For the past two years, many questions have been flying around about what kind of laptops the school will give to students in the future.
An end to the debate is near. A proposal for student laptops to be switched from the current MacBook Airs to more affordable Chromebooks has been made to the school board.
Since the beginning of the one for one system at Hastings High School, students have used the same Apple MacBook Air laptops. While students typically enjoy the laptops’ capability to do things like sync with their iPhones, the computers are costly to buy and repair.
“The cost of the laptops [Chromebooks] and their repairs is about a third,” Director of Technology and Operations at Hastings Public Schools Trent Kelly said.
While the cost is a major point, Kelly was much more concerned with how the Chromebooks would work for the academic needs of students. To test this out,they met with teachers to make a list of things the new laptops would need to be able to do. They discovered that for curricular purposes the laptops would be able to do all the same things the Macs can do.
Students aren’t so sure and are considering the benefits and drawback of the computers on their own. Many worry that the laptops do not have the same capabilities for noncore classes.
“I know that many in the skilled and technical science area will not be able to as much on the Chromebooks,”junior Sam Johnson said.
Others are worried that students will struggle with learning how to use the new technology.
“I personally don’t see the point of switching and learning how to operate on a whole new system,” junior Jaiden Kully Said.
Another draw to the Chromebooks is that they are still compatible with all Google applications, such as Google Drive and Google Classroom. Kelly thinks that this will prevent any problems between the teachers keeping their Macbooks and students switching to Chromebooks.
“Everyone is basically using Google, so there shouldn’t be any issues with that,” Kelly said.
In fact, the Chromebooks are so much less expensive that Kelly said he would be able to give any teacher that was worried about kids using a different kind of laptop a Chromebook of their own to use in addition to the laptop they already have.
To give the products a test run the technology department has already started to integrate the computers into the school. The school already owns 20 Chromebooks. 17 of which they have already distributed to new students.
“So far, I haven’t heard that they don’t work for anything they’re supposed to be doing,” Kelly said.
The school board is is scheduled to vote on the issue on April 17th.
