Why not kindles instead of laptops?

[EmmanuelleMakro]

I see lots of clamour for laptops for schoolchildren, but honestly they would be better off reading rather than trying to replicate schoolwork st home. And given the risk if laptops being damaged/stolen:sold why not tap up Amazon fir kindles instead ?
Cheaper and much easier for working parents to supervise and obviously ebooks could be purchased by gvt on s license basis.
Children should be using this time to read and seems like this would solve a lot of lot practical issues as well as addressing the woeful literacy gap.

You could buy loads of actual books for the price of a kindle!

I like reading on a kindle as an adult but I buy my children physical books.

And kindles aren’t suitable for doing school work on, even at primary level.

@RosaBaby2

Kindles are shit!!

Not if you just want to read without blue light and carry many, many books everywhere with you. Which is what they are for... Agree they aren’t a replacement for laptops or tablets in this case though.

I don't think laptops are that much harder than kindles for school aged children to master. DH and I log DS1 into loom/seesaw but once he's in the loom lessom he can pause and restart it by himself and uses the mouse fine (he's 4.5 in Reception)

His phonics readers are also all available on the laptop complete with 'fun quizzes' and virtual stars to collect.

I know in some places they are encouraging people to donate old laptops to be scrubbed and given out to children...I think this is a great idea.

You can read on a lap top too. Why would you advocate abandoning a device which does everything for one which does just one thing?

Children need to read AND keep their mathematics going. A lap top teaches keyboard skills too. Physical keyboard. DD (yr 2) has an ipad and can 'do' touch screens easily, but she has found using my laptop to access online lessons, manage the screen, the sound and then type on online documents a really enjoyable and refreshing challenge.

Are you doing homeschooling OP?

I've had to use my iPad for zoom and Skype calls since my laptop packed up and it's crap for anything other than just talking. Every time I need to type or reply to a message my fingers are looming massively, I'm prodding at the screen instead of typing, it's more difficult to get it set up at a good angle and it's harder to do basic things quickly.

This is just for a book group and other social stuff.

Can't imagine working on it. Or how much worse a kindle would be!

Kindles are absolutely awful.

I have a DS 7 and a DD 9. They are both competent readers, but the longest they can manage to read for is about 10 minutes before they get bored!

Do you understand that there is quite a difference between a kindle and a laptop?

@EmmanuelleMakro

I see lots of clamour for laptops for schoolchildren, but honestly they would be better off reading rather than trying to replicate schoolwork st home. And given the risk if laptops being damaged/stolen:sold why not tap up Amazon fir kindles instead ? Cheaper and much easier for working parents to supervise and obviously ebooks could be purchased by gvt on s license basis. Children should be using this time to read and seems like this would solve a lot of lot practical issues as well as addressing the woeful literacy gap.

If you mean Kindle app then I agree. A lot of private schools in India have uploaded entire reading lists into various apps as over there it’s more common to have one family smartphone (or get access to one) rather than a laptop. Even then the kids whose schools sent over textbooks with a years worth of worksheets and have marking systems over whatsapp tend to do better

I think you underestimate the scope of the literacy gap, OP - a surprising proportion of kids can't or can barely read, even at secondary. Yes that needs addressing, but giving those children a stack of books and leaving them to it won't help.

🤣🤣🤣 at the total naivety of this thread. Do you actually think that kids who don't read anyway, either because they struggle to or because it's not a valued activity in their homes or because they simply don't enjoy it, will suddenly become avid readers and "explore books" just because you give them a Kindle?! If so, you have clearly never worked with children and young people. Additionally, your suggestion is derogatory and dismissive of the education being provided by many hardworking teachers and TAs across the country during this lockdown. It can never be the classroom but many children are learning at home and teachers are working incredibly hard to offer the best quality education remotely that they can. YABU. And obtuse.

They'd need some kind of word & ppt package, plus no teams etc.

It would be a technical nightmare.

The money spent on a kindle for reading would buy LOADS of books at the prices schools can get them and reading off that sort of screen is worse for eyes.

Have you ever tried to get a child who is disinclined to read, to read OP? Children all have different learning styles, which is why they go to school, where reading is only part of the curriculum and practical or sports lessons are dotted around the weekly lesson plan.
And what about children who have dyslexia? Would you truly want your “one-size-fits-all” approach to inflict further misery on those who already struggle?
Children learn how to learn in their first few years in Primary school, and are unlikely to have the passivity to “just read instead” without their normal stimulants such as interaction, socialisation or group play, which is why some parents are struggling with the online stuff that’s being offered (and which at least replicates a little virtual interaction), as seen in many other posts.
This sounds like a 1940’s solution to a problem that children have already, over the past 30 years, moved light years on from, and we should be looking forward, not back, in the development of education as we are not likely to be returning to the 20th Century any time soon.

Oh and Amazon appstore is beyond crap, there are great educational apps out there but few developers bother making them for Amazon. I have a kindle fire HD but all I do is watch Netflix on it.

How old are your dc op?

For younger kids I agree, kindle is great for zoom calls, and you can put educational games on it etc.
After infants probably won't be great, but if that's all a kid has access to it's better then nothing.

I think if you really have no money for a device, then a reconditioned tablet is good, but it's not ideal by any means, you need a proper keyboard for schoolwork.

Tablets are great for taking part in online lessons or watching back recordings though.

I have a Kindle Fire and you can use Google Meet and Zoom on it, but not Teams.

Fabulous, another way to support poor struggling Amazon. Jeff Bezos really needs all the help he can get $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

A laptop is a good all-rounder, where as s Kindle is mainly for reading.

Though I do get your point that teachers should not simply be replicating the in classroom experience over Teams, etc and coming up with something that works at home (obviously easier said than done)

They lied to me about reading. They told me with my PFB if I read a bedtime story every night, took him to the library regularly, had a bookshelf filled with books etc etc he’d develop a love of books and be an avid reader.

He didn’t.

Some kids can only learn through practical endeavours. He’s great at art, mechanics, food tech, woodwork. He DETESTS reading and learns very little that way. He is far from alone in that department.

Not many other distractions so a golden opportunity to promote reading and let children explore books.

Kids who don’t already enjoy reading won’t just learn to like it because “there’s nothing else to do”. They have loads of other things to do. It’s not the 1950s.

The main literacy gap is for children from homes where parents don’t read with them. It’s not access to books - it’s an adult who will access books with them. Libraries are free but it’s no good if your parents don’t take you or help you to read.

If you have a Kindle and cannot access a laptop, then yes, but a laptop or access to a desktop is better.

I have a Kindle largely for use on holidays (find out when things are open etc) but would never do work with it.

Erm no. Small children can't yet read but can learn. Older children can't just read to get them through their GCSEs.

A kindle e-reader (suitably child proofed and locked down) is a brilliant addition to a laptop for homeschooling, for a child who enjoys reading. My 9yo is getting through at least a book a day at the moment, and it’s so much cheaper and easier to download another for 99p than it would be to buy them had copy and wait for them to arrive. But I know she is unusual, in her love of reading and speed she whizzes through books. I can’t imagine many of her friends enjoying an e-reader as much as she does - I think the love of books has to be there first.