Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Out with textbooks in with tabs? by Joey Chung and Synru Chong

 
The books that we are carrying today are necessary and a basic instrument for study.
As a student, we stay with books.

However, thanks to the amazing technology innovation, students today have an option of carrying tablet only instead of books to class.

Just with a click, everything is there! Information search has superbly improved whereby people just have to find information via internet.

More and more people became tech-savvy as things have become “soft copied”.
Still, there left a partial of critics claiming that books are irreplaceable in class.

Hereby, we have come to the question, what would be the thoughts of college students today about prescribing textbooks or tablets in the class?

Do you prefer studying from textbook of tabs in class? Tabs! Textbooks, Text!, Tabs, Tabs! Textbook! Books….. And here comes the issue.
From the interviews of 30 SEGi University’s students, 66% of them still prefer using textbook while only 33% prefer to use tablets in class.

“I prefer textbook” says Barry, a student from SEGI University’s business faculty.
He claims that textbooks are easier to flip and refer and he felt annoyed when using a tab to study the slides because notifications will keeps pop up and interrupt his studies.

Lee from medical faculty also agrees that textbooks are more preferable because notes taking are easier to be done manually with a pencil on the textbook rather than using the tablet.

However, it depends as it is different from people to people.
Some claims that tabs are more user-friendly compare to the manual note taking, “I can highlight my notes easily with fingers without my stationeries”, said Tamma, a student from Medical Lab Technology.
“And it is so much lighter” she continued.

Moreover, it is more comfortable for her to read from a glass screen compare to paper.
Isn’t it heavy carrying all the books around? “I’m brought up that way, I’m already get used to it” said Barry.
“Textbook using in class is something we are doing all this while”.

8 out of 10 students in SEGi University purchase textbook from RM50-RM400 per semester depends on courses.

“I’m a medical student and medical books are very expensive,” said Sam from medical faculty, he claimed that each book cost him around RM200.

There are students also who never buy any textbook in their course, “Textbooks are too old, it is a story of history rather than present news that we are more eager to know about,” says Tan, a student from IT course.
“Sometimes the information is no longer relevant to what we are today”. Besides, it is expensive and not so eco-friendly.

It is a surprise that 12 out of 30 students actually often uses their textbook at home, while others only use it occasionally.

“I actually use the books only when I’m doing assignments and before exam,” said Selina from ADP faculty with laughter.

Studying continuously and concentrating is always a big challenge for students, 60% of students in SEGi feel that using textbook give them a greater learning experience compared to tabs.
“Textbook is easier for me to refer as everything related to my studies is in there,” said Jenifer, student from classic literature course.

Jin Leong agrees and adds on that he feels his eyes are very painful after looking at the screen for a long time.

But Pei Xin thinks that tab is an All-In-One book that it makes her feels more convenient to bring around because she usually studies in Starbucks, bringing a tab will make her feels more energetic to study.

Although is the 21st century which everything has been control and led by advance technologies but apparently it shows that students today are still feel more comfortable with textbook.

However, as the trend are changing on the younger generations, textbook might be replace in future.


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