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The rumors can lay to rest – NS is getting MacBooks in place of iPads starting next year.
“Next school year, the high school will switch from iPads to MacBook Airs,” NS technology specialist Enoch Brown said.
Administration and the technology department are still working out the details, but the plan is to give every student a MacBook Air instead of an iPad. The iPads will likely go to the elementary schools in the district, and the computers in the computer labs will be removed.
“They’re moving the labs out because every student will essentially have their own computer,” NS teacher Toney Larson said. Larson teaches technology-related classes.
“I think they’ll be better than the iPads,” NS vice principal Matt Syme said. “There are. some functionalities of a MacBook that iPads don’t have, and that makes them more beneficial for learning… especially when it comes down to obviously writing papers, conducting research, standardized testing.”
MacBooks do cost more than iPads, but there are a few ways NS will be able to pay for it.
“We anticipate that a MacBook Air will last twice as long as an iPad, so…we think we’re going to be spending less,” Brown said.
There are a few benefits with having laptops that span many classrooms other than the costs. Since the computer labs will no longer have their computers, everyone who takes those classes and relies on the computers will be able to do work at home.
“I see a lot of positives because now my students don’t depend on the desktops,” Larson said. “They’ll be able to save their work on their MacBook and it’s there wherever they go. There’s going to be less of those excuses of ‘my iPad didn’t do it or I couldn’t get the information.’”
Syme also has hopes that the MacBooks will function better with the fi lters NS puts on them.
“I don’t know why, but it seems like the filters that we put on iPads really mess them up,” Syme said. “We’re hoping that all of those problems will be greatly diminished.”
There are, however, a few downsides that the technology department is still working out.
“There’s a definite advantage to the iPads in some things,” Brown said. “The cameras are slightly more clunky on MacBook Airs. You can still use them, but it’s not as convenient.”
Brown said that they’ll probably get some webcams that students will be able to check out to help with this problem.
One other advantage that iPads have is that they’re better equipped for art, especially when paired with an Apple Pencil. With programs like Adobe Fresco available to download on the iPads, there’s a lot that students can do even without a Pencil.
“[The iPads] probably have better drawing tools,” sophomore Katie Jones said, “cause you can’t really draw
on a laptop.”
Other students mentioned that there are pluses and minuses for the MacBooks.
“I think that [MacBooks] will be better for assignments, but I will miss the ability to draw on the iPads,”
sophomore Lin Anderson said. However, laptops are better than iPads at running some software, even those for art, like the Adobe products.
“I know that the Adobe products work more like on the desktop [computers] on the MacBooks,” Larson said, “so [students are] going to have a much easier time using the Adobe products.”
“Anything you can do with an iPad, you can do with a MacBook Air,” Brown said, “but a lot of things you can do on a MacBook Air, you couldn’t do on an iPad.”
Another big drawback in the eyes of students is that students will no longer get to keep their device when they graduate.
This is to make sure that NS has the budget for the computers, since they cost more. That’s why them lasting much longer than the iPads is such a plus.
General opinions on the change seem mixed.
“Honestly, it seems like they’re gonna have the same amount of issues with [MacBooks] because they’re still Apple devices,” senior Kenna Cook said. “I think they’ll be better for Google Docs and whatnot, but they’ll still need to be updated and they’ll still have weird issues.”
Some students have mentioned that the iPads work, and that the money could go to other things that need improvement at NS.
“We want to give people the best device for their education,” Brown said, “and we strongly believe that MacBookAir is the best at secondary level.”
