You can in fact do virtual learning on a tablet. However, it comes with some caveats worth mentioning.
- Sure, Google offers its Classroom app, and its Docs, Slides, Sheets, and all of its cloud-based tools all as apps for Android and iOS devices.
- Sure, your tablet most likely has a front-facing webcam so your teacher can see you.
- Sure, you can buy a stand so the table is up-right.
Your tablet is not a computer unless it’s a Microsoft Surface Pro. Even Microsoft’s Go version is less a computer and more a tablet.
Tablets by nature have simplified operating systems. iOS is not MacOS, Microsoft Go is not the full windows Windows, and Android is not the same as a what is on a Chromebook. There are similarities between them all, and much of what can be done on a computer can be done on a tablet. But not everything.
Also, if you want to type, but also have your teacher see you, then you need an external keyboard that connects to your tablet. Otherwise, your teacher will have a view up your nose that you will not like.
Many schools use Google Classroom and services that monitor what students do on their Chromebooks. If you use a tablet, there is a good chance that the school cannot monitor what is happening like they can with a Chromebook. So if this matters, it settles this dilemma quite easily.
Laptop and Tablet Together
At the same time, there are many advantages, at least for younger children going through virtual schooling, where a tablet outperforms a laptop.
For example, if your child has digital assignments where he or she has to drag items around a screen, then a tablet will be more natural than a mouse or trackpad.
That is why, in my case, my daughter is using a Chromebook for the majority of her work and an iPad for assignments that have a lot of dragging and drawing.
That way she’s getting used to both the trackpad and a tablet and making good use of both for her education.
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