SmartBoard restriction reflects lack of trust in student body

Bobby Verhey, RubicOnline Editor|October 4, 2018

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Bobby Verhey

Senior Will Christakos studies in the Schilling Center in front of an unused smartboard.

At the start of the year, there was an excitement around the building over the brand new Schilling Center. The new Schilling Center was seen as an investment in the student body and immediately, students were enamored by the new building, and in particular the SmartBoards. The SmartBoards contained many features including accessing google, drawing pictures, and accessing other features. On the second day, students watched a video titled “Top 10 Star Wars Lightsaber Battles In Movies and TV.”

Shortly after, the SmartBoard uses were severely hindered as students could now only access the drawing features. I think this was an overreaction by school administrators. Instead of giving a slap on the wrist to the students involved, all students were punished for actions that most of them had no part in.

Many students are not happy about the SmartBoard restrictions, believing that they are now glorified whiteboards. Senior Will Christakos said, “It’s the same use of a whiteboard. I don’t understand why we paid so much for the SmartBoard, when we can’t access most of its features.”

Junior Eric Bottern said, “I think that they are a waste, if we can’t use them for their true purposes.” Because of this, the amount of traffic and excitement around the SmartBoard has gone down. Currently SmartBoards are commonly used as a way to write messages, including information about gamedays

“It’s fun to use them to promote gamedays.” said Senior Kenzie Giese.

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I think it would be better for students if we could access more.

— Senior Lucy Hoeschen

However, this is not enough as the boards outside the classrooms really serve no other purpose to the community than drawing. Senior Lucy Hoeschen said “All we can do is draw on them, I think it would be better for students if we could access more.”

Many students such as Sophomore Noel Abraham believe that students should be able to use the SmartBoards in a fun matter. “We were given these SmartBoards for our use during school. We don’t always have work to do during our free time, and the best way to entertain ourselves is to use these boards for recreational purposes,” he said.

Sophomore Sam Konstan believes that a system should be put in place prioritizing students who use the boards for educational reasons, “I think that if there are people that are trying to use them for educational purposes, they should be able to access them and their use of the SmartBoards should be prioritized over those trying to use them for recreational purposes, but if nobody is trying to use it for educational purposes it doesn’t do any harm to let people use them, so long as they are not used in a damaging or offensive way.”

I agree with this as students should be able use the boards for their true purpose of education. But, if no one is working with them, why shouldn’t a student be able to use the boards to relieve stress and think about stuff other than school? If the student body got smartboard functionality back, they should treat the SmartBoards right and not use them in a harmful manner. By doing this, students would gain more respect from the administration. I think that students should be given their SmartBoard privileges back and be given a second chance to use the SmartBoards. Most of the school had nothing to do with the incident that restricted SmartBoard use in the first place, so they have no reason to be punished.