Dubai school's digital leap of faith: Introduces tablets and e-books for 8-year-olds

Dubai’s Gems Modern Academy, a popular Indian curriculum school that was earlier known as Dubai Modern High School, has introduced the concept of using e-books on personal tablet computers in the classrooms for kids aged 8 and above.

Starting with Grade 4, students have been asked to bring tablet computers to school to study e-books, as opposed to traditional, physical books.

While a section of parents believe that this would only further burden their finances, the school maintains that bringing tablets to the classroom is optional and for those who do not wish to use e-books on their tablet computers may continue to use traditional textbooks.

“Students in Grades 4 to 7 at Gems Modern Academy – Dubai have been given the option to use tablets with pre-selected e-books in school,” Darryl Bloud, the school’s Principal, told Emirates 24|7.

A section of parents, however, have voiced concerns that their wards’ education bill is mounting with each passing year. “First, they had this massive fee hike and now things like personal tablets have been introduced,” complained one parent of a fourth grader.

Another parent, who just bought a cheaper tablet for her fifth grader, maintains she does not expect the gadget to last even one academic year.

“Children at that age are careless. They forget things like their swimming kits, lunch boxes or pencil cases every other week. The same thing is bound to happen to tablets as well. They will be dropped, forgotten and ultimately broken. What do we do in that case? Perhaps buy a new one, maybe in six months’ time,” she said.

The school, however, has clarified that the usage of tablet computers is purely optional. “The usage of tablets at school is an option. Some children have opted for the tablets with e-books, while others have opted to continue using physical text books. There are even students who have decided to use both,” Bloud noted.

A mother of a fourth grader, who says she will need to pull out her daughter in a few months because they’ll be moving to another Gulf country, maintains that despite the school claiming that tablets are optional, she has no option but to buy one for the next three months.

“My daughter insists she needs it even though she leaves school in June. Everybody else in her class has one, so I have to buy it for her,” she told this website.

Students, unlike some of their parents, aren’t blinking. Some of the children that this website spoke with are excited about the idea and believe that tablets will make learning interesting.

“I’m going to get an iPad 4,” exclaimed the daughter of the parent quoted above.

Bloud, however, contends that the school is not forcing parents to either buy tablets, or buy any particular brand of tablets. The school, he says, gave only suggestion on the tech specs in order for them to be compatible with prescribed e-books.

“[The school] gave parents interested in buying tablets an easier option of obtaining them, by providing details of a vendor that the school had vetted. Those parents that were interested and wanted to buy the tablets from their vendor of choice were given the technical specifics, so that they were able to make informed decisions,” he explained to this website.

Studies and research conducted in the UK shows that tablets and technology have, indeed, enhanced the learning process in schools.

After carrying out research in schools that have introduced such gadgets, Tablets For Schools states that pupils express satisfaction and take pleasure in the interactive nature of tablets, and the change in lesson and learning styles.

They are also motivated by having a variety of ways in which to learn and present their work, which was facilitated by the use of tablets.

The benefits have also been felt at the parents’ level. The study points out that use of tablets also led to greater parental engagement. Many parents were impressed with the direction the schools were taking, and as the devices were highly visible at home as well as in school. Most parents were aware of how they were used, and of their benefits