Today, students have thousands of apps they can use to learn and communicate with others. These apps have made their way into the daily learning routine to the point where many students no longer use textbooks. But is that the right approach? Are we going into a world where textbooks are no longer needed? The answer is more nuanced than you may think.
Why Apps Appeal to Students
Obviously, many students are more engaged when interactive tools and apps are integrated into the learning process.
In seconds, instead of opening a physical book, they can get to lessons, quizzes, videos, digital flashcards, and other resources. The app can also provide instant answers, change the difficulty of an exercise, provide a video explanation, or turn revision into a game.
While this convenience isn’t a game-changer for the app’s efficacy, it can make studying more accessible by giving students a way to engage with the material. They can review a concept on the commute, take a quick quiz between activities, or revisit course material without lugging multiple textbooks around.
Textbooks Still Have an Important Role
Just because educational apps are everywhere doesn’t mean textbooks have lost their value. A good textbook lays everything out for you: chapters, explanations, examples, all the supporting info you need.
When you’re learning a subject that requires spending a lot of time reading, textbooks actually help you settle in and spend real time with the material. You don’t just read quick online summaries; you’re following ideas that build on each other. When something doesn’t make sense, you can simply flip back the pages and re-read the explanation.
Research backs this up. A large meta-analysis of reading studies found a “screen inferiority effect,” where readers tend to comprehend and retain informational texts better on paper than on screens.
Textbooks also allow you to focus on studying without your notifications constantly trying to steal your attention.
What Students Actually Need From Learning Apps
The appeal of an app shouldn’t be measured simply by how entertaining it is. The most useful educational apps make learning personalized and engaging, extend learning beyond the classroom, and improve teacher efficiency. When evaluating an app, students and educators can consider:
- Does it make the subject easier to understand?
- Does it provide useful feedback?
- Can students learn at their own pace?
- Does it complement existing course materials?
- Is it easy to use and appropriate for the student’s needs?
Security and Privacy in Digital Learning
It’s important to think of security when relying on digital tools. Connecting smartphones and tablets to the internet opens the doors to many vulnerabilities, so protecting online activity is an important part of responsible technology use. Since a lot of studying now happens on shared or public networks, a VPN is worth having; on Android, that can be as simple as installing a VPN APK.
A VPN automatically encrypts data in transit, making it difficult for snoopers to steal it when students connect to school networks or public Wi-Fi.
Apps and Textbooks Can Work Together
Not picking one format over another might be the best approach. Students can use each resource for what it does best.
The textbook could elaborate on an intricate concept, and then the application could ask practice questions afterward. You could start by reading a chapter, watching a video explaining it, doing an exercise, and then going back to the book to check on the tricky concept.
This offers students different ways of accessing information.
A More Flexible Approach to Learning
Apps are making their way into education, but their usefulness doesn’t diminish the value of textbooks in the learning process. Both formats can offer students a new and engaging way of learning, so by combining them, students can make learning more efficient and less stressful. It’s not about replacing one or the other. It’s about choosing the right tool for each learning project.