Learning with Tablets: Five Reasons the Tablet Is the Ultimate Learning Device
Authors: Jim Lundy, Mike Anderson
Date: February 25, 2013
Topics: Knowledge, Mobile
Research Note Number: 2013-04
Issues: What are the trends impacting how knowledge is created and shared?
What are the trends impacting mobile computing?
Summary: Tablets are poised to become the learning device of choice in K-12 and corporate settings.
The technology of learning is about to change forever: The shift to an all-in-one learning device is here. Soon, the tablet will be the most common all-purpose learning device in schools, companies and government agencies, replacing textbooks and many other learning tools.
Tablets can do so much because they are so versatile, and because their prices are falling so fast. Increasing affordability, expanding versatility, extreme portability and extended battery life combine to make tablets ideal for learning. This research note identifies the five key capabilities that will make tablets the dominant device in most learning environments over the next few years (see Research Note 2012-53 “The Aragon Research Tablet Forecast, 2013-2016”).
y selling points and the main marketing focus for IT products, particularly in the enterprise. While “speeds and feeds” are still important, successful products also make the machine feel like a natural extension of the user, not an artifact. For users accustomed to weak, even cumbersome enterprise systems, the ease and comfort of learning and experiencing new smartphone and tablet apps means the end of the mediocre user interface.
New demands and new paradigms have made mobile devices the fastest-growing IT platforms. By 2016, sales of tablets will be double those of laptops, with many new users, particularly children, and many new uses, including nontraditional ones like operating “smart” home theaters, appliances and cars.