Yes to Tech

Next year, the Shawnee Mission School District will most likely be getting laptops and iPads for its students. Students in the district’s high schools will be recieving laptops while students in elementary schools will be recieving iPads. The Harbinger fully supports this new initiative if students are willing to demonstrate the proper responsibility when handling these new resources.

There is no denying that technology is a large part of our lives; our smart phones are glued to our hands and we get our news from our Twitter feeds. The decision to provide laptops for all students is inevitable.

Having a laptop in front of a student engages them by giving them a concrete device to complete their work on. In turn, they increase students’ productivity. One of the first examples of laptops in classrooms took placewould also give them a better idea of how to effectively use them in the classroom. If teachers come out of these training courses with effective lesson plans, it can then translate into a better and more interesting school year for students.

Several of the textbooks we use at East have online resources. Algebra assingments and chemistry homework could be easier to complete at school with the new laptops. Online textbook resources would be easier to access in the classroom as well as at home if each student gets a laptop. They would also be one of the most responsible ways to use our new resources.

Yet with these new resources comes new responsibitlity. Downloading and watching movies during class does sound appealing, but could also ruin this opportunity. If teachers and administrators see us using the new laptops irresponsibly they could easily take them away.

While websites like Facebook and Twitter will still be blocked at school, but they are always lurking around the corner while we are at home.We need to use these laptops in a productive manner in order to fully utilize them as a learning tool both at school and at home.

The main thing this comes down to is personal responsibility. If you’re old enough to drive a car, then you should be old enough to responsibly use a laptop.

So Lancers, we are potentially having this new, beneficial resource placed right into our laps; let’s not blow it. Let’s demonstrate the levels of repsonsibilty and intelligence we know we are capable of.