Disadvantages of using tablets in classrooms

The disadvantage of using tablets in classrooms

Despite the advantages of using tablets in the classroom instead of using normal textbooks and notebooks, there are several disadvantages of using tablets in classrooms are noted by the teachers who face challenges with students’ tablets in classrooms.

Disadvantages of using tablets in the classroom:

Teachers need more effort to get ready for the lessons

Poor Internet connection

Irresponsible device handling 

Distraction from the task

Addicted in Gaming

The shortfall of resilience and cybersecurity

Quality of writing skill declining

Teachers need more effort to get ready for the lessons

Most of the teachers used to teach in the classroom with the contents from the textbooks and using blackboard, whiteboard, and smartboard which were available resources. The teachers need more effort to switch to the digitized teaching environment. Even Though they have learned modern methods it takes time to implement in classrooms. While students use tablets instead of textbooks and notebooks the teachers have to depend entirely on technology. This is an immense challenge with the students’ tablets in the classroom. Moreover, teachers need to concentrate more on the technical issues of using tablets in the classroom. It is a disadvantage of using tablets in the classroom. 

Poor Internet connection 

Even though a better broadband connection with unlimited wifi facilities students face slow and discontinued internet access frequently. This makes a significant negative impact on student's learning and teacher struggle to manage the classroom disciple as well as the flow of the learning process. Moreover, the students also use it as an opportunity to refrain from the learning process. The aim of using technology in the classroom is to fascinate the lessons to the learners. However, poor internet access creates a massive challenge to teachers with students’ tablets in classrooms. Moreover, many students are not able to access the internet at their home or have limited internet data available there.   

Irresponsible device handling  

All the students are not the same. There are students with different abilities in the classrooms. They face challenges to handle devices, especially tablets in classrooms. Some students may not feel the cost of devices and handle them carelessly. In a few countries,  like the Maldives, the tablets had been provided to all the students freely. The Maldives had provided tablets to all the students under the school digitalization program. As the tablets are free of cost the students handle them carelessly and have broken often and damaged the software and hardware programs. These students are frustrated and make challenges in behaviour problems in classrooms. Secondly, they are not able to cope up with the classroom learning process. This creates another challenge with students’ tablets in the classroom.

Students' distraction from the task

Although the teenagers are very interested in multi-task activities, some of the students are not able to be on the track. Most of the time they are distracted by doing different activities excluding the lessons and tasks given by the teachers. Teachers are not able to put an eye on each tablet in the classroom. Students open multiple tabs in the browser and visit inappropriate websites for their pleasure. Mostly, they focus on entertainment and fun videos and websites. Sometimes, they used to visit social media to make instant chat with classmates and outsiders too. A teacher can't track students activities all the time. This causes the student's late submission of work, missing the assignment, uncompleted work, etc. This is the challenge the teachers face with students’ tablets in classrooms.

Addicted in Gaming

If parents are not aware of their children’s activities on tablets at home, the teachers will not be able to control the students’ activities in classrooms. Some students are severely addicted to gaming since they got the habits during the lockdown because of the pandemic. The parents might have thought their children should be engaged in some activities. However, these students are influenced by the excess usage of tablets for gaming. They play some games not following the age categories. 

Lack of resilience and cybersecurity

Despite the students having been taught resilience and cybersecurity, they are not aware of this. The usage of the resources must be fair use. The students are not aware of plagiarism. They copy other materials and submit their assignment without giving any credit to the original author. Secondly, they upload their personal information to the websites and social media without knowing the authentication off the platform. Moreover, they are unaware of the security issues in the web world. Finally, students face cyberbullying also.

Quality of writing skill declining 

This is the most significant disadvantage of using tablets in classrooms. It happens silently and creates a bad impact on students' learning skills. Students are incurious to write well. They opt for the easy method of writing in digital which helps them to use suggestion mode and spelling and grammar check. Therefore they are not ready to learn vocabulary and spelling of the words. It affects students' thinking capacity in learning.

In a nutshell, the disadvantages of using tablets in classrooms reflect merely technology always. Since technology impacts education optimistically, and educators should be aware of using devices in classrooms to avoid the disadvantages of using tablets in classrooms.