Last updated on: 11/20/2018 | Author: ProCon.org

Footnotes & Sources

The background and pro and con arguments were written by ProCon.org staff based upon input from the following footnotes (directly referenced) and sources (used for general research and not directly referenced):
Footnotes:

  1. C. Claiborne Ray, “The Weight of Memory,” nytimes.com, Oct. 24, 2011
  2. Associated Press, “Cell Phone Theft on the Rise,” wowt.com, Oct. 21, 2012
  3. Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris, “How Green Is My iPad?,” nytimes.com, Apr. 4, 2010
  4. Janet Maragioglio, “iPads Boost Math Scores, Benefit Education,” mobiledia.com, Jan. 31, 2012
  5. Mary Elizabeth Dallas, “Overloaded Backpacks Can Injure Kids: Experts,” nlm.nih.gov, Aug. 26, 2012

  6. Federal Communications Commission, “Digital Textbook Playbook,” fcc.gov, Feb. 1, 2012
  7. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), “National PBS Survey Finds Teachers Want More Access to Classroom Tech,” pbs.org, Jan. 23, 2012
  8. Emily Price, “How Much Storage Does Your Tablet Need?,” tecca.com, Mar. 3, 2012
  9. Electronista, “Digital Textbooks May Save Schools $250 Per Student Per Year,” electronista.com, Mar. 30, 2012
  10. Mikael Ricknas, “Average Tablet Price Drops to $386, Says IMS Research,” computerworld.com, June 8, 2012
  11. Patrick Thibodeau, “Tablet Sales to Soar as Prices Drop Through 2015, Says Gartner,” computerworld.com, Mar. 30, 2011
  12. Thomas Adams, “Textbook Weight in California: Data and Analysis,” California Department of Education website, Apr. 14, 2004
  13. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Outlook Handbook,” bls.gov (accessed Nov. 9, 2012)
  14. Del Williams, “How Much Is Out-of-Control Printing Costing Your School?,” softwareshelf.com (accessed Aug. 1, 2012)
  15. Ben Johnson, “Paper and Pencil Curriculum: How Much Do You Rely on It?,” edutopia.org, Feb. 23, 2011
  16. Tom Mendelsohn, “Ten Great Free Education Apps for the iPad,” The Independent, Jan. 30, 2012
  17. LearnStuff, “Graduating with Technology,” learnstuff.com, Aug. 17, 2012
  18. Kathryn Zickuhr, “Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits,” libraries.pewinternet.org, Oct. 23, 2012
  19. David Talbot, “Given Tablets But No Teachers, Ethiopian Kids Teach Themselves,” mashable.com, Oct. 29, 2012
  20. New York Daily News, “iStrain: Tablets and iPads Can Cause Eye Problems,” articles.nydailynews.com, Mar. 14, 2012
  21. I-Mei Lin, “Psychophysiological Patterns During Cell Phone Text Messaging: A Preliminary Study,” Applied Psychophysiological Biofeedback, Feb. 6, 2009
  22. Dean Fishman, “Neck Pain from Texting,” The Text Neck Institute website, Nov. 2, 2010
  23. Lee Wilson, “Apple’s iPad Textbooks Cost 5x More Than Print,” educationbusinessblog.com, Feb. 23, 2012
  24. Lesley Lanir, “Digital Information Overload Overwhelms and Distracts Students,” decodedscience.com, Nov. 4, 2012
  25. Urs Gasser and John Palfrey, “Mastering Multitasking,” cf.linnbenton.edu, Mar. 2009
  26. Kate Garland, “Computer- vs. Paper-based Tasks: Are They Equivalent?,” Ergonomics, Sep. 2008
  27. Lorien Crow, “Are E-Books Bad for Your Memory?,” mobiledia.com, Mar. 15, 2012
  28. Nicholas Carr, “Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains,” wired.com, May 24, 2010
  29. FindtheBest, “What Is the Average Battery Life of a Tablet Computer?,” tablets.findthebest.com (accessed Aug. 6, 2012)
  30. Associated Press, “Cell Phone Theft on the Rise,” wowt.com, Oct. 21, 2012
  31. Mike Schmoker, Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, 2011
