Schools have different ways of teaching. Some schools use laptops, while others use textbooks. In New Providence, we use iPads. 

While iPads have their positive aspects to a student’s learning, there are also many negatives. iPads are seen more for entertainment. Students outside of school may use their personal iPads to read, draw, watch tv, talk to friends, and much more. Using iPads in school can be a distraction because if they are used for entertainment at home, students will do the same with their school iPads. 

Other than students having their own personal iPads, many have their own personal laptops. Using a laptop to do school work is much easier. You are able to organize your work on a laptop more than an iPad. On a laptop, you can have multiple different windows open at once, with multiple different tabs. While using an iPad, you can have one Safari window open, with multiple tabs. Keyboard cases for iPads are also harder to type on with because the keyboard is thinner than a laptop keyboard and the letters are smaller. 

In the future, most jobs require the use of a laptop or computer. Using a laptop for school now can get students used to using them in the future at jobs and even for college. Since the elementary schools have given all students their own “personal” iPad, students will be used to using iPads for school work, since kindergarten. Instead, if students were given laptops in seventh grade, at the start of middle school, or ninth grade, the start of high school, students would be able to adapt to using laptops for career work. 

Other than just using laptops in the future, jobs also look for people with the ability to use laptop softwares like Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Jobs do not require staff to just know how to work the software but to also know how to use shortcuts and get tasks done quicker. Having laptops instead of iPads would grant many students with these skills that could be useful in the future.