The Rapid City Area School District has replaced Central’s small Stream laptops with touchscreen laptops.
Central has dumped the old Stream laptops in favor of new, sleek touchscreen laptops after students complained about how inefficiently the old laptops ran. The new laptop’s differences from the Stream are vast, and students are welcoming the change.
Junior Garrett Cole expressed his displeasure with the old laptops saying, “They were frustrating to use and very slow.” The new laptops, which are HP ProBook x360s, serve to solve many of the problems the old ones posed. The internet runs faster, the keys register every tap, and nothing every falls behind or buffers.
Solving these problems is an immense help to students, however the new laptops bring much more to the table then solving the old computer’s issues. After nothing more than flipping the keyboard over, a new dynamic emerges: the computer becomes a tablet. Not only can you use the time-tested features of the common laptop, but now you can spice things up by typing on the touchscreen, zooming in and out with ease, navigating pages with the touch of a finger, and having the ability to type on the go.
With all the new-fangled whoosie-whatsits being presented with the new laptops, students, such as junior Tyler Liebig, are approaching them with open arms. “The new laptops are so much better and easier to use,” he said.
Photo by Stephanie Hight
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