Patch Peer Panel Question of the Week

Today's question comes from Rebecca Antony, a student at MICDS. Rebecca would like to explore the role personal computers play in the classroom today, and if schools should provide laptops for students.

Allison Hermann, St. Joseph's Academy

I think computers are very beneficial in classrooms if students know how to utilize their time and not get distracted. Computers supply useful resources like the internet or dictionarys that can be helpful for looking something up quickly if you do not understand something your teacher said.

They are also for helpful in taking notes. Notes taking on a computer tend to be neater and more clear and for most people it is faster to take notes on the computer than by hand. If you are absent one day, then you can ask a friend or teacher to email you the notes you missed which is very helpful.

I think they do help with learning because they allow students to access information that they wouldn't normally recieve in an everyday classroom. However, many students missuse this luxury and go to inappropriate uneducational sites making it useless for teaching and learning.

Computers are also helpful, in my school at least, for documents being shared between teachers and students. The teachers at St. Joe just drop your homework assignments or the power points from class into their teacher share folder and you can download them to your own computer and don't have to waste paper by printing out the homework.

Curt Wall, Ladue

Over all I think the use of computers in schools have been very helpful and I believe that all schools, if possible, should have the access to computers and the resources they provide in each of their classrooms.

Victoria Watson, Villa Duchesne

I think that having computers available in the classroom does help the learning experience. Not only does it allow for different types of assignments to be given, but it also helps students with computer literacy. Four years of computer usage makes the transition from high school to college to work place that much easier.

With this being said, the school curriculum should be altered to a computer friendly format, where it would be properly utilized for furthering the educational experience, and wouldn't become a distraction to the course.

Where some schools might not be able to budget a lap top computer for every individual student to take home, I think that just having enough available at school for student use would be that much more of a help.

Spencer Desai, MICDS

I think that providing students with computers has a long list of positives and negatives. When MICDS issued students computers a few years ago, I was quite skeptical but I was surprised at the many new ways that we could learn.

It made communication with teachers after school easier to deal with homework and to get caught up with work when students are sick. It also provides more ways for teachers to reach their students.

For example, visual learners can use videos that teachers put up or interactive learners can use online exercises found by the teachers. Computers for teachers and students open up a variety of benefits for teachers and students alike.

People may argue that they are distracting and I will admit, websites such as Facebook were big distractoins for me at first but after a while most students learn how to manage it. If not, students (and the school) could easily block such sites from their computers, like many of my friends do during exam week.

So I absolutely believe that schools should issue students and teachers with computers.

Cate Toman, St. Joseph's Academy

I think use of computers in the classroom definitely helps the learning experience. My school uses laptops in the classroom almost every day; it is hard for me to imagine doing my work without it.

Furthermore, I find it easier to stay organized because it only takes a click for me to organize all my files and find my notes, whereas my actual binders are much harder to sort through. I have used a laptop for all of my high school career and not once have I thought it at all unnecessary.

There certainly have been times when I have been distracted by my computer while doing homework or listening to a lecture, but for the most part, it hasn't proven a huge issue for me personally or anyone else I know.

If a student intends to listen, then putting a computer in front of him or her won't change that. If a student doesn't intend to listen, then putting a computer in front of him or her won't change that, either.

Whether or not schools should provide them, though, is an issue. For private schools, everyone is issued a laptop because it's included in the tuition, so by the time the students have them, they're paid for. For public schools, I think finding a source of money to provide a computer to every single student would be quite difficult, and I'm sure there would be a division between students willing to pay for personal computers and unwilling to pay for personal computers.

In this economy, it's unrealistic to think that schools have the budget to factor in personal computers for students, especially if computers are already available to students somewhere on campus.

If there were a definite way to pay for them, I'd definitely say that schools should provide them, but otherwise, students can certainly make due with using the computers on campus.

Molly Soto, St. Joseph's Academy

 Although computers can be distracting during class, I personally I do believe that computers are helping students in the overall learning experience.

Computers provide many new ways to take notes and keep track of information for classes. They can help students become more organized by creating folders for each subject so they will not lose important information.

Computers also allow students to access information on the internet. They might need this information for projects or papers. Computers provide a more productive work day because students do not have to wait until they get home to use a computer.

I do believe that schools should provide lap tops to all students. This would reduce problems with security and internet access.  

Rebecca Antony, MICDS

I think that most of the time computers do help students learn, especially when distracting websites are blocked. Computers help students do a lot more with their work: softwares built just for specific purposes can help kids get organized and stay that way, the neatness of typing makes notes and essays easier to read and edit.

Students also have less excuses for why they didn't do their homework--for example, if a student was given a printed out copy, they cannot give the general excuse that they lost their copy, the teacher would ask why the student did not take the time to print out a new one as he always has access to a computer.

More importantly, using computers in schools helps students grow familiar with technology, so that when they are forced to use it in later years, they will know the basics and make life easier for themselves. This is something that is crucial if schools want to really get kids prepped and ready for what they call the "real world."