By Claire Fagan, staff writer
Students at River Hill have different opinions on the HCPSS-issued Chromebooks, especially now that classes are back in-person. Every Howard County student received a Chromebook for the 2020 virtual year, and the county is now asking every student to bring their Chromebook or a personal device to school every day.
The Current polled 25 students on their opinions of school-issued Chromebooks. 75% of those students used their school-issued Chromebook in their classes on a regular basis. Those who did not use the Chromebooks mentioned that they preferred bringing their personal laptop to school.
Although 73% of polled students believed that Chromebooks were at least somewhat easy to use, some students had grievances with the technology. Junior Sam Lacey mentioned: “Chromebooks… you get used to them. The trackpad for the Chromebooks is horrendously bad.” At times, the trackpad can be unresponsive or cause users to click on the wrong icons on the screen. Another anonymous student complained that the keyboard and taskbar of a Chromebook is different from a traditional laptop and is disorienting.
In addition to encountering minor technological problems, multiple students complained about inability to access certain websites on the school-issued Chromebooks. Sophomore Sophia Ditch specified, “For some school projects we need YouTube, we need other websites, but all of a sudden we can’t [access them] because they’re marked as ‘mature’ on Chromebooks.”
When one logs into a school account through the school-issued Chromebooks, some sites are banned because they are categorized as “mature” or are inaccessible. To the students of River Hill, restricting ordinary websites such as Google Maps and YouTube is unnecessary.
Despite these Chromebook complications, the benefits seem to outweigh the negatives. Junior Ellie Hasegawa explained, “Chromebooks are nice because they allow teachers to do assignments online and make classes more organized.” In fact, 95% of the students polled were glad to receive a school Chromebook that they could use in classes and at home.
By providing each student with a Chromebook, the Howard County School System claimed on their website that they aimed “to help remove technology barriers and advance equitable student learning outcomes.” With many classes utilizing these Chromebooks, the school system appears to have achieved its goal.