By ASHLEY VANG

The Mirror reporter

Does having technology in classrooms actually help students learn or is it simply a distraction? There are many pros and cons to having technology in schools and classrooms, however I believe most electronics are a distraction.

SMART Boards make teaching smoother because it’s easier to project things from a teacher’s laptop to the screen. SMART Boards make it easier for students to see what they are being taught.

The cons of using SMART Boards is that a few times too many, SMART Boards have acted up, therefore messing up the teacher’s lesson plans. There have also been times when teachers don’t know how to work the SMART Board which leads to wasted time and distractions.

The Stevens Point School District has been able to provide, thanks to the Sentry Insurance Foundation, high school students with laptops, an amazing opportunity not many get during high school. There are many advantages of having laptops such as being able to use the internet, using sites such as Google, Skyward and Schoology.

However, laptops are nothing but distractions to students. Students tend to abuse the opportunity of having laptops using them for nothing but social media.

Having laptops also takes away from having to physically write many things such as assignments. It has been proven that if you physically write things down, you’ll be more likely to remember them. Being able to use laptops also takes away from a student’s spelling skills because then they are more likely to use spell-check.

Not all students learn the same way. Some may learn better using technology, some may work better the old school way. For example, some teachers will have tests online and online only, which may feel like torture for students who prefer paper.

Technology influences the loss of communication between student to student and student and teacher. For example, it’s extremely easy to whip up an email to a teacher for help. It’s also very easy to simply share a Google doc with another student when working on a group project. Technology really limits the actual face-to-face communication.

I believe technology such as SMART Boards, Skyward and Schoology are very useful to both students and teachers. However, I believe giving students their own “personal laptop” adds too much distraction.