An Apple a Day Keeps the Good Grades Away

Apple, Microsoft, Samsung; all multi-billion-dollar tech giants vying for control of the electronics market. Part of this competition exists within schools as well. The implementation of Apple devices has been assumed to have a positive effect on the growth of students. But what happens when it doesn’t? Using Apple software in schools almost exclusively can exclude the students that don’t have access to iMacs and iPhones in the same way their peers do. Of course, that point can be refuted by Macbooks being school-issued computers but it doesn’t stop there. There are classes whose curriculum relies almost completely on iMacs; Art classes that use the desktops for graphic designing; engineering classes that do everything on Apple computers. The students that have Androids or Samsungs are left behind when their classmates are better-versed in operating Apple’s unique software and layouts. This shows a major issue that can arise out of an Apple-centered curriculum; the lack of accessibility for others.
Junior Kayela Foster has an Android phone and a Microsoft laptop. She wasn’t allowed to turn in an assignment for her English teacher because of the assignment not being in the correct a medium–a medium she does not have access to on account of not having an Apple device.
Mr. Calderon doesn’t like the Macbooks because his students can’t access certain sites on his website because they’re blocked. Students are placed at a disadvantage when their education depends on technology that they don’t have access to.