Could Tablet Computers Revolutionize Education?

The buzz around the supposedly forthcoming Apple Tablet (or iSlate?) is pretty overwhelming. Every day, a new rumor lights up the social media sphere, but at the end of the day, no one is quite sure what's happening. What people are guessing, however, is that if it is commanding the full wait of Steve Jobs' attention, it's going to be big. A group of publishing companies put together a short movie about how the tablet may change the textbook industries.

If we think about education as a set of interfaces, right now it includes the distinct experiences of 1) classroom lectures; 2) reading and researching from printed books; 3) the social experience of group studying and discussion; 4) web-based research and word processor-based writing; and 5) live testing.

The video below re-imagines how at least three of these elements could be reconciled in one unified experience. A student starts the process of reading a text book, integrates recorded (or potentially even live) lectures that actually correspond to specific sections of the text, and presumably, if they're connected to the internet, social features are an easy step away. And, considering that our model of testing knowledge is pretty broken, there is likely room for advancement there.

I tend to be excited about this for perhaps a slightly different reason than the textbook manufacturers (who I assume want to keep their absurdly high prices and ridiculous every-year-we-update-so-you-have-to-buy-the-new-one policy in tact. I think that the logically conclusion is a more robust coherent interface for new approaches to learning, like Supercool School. An interface that seamlessly connects the lecture consuming experience with reading and interaction could be pretty huge.

Assuming that there is going to be a pretty high price tag for a few years on these things, I don't assume that the initial impact would be in low income areas. What I would look for more in the educational possibility of the tablet is that the experience actually helps students begin to like learning again. We've managed to create an education system that neither adequately prepares people for the world nor makes them enjoy the constant learning that is needed to succeed. The tablet won't change that, but it might help along the way.

Video:

(Photo: a mockup of a forthcoming Apple Tablet from nDevilTV)