  32. Laura Hazard Owen, “What Apple Is Wading Into: A Snapshot of the K-12 Textbook Business,” paidcontent.org, Jan. 21, 2012
  33. Digital Book World, “Publishers’ eBook Production Statistics,” digitalbookworld-hub.com, Aug. 21, 2012
  34. Book Industry Study Group and the Association of American Publishers, “BookStats 2012,” bisg.org, July 18, 2012
  35. Dian Schaffhauser, “The Price Is Right?,” Campus Technology website, Apr. 1, 2012
  36. Christopher F. Schuetze, “Textbooks Finally Take a Big Leap to Digital,” nytimes.com, Nov. 23, 2011
  37. Aaron Smith, “Smartphone Adoption and Usage,” pewinternet.org, July 11, 2011
  38. The New Media Consortium, “The 2012 Horizon Report,” net.educause.edu, 2012
  39. California State Board of Education, “Textbook Weight Standards: Adoption of Proposed Title 5 Regulations, Section 9517.2,” cde.ca.gov, July 2007
  40. AVG, “The AVG Digital Diaries Report – How Has Technology Changed Childhood?,” avgdigitaldiaries.com, Apr. 2012
  41. Gautham Nagesh, “Pew: Minorities Continue to Lead Twitter Adoption,” thehill.com, June 1, 2011
  42. Will Oremus, “New Digital Divide: Whites Less Likely to Own Smartphones,” slate.com, Aug. 7, 2012
  43. Jane Weaver, “Teens Tune Out TV, Log On Instead,” msnbc.msn.com, July 24, 2012
  44. Rob Reynolds, “Digital Textbooks Reaching the Tipping Point in US Higher Education,” Xplana Learning website, Mar. 2011
  45. Government Accountability Office, “College Textbooks: Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases,” gao.gov, July 2005
  46. Nicole Allen, “New Laws, Free Books and Textbook Rentals Could Help Curb Rising Costs This Fall,” studentpirgs.org, Aug. 26, 2010
  47. Geoffrey Fletcher, Dian Schaffhauser, and Douglas Levin, “Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook in a Digital Age,” State Educational Technology Directors Association website, 2012
  48. Association of American Publishers, “School Size and Weight Policy,” publishers.org (accessed Feb. 22, 2013)
  49. LA Times, “L.A. Unified Halts Contract for iPads,” latimes.com, Aug. 25, 2014
  50. Thomas Himes, “Los Angeles Unified’s iPad Contract to be Re-Bid among Favoritism Concerns,” dailynews.com, Aug. 26, 2014
  51. John Koetsier, “L.A. Unified to Give Every Student an iPad in Deal Worth ‘Hundreds of Millions,'” venturebeat.com, June 19, 2013
  52. Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer, “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Note Taking,” Psychological Science, May 22, 2014
  53. Statista, “Estimated Textbook Publishing Revenue in the United States from 2010 to 2016 (in Billion US Dollars),” statista.com (accessed Oct. 12, 2018)
  54. Chris Zook, “Infographic: Textbook Costs Skyrocket 812% in 35 Years,” aeseducation.com, Sep. 7, 2017
  55. Grand View Research, “US Tablet Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Operating System Type (Android, iOS), Competitive Landscape, and Segment Forecasts, 2018 – 2025,” grandviewresearch.com, July 2018
  56. Pew Research Center, “Mobile Fact Sheet,” pewinternet.org, Feb. 5, 2018
  57. Common Sense Media, “The Common Sense Census: Media Use By Kids Age Zero to Eight,” commonsense.org, 2017
  58. Hoang Nguyen, “Three-Quarters of Kids Between Ages 8 and 11 Regularly Use a Tablet,” yougov.com, Apr. 16, 2018
  59. Andrew Perrin, “Nearly One-in-Five Americans Now Listen to Audiobooks,” pewresearch.org, Mar. 8, 2018
  60. Taylor Soper, “Amazon Passes Samsung for Second Place in Worldwide Tablet Shipments, Sees 50% Growth in 2017,” geekwire.com, Feb. 5, 2018
  61. Pew Research Center, “The Rise of E-Reading,” pewinternet.org, Apr. 4, 2012
