Upon the opening of Battle High School’s fifth school year, students were welcomed with a new type of assigned technology. From past years, the media center supplied students with an iPad, but switched to Dell Laptops for the 2017-2018 school year. Students had mixed reactions from coming from middle schools who used iPads, as well as returning students who had used iPads in the past.

Jayme Pingrey, Media Specialist, explains why she was excited to bring in the new technology to the students.

Pingrey says, “We are really excited to see our ninth graders come to Battle High School with such deep understanding of technology. And because we’ve noticed such a rich experiences with technology over the past four years, we’re noticing they’re not having the same types of problems with learning curves that students had five years ago.”

Students had mixed reviews as the technology was brand new to the entire school. With brand new technology always comes an influx of confusion and misunderstanding as students get used to the new electronics. Pingrey explains how the change could be confusing to students.

Pingrey claims, “Superficially, the operating system is different, so going from an iOS operating system to Windows can be difficult for some students who maybe have been used to doing it one way. But I think most adults would agree that being well versed in all types of technology is really important.”

Freshmen coming into the school year with iPad experiences were quick to adapt to the new Dells, as most were facing the same crossover as the returning students. Koren Mealy, a freshman who came from Lange Middle School, which uses iPads in the classroom, describes how he feels about the laptops.

Mealy states, “iPads are just toys and kinda useless, there’s actual sauce to laptops and they serve a real purpose for notes and papers and school work. iPads are annoying to do anything besides games on.”

Some upperclass students are also quite pleased with the cross over. Chance McDonnell, junior, describes his liking for the new laptops. While the iPads had Notability, an application McDonnell was used to, he prefers the keyboard, larger screen, and the fact that the laptop can turn into a tablet.

McDonnell adds, “I would say I like the laptops more than the iPads, mainly because there’s more that you can do on it.”

In contrast, some students are a little less than happy with the transition. Senior Zach Clemons describes why he doesn’t prefer the new laptops.

Clemons says, “These laptops do make it easier to type, but it wasn’t really that hard to type on the iPads. That’s really the only good thing about it after the school blocked what seems like most websites. Plus, the battery dies so often, it seems like I have to charge it every other class. It doesn’t help that every time I grab it, I accidentally push the power button. So I spend half of class charging and turning on my laptop.”