| Completely agree. I take this one step further and say tablets are probably handicapping your kids in the home. Having no tablets or smartphones available during the PC revolution forced most of us here to default to exactly the correct set of tools for maximum learning and efficiency: a keyboard, a mouse, a full-size monitor, sitting at a desk, with a full computer with some kind of (more-or-less) exposed desktop operating system. This isn't a choice any of us made, it was just the climate and the time. That lucky coincidence has given most of us a lifetime of experience using these tools, extending back all the way into our childhood. Over the last 10 years though, a lot of people/families have started replacing their desktops/laptops in favor of tablets/smartphones. I can't even imagine how I would've become a programmer if I had grown up in a house that just used tablets and smartphones for everything. They say that one of Bill Gates' greatest advantages in life was early access to the PDP-10. I think this trend toward "convenience computing" is especially bad for lower-income families (which are more likely to rely entirely on smartphones/tablets), and could even be a significant contributor to income inequality. |
Computer use in schools is not only about learning to use the computer. One of the great features of the iPad is that once you start an app, it becomes a single-purpose device that just works.
I totally agree with your last point.