7:45: Sweet Dreams bell is ringing all over High School. Imagine you have English first block, and remember you have no computer. How to finish the feature article due tomorrow. Still drowsy from the bus, you must lede yourself to find one. Well aware that if you don’t, you will never finish by the deadline.

The Columbus School and High School especially, have become a technology dependent place .Nowadays computers are the most important educational tools for teachers and learners. Tools like :YouTube, Blogs, Ebooks, etc. are not possible without a computer. (Vijay Sharma, essayist of Klientsolutech Web Association) Filled with deadlines and multiple tasks, students must have a computer at all times. It has become increasingly necessary for students to carry their devices all day long. But everybody has a rainy day sometimes, here are 5 easy steps to overcome it.

Step 1: Where and Time?

The first step into getting a computer is to go to the art gallery, the building at the nucleus of the school. On the second floor, the room next to the High School art class, live most of the technology and servers that are in use at The Columbus School; this process, however, takes some time.

“It’s generally a fast process when you have time, oftentimes when I arrive late, getting the computer slows the process dramatically, taking me from five to ten minutes,” Samuel Susaeta, 11th-grade student and user of school computers at TCS, said.

“The formal process takes a bare minimum of ten minutes.” Juan Gaviria, 11th-grade student at TCS, said.

Step 2: The Paperwork.

The Tech 911 team (TCS Technology management team) must keep a schedule and a proper inventory of computers, this is necessary for when the school has other events that need the use of the laptops, these events such as AMIS, MAP, and AP testing make computers not always available. On days like this students must follow certain steps to properly enlist themselves to use a computer,

“You have to go all the way to the art gallery, to tech 911: ask kindly for a computer, jot down your name; and the exact model that you are going to use, at the end you must sign that you returned it,” Susaeta said.

And while testing times at school hope for the best that you will find one,

“They are not always available, while tests are going on those days I get really behind,” Gaviria said.

Step 3: The Computer.

Once you have a computer, you must consider how effective will the machine be. All along, most computers in TCS are HP computers, very different from what is most usual among High School students. Macbooks and Apple devices are very common among the HS community.

“If you enter any classroom at the Columbus school, you see that at the very least 90 percent of students use Apple MacBook computers,” Gaviria said.

Some students consider that despite the difference between HP and Apple, school computers handle a day in work for an average day at school yet, the difference in usage can create some hurdles for students used to other types of operating systems.

They are plainly enough for what you need at school, we use HP computers but most of the students use MacBooks, they are the best for the job that’s why they are expensive.” Susaeta said.

“The best way to describe the difference between a Mac and a PC is that they are two different ways of thinking. In most cases, you can come to the same result using either, but they will go about it in a different manner, ” Faisal Alani, Ukranian member of the Computerweekly newspaper, said

At the end of the day, students must work with what is given to them and manage to use the school provided HP computers, in order to not get behind.

Step 4: The Return

Once you managed to survive your day using a school computer, make sure you have logged out of all the school accounts you have to prevent the use of your information. Furthermore, make sure you return it before 3:15, if work must be finished at home make sure to ask before doing so, to prevent any inconsistencies in the inventory.

“When I needed to do something at home, I usually took it, but I don’t think you are supposed to do this,” Gaviria said.

It is very important to return computers on time to generate the confidence so that you can continue to use the service the school provides.

“At the end, the Tech 911 workers do a daily inventory of the computers that were returned and those that were no,” Sustaeta said.

Step 5: The Survival.

The last, but certainly not least step, is to properly thank the Tech 911 team for providing the service, despite the distance to get on the computers, they certainly help you not get behind,  and over time have become a lifesaver for many students.

“Absolutely necessary at school, for the time I did not have one I had academic issues on pretty much every single class; perhaps, the school should move the location, maybe to the administration, or the current library,” Gaviria said.