For the first time ever, the freshman class at The Paideia School were issued laptops instead of iPads at the beginning of the year, generating both positive and negative responses from students throughout the whole high school. The upperclassmen still have iPads because of the high expense in supplying devices to all grades. According to Tami Oliver, the Director of Technology, Paideia plans to give laptops to every future Freshman class, hopefully converting the whole high school to laptops. “Not everyone has access to laptops at home so this will ensure that every student learns important skills like Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc,” Oliver says.
Although laptops are common school devices outside of Paideia, the once convenient drawing, handwriting and photography abilities on iPads have become inaccessible to first-year students. In the Paideia Junior High and Paideia Elementary School, iPads were supplied to students, making them the primary device for longtime Paideia students. Karys Quarles ’29, commented that “I really dislike laptops, the iPads are a lot more useful for homework and most in class assignments like math.”
The decision to switch to laptops has been a discussion between faculty for the past five years. Tami Oliver made a slide show on the reactions of receiving laptops between the teachers, alumni and current high school students at Paideia. When asked, 72 percent of high school students preferred to have laptops, 82 percent of faculty preferred students to have laptops, and 79 percent of graduated seniors said they preferred to use their laptops throughout high school.
According to the data, this big shift is supposed to be a major advancement in development for students but creates a need for major adjustment. Despite computers being a drastic change, over the course of the year students’ opinions may vary depending on classes, but the change is here to stay.
