New Technologies

by Jason Baker

From cell phones to personal digital assistants (PDAs), students are bringing new devices to school to communicate and entertain themselves during long days of learning. But do cell phones and CD players prove useful in the school environment?

Cell phones are brought to school to play games, take notes, make phone calls, and IM a friend who stayed at home. Senior Katie Hendrikson states, “I can call my mom without waiting in line to use the payphone. But unless you are going to use it, I think it should remain off.” Other students who bring cell phones to school think that they are of no use as Senior Kenneth Hopper said, “I would say in emergencies cell phones are ok but other than that they are useless.”

CD players are also useful; they contribute to creativity and keep a student awake. Senior Jessica Cervantes said, “Yeah I like having a CD player at school. If I finish my work early I can listen to my music. But if you do bring your CD player to school keep it on the down low because you never know when an authority figure is going to sneak up and confiscate it.”

PDAs have become popular, different companies such as Compaq, Sony, and Dell advertise eye-catching PDAs. But as some students found out, a PDA is useless unless you have a busy life style. A PDA gives different options to maintain a busy lifestyle; it is a device that you can play interactive games on, IM other people, write your homework in computer format, and surf the web.

Laptops are also a convenient method of communication. Senior Whitney Levin Yearbook Editor and Chief said, “The laptop enables us to move around and still work on a project, even though it has its problems with the battery, and freezing, in the long run it is better because instead of staying at school to work on the yearbook I can take it home to work on it.” Laptops in the future will be in everyone’s desks and connected to the teachers instead of writing out your work, but that day is far off with all the budget cuts these days.

The wave of technology is basically taken over all walks of life, however in the long run there is still a far way to go to achieve our major dreams of computerizing our society. Though in some senses CD players, cell phones, and laptops are a handy resource, they still pose the basic threat of detention and trouble.