Pretty much every single aspect of our lives, society, and the world has changed over the past few years. Some of these changes have been really convenient, surprisingly, and we as a whole have integrated technology into our lives a lot more than it was before the pandemic. It’s been really helpful for a lot of us to have newer, easy-to-use, fresh technology at our hands, and to have this technology be used outside of recreational use. Specifically at Santiago, every single student has been given and is expected to bring a Chromebook to school every single day as an integral part of their learning. Whether it be for homework or the actual in-class assignments, we are always on laptops in class now.

To be honest? I actually do not mind this new integration to school at all. I think it’s been a long-needed and long-awaited addition to our curriculum, and in my opinion, it was executed quite smoothly for the most part. Technology is not a “bad” thing to have in the classroom at all, even though a lot of teachers have always been so stingy about our phones in class. Now, this notion is mostly neglected. Having immediate and easy access to the information we need for our assignments, whether that be help right at our fingertips, reliable sources, or calculators, we can easily access support online with a few clicks and clacks of a keyboard! Another awesome plus is there seems to be significantly less work that is assigned with a lot more leniency. I can turn things in sometimes a few days later than the initial due date, and teachers are typically pretty cool about it, grading it as if it were turned in on time. There’s also not much-assigned homework at least for me, and when there is, I can complete it with ease at home. With the addition of technology to our learning, we have a whole lot more freedom as a whole in our work. While using Google Classroom, all of our assignments, materials and due dates can be found in one place along with ways to freely customize our work. As an expressive and creative person, I adore this new sense of freedom with my work and the ability to work at a pace that is established by me.

On the contrary, with any new transition, there are definitely to be bumps in the road that slow us down from moving forward. Santiago, along with any other high school built even semi-recently, is not going to be able to withstand an influx in internet connections without significant issues in running. For example, the WiFi is constantly having issues, and when it is running smoothly with the laptops, it’s unstable for our phones, meaning I cannot use my phone. For me personally, I text my mom very often during class, and when there is absolutely zero connection, I cannot be in contact with her even though I really need to. It also becomes frustrating when teachers do not accommodate by changing due dates when things go awry with the connection, or there are issues with the technology being inaccessible at home for whatever reason; the list goes on. Sometimes, like with any type of technology, things can be a bit shotty and imperfect.

I would say, overall, the addition of laptops being used in the classroom as our main source of learning and accessing assignments has been quite great, considering how short the notice for the addition was as well. It’s been fascinating to watch how quickly all of this changed for us, and how quickly we were able to (or more so forced to) adapt pretty steadily. We should continue to be proud of ourselves for learning new things and adapting to the sudden change to the best of our abilities!