Chapter 8 The Use of Tablets in Lower Secondary Education: Students’ Perspectives and Experiences

Abstract Current trends and recommendations regarding one-to-one (1:1) educational initiatives suggest that they are efficacious ways to achieve innovative change in education, namely through the promotion of active and innovative teaching practices. From a constructivist point of view, tablet devices offer teachers the potential to adopt interactive student-centred activities and to facilitate a process of learning in which students are actively involved and encouraged to be responsible and autonomous. This chapter describes a 1:1 tablet initiative that aims to promote changes in education by broadening and diversifying the activities in which students are involved and learn. It examines tablet use and teaching practices as experienced by 42 students from two lower secondary schools in Portugal. Data collection involved a questionnaire and two focus groups conducted a year after the implementation of the initiative. Results suggest tablet use to support innovative teaching practices, which fostered students’ engagement and deeper understanding of topics. Results also evidence tablet use to maintain traditional teaching practices, which undermined students’ expectations and prevented them to become more active learners.