By Karoline Dillenbeck
LCS, Grade 6
Should student’s textbooks be replaced by technology? Professionals say they should because kids carry way too much on their backs. Brandon Macias of UCSD’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery states, “Students often carry backpack loads of twenty-two percent of their body weight when it is only recommended to carry fifteen at most.” More and more students are getting back problems at younger ages because of this. In the 2011 and 2013 school year alone 13,700 U.S. children ages 5-18 were in a hospital or had to go to a doctor for backpack related injuries. Some of these injuries were contusions, fractures, and straining to the back and shoulders. Those are some reasons professionals think kids textbooks should be replaced by technology.
There are many other reasons students textbooks should be replaced by technology. Professionals also say technology is better than a book because of the visual effects such as videos, audio, and the ability to highlight text. Teachers would also be able to select certain pages of workbooks to use online instead of buying a whole book and only using half of it. There also would be fewer trees used. We would save more than 400 billion on textbooks and notebooks by doing this. Schools all over the country say it is too expensive to buy laptops, iPads, or kindles. Pieces of technology like these cost about $250-$700 each and textbooks only cost about $100 each. However, Arizona switched to laptops from textbooks and they saw positive results. The teachers saw the students were more focused and engaged. The information in textbooks becomes outdated so eventually schools have to get new books. However, if you had a device you can update the information online. Also with a device the kids won’t draw all over the books. It would also make the kids more responsible. There would also be less “I forgot it at home” excuses because you could print your assignment at school and only worry about the one device not five books or notebooks. This is why textbooks should be replaced by some form of technology.
