School laptops: most of them bear myriad problems when first booted up. The opinions on these school-provided computers vary wildly. NC started this venture just before the new school year, strongly encouraging people to sign up for these portable computers. From love to hate, necessity requires open communication of both sides of the story.

The main reason for the hate of school laptops comes from the fact that they usually do not work at first. Connection errors and difficulty logging in, plague these minicomputers, making students very unhappy with the supposedly beneficial computers.

“I think the school laptops are incredibly annoying. The constant updates, poor battery life, and practically every other useful website being blocked make for a horrible user experience,” junior Ayden Porch said. 

A majority of the help received from the media center comes in the form of the librarians telling students that they just need to restart their computers when they arrive at their house. This can frustrate students trying to troubleshoot. Although the librarians provide valid advice, this can become disheartening for pupils when they must constantly restart their computer despite it refusing to cooperate. It becomes hard to see the reason for liking these laptops when a student draws the short end of the stick. Though, when they work, the machines become useful tools. 

“I think it’s really important that each kid has a device that’s compatible with the school network and is the same throughout the student body. It just makes good sense in the 21st century for every kid to have a device. And for those devices to be able to be repaired and understood because every child has the same one,” Assistant Principal and magnet program coordinator James Auld said.

These laptops, freely provided to the students by the school, come at no charge to the student apart from the time to enter the library and pick one up. For those who cannot find any way to gain access to the internet at their place of residence, these portable computers provide valuable resources. If not taken full advantage of, these complementary laptops would become nothing short of a waste of the school’s funding.

The difficulty to admit the truth comes in the form of distaste for the non-functionality of computers. However, the fact remains that even though one may experience difficulty in using the laptops at first, if it resolves itself in a timely manner, the benefits of using laptops may far outweigh the disadvantages. This could counter the rocky start that these mini-computers continue to endure.