  62. Kinga Jenetics, “Amazon EBook Market Share 2017 – Is it Big Enough?,” publishdrive.com, Oct. 25, 2017
  63. Author Earnings, “February 2017 Big, Bad, Wide & International Report: Covering Amazon, Apple, B&N, and Kobo Ebook Sales in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,” authorearnings.com, Feb. 2017
  64. Carl Straumsheim, “A New Course,” insidehighered.com, Mar. 4, 2014
  65. VitalSource, “VitalSource Acquires Data Platform Acrobatiq, Dramatically Expanding Analytics and Adaptive Learning Capabilities,” press.vitalsource.com, Sep. 4, 2018
  66. IDC, “Worldwide Smartphone Volumes Will Remain Down in 2018 Before Returning to Growth in 2019 and Beyond, According to IDC,” idc.com, May 30, 2018
  67. VitalSource, “K-12 Schools,” vitalsource.com (accessed Oct. 26, 2018)
  68. Sean Cavanagh, “K-12 Print Needs Persist Despite Digital Growth,” edweek.org, Apr. 14, 2015
  69. Alliance for Excellent Education, “Every Student Succeeds Act Primer: Digital Learning,” all4ed.org, Mar. 2016
  70. Deloitte, “2016 Digital Education Survey: After the Bell Rings: Expanding the Classroom,” deloitte.com, 2016
  71. CoSN, “CoSN’s 2017 Annual Infrastructure Survey Report,” cosn.org, 2017
  72. Education SuperHighway, “2018 State of the States: Expanding Digital Learning to Every Classroom, Every Day,” stateofthestates.educationsuperhighway.org, Oct. 2018
  73. Doug Gross, “Obama Wants High-Speed Internet in Schools by 2018,” cnn.com, June 6, 2013
  74. John B. Horrigan, “The Numbers behind the Broadband ‘Homework Gap’,” pewresearch.org, Apr. 20, 2015
  75. Audrey Sumser, “Discovery Education Makes E-Textbooks Easy / Reference Online,” slj.com, Dec. 4, 2016
  76. Lindsay McKenzie, “Are Etextbooks Affordable Now?,” insidehighered.com, May 1, 2018
  77. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, “Back-to-School: Smart Tips to Ease the Load of Kids’ Backpacks,” aaos.org, Aug. 9, 2017
  78. Michele Molnar, “Struggling to Compete in the K-12 Market, Apple Makes Big Product Announcement at a School,” edweek.org, Mar. 27, 2018
  79. Steve Olenski, “Is the Data on Your Business’ Digital Device Safe?,” forbes.com, Dec. 8, 2017
  80. Mirela Roncevic, “Directory of E-book Platforms for Libraries,” journals.ala.org, Apr. 2013
  81. Schoology, “The Global State of Digital Learning in K-12 Education,” schoology.com, 2017
  82. Scholastic, “Kids & Family Reading Report: 5th Edition,” scholastic.com, 2015
  83. Scholastic, “Kids & Family Reading Report: 6th Edition,” scholastic.com, 2017
  84. ASCD and OverDrive, “Digital Content Goes to School: Trends in K-12 Classroom E-Learning,” ascd.org, 2016
  85. Janet Grenslitt, “National Survey Awards School Districts for Innovative Technology Initiatives,” govtech.com, Mar. 29, 2018
  86. The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning and Evergreen Education Group, “Digital Learning Strategies for Rural America: A Scan of Policy and Practice in K-12 Education,” evergreenedgroup.com, Mar. 2018
  87. Evergreen Education Group, “Keeping Pace with K-12 Online & Blended Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice,” evergreenedgroup.com, 2012
  88. Evergreen Education Group, “Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: 2016,” evergreenedgroup.com, 2016
  89. American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), “Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform,” alecreportcard.org, 2018
  90. State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), “Navigating the Digital Shift 2018,” setda.org, 2018
