0
0
As of the 2024-25 school year, every NS student has a personal laptop for educational purposes, replacing the iPads from previous years.
So far, the majority of students have welcomed the swap of devices.
“People who can work on the laptops are way ahead of people who don’t because there’s lots of jobs now that require laptop work,” senior Alivia Madsen said. “And so I think getting the gist of how laptops work now… that definitely could put us ahead in the workforce.”
In a recent NS Times survey, 81 percent of students indicated they liked the laptops better than the iPads.
A few students are less excited about the switch from iPads to laptops.
“I feel like we’re trying to adapt to it,” sophomore Holden Bailey said, “but everything has its ups and downs and some things work and some things just don’t. Switching from iPads to laptops, it just makes everything hard… I just feel like if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Overall, the laptops can be a valuable resource for students as long as they are taken care of. This is the reason NS made the decision to replace the iPad despite the expenses.
“By not buying new devices for a couple years we’re able to do this,” systems administrator Enoch Brown said, “and now going forward, because they’ll last quite longer, the computer costs more up front but we’ll end up spending a little bit less ongoing.”
Unfortunately students will not be able to keep the laptops after graduation. Even though they are new devices, NS is facing complications with them.
“You really have to be extra careful with these,” librarian Kandy Beebe said. “They’re not as durable as something that you’re used to so hopefully as the word gets out, maybe [broken laptops] will decline, but I guess the only time will tell.”
The MacBook Airs are fragile, and they are also expensive to repair.
“The average on the screen repair has been about $330 for just the screen,” Beebe said. “We just had our first one that was not repairable and it was due to water damage… so to replace the whole laptop is $799.”
To avoid repair costs, students can need to make sure to keep their case on properly.
“The cases need to be put on with the laptop closed,” Brown said. “The biggest thing that we didn’t anticipate is that the case is so hard to put on if you put it on with the laptop open and put pressure on the screen, it can break the screen.”
Another important precaution students can take is handling their backpacks carefully.
“Kids are a little harder on things and they’re not really thinking about it,” Beebe said. “They’re expensive and no one wants to have that charge. And they are just really a lot more fragile than your iPads used to be.”
As NS resolves issues, the laptops have proven themselves to be a valuable addition to NS.
“You know, some of those classes that you sign up for because you love them,” Brown said. “What I really hope is gonna happen is that the [students] will be like, ‘I can do this class outside the classroom, I can learn, I can go beyond, I can explore in ways I couldn’t explore before.’”
