Tablet PC is a device which is somewhere in between a laptop and a mobile phone. It weights about 1 kg and run popular software. iPad is one of the world’s more successful tablet PC and several companies have their products in the market competing with iPad, still 75% market share is of iPad.

Many technology fans thought that one iPad – costing about Rs. 25,000 each- could replace school textbooks, notebooks and workbooks. This would lighten the bag load and help students work faster, smarter. The cost will be definitely high if we consider that iPad would need to be changed every year, but if it lasts more than 3 years it would be affordable even to Indian middle class.
Taking this approach LAUSD – Los Angeles Unified School District- bought iPads worth $ 1.3 billion – Rs. 8600 crore. This program got the best hardware, directly from iPad manufacturer, Apple. Since its launch in April 2010 it has been getting a lot of attention. It practically gave birth to tablet PC industry.

Selling about 2.6 crore units till now it is supposed to be a very successful device in history. They also loaded the iPads with the best software from Pearson. It would help teachers teach effectively and students can do homework on the iPad. The program miserably failed. The FBI is currently investigating it whether there was any irregularity in the purchase decision. The prime question in the investigation is, was this requirement driven by vendor or did the staff really required the technology?

So will Tablet PC ever replace textbooks in schools?
Let us get into the need of tablet PC. The school bag is heavy and tablets can reduce that. Humans can carry upto 20% of their body weight. School bags have sometimes 33% of body weight because of two major reasons – underweight children and unnecessary things in the bag. Now if we don’t address the malnutrition problem of underweight children, tablet PC is not going to be the solution. Moreover if students still bring unnecessary things to school which needs to be solved.

Having a tablet PC for each child will help him show richer media to study. Actual photos, animation, audio, video can help grasp the concept faster. However along with the good things come a big problem, distraction. Unfortunately with so much content loaded on the tablet PC which the child can easily access the concentration is affected, affecting the studies.

Looking to the above it seems difficult in near future that tablets will enter the classroom.