REPLACING TRADITIONAL EDUCATION MATERIALS WITH GADGETS

The Philippines is a country that makes use of traditional education materials way back
before technology started taking over. Education materials such as books, pens, papers, and other
essential materials are significant before those days that gadgets were introduced for learning.
Although they may have been not as crucial as the last time, they are still needed for students as
they are deemed functional in some ways that modern-day materials cannot. As modern
technology continues to evolve the world today, gadgets were part of teaching students and even
small children prior to education. Education was made easy by gadgets as learning source
materials. The Philippines are one of those countries that are starting to utilize technological
devices such as computers, laptops, tablets, and cellular phones for education. Nevertheless, even
at a time of modernity, traditional learning materials are still reliable resources of education that
have their advantages against today's modern gadgets. Thus, they should never be removed in
place of technological learning devices.

Some argue that the creation of paper-based materials affects the environment because of
the cutting of trees to generate paper materials used as traditional learning means and that going
for gadgets as learning devices is much more reasonable since it saves money due to its utility in
the long run. Digital devices are requisites for modern-day students. They help you ease the
burden of carrying dozen of books in your backpack. It is costly for many students to produce
more than 400 pages of paper each semester in preparation for discussions and home works. The
use of technological devices for education is a new environmental-friendly substitute since it
does not only safeguard our trees from being cut but also saves money and delivers better
learning (Visnji, 2020).

While these may be true, recycled paper is innovatively used nowadays to avoid cutting
trees as much as possible. Even if trees were cut down for the production of paper materials,
planting trees in place of the ones being used is a viable option to mitigate the effects on the
environment. In addition, the creation of electronic devices also poses a threat to the environment
much worse than paper production. Manufacturing one tablet requires the extraction of 33
pounds of minerals, 79 gallons of water, and 100-kilowatt hours of fossil fuels that produce 66
pounds of carbon dioxide. The majority of gadgets are also expensive that low-income families,
especially in developing countries where poverty is rampant, cannot afford to buy such things.
Even though gadgets have a long-lasting functionality, they harm children's health due to the
violent blue rays it emits from screens instead of using traditional materials for learning.

Not everyone can afford electronic devices for learning. The Philippines is a developing
country with the rapid growth of population, worsening the condition of poverty. Due to this
reason, Poor families cannot even acquire basic necessities it needs daily. Some have jobs that
are just enough to buy food for a day. How much more if gadgets are required for education.
Using gadgets such as tablets as modes of learning is pricier than the use of printed books. Lee
Wilson, a renowned education marketing expert, states that the estimated cost per year for a
student with tablets is $71.55, while printed textbooks are only $14.26. Educational experience
should not be fixated on what people can afford or not, but instead, everyone should be given
access to things available of their circumstances and use to aid in their learning.

Traditional learning materials cannot malfunction and crash just as electronic devices do.
According to Bill Tkatch, an IT Technician said that books have many upsides. One of them is
its availability since it does not have a battery or other requirements other than reading the texts
and turning to pages. Unlike gadgets, printed sources of materials do not have malware, spyware,
and personal identity theft. A broken gadget can also be costly and time-consuming compared to
traditional teaching materials like textbooks that can be fixed with basic supplies such as glue or
tape.

The Philippines has a slow internet speed, and the internet is not accessible to all parts of
the country. The Philippines is still a developing country, and the internet is not available
everywhere around the place. Many places scattered around the Philippines are dead spots that
do not have a presence of a signal. Other than that, internet broadband and loads can be
expensive since many families below the poverty line cannot afford to have access to Wi-Fi
because of low income. If there is no internet presence, data cannot be accessed on online sites
except that it is downloaded. This is a challenge for the use of gadgets for education since it can
significantly affect students' learning.

The over-use of these devices causes health risks for students, especially children of early
age. Overexposure to these devices results in many health problems affecting their performance.
According to the American Optometric Association, the screens of gadgets that emit harmful
blue ray radiation causes eye problems such as eye strain, blurry vision, and dry eyes. It also
associates musculoskeletal disorders such as slouched backs, muscle strains, back pain, neck
pain, and shoulder pain. It puts stress on the brain and causes headaches, migraines, and
dizziness if overexposed to the use of gadgets.

The use of digital learning devices poses too many distractions causing them to lose focus
in the class discussion. As the development of games started coming out of the mainstream and
other media platforms to keep the users busy, it shifted the students' focus towards unnecessary
attention away from the lesson being discussed. Studies also show that people who prefer
reading printed text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more from those who prefer
digital text. The brain processes printed and digital text differently, and individuals read digital
texts relatively slower by 20-30% compared to print. A study was also conducted to see whether
reading on paper is much effective than reading on-screen. "The studies show that students of all
ages, from elementary school to college, tend to absorb more when they're reading on paper than
on screen, particularly when they are to nonfiction material (Barshay, 2019)".

Technological advancements used for learning are indeed practical for the evolution of
education in the world. However, it also has its reasons why they should not rule over traditional
learning materials such as textbooks and school supplies, even in this time of modernity. It has
much potential and functionality, just as technologies offer in this modern era. Thus, they should
remain of utility in our education rather than replace them fully with gadgets. Instead of
replacing them, both learning resource materials should supplement each other to foster a more
engaging learning environment for the students. Both means are needed to shape a learner
towards proper education up to this time, and to do that; different approaches must be applied to
utilize both learning tools that best suits the condition of a student's life.

REFERENCE LIST

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Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-

instead-of-screens/
C. (2015, January 26). E-Readers Vs. Print Books: Which is More Eco-Friendly? Made by

CustomMade. https://www.custommade.com/blog/e-readers-vs-print-books/

S. (2016, December 6). Should Textbooks Be Replaced By Notebook Computers? Oxford

Learning. https://www.oxfordlearning.com/textbooks-vs-computers/

Tablets vs. Textbooks - Pros & Cons - ProCon.org. (2020, June 9). Tablets vs. Textbooks.

https://tablets-textbooks.procon.org/

textbooks should not be replaced by technology in school.explain - Brainly.in. (2020, February

2). Rajshetty123. https://brainly.in/question/15077707?tbs_match=1

Visnji, M. (2020, February 14). The Importance of Digital Gadgets for Students and Their

Educational Achievements. Revenues & Profits. https://revenuesandprofits.com/digital-

gadgets-for-students/