As the years progress and society becomes more and more advanced, technology grows with it. And like any new thing, technology is not always what it is cracked up to be. As iPads continue to wiggle themselves into the classroom, negative effects of iPads are increasing as they range from being unreliable to distracting students.

One negative effect of using iPads in the classroom is their reliability. Most applications on the iPad require the Internet, and if the Internet is temporarily down, a major problem is created. Notably,students and teachers alike are becoming too reliant on their iPads, and probably would not know how to execute a lesson without the Internet as everything tends to rely on using/doing something online. Additionally, iPads are taking away one’s ability to think critically on the spot as he/she simply relies on his/her iPad and the Internet to look up and answer questions he/she may have. This leads to another problem– the lack of creativity and innovativeness. Before iPads, many lessons did not involve the Internet, resulting in lessons being much more creative as teachers could not simply rely on or use pre made lesson plans–they actually created their own unique lessons, although some still create their own. When iPads or the Internet is not working, frustration among teachers and students alike occur, due to not being able to execute their lessons.

Another major problem iPads create is the fact that they distract students. Many students cannot handle possessing an iPad with access to so many games and other entertaining apps. So now high school students are trusted to have an iPad with numerous distractions right in front of them and are expected to focus on their learning? This is a huge problem as it is next to impossible to supervise all the students in a class and their iPad usage, especially when the teacher is focusing on a lesson. As an article from BetaNews puts it, “Students find creative ways to distract themselves in the classroom” from playing games to watching videos.When students are distracted, their ability to learn is also compromised.  

Additionally, most schools do not have the budget to provide every student with an iPad. Many families cannot afford to buy their child an iPad, especially if they have more than one student in school as iPads can range in price from $400-$900. If a family with three children were to buy an iPad for each of its students, that would cost at least $1200. Then including the various accessories, such as cases and keyboards, there is an additional $200 per iPad. Additionally are the fees for applications and textbook downloads, which will range between $85-$150, per student. Not to mention, if a student is required to use an iPad from first grade through their senior year in high school, one iPad will not last twelve years–causing students to buy at least two or three iPads throughout their academic career. As BetaNews simply shows, “iPads are extremely expensive and even more expensive to maintain.” Due to iPads being extremely expensive and expensive to maintain, many families cannot afford them.

There are also a few other negative reasons iPads are not the best for the classroom. According to Securedge Networks, typing can be extremely frustrating on iPads, due to the keyboard being on screen and smaller. Also, due to having access to a limited number of programs on the iPad such as Adobe Flash, a program many websites require, it is much harder to use various resources on iPads, such as Google Drive.  Furthermore, iPads cannot support nor transport USB files, which help transfer documents from one device to another, making the documents less accessible to most students and teachers.

All in all, iPads have some very negative effects. iPads are unreliable, distract students and are unaffordable. iPads have better uses at home for pleasure than in the classroom.

Granted, iPads are a great technological advancement; however, they do not belong in the classroom.