5 Benefits of Assigning Laptops to Students

According to a *survey carried out by Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning, 60% of principals who responded to the survey, said they assigned devices such as laptops, mobiles or tablets to their students in 2017, compared to 27% in 2015.

The survey showed some distinct differences in how students perform and interact whilst being in and out of school when assigned some form of digital device.

Benefits of Assigning Students with Digital Devices
1 – Students can digitally take notes in class
By having notes on the same device, students may be more inclined to use that device to do internet research and create documents.

2 – Students can interact with their fellow peers and collaborate on projects
By allowing students to interact with their classmates through online messaging or email, this can help to relieve pressure of a student who may not have understood a teacher’s wording, but can understand it more through the words of their peer. The devices can also benefit group projects, as students are able to collaborate their ideas and work through email and online document sharing.

3 – Teachers and students can set reminders
Reminders can help people in all aspects of every day life, and for life in education they are no different. Reminders can be set for project deadlines, homework hand-in dates, and for upcoming exams.

4 – Communication through Email
As previously mentioned, email can help interaction between students, but it can also be a great resource for teacher-student interaction.
Speak Up’s CEO, Julie Evans said

“In focus groups, students explained that emailing their teachers was somewhat of an anxiety release. It isn’t as if they need the teacher to respond to them in that moment, It’s more that they want to share the problem with someone.”
5 – Building student confidence
By using all of the above resources on assigned digital devices, students can feel more confident in their capabilities and have a greater focus on their education, whether they are in or out of school premises.

As the survey suggests, there are some pretty good reasons to supplying students with digital devices, but we know school budgets can be tight and technology can be expensive – especially when a complete ICT suite is in need of an upgrade.

Refurbished Devices from Stone
This is where Stone can help. We offer not only new devices, but we also have the option of refurbished devices, the ideal solution for any school that is in need of some new technology equipment, but is on a tight budget.

Earlier this year, Stone provided Deyes High School and College with high standard refurbished technology, along with continued support, to help the school enhance their learning capabilities.

This is what Mark Hoban, Deyes High School and College, had to say:

“The performance and quality of the components of the products are great and we haven’t encountered any issues with the refurbished machines. We required desktops that were flexible in performance as they weren’t just going to be used for day to day tasks within the offices or for admin purposes such as student database processing. They were also going to be used by pupils across the school within lessons. From Year 7’s completing basic word processing and presentation slides right up to Year 10’s and 11’s using them for slightly more intensive tasks, such as video editing through Adobe Dreamweaver.

“There’s the assumption that the choice to opt for refurbished hardware is a risky thing to do, but I can honestly say that choosing to go with refurb was definitely the best decision for us. As a school, we’ve accomplished what we set out to achieve. We’ve managed to refresh our estate whilst staying within budget. They may not be straight out of the box new, but looking at them you wouldn’t know that! And the excellent performance of the machines means we can still offer the best IT facilities for our school, we’ve just not had to break the bank to get there!”
You can read the full case study here: https://www.stonegroup.co.uk/customer-stories/deyes-high-school-enhance-learning-capabilities-with-refurbished-tech/

If you believe technology could benefit your school or college, or would like to find out more about the services we offer to the education sector, please contact us and we will point you in the right direction for whatever your technology needs may be.

*Read Speak Up’s survey here: https://hechingerreport.org/the-learning-experience-is-different-in-schools-that-assign-laptops-a-survey-finds/amp/