My students can really work with book or materials (make a photo, then annotate, cut, copy paste, extend the pages ...)
It added a lot to how I teach (make a podcast, produce videos, simulate, ...)
And as parent: I was more than happy when my son had (for the first time) all learning materials together in one place and not scattered in bags, on the bed, in the school locker...
Let me assure you from personal experience that iPads can (used right) contribute to better education.
[0] probably over hour 600 on pedagogic scientific research and other podcasts talking exclusively about it
It doesn't just have to be at school. Screens after school affect learning in school.
Back in my days we were printing the slides and annotating (sometimes) them. That was a big waste of paper.
Being able to turn in something handwritten, with whatever diagrams and stuff I want to draw, but also with the ability to quickly erase, move, shrink, etc. handwritten text on the fly removes a ton of friction from the learning process for me.
Second, it's not like modern students wouldn't have an iPad or a laptop, is it? It's not exactly a waste if they use a device they have anyway. Probably some even have an iPad instead of a laptop, so...
Overall I don’t like it that people in ritual spaces are reading off their phones all the time but, hey, I use the compass to figure out where the quarters are though I do try to mark them early on. I still like having books to read tarot and I have a few that fit in my bag but the really good ones (the spiritually oriented ones, not the ones that give answers like “in the basement of the Alamo”) would take up like 1/4 of the volume of my bag and that’s a lot.
So yeah, I may pack a mass market paperback that explains Smith-Waite imagery and a little materialistic book but I am going to fall back to my iPad if I need Rachel Pollock. It doesn’t help that the physical form of books has gotten worse over time, like the 1st edition of The Spiral Dance that was rebound by my Uni library is great but the later edition trade paperback I have reminds me of why I hate trade paperbacks and it doesn’t help that Starhawk’s practical magic got bulked up with a lot of speculation…. So i keep falling back to “get another book for kindle” because i can pack 10k books on my iPad.
[1] with the unusual OKR of “people can’t tell better than chance that this was Paul’s circle”
Is it just grading and parental access?