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Personal laptops have been a integral part of FHC for years, but will they continue to be?

All current FHC students have grown used to carrying their personal laptops from class to class for academic use. Not only have they become the norm, but they’ve become an integral part of FHC. However, what if those laptops were taken away? Both students and teachers are conflicted as to whether or not this change will be positive for students’ learning.

Personal laptops are utilized in almost every classroom, allowing the students to accomplish assigned tasks on school-sanctioned websites like Canva and access nearly every tool possible to make them the best students they can be. Because these laptops are owned personally by the student, the student has full responsibility for their device and can take it home for both homework and personal use.

Sophomore Bettye Edgin enjoys using her personal laptop at school, explaining why it’s not only efficient but necessary for her academics.

“Having a laptop at school allows me to access all of my assignments online. Laptops make it easier to type up long essays and access helpful sites with tutorials to help me when I’m stuck with school work,” Bettye said. “Having quick access to search engines such as Google also helps me to expand my knowledge and avoid overwhelming teachers with questions when they are already helping other students.”

However, recently, the FHC board has begun to discuss the use of school-sanctioned laptops that the students must use. The laptops would be placed in every student’s first hour for them to use throughout the day before returning them in their sixth hour. 

Placing the Chromebook carts in students’ first hours should be efficient. However, some students and teachers struggle to grasp the efficiency of the program, arguing it creates more problems than it solves. Mrs. Stiles, the US history teacher, makes her point clear regarding the change in laptop use, stating the negative impacts it will have in her classroom.

“I don’t want a Chromebook cart in my room,” Mrs. Stiles said. “We tried that before, and it was a mess for teachers to keep track of. Kids should get a device at the beginning of the year.”

Along with the question of efficiency and location, other questions about the program arise as staff and students struggle with the possible change. Most of these fears, however, revolve around the question of responsibility for these laptops. While they are the property of the school, how will them being placed in the hands of students affect the ownership of the device?

Not only can students forget or misplace the school devices, but they might also break or cause damage to them. While this wasn’t a problem with the students’ personal laptops, due to the fact that they held complete responsibility over the computer, staff and students might struggle on where to place the blame in regards to the school-mandated devices. The blame for student-inflicted damage would, of course, land on whoever inflicted the damage. However, would the student be mandated to reimburse the school even if they were forced to use said device? Bettye also questions the liability issues surrounding the program.

“I’m against this change because I feel like it would be more convenient just to let students bring their own Chromebooks,” Bettye said. “Students would also likely forget to return their Chromebooks and lose them or break them, which is just a cost of money for the school.”

Although school-mandated laptops have so far been looked down upon, the reasoning behind instating them cannot be ignored. By having personal laptops, some students have struggled with paying attention in class and taking advantage of the freedom given to them. However, certain sites that might enable this behavior have already been disabled by the admin, making this next step of school-sanctioned laptops seem less necessary. If students do decide to take advantage of having their own laptops, it is their responsibility if they miss something in class.

By having these laptops under the ownership of the school, the school can add even more restrictions, including a “big brother” program that can record the student’s activities, allowing teachers to view the students’ brower. For teachers, this change could bring about heightened attention to their lessons and lower the chances of cheating during class. 

“If we get ‘big brother’ software to monitor students’ computer use, it will be very helpful; if not, it will be the same with kids being off task and cheating,” Mrs. Stiles said. “School devices will limit what kids can do online so that would be helpful.”

In regards to why the admin is only now taking action against personal devices in school, the answers still vary. Bond and money issues are brought up when discussing this change, debating if these devices are a solid use of the school’s funds. Others debate whether the school should take action now if it has waited so long. 

Either way, the ideas around the school Chromebooks are still unclear, and it’s debated as to whether the questions will clear up soon. With the way the school is running at the moment, there seems to be no impending deadline that should force rash decisions regarding this change. Therefore, students struggle to grasp the importance of these new restrictions, opting to keep to the current system. Sophomore Caroline Kendall questions the importance of this change regarding the state of the school at the moment.

“I have no idea why our school hasn’t adopted this policy yet, but I think we should keep our current rules because they work,” Caroline said. “Also, there are much better ways to spend money in our school than getting a bunch of computers that aren’t necessary.” 

There are both positives and negatives surrounding this possible impending change at FHC, and students and staff have not reached a consensus regarding it. Laptops with new restrictions could influence participation and academic prowess within the student body. Also, the availability of devices could help students who cannot secure their own laptops and give them a place to charge them without the responsibility of personally keeping the laptops. 

Nonetheless, the placement of the carts in classrooms caused conflicts with teachers and extra complexities. The idea itself has not been taken too positively by students, some considering the change to be offensive as most of them are young adults who feel they are responsible enough to have their own device. While others see it as an unnecessary complication. However, the system itself has not been completely ironed out. Therefore, new adaptations to the structure could fix the wrinkles within. 

“Restricting my own personal device feels unnecessary. I bought my laptop specifically for school, and it feels a waste not to use it,” Caroline said. “I understand why the admin would want to add more restrictions, but those kids who take advantage of having their own device will probably continue to slack off whether they have their own device or not.”