Are textbooks on the ropes? Tablet ownership skyrocketing among college, high school students

The immense popularity of tablets among college students appears to solidify claims — and hopes — that textbooks may soon be no more, getting replaced instead with the slimmer, thinner gadgets. A recent survey of more than 1,200 college students and 200 college-bound high schoolers found tablets to be considered the next technological wave to take over U.S. classrooms.

According to the second annual survey by the Pearson Foundation, 69 percent of high school seniors and 63 percent of college students believe tablets will be the dominant education tool in classrooms over books within five years. That time frame coincides with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s timeline for textbooks to be replaced by tablets in U.S. schools.

Some 17 percent of the high school students surveyed say they already own a tablet of their own. Tablet ownership skyrocketed among college students, tripling since last year’s survey to almost 25 percent of respondents. Of the college students surveyed who had tablets, two-thirds of them reported to owning an Apple iPad®. The Kindle Fire℠ and Samsung Galaxy Tab® followed the iPad as the top tablets owned by students. Apple recently embarked on a new partnership project with some of the nation’s largest-education publishers to create e-textbooks, including the Pearson Foundation’s parent company.

Here are some of the other key findings of the tablet survey, as pointed out by the nonprofit Pearson Foundation:

• Tablet ownership among college students and college-bound high school seniors has more than tripled from a year ago. Further, a large number of students plan to purchase a tablet within the next six months.
• College students and high school seniors believe that tablets are just as valuable for educational purposes as they are for personal entertainment.
• Students agree that tablets will transform the way college students learn in the future.
• More students are reading digital books, and a majority of college students now prefer to read digital books rather than print.

iPad is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.
Kindle Fire is a trademark of Amazon.com Inc.
Samsung Galaxy Tab is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.