'Major distraction': school dumps iPads, returns to paper textbooks | Hacker News Reader

'Major distraction': school dumps iPads, returns to paper textbooks

smh.com.au

48 pointscarlosgg10 comments

I find it significantly harder to concentrate when reading an eBook versus a physical copy. Maybe it's Pavlovian conditioning from all the time I waste on my phone, but something about small glass screens makes my focus shut right off

I think most of it is just that you know you can easily switch to watching Youtube instead of reading, rather than actual physical act of reading on a glass screen.

I also think reading is like a muscle, I find it very difficult to even read a paper book. I'll often make it half way down a page and realize I have no memory of actually reading it.

I read fiction on my phone all the time, but when I try to switch to my PC to continue reading, I will find myself doing something entirely different 15 minutes later. Yet, I can read for several hours in a row on my phone (I've even bought an extension cord so that I can charge my phone while reading).

I haven't tried reading from paper books for a decade though. Perhaps it would work, but the selection of things I'm interested in reading is too small.

The failure of the tech world to produce a truly good, useful, immersive, generative mobile media device and ecosystem is profoundly troubling.

The challenges are not technical, nor are they inherent to devices. I supect it's a combination of business models and IP law (copyright, patents, and others) which are holding us back.

In the past 24 hours, I've been tracking down works by an author, including one book for which Worldcat has a single listing, Amazon has none, and a few physical copies may be found apparently with a surviving co-author, at, as it happens, Edith Cowan University in Australia.

Oh: and Google have digitised this work, much of it is readable through the abysmal Google Books interface. But with sufficient limitations that I'd prefer re-typing the content by hand, as I've done for other works:

https://pastebin.com/raw/fZajYSGa

This allows me to produce multile formats readily via Pandoc, including HTML, PDF, ePub, and others.

I've used several ebook readers, all have distinct limitations. Pocketbook on Android is amomg the better, though its poor metadata management (No author field!!! Abysmal editing interface) is a constant frustration.

For Apple, lack of a mature console userland as with Android's Termux is a killer. For Android, everything but Termux is abysmal.

I'm shocked! No one asked the question "why is this better" when schools lined up to buy millions of iPads.

Because technology

Many of us (parents) asked, and there were a lot of handwavy answers. I suspect the real reason was that a lot of teachers and school administrators wanted iPads/MacBooks and didn't want to pay for them.

Then again, I'm a cynic.

> No one asked

That's not true. My district told parents it would lighten backpacks. They eliminated lockers. Now kids have to carry backpacks full of textbooks, AND their iPads, AND be responsible for both electronic work and paper work.

Root cause: ebooks too expensive, schools were subject to the same racket as any student: rent-seeking publishers.

Why tech might be better. At best: Immediate direct feedback to a student when doing exercises that consolidate understanding. Video is a powerful tool, animated explanation, difficult demonstrations, historical footage are all available and you need get the delivery right once and it scales up to millions of students from there. Psych tricks along the gamification line can be useful in providing additional motivation.

MIT's probability course is amazing. So it can be done, for a given audience at least.

I have my doubts about a computer convincing someone who lacks confidence that they are easily smart enough to excel at this task or learning in general.

What do you use a screen for? YMMV. If they're ever going to work in a school some teachers are going to be doing amazing things to make that happen. How would they know what to do? Easy to see good teachers failing at that too.

Its the systemic paradox of teachers being unable to learn anything new [it violates their contract /s] and, as a result, killing educational innovation at every opportunity. iPads were never cost-effective for schoolwork - Chromebooks are because even the poorest families can afford or be offered one for home use.

The public education system is beyond broken.

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