Tablets, smartphones will replace textbooks, teacher predicts

Louise Robinson, the president elect of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA) in the UK, believes it may not be long until schools start making serious progress in replacing textbooks with new, cutting-edge technology like tablet computers and smartphones.

In an interview with the Press Association, Robinson says such technology could spell the end for traditional textbooks in the classroom. Not only do tablets and other mobile devices allow teachers to be more flexible in their lessons, they also provide students access to a greater wealth of resources -- a capability that could prove invaluable in today's information age.

"[T]he fact [is] that they'll be able to access anything they want to, in advance of your lesson, so if you say 'the next lesson's going to be on the skeleton,' what you can see online now in terms of the skeleton and where you can go with it makes children have far more control over their learning than they ever could do before," Robinson tells the news provider. "One click and you're into another world."

Robinson isn't alone in her assertion, as is evident by the number of schools around the world that have already begun implementing tablets and other mobile devices in the classroom. According to various reports, schools in the United States, Europe, Thailand, the Philippines and others have launched tablet programs at some level.