Back-To-School Ready In June With Future Shop

Chris recently attended the Future Shop Showcase Must-haves for Back-to-School. His findings are below.

It’s late June, so naturally most kids are thinking about – or already on - summer vacation.  They’re focusing on the end of school. But Future Shop is already thinking about September: the beginning of school.

Perhaps it’s the last thing kids want to hear right now, but with technology moving faster than the calendar, it won’t be long before fall rolls around, and with it the three dreaded words: Back. To. School.

How cruel, right? Kids are getting prepped to go back to school before they’ve even left!

Well fear not, kids: you need not lament the approach of the fall season anymore. In fact, with all the amazing gadgets and accessories out there, you might start looking forward to it.

In my day, “back to school” meant binders and notebooks. Today’s student, however, is more interested in tablets and notebook computers. After attending Future Shop’s showcase and seeing firsthand all the latest products on the market, I almost envy the modern student and the technological options at his or her disposal.

One common thread amongst all the different products and companies appears to be versatility; laptops that convert into tablets, tablets that become laptops with the addition of a keyboard, desktop computers with removable touchscreen monitors, essentially turning them into giant tablets.

And now that the technology has caught up to the ever-growing demands of the consumer, these versatile products are also more reliable. They use far less power, and therefore have longer battery lives.

When I was in university, a few kids had laptops, but the short battery life often made it difficult to keep a computer running for even an entire class. Clearly, those days are long gone.

More and more students are using laptops, tablets, smartphones or some other form of gadget in the classroom. While they can be distractions – both to student and teacher alike – studies are showing these devices can be useful learning tools.

A survey of Canadian teachers last year revealed nearly 90 per cent should be allowed to bring them to class, and 50 per cent believed students learn more when taking notes on portable devices such as laptops.

Many educators are already incorporating technology into their students’ everyday lives; in the past year, high schools in Alberta and Manitoba have introduced laptops into classrooms.

Whether it’s in the home, workplace or classroom, technology is always moving forward; there’s no “going back”. So it’s possible that the feeling of anxiety attached to “going back” to school is being replaced with a feeling of anticipation, of “looking forward” to school: one laptop and tablet at a time.

Will your child take a device to school in September?

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