Using tablets in laptop project leaves same questions unanswered

In Summary

• Which of the two devices presents better learning outcomes, easier management and maintenance?
• With electronic devices, textbooks are bound to be replaced by digital content which can be re-used without exposure to the usual wear and tear.
• Additionally, tablets tend to rely more on battery rather than electrical power, potentially defeating the main objective of putting primary schools on the national power grid.

By JOHN WALUBENGO
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It seems the promise of laptops for Standard One pupils continues to give the Jubilee administration sleepless nights.

Sections of the media recently reported that the government is now considering distributing tablets instead, apparently as a way out of procurement hurdles surrounding the earlier effort to purchase laptops for primary schools.

It is not clear just how procuring a tablet cures the earlier procurement challenges, since the vested interests that might have sabotaged the earlier effort to buy laptops may simply shift the battle to the tablet procurement process.

Battles aside, we need to ask if there any pedagogical benefits that tablets provide over laptops. In other words, which of the two devices presents better learning outcomes, easier management and maintenance?

Many sceptics would of course dismiss the question, arguing that the Sh17 billion budgeted for the project would be better spent on hiring more teachers and expanding and equipping primary schools. They would, therefore, not buy either device, preferring instead to channel the funds towards other needy causes.

THE GREAT EQUALISER

The proponents of the project, however, point out that the laptop project is actually not about laptops, but instead about transforming and moving the education sector to the next level and ensuring that our children are better equipped to work in the 21st century knowledge economy.

They argue that indeed the transformation is already happening, with close to 70 per cent of all primary schools in the country already connected to the national electric grid, thus transforming not just the particular school but also its environs.

Small market centres that dot the countryside have suddenly found themselves lighting and powering up a 24-hour economy due to the presence of electrical power supply, largely due to the project.

And more is yet to come, they say. With electronic devices, textbooks are bound to be replaced by digital content which can be re-used without exposure to the usual wear and tear.

Teaching is expected to be enhanced as most of the teaching instruction becomes standardised and digitised. This means that a pupil in some remote village in Turkana will have the same learning experience in, say Mathematics, as the one enrolled in a expensive private school in Nairobi.

ADVANTAGE LAPTOP

Digital assignments and homework will be auto-marked, making it easy for teachers to not only provide instant feedback to students, but also track academic progress for pupils across multiple years.

Indeed one must concede that it is a beautiful future awaiting our educational sector. However, the devil, as they say, is in the details, and in going back to the question of whether a tablet is better than a laptop, one needs to find the answer within the context of the above-promised future.

Tablets tend to be of limited hardware and software capacity and may struggle to deliver on the educational future described above. If one is to host several interactive digital books and other content on the device, a laptop would clearly have an advantage and would be preferred.

For tablets to measure up to the laptops’ capabilities, one must factor in the internet. A tablet with internet capability may adopt a “cloud computing” approach that allows content to sit remotely on the internet, while the pupils access it locally.
This compensates for the weakness of a tablet, but introduces another cost item — who will pay for the internet access of over 20,000 primary schools across the country?

LONG-TERM INTERNET COSTS

Additionally, tablets tend to rely more on battery rather than electrical power, potentially defeating the main objective of putting primary schools on the national power grid.

In other words, the projected power consumption from primary schools may be 50 per cent lower than expected - potentially disrupting the financial projections of Kenya Power who are currently investing heavily in expanding the grid.

The only advantage tablets seem to have is that they are cheaper than laptops. But the question is whether we are going into this project because it is cheap or because we want to transform education in Kenya.

Furthermore, the long-run costs of the per-requisite internet service will eventually override the lower purchase price of tablets.

Clearly the “Standard One Laptop” pledge seems to be moving from one challenge to another. But one needs to be careful to ensure that the pledge is not moving from the frying pan right into the fire.