Receiving a laptop is a huge part of starting an SVHS career. After all, students will probably spend more time with this device than they will with their family members during the school year.

This year the school purchased 240 laptops for the incoming freshman, putting roughly 960 laptops currently in use by students.

In order to get a laptop in the first place, students must pay a $65 fee each school and then turn in their laptops over the summer. If they fail in either of these two requirements they risk not getting to use a laptop of their own at all. If they damage or lose their computers during the school the school year, they may have to pay the full repair or replacement cost.

While many students try to use the laptops to help them grow academically, there a few use them to play games and watch movies during class. Principal Haderlie said, “I do feel that kids are better able to handle things at the next level because of their ability to handle and use technology, but I also wonder if we are missing some of the basic fundamentals of learning.  So I do not believe laptops help us learn, but I do believe they are a tool to aide in the learning process.”

Maybe using laptops when there is a simpler way to achieve that knowledge actually makes learning harder, but no denying laptops do have many benefits such  as helping students take notes faster and having access to seemingly unlimited information on the Internet.

In the beginning of supply students with electronic device, SVHS game student iPads instead of laptops. iPads were more simple and intuitive to use and access than laptops. SVHS Alumni Carlie McInnes used both in high school. “I liked both equally, they had the same amount of benefits and negatives compared to each other. If I had to choose one, I would probably say the iPads because it did everything I needed it to and in a much simpler way.”

Good and bad, helpful or wasteful, the laptop is an integral part of students’ days at SVHS