Rebecca Bobrow
Staff Writer

After Staples spent thousands of dollars purchasing brand new computers you would think that they would work.

Over the past two months of school students and faculty have had trouble logging on the computers and just getting them to work at all.

“We are puzzled by this. The new laptops seem to be giving us just as much trouble as the old ones did,” said English department coordinator Liz Comm.

The Collaborative Team has addressed this problem and others concerning technology in their last few meetings. The Collaborative Team is a group of students, teachers, administrators, and parents that meets once a week to discuss issues surrounding the school and possible solutions. It integrates every party of people that have relevance to Staples in order to gain clear insights about the school.

Harry Rappaport ’10 and Hilary Campbell ’10 are the Student Assembly representatives that attend the Collaborative Team meetings. They are trying to promote discussion about technology in order to determine a path where technology is incorporated in class but does not detract from learning. Comm said that the new laptops might eventually do just that.“When the computers take a very long time to log on, it takes away from class time.”

The Collaborative Team also discussed the use and effectiveness of Blackboard.

“A great deal of efforts has gone out to encourage students to check their Roundcubes on a daily basis,” said ITL Integrator Rob Rogers. He said the ITL Center has been working to help teachers and students more easily use both Blackboard and Roundcube. It wants to promote the more widespread use of both programs.

However, if even more students were using Blackboard, the Connecticut Educational Network, the state’s internet network that provides Staples with connection to these sites was down for about a week. Although this problem has since been resolved, it may have discouraged students from using the site at all.

“Blackboard is constantly down. There is no point of even checking it when it is not going to work,” said Morgan Singer ’11

Comm believes the technology problems are a result of a shortage of tech workers.

“There are too few people to come and do repairs. They are very good, and the work very hard, but they are understaffed.” She believes that if there was more tech staff they would be able to fix the problems rapidly and the Staples population would not be as greatly effected by technological mishaps.

The Collaborative Team also discussed the drinking problem at Homecoming and brainstormed how to prevent such incidents in the future.

“We believe it is vital to to continue discussion of students’ behavior during school events, and making sure everyone is aware of the ramifications of their actions,” said Rappaport and Campbell.

The future of Junior Prom was brought up at the meeting and will be addressed further at future meetings.