SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Google

Column: Google Me

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DSC_1688By DeShawn McLeod

Staff Writer

 

Students at SLA put in tons of effort on their projects — often because they want the best grade possible. Sometimes they want the task over and done with. However, often times the final product goes on the public SLA blog, called SLATE. Whether the student likes it or not, it’s for everyone to see.

A lot of the projects SLA students do are put onto their personal SLATE blog and any published project can be seen by the world!  A student’s online portfolio goes hand in hand in how they virtually perceive themselves. An important thing for students, and everyone, is to google themselves and see what comes up.

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SLA’s SLATE Blog, found on Scienceleadership.org

So, I googled myself. Search for “DeShawn McLeod” and you get Wiki Pages of past projects I’ve done (Poetry, Freshman Portfolio, Religion Project), my personal SLA SLATE blog and my Cross country and Track & Field times. I have a lot of information  and resources to back up my own character and achievements. And, best of all, there are writing samples of mine for anyone to see, from ninth grade and on.

Art that I’ve added to writings are also shown in the “Images” tab of Google when I search my name. It’s inevitable to not look at what I’ve done. Even the articles I’ve contributed to SLAMedia are widely accessible.

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SLA Cooper Stream, 2011-2012, Poetry WIkiSpace.

I’m proud of what I’ve done. And, when I’m applying to colleges or jobs, I’m comfortable that employers or academic admissions officers can look at my work online.

Since a lot of an SLA student’s work is put online, it gives them the opportunity to deftly show off their skills, while other schools, who don’t have the one-to-one  laptop infrastructure, don’t have the chance to avidly express their school work.

It’s a wonderful thing, as long as students use it wisely. At SLA, we learn quickly to censor bad behavior on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. But, students don’t realize that colleges can also see your professional work via SLATE. Terrible projects could be as harmful to your chances at acceptance as photos of you partying.

Now, we can’t help that we share a full name with someone, and their information comes up. You may have a deceased soldier associated with your name or a myriad of convicts related to either your first or last name, but it’s important to be able to stand out above all that.

I value the opportunities I’ve had at this school. I have Center City Philadelphia as my playground and I choose which part of the jungle gym I want to explore. And, best of all, all of the swing sets and monkey bars I play on can be seen by the world. In this highly connected world, SLA makes it easier for students to have a unique impact on their virtual persona and life. It’s just up to the student to take advantage of that.

Macbooks Go Chrome?

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By Jesus Jimenez

Staff Writer

 

MacBooks– The beating heart of an SLA student’s workload.  Without them, it seems almost impossible to complete the sort of assignments given at SLA.

The Chromebooks are a series of laptops developed by Google (and built by Samsung and Acer) that are designed to fully integrate cloud-based technology in a simple and efficient manner.

However, the computers come at a price. Each year, SLA struggles to find the necessary money — around $180,000 per year — to fund the freshman laptops.

This past year, the cost went up slightly when Apple discontinued their regular MacBook series, and SLA had to spend a bit more on MacBook Pros.

Searching for alternatives to the growing cost of the MacBook, both Principal Chris Lehmann and Tech Coordinator Marcie Hull were introduced to the Chromebook by their friends at Google.

Chromebooks are the new thing, with getting inside info from Google employees, Mr. Lehmann saw the potential for Chromebooks at SLA. They provide a whole new definition to productivity by giving you direct access to your google account directly from your desktop.

Addressing one of the major concerns,“The biggest thing they have going for them is the cost.” Chromebooks cost, on average, $199, compared to $1199 for a MacBook pro.

He added to the list of pros: “They are fully built off the Google app system and are designed to be a school computer.”

Ms. Hull has her own thoughts about how the Chromebooks would impact education at SLA. She described the Chromebooks as a “jump start” to what could possibly be a new learning experience for the entire school.

Ms. Hull explained one of the cons for the Chromebooks, saying “There are no executable files, you can and can’t do things”. Meaning, that there aren’t any .app or .exe files found in computers with operating systems such as Macs or PCs.

Loading a new operating system onto the Chromebooks that isn’t based on their default Linux-based one would be one of the learning experiences that Ms. Hull would expect. Finding alternatives to software such as iMovie would be another obstacle if the school were to order them.

Even if software were to be found, the Chromebooks still don’t have the same computing power as a Macbook. While this statement is supported by both Mr. Lehmann and Ms. Hull, the fact that Google’s Chromebooks have the potential to be an excellent tool in the classroom still remains.

The integrated Google Apps (Google drive, Gmail, etc.) system would be very beneficial to the students at SLA. In the past few years, the school has been experimenting with cloud-based technology as a part of our learning.

Enhancing the technology in room 300 would be an investment made from the money saved by purchasing the inexpensive alternative. They would make up for the lack of power and software of the Chromebooks by adding more iMacs with more power and faster speeds.

Regardless of what the decision will be, Ms. Hull said “…with any tool we choose, there is always a lot of work to make a 1:1 laptop program be functional and educational. The true goal is to have the tool disappear and the learning to be what [the students] see”.