By Ellie White
Most students in McNicholas High School have had to deal with a dead tablet battery during the school day and no way to charge it to be prepared for classes. Students aren’t supposed to charge during the day at school, but they rely greatly on tablets since they were added to the curriculum eight years ago .
Students should be allowed to charge at school during the day. It is necessary for students to be able to access the tools accessible to them on their tablets. Almost all teachers use the electronic tools on the tablet like Schoology, OneNote, and DyKnow, and if a student’s tablet is dead he/she is cut off from the class activity.
Some of the problems facing this suggestion are that McNicholas is an old building, and that to charge tablets, students often have to plug in at troublesome places like the cafeteria where students could trip over cords and where there are only eighteen outlets, some not even accessible to students. “What students need to realize is that it’s not always going to be convenient, since some classrooms don’t have enough outlets,” Director of Curriculum Dan Rosenbaum said.
Director of Technology Andy Ey also said charging is not really possible during the day for another reason. “The electric may not allow for roughly seven hundred students to charge,” Ey said.
While some students are able to get through the whole day without charging, many aren’t. “I feel like I have to always be connected to an outlet,” senior David Waterman said, while charging his tablet. Students may be able to get through the day, but one thing is agreed upon, battery charges are inconsistent.
One solution to this problem is to possibly have charging stations throughout the school in public areas. One of the public locations that many students want to see used is a charging station in the Café and Student Union. “Maybe under each of the tables,” one student suggested. Another suggested moving the trash cans in the back to set up a station. An additional suggestion was to set up a station in the Library.
Tablets are a big part of the student curriculum and although students must be responsible for charging their tablets at home, it is inevitable that some students will have to charge at school during the day. Students should not be discouraged from charging throughout the day, especially since it seems to be a chronic problem from students of all grades. Students should be able to charge their tablets in established charging areas.
The McNicholas Milestone 