Many schools around the area give each student their own computer or Ipad to use during the school day to get work done and to use during class. These schools even allow the students to take the computers and Ipads home every night and weekend so they can work on whatever they need. However, Pleasant Valley doesn’t provide these for students, the students tend to use more textbooks and can bring in their own computers in if they wish. This can be a good or bad thing depending on the situation at hand.
Bettendorf high school provides each student with a chromebook. Mikayla Guffey, graduate from Bettendorf high school stated, “It was nice because it had everything we need for each class and we didn’t have to worry about the hassle of bringing textbooks.”
One thing that students at Pleasant Valley complain about is the amount of textbooks they have to take home every night. Most classes hand out a textbook and students need them to to do their homework every night. Guffey also stated, “After school all I needed to bring home was my chromebook because everything I needed was on it. It was really convenient and worked out really well for students.” With the use of chromebooks, it would really help out students at Pleasant Valley not having to worry about how many books to take home every night.
Although there is a lot of positive things about school’s providing technology for students, there is also some setbacks. Taylor Carter, student at Alleman High School, stated “Our school provides each student a computer as well. As much as it helps, it creates a big distraction for students during class. The teacher can’t see what each student is doing on their screen, so most students play games and do things that aren’t school related.”
Teachers at Pleasant Valley already have a hard enough time trying to get students off of their phones during class. If computers or Ipads were involved, it would make their job even harder trying to get students to be focused during class and not playing games on the electronics. Also, providing each student with a piece of technology can be expensive as well. Especially if students take advantage of it and damage it, the school would also have to put a lot of money into it repairing it.
It also causes less stress on administration not giving out technology because they don’t have to worry about students losing them or not returning them when they graduate. Technology is more expensive than textbooks so administration would have to be very strict and make sure each student has their own.
Providing technology for students can be helpful and harmful to the school depending on the situation. Pleasant Valley currently doesn’t give students their own technology but it might be possible in the future.
