Computers at Joliet West have become a priority in the daily life of students in their freshmen through senior years, as the classrooms have been transformed to a 1:1 environment since the fall of 2012.

The new computers issued this year are sleeker, faster and weigh considerably less than what the students have been issued in the past. However, why is it that the freshmen and sophomores are receiving these new laptops, and not the juniors and seniors?

This change was implemented in both schools of District 204. Freshmen and sophomores from both Joliet West and Joliet Central are receiving a new set of Lenovo Yoga laptops.

The process between the rotations of the laptops isn’t as simple as it seems. There is a three year rotation period of students who will keep the device and turning it in once they graduate senior year.

Current sophomores will keep their laptops until senior year, while the freshmen will get a new device issued to them. The old freshmen laptops, which were slow, heavy and oddly shaped, have been disposed of in order to make room for the faster grade of laptops.

There is a committee specifically for decisions such as these new laptops, which is comprised of students, administrators, teachers, and parents, called the Steering Committee. It has researched extensively on which laptops would not only be best for the students, but best for the teachers as well. Although none of the members have been publicly recognized, freshmen and sophomores alike will praise them for their decision.

The three-year lease is a better protocol for the district to follow, since technology is evolving so quickly it is harder for the school to stay more up to date without buying a newer set of laptops each year (an almost impossible task considering the quantity in which these machines would have to be bought). “You have to have some sort of an order, you can’t be buying 1,000 computers here and 1,000 computers there,” Nicole Gardner, head of the technology department, stated.

So, the three year lease is enacted, and 6,000 computers later, there is still quite a difference between the speed of the newer computers and the durability of the computers the juniors and seniors are carrying.