Feature Photo By: Stephanie Pickens – Students work in Google documents for a project in AP US History. Assignments are consistently assigned on Classroom depending on classes.
Chromebooks have been integrated into classroom environments for a couple years now, shifting teaching styles. In a New York Times article, it was said by Google that “15 million primary and secondary school students in the United States use Classroom”.
Many schools and teachers have moved to Google Classroom to push assignments out to students in an easier and faster way. With the use of Classroom, that introduced the larger use of Chromebooks and carts that hold them.
“We use more technology nowadays than we did before,” says Freshman Dayana Lozano.
Sophomores Perla Morales and Julian Bridges use the computers to do research. Most assignments in APUSH, however, are on paper. (Stephanie Pickens)
Almost all classes at Rangeview use Chromebooks and Google Classroom to filter and grade assignments-some more than others require frequent use of them. Computers and other devices like cell phones have come to be extremely convenient at a second’s notice. So what’s happening with the education system if everything is shifting to go online?
“It cuts way down on the amount of paper being consumed which is good for our budget and environment,” says biology teacher Mr. Russell. “For me as a teacher,… I also see the opportunities to build in collaborative opportunities for students through the use of technology. It can make cheating easier [though].”
Computers make the time to complete work more efficient–though it can encourage cheating–with shortcuts to the internet and easily finding answers or sharing documents with classmates.
“Everything would be easier but it wouldn’t exercise our brains in the ways they are now,” said junior Heidy Rodriguez. “Students would also look up answers instead of actually thinking through the problem.”
Technology advances as time moves forward, making it inevitable to escape the world of it. A study made by Common Sense showed that “teens spend an average of 9 hours a day online” and kids 8-12 spend about 6 hours on it. If schools become more tech-centric, this would increase the screen time even more-possibly increasing the health risks correlated as well.
“There should be more technology. I feel like assignments should be online but taking notes should be handwritten. It’s still good to write,” Sophomore Julian Bridges says.
Mr. Russell also mentioned that everything is dependent on the Internet; not every student is able to have access to it and devices that use it. In the grand scheme, it would require a lot of the students to provide for themselves.
