The addition of new technology into the school to improve learning seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the school year, and after a full year of being one-to-one, that opinion has not changed.

It goes without saying that an immediate benefit to the integration of technology was granting every student a Chromebook.

Any student without the proper means to utilize technology in their learning experience before no longer suffered from not having an advantage many other students had.

The school also accommodated students who do not have Internet access at home. This was a concern that immediately came with the news of going one-to-one, and we were skeptical as to whether or not it would work.

However by providing hot spots and mapping out local areas that had free access, the school did a nice job of keeping every student regardless of their limitations up to speed with the new technology.

Being able to work with Google sites such as Classroom have greatly benefited the learning process in and out of class.

It is clear that this is something that the school has been trying to do for some time with sites such as My Big Campus. Due to the lack of technology readily available for students however, this was not frequently used.

With the addition of the Chromebooks and the switch to Google Classroom, teachers can easily post information and students can conveniently respond appropriately.

A major purpose of adding the technology to the school was to enhance learning with an endless source of information at all students’ fingertips. Many teachers utilized this in their learning curriculum as Chromebooks became an everyday tool in classes.

While it is true that it is an endless source of information, it is also an endless source of distractions.

A concern that came with the Chromebooks is that students would use them as distractions in class, and this does happen.

While Lightspeed Systems is used to block many websites, not everyone can be blocked.

It became not uncommon for us as students to see others playing games or working on work for other classes in the middle of a lecture from a teacher.

It had to have been expected that this would be the case, and students visibly do abuse their privilege of having a Chromebook on a daily basis.

However, this is the choice of the student.

Just as it has always been, a student will get as much out of class as they put into it. If they make the conscious choice to distract themselves with their Chromebook, that is their own fault.

Another downside is that statistically it is proven, according to sources such as the Scientific American, that students can remember more from reading off of a page than they can from a screen.

While this is true, the mere presence of Chromebooks does not immediately result in there being no paper alternatives in the classroom, so students do still have a choice. Because of this, this one negative is definitely outweighed by the endless source of information the Chromebooks also provide.

The only problem that we believe desperately needs to be addressed is the lack of printing capabilities.

While there are some flaws in the idea, such as the Chromebooks not yet being coded for printers or the risk that comes with having WiFi accessible printers that can be accessed from anywhere in the building, students definitely are limited by their lack of being able to print when needed.

If so much work is now expected to be done over a computer, then being able to print is a necessity that can no longer be met with just the current printers in the library. Something needs to be done to fix the issue, even if it does take some time to figure out the perfect solution for how to make printers work.

Despite this though, Chromebooks to us have undoubtedly become a useful tool that have improved learning in the school, and we commend the school for making this transition to going one-to-one.