ABSTRACT
Classrooms are often criticized for being too abstract and removed from the "real world". Partially in response to this criticism, teachers include practical exercises that draw clear links between the abstract knowledge taught in class and everyday problems the knowledge could solve. The deployment of tablets in schools, thought to bring a more "hands-on" experience to a variety of school subjects. Hands-on learning is not as simple as including tangibility into the classroom and educational application developers may not be aware of this. As with board games, including improper hands-on learning experiences into a classroom can impede learning by introducing irrelevant information that contradicts or limits the concepts being taught. Embodied cognition theory supports, in principle, the notion that gestures on tablets could affect learning because it proposes that binding knowledge with physical interactions improves knowledge acquisition, increases the retention of information, and changes how the knowledge is conceptually understood.
