Comment elearning: the next generation (Score 1) 349
An advantage of a tablet is less weight than carrying around textbooks. Web access is great for submitting assignments and getting help.
The next generation ought to be releasing the elearning courses under some kind of creative commons like license to some variation of wikipedia so that all students and teachers can find the best lessons that explain a particular topic. Then you wouldn't be as limited by a local crappy teacher if you could find the best of the best in a national repository.
Just like there is differing quality of teachers, there is differing quality in textbooks and elearning courses. If we had a best of the best repository (with user ratings), then we wouldn't have to waste as much time plowing through a crappy lesson. I know in looking at technical books there are few genuinely useful gems and a lot of mediocre to crappy one that do no more than repeat the basics and each other. Thats one reason I went exclusively to safari books-online so after I have read a crappy book I have only wasted some time, not $60. I wish there were more electronic libraries.