Alberto, Digital Learning Leader. The DLLs are a group of students who are reviewing a number of portable devices at Senior School this term.

Blog Post:  by Alberto, SSV Digital Learning Leader

HardWare

Starting off with the hardware:

• Intel Broadwell i5-5300U 2.29GHz processor
• 8GB of RAM
• 14″ 720p screen (non-touch screen)
• intel integrated HD Graphics 5500
• backlit keyboard
• 120GB Solid State Drive
• Includes Windows 10

Use in School and Learning

I am a final year GCSE student and this laptop has proved to be much use and help to my learning experiences.

The subjects which I’ve found the laptop to be very useful:

• History: I can easily write long essays without my hands aching as it usually would when writing essays on paper. I can also quickly make tables which help with my revision and organisation when I need to revise specific dates and events and consequences.
• Maths: although I find it faster to write notes on paper and I admit that I do find it easier to write equations and such on paper, the laptop does provide much utility when using applications such as GeoGebra when plotting functions and graph transformations.
• Art: as an art student, I find myself having to come up with different and creative ways to make art pieces which eventually count for my final exam piece. With the laptop it certainly has opened a new frontier of digital art as now I use programs such as GIMP2 and Sony Vegas to make digital animated art pieces.
• Physics, Chemistry and Biology: in all three sciences I have been able to quickly search up new aspects of the subjects we’re learning and researching new topics has never been easier.
• Computer Science: I cannot say much so far as currently I am doing a controlled assessment in class which can only be done on the school computers, however, at home I have been able to download the Python IDLE application and it allows me to practice my coding.

In Conclusion

While some of my experiences have been limited due to coursework and time constraints, this relatively small laptop has proven quite useful and allowed ease in my learning capabilities. One thing I must say, even though a laptop does provide many different and varied applications, it does sometimes feel awkward when using it only to read a short story, for example, in English classes which does show the upper-hand that tablets have over laptops.