  91. State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), “Digital Instructional Materials: Acquisition Policies for States,” dmaps.setda.org (accessed Nov. 13, 2018)
  92. Hallie Levine, “Pick the Best School Backpack for Your Child,” consumerreports.org, Sep. 1, 2017
  93. Barack Obama, “President Obama Speaks on Technology in Schools,” obamawhitehouse.archives.gov, June 6, 2013
  94. Lauren Camera, “On Tech, Teacher Doesn’t Know Best,” usnews.com, Dec. 26, 2015
  95. Mike Johnson, “The Best Tablets for Reading – Our Top 10 Picks for Best E-Readers & Tablets,” tabletunderbudget.com, Oct. 6, 2018
  96. Elizabeth Harper, “The Best Way to Take Notes,” techlicious.com, May 31, 2018
  97. Jennifer Groff, “Technology-Rich Innovative Learning Environments,” oecd.org, Feb. 2013
  98. Apple, “iPad in Education Results,” apple.com, July 2016
  99. Sharon Hurley Hall, “8 Ways Teachers Can Benefit from Cloud Storage,” cloudwards.net, Nov. 8, 2017
  100. Liz Bowie, “Librarians Share Their Best Book Repair Tips,” demco.com (accessed Nov. 15, 2018)
  101. John Keilman, “New Technology Lets Students Cheat More Than Ever,” businessinsider.com, Aug. 7, 2012
  102. Rebecca Levey, “5 Ways Students Use Technology to Cheat – What Parents Need to Know,” mashable.com, Sep. 28, 2012
  103. The Telegraph, “Six in 10 Pupils Admit to Using Internet to Cheat in Homework,” telegraph.co.uk, Sep. 10, 2009
  104. Nick Pandolfo, “As Some Schools Plunge into Technology, Poor Schools Are Left Behind,” hechingerreport.org, Jan. 24, 2012
  105. Meghan Bogardus Cortez, “As Connectivity Improves, the Digital Divide Persists in Teacher Tech Preparation,” edtechmagazine.com, July 18, 2017
  106. TeachingTimes, “Miss, A Lion Stole My Homework,” teachingtimes.com (accessed Nov. 15, 2018)
  107. Kevin Zahner, “‘My Dog Ate My Chromebook’ and Other Excuses,” zahnerhistory.com, Dec. 16, 2017
  108. Christie Blazer, “Literature Review Digital Textbooks,” dadeschools.net, July 2013
  109. Justin B. Hollander, “Long Live Paper,” nytimes.com, Oct. 9, 2012
  110. Ken Myers, “7 Potential Issues to Be Prepared for When Bringing Tablets into the Classroom,” emergingtech.com, Feb. 13, 2014
  111. Wylie Wong, “Security at K–12 Schools Ramps up as More Devices Roll In,” edtechmagazine.com, Mar. 31, 2016
  112. Online Degree Programs, “7 Good Reasons to Keep Your Old Textbooks,” onlinedegreeprograms.com, July 17, 2012
  113. US Department of Education Office of Educational Technology, “Transforming American Education, Learning, Powered by Technology, National Education Technology Plan 2010,” ed.gov, 2010
  114. Claire McLaughlin, “The Homework Gap: The ‘Cruelest Part of the Digital Divide’,” neatoday.org, Apr. 20, 2016

Sources:

California Department of Education, “Textbook Weight in California: Analysis and Recommendations,” cde.ca.gov, May 2004

James Doubek and NPR Staff, “Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away,” npr.org, Apr. 17, 2016

K-12 High Speed Network, “Technology News,” k12hsn.org, Mar. 9, 2011

Sarah Kessler, “6 Companies Aiming to Digitize the Textbook Industry,” mashable.com, May 10, 2011

Douglas Macmillan, “Tech Execs Meet in DC to Plan 5-Year Transition to Digital Textbooks,” go.bloomberg.com, Mar. 29, 2012

Danielle Nadler, “Tablets or Textbooks: Schools Sit at Critical Crossroads,” leesburgtoday.com, Nov. 10, 2011

Will Oremus, “New Digital Divide: Whites Less Likely to Own Smartphones,” slate.com, Aug. 7, 2012

Margaret Reardon, “Which Tablet Is Best for Textbooks?,” news.cnet.com, Nov. 22, 2011

Margaret Rock, “The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks,” mobiledia.com, Apr. 4, 2011