Imagine being choked just enough so that you can still breathe but not do much else. That is what it’s like working with the computers at the Tyrone high school.

These whimsical things that you call a computer can barely handle word processing.

The computers here at school are limping on measly little Celeron processors that have just enough power to run the basic needs for a school computer such as run Microsoft Word, watch something on the heavily filtered slow internet connection, maybe do some video rendering—if you want to wait about a week! The students could do so much better if we were using a somewhat up to date hardware. These computers where most likely the state of the art if it was still two thousand five.

One thing that really can aggravate students is the fact that these laptops are so cheap that they don’t even have a simple track pad. Instead, we are confined to using that little red thing in the middle of the key board, which is a major inconvenience.

Also, some students may find that being confined to a tiny desk with an itsy bitsy laptop keyboard to be uncomfortable. Would you like to be crammed into a tiny desk with a laptop that doesn’t have a track pad and, for some people, a keyboard that is uncomfortable to use due to cheap construction?

My last point is that having better computers could also open new educational opportunities, like multimedia and web design. For example, Macs could be supplied to the art department to give students an opportunity to learn skills that could help them get a job or further education after high school. Also, the computer they use currently to edit video and assist in the production of the school’s “Channel T” which is most likely an out of date computer struggling to keep up with what it is being used to do. Sure, you could use it for rendering a video or multimedia presentation—again if you want twiddle your thumbs or write one of Mr. Rutter’s essays while it completes its render.

Let’s move ahead in our thinking. The Bring Your Own Device Initiative (BYOD) initiative is just what this school needs. Maybe then we can find new uses for the laptops–the centerpiece in a museum.