This year started out differently than others. This year, the school became a more technology friendly campus. The school installed wifi across campus and the incorporation of iPads into the daily school life.

This is the first time Bellarmine has attempted something like this.

Many in the Bellarmine community have different views and feelings on this new change. Spanish teacher Bernie Salazar states, “The iPads are good teaching tool. It’s experimental, but, we are learning as we go.” Most teachers have an iPad for their classroom, as well as most of the student body.

The current freshman and sophomore classes are mainly using the new iPads in the classrooms. The teachers try to incorporate the iPads as much as they can into their new study plans. This has generated mixed feelings in the student body. Freshman PJ Seeberger says, “The iPads are very helpful, but some teachers tend to over use them for simple tasks.” Freshman John Gonzalez also added, “they’re useful, you can take quizzes on the iPad or turn in homework electronically.”

The iPads offer a lot to the classrooms. One thing that most students appreciate is the lighter load of textbooks to carry. The iPads also allow access to a lot of different apps and sources on the internet.

This is both helpful and a problem. One of the main concerns with the new iPads and wi-fi is monitoring what all of the students are doing. Sophomore Olivia Cesarini says, “I really don’t like the internet blocks. I understand why they have them but I’ll get suspended from the internet for trying to go on yahoo or google images.”

This is the main cause of concern over the iPads. Some, like Cesarini, think “..going solely to iPads was rushed”. This might be the cause of some of the problems the school has had cause of the iPads.

Overall, the iPads have caused a huge difference in how Bellarmine runs. With the installment of wifi and iPads, the community is becoming more up to date with the rest of the world. The school is still in its early stages of this new system of iPads and only time will show us how effective switching to iPads will be.