When Empire High School opened as a successful laptop school, other schools began thinking about, and planning on, integrating computers into their classrooms.

So as to not interfere with the regular teaching through textbooks and paper, the laptop students would be taught separately from those who did not have them. Although there are some negatives, the use of computers can be a great help to schools.

A neighboring school in the Vail School District, Cienega High School, is currently trying to place laptops in its classrooms. Unlike Empire, Cienega students have to buy their own personal computers in order to participate in the courses.

This will make students better appreciate the new methods of learning. They will take care of their new property because it will not only serve a long-term use in school, but will also be a new personal computer for their home life. They will get used to their computer, and as they learn to use all the functions to their full potential, they will enjoy the ease at which they can accomplish tasks.

Laptops will not be used in all classes though, which could create an annoyance for some because they have the inconvenience of taking their laptops to school for only one class and then having to carry it around for the rest of the day in addition to their books.

When schools inch their way into placing laptops into use, they do not fully incorporate the device. There will still be classes that will not use laptops, and there will still be books that the teachers are too used to teaching from. This will cause students to have to lug around their laptops in addition to books.

Cramming two different kinds of materials into a child’s hands will make them want to throw one of them away. That leads to the decision of which medium is best: computer or textbook.

Each medium of teaching –– the paper of the past and HTML of the future –– have conflicting positives and negatives. While textbooks can be informative and provide a good source of information in a concrete location for reference, an excessive use of books can ship minds out to space.

Computers offer almost a limitless amount of information, and nearly every kind of academic information is available, but there are always scapegoats and distractions that students resort to. One big pet peeve of teachers at Empire is the use of Wikipedia. The use of computers offers multiple distractions, but those distractions are also only held and taken advantage of by the same students who failed to focus when they were given textbooks in earlier years.

As in every case of teaching, the amount of time students are distracted is based purely on that student. Although computers provide numerous distractions and even a screen wall that can block a teacher’s view, there is a way to prevent students from wandering off in the classroom. If teachers can adapt to the use of computers and learn how to spot off-task students, they can properly discipline their students into working effectively.

With enough discipline, students will learn to use their devices effectively and to their full potential. With the help of teachers, students can accomplish great works using computers.

Spencer Taylor and Julianne Capati
Juniors
Empire High School