The Rambler - Cathedral Prep

for the switch. With the iPads the battery lasts all day unlike the
PCs which would sometimes barely make it four hours.
Many students also believe that Prep made the switch because Mercyhurst
Prep announced that they were getting iPads. When Mr.
Murnock was asked about this he shot down the idea right away. As
it turns out Prep had been researching an alternative system for a
solid year before anyone heard of Mercyhurst getting iPads. During
that year Prep tested seven different tablet devices and three different
operating systems (windows based, android based, and OS
based). After much testing and research, Prep chose the iPads and
had the switch set in place before Mercyhurst even made their announcement.
Like most things at Mercyhurst, their iPads don't even compare to
what we have here at Prep. Sources at Mercyhurst (who chose to remain
anonymous) tell us that some rooms in their school don't
even have Internet access. They don't even have a room dedicated
to a tech center. All of their tech operations are run out of the library.
So the answer is no, Mercyhurst had no influence on Prep’s
decision to switch to iPads.
Throughout the first few weeks of school the students’ response has
been mainly negative. Many of the programs that allow teachers
and students to access books via the iPad experienced many technical
difficulties. Although the tech center has fixed many of the original
glitches, there still appears to be a negative feeling towards the
new system from the students.
The teachers seem to have mixed feelings about the iPads. Mr. Burger,
however, is definitely on the iPad team. He understands that in
the beginning there were definitely some hiccups, but he believes it
should only get better. He especially likes how much easier it is because
everything is right there. You don't even have to carry around
books anymore. He also jokingly stated how much easier it is to
play games, always a plus for Prep students. He put it best when he
said, "Two weeks ago I preferred the computers, but now that everything
is flowing smoothly I am on team iPad all the way."
The main synopsis
about the iPads in the
teachers eyes is simple:
they have a lot of
potential, but they just
have to get used to the
new system. The main
concerns that most
teachers have in common
is writing papers
and the books in content
locker. Most
teachers believe that
the touch screen keyboard
is going to make
Students at work using the iPad’s touch
screen keyboard.
it harder when writing large papers. Most students, however, are
used to the touch screen keyboard, so in fact the tech center does
not see a problem with this.
Some teachers also believe that the online books are going to make
it harder for the students to study. Some students prefer studying
using a paper book, and the teachers think they cannot hand out
paper books. However, through The Rambler’s investigation we
found out that teachers can hand out paper books, but it is at their
discretion. Another minor problem with the content locker was
when switching from the content locker to another app it signed
students out of the content locker. This makes you sign in each
time when going back to the content locker. Thankfully, the tech
center has found a solution to this issue.
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