Does replacing textbooks with tablets impact student learning?

Growing research is starting to show that the use of certain technology in the classroom can actually have negative effects on student learning.Many schools have now replaced hard copies of textbooks with electronic tablets, including some in Ireland, where the trend is on the rise.Dr Ann Marcus-Quinn, lecturer in Technical Communication and Instructional Design at the University of Limerick, said that international research proves that “crucial skills such as the ability to empathise and critically analyse texts may be compromised by a shift to reading texts on tablets.”She warned that simply replacing textbooks with technology may be actually damaging to a child’s ability to learn, as reported by RTE.“She said such a move replaces the deep reading process which the reader of a hard copy text experiences, with “skim” reading, where the reader looks out for key words and may believe that they are fully absorbing the text but in fact are not.” Dr Marcus-Quinn said that while we may think we are processing information in the same way, in reality, our ability to “empathise and critically analyse the text are all being compromised”, which has huge societal implications.