By Addi Bevins
For the students of today, most assignments are online, not paper and pencil. Students get registered for their classes, then get a school issued device for convenience. Usually, the staff and students have the same brand of tech. At Louisville High School, the students get Chromebooks while the staff gets Apple MacBooks. But it wasn't always like this. 4 years ago, everyone had Apple iPads. Before that, all students had Macbooks, but now students and staff have different brands, and that brings many recurring problems.
English and speech teacher Mrs. Baker said, “It's like trying to connect an apple to a banana instead of connecting an apple to an apple.”
A common issue with Chromebooks is there is no screen mirroring. Only Apple devices are compatible with the projectors in the classrooms, so when students have to show projects or slideshows, they can’t easily do it. Teachers have to show students’ presentations on their laptops, which takes longer. It also constantly fills teachers inboxes with every student's shared project. Students can’t control their own presentation.
Junior Maia Buettner said, “I have dealt with many problems in my work when presenting. Especially in my online public speaking classes, I have to find a way to show my speech on the screen, without having the compatibility of my devices and my school’s.”
Another common complaint is the technology issues. Teachers show how something works on their end, and it isn't the same on the students' side. Also when something isn't working on a device, teachers can’t help because their devices run differently. This causes many students to waste time in the technology room bothering the technology director Mr. Simons, instead of being productive in class.
Simons said, “It was a lot easier to work with everything being in the same ecosystem and being able to communicate and transfer things easier.”
With the iPad contract ending and COVID-19 causing schools to shut down in 2020, schools were forced to all be online. The selection at the time was limited due to demand.. Something that could help make the days of learning easier for students and teachers is bringing back Apple devices for all of the students to create the same “ecosystem” for all parts of the school.
Unifying everyone with technology would end the struggle of trying to connect “apple to a banana”.