By Brianna Gardner, Student Contributer
In 2015, laptops were introduced to Logan High School. These laptops were designed to improve the quality and quantity of education that students at LHS received. But are these laptops truly helping students and teachers? Based on my findings, the answer is yes. Laptops distributed at Logan High School have assisted in making teaching and learning more enjoyable as well as beneficial. First, let’s talk about the laptop itself. The laptops distributed to students are MacBook Air’s. They are lightweight, have good hardware specifications, and have a decent battery life. They are easy to use and most problems are easy to fix. However, they are also easy to break, and need a lot of updates. Students at Logan High were extremely excited when they heard the news of the laptops. “I was excited to be able to have something that made me feel like I had responsibility. I was also excited to watch Netflix!” said student Lacey Erickson. In her statement, we find one of the major problems found with laptop distribution at LHS. Students do not always use them to do work or learn. However, when asked about the percentage of time that they spend on their laptop not doing something related to school work, most students said that they tend to do their work and focus before letting themselves do something like play a game. Additionally, on a poll asking whether students thought that laptops were helpful or hurtful to their education, 33 students said they were helpful while 9 students said that they were hurtful. If this trend were to remain constant with all of the students, it would mean that 22% of students believe that laptops are hurtful towards their education. When asked if laptops were beneficial to student’s education, Mark Rugg, the head of the IT department at LHS says “Boy that’s a hard question. If they use it properly, it is helpful. But there are kids out there who abuse them. We see it every day.” To further explain “abuse” of laptops, he says “playing games, watching Netflix or YouTube, trying to get to porn sites, um, not using it for the purpose, which is education. The laptops are a great resource to use as furthering their education, but some students do not recognize it.” There have been many times that the techs at Logan High have had to assist in suspending or even expelling students for inappropriate use of their laptops. Whether is be watching or possessing pornography, or selling drugs online, the IT department deals with it all. Not only do the techs at Logan High have to deal with situations like this, they also spend a gross amount of time assembling and distributing them. “Michael Nelson spent his whole summer at Logan High, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week getting laptops ready. From the time they get turned in, to the time we distribute them, we spend hundreds and hundreds of hours working with them. I was working 12 hour days.” Marie Rugg, Mark’s wife says “Well, it provides him with a job, and he did spend the same amount of time working on other things at the school.” There are many different ways to look at the time spent on laptop distribution, but in the end, Mark says “it is worth it for the education the students are receiving.” At the beginning of the year, students pay $50 to insure their laptop. They also sign a Responsible Use Agreement. On www.loganhigh.org, it says the following: “Students and parents will be required to attend a training session and sign required paperwork before being issued a school laptop. Dates of trainings will be announced through Parent Link and a phone call. It is the student’s responsibility to bring their laptop device charged every day to school. It is also the student’s responsibility to read and sign the Logan High School (LHS) Responsible Use Agreement before they can acquire a laptop for use with the 1 to 1 program at LHS. Students who choose to not participate in the insurance program are required to check in their laptop daily and may NOT take the laptop off school property.” If a student takes a laptop home, and the IT department locks their computer. They have a software that will tell them if a laptop has been returned. When they lock the laptop, it forces the student to bring it to the IT department to have it unlocked. During this process, the tech department talks to the student to figure out why the student took it home. If it happens too frequently, they will be issued a chrome book that must be returned every day. Laptop distribution does not just happen at Logan High. In fact, according to thejournal.com, one-third of the schools in the US use school-issued mobile devices. Cache County School District has not distributed laptops to their high schoolers, but they do have technology available to them during the school day. In their elementary schools, they use iPads. At River Heights elementary, they use iPads in classrooms almost daily. Jack Rugg, a second grade student at RHE, says “we do reflex, lexia, and core5 on the iPads every day. They have fun games you can unlock in a few days. It’s easy if you know about it. It teaches you a lot. I like both the iPads and my teacher teaching me. If I had to choose, it would be all iPads.” Technology is being used in schools almost everywhere, and students are mostly loving it. With all the issues that seem to pop up with the distribution of laptops, they all seem to get solved. If student’s are using them improperly, student’s can ask them to put them away just like cell phones. If a student is doing something inappropriate, the will most likely be found out. While some students use their laptops for things other than education, the ratio between use of laptops for education and fun seems to balance out. Laptops are beneficial to education, and Logan High as well as other schools in our city have taken a big step by implementing the use of laptops into their curriculum.
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