By Sarvesh Mayilvahanan | Staff Writer

As we move into a more technologically advanced era, our schools should also be moving towards implementing technology into the classroom. Many schools around the nation have already made significant strides towards digitizing school work. The switch from traditional paper and pencil to iPads and laptops will benefit both teachers and students because it will help the environment, ease the process of homework, and allows teachers to teach in numerous ways.

Doing work on iPads rather than conventionally on paper will reduce paper usage and will be a step towards becoming more environmentally friendly. Using paper has very harmful effects on the environment. For example, tons of energy and fuel are used to produce, transport, and print paper. Paper also has an enormous negative impact through waste. Paper consumption has tripled since 1960 and with it, 85 million tons of paper waste are produced each year and more than 34 billion sheets of paper are used each year in the United States alone. In addition, 400 million ink and 100 million toner cartridges end up in landfills each year. With the addition of iPads, the paper usage by students and teachers would reduce drastically and this would reduce the negative impact paper waste has on the environment.

Some may worry that students will be distracted by apps or the internet on their iPads. However, there are softwares that can control what can and cannot be used on the iPads. For example, Netop’s iPad software allows teachers to remotely control what is on the iPads and can blank the screens to force students to look up. In addition, filters, such as the web filters that the school already uses, can limit the freedom that students will have on the iPads.

Another benefit of switching to iPads would be the ease it would bring to school work for both students and teachers. All of the student’s work could be done on one platform without having to worry about multiple papers.

“It will make it easier to edit work without erasing or whiteout,” sophomore Rijul Singhal says.

This switch would also save all work to cloud storage, meaning that it could be accessed anywhere and students wouldn’t forget their homework. This also allows teachers to grade assignments quickly all in one place.

The switch to iPads would also allow teachers to expand the ways that they teach students. Stereotypically, teachers have a power point, talk about a subject, and have their students take notes. iPads would allow teachers to go above and beyond and find new ways to teach. Students could take notes on an interactive lesson on the iPads, which would educate the students as well as keep them interested and willing to learn. As teachers and students get more and more acclimated to the iPads and how they work, many different and unique methods of teaching could be explored and implemented into the classroom.