puts out. Regardless of which channel you wach on TV, they all say just about the same thing, and sometimes, seeing a repost from another country's news can add a lot to the report. Most of my spare time is now spent learning and studying about interesting things, as opposed to reading novels or watching television, and I just love how much information is available online. I would have to live at the library to learn all of this, and it still wouldn't have all of the variety that is available on the internet.
I agree Yvonne, it is certainly a different and amazing world we live in now. And it is changing very rapidly. I wish I was younger and could see where it is still all going. Each time a new iPhone comes out, some new little bit of technology is added! Always something new to learn.
@Chrissy Page, @Yvonne Smith, as you both know, I'm an online KLUTZE. I have been using computers since 1978, but it was all programs for one application or another for business or school. I even wrote a few accounting programs for our business. Programs are easy to learn and use, they just do what you tell them to, online is a different matter. For me online is a scary monster, and when I try to do something new it bites me. So I think teaching kids through the technology of the times, is the only way they will be able to keep up with the futures advances.
Some day, these kids will look back and have treasured memories of their favorite laptop...at least for them.
I'm in love with technology as much as I fell in love with the Internet when I first came online 16 years ago after being reluctant to do it it. However only an unexpected power cut coming into my life five year ago and lasting for months thought me that: Internet is not the air we breathe, hence we can still live without it. All what we read, write and do is mostly technology-based and technology depends on electricity/power source Without electricity or batteries, there is no access to your fondest memories nor your much needed information And without power to get technology/Internet working you can discover the good old things we had in our childhood still exist! Well most of them, so you can always look back at print media, listen to the radio by turning on an AA battery-operated device, write down your memories using a paper notebook and a pen, or a mechanic typewriting machine when it comes to do your job instead. All of those things that we had in childhood are familiar to us when we are deprived of modern technology, and we know what they are, and what they serve for, but it's worthless (and will be) for children to have their world treasured into a digital gadget in case of an unexpected global disaster that shut power down, or a simply household issue disrupting the electric supply. In this latter case, they may still go after a place to find a way to keep using technology, as I did, but many times this can be so stressing and frustrating, that is way too much better look at old alternatives that sadly most children of today ignore and are not being taught about.
Here's a concern that I have. Many of us have photographs of family members, friends, and others from our past which we cherish. We may have old letters from people who are no longer with us. Looking beyond our personal lives, so much of what comprises history and culture has been based on printed matter, including published books, journals, diaries, letters, and the like. In fact, here in the United States, the history of most everything begins with the arrival of Europeans, and this is not simply a matter of racial bigotry or the non-recognition of our indigenous people as it is the fact that the Native Americans did not have a recorded history. Oh, they had a verbal history that was passed on from generation to generation, but when their generations were broken up, most of that was lost. It was lost because there was nothing tangible that could be used to re-create the record of their history. Even during our lives, we have seen that advances in technology renders earlier technologies obsolete. I know that I have photographs that were important to me stored on floppy drives that I no longer have a device to access, as well as all sorts of things that I would like have in front of me today that are stored on the hard drives of computers that no longer work, and wouldn't be compatible with what I use today. As new operating systems are developed, likelihood that average individuals are going to able to access those treasures will diminish. In fact, an EMP could wipe out the history of the world from the time of the computer age onward.
The battle was or is now already lost, except for some home-schoolers without dependence on techno-crud/ deception/ promotions/ agendas. The dumbing down of Americans was accomplished with electronic and political and medical and other modern means. Those who remember the old ways, the importance of truth always, are fewer by far it seems.