With all of the student body confined to their homes due to COVID-19, it is imperative to have access to technology in order to do classwork and access websites like Canvas and ctcLink. For those lacking access to WiFi, printing services, or technology such as laptops, The Communicator is here to help.
Students pick up laptops and WiFi hotspots from the lobby of SCC’s library for online classes during spring quarter.
The ASG at SFCC has allocated funds to buy more laptops to rent out to students for the duration of this quarter. Sharon Brown, a library staff member, said SFCC had 99 laptops available, with 60 more on their way from ASG.
At a cost of about $70,000, the laptops are being expedited to get into the hands of students, said Kevin Robinson, ASG’s director of Outdoor Programming. The specifications of this new laptop fleet are intended to be just as good, if not a bit better, than the available laptops, Robinson said.
These new laptops should now be available for renting, if the timeline Robinson gave wasn’t delayed at all.
Robinson said the funding for the laptops came out of ASG’s budget, divided up between the
technology fee charged as part of tuition and ASG’s own programming and contingency funds.
Currently, there isn’t another plan to buy more laptops if this fleet is completely rented out, as ASG has exhausted their available funds, Robinson said. If they were to pull together more funds, it would have to go through another process and most likely would take longer to acquire.
There are, however, other options if students aren’t able to rent a laptop from the library. Something to use to get by this quarter would be the HP Chromebook 14, available at Best Buy for $249.
It has built-in cloud support, meaning files will be automatically uploaded to Google Drive for easy access, and it is also incredibly light and slim at just 3.4 pounds and 0.7 inches thin, according to Best Buy’s website. At this price, however, it only comes with 32 gigabytes of memory (equivalent to that of current generation smartphones), and runs on Chrome’s operating system, which may not be compatible with other programs.
Another good option is the Microsoft Surface Go, priced at $549 at Best Buy. Though it’s not a traditional laptop, this tablet is able to connect to any wireless keyboards through Bluetooth. Its specs are more akin to a laptop than the Chromebook, with this price range offering 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of total storage capacity, according to Best Buy.
It’s also even smaller than the Chromebook, as it’s only 1.15 pounds and 10 inches wide, as advertised on Best Buy’s website. It also runs on Windows 10, making program compatibility not an issue.
However, the battery life is only around nine hours and does not come with a keyboard or a stylus, so those costs wouldn’t be factored into the tablet.
In addition to these deals, if you’re in need of reliable internet access, Comcast is currently offering new customers 60 days of free internet access for households affected by COVID-19.
Though SFCC’s library was offering WiFi hotspots to check out, according to their website, they have all been checked out for spring quarter.
It seems like students have plenty of access to technology this quarter, as the results of a survey of 13 students conducted by The Communicator show, 100% of students who answered have reliable internet access and 92.3% of these students have access to technology, with only one respondent saying they didn’t have access to a printer.
Office Depot remains open and does offer printing services for those who need to print out assignments or reading material for classes, with the cost for black and white printing being nine cents per page on regular paper and color printing being 13 cents per page.
Despite the hefty sum given to SFCC for laptops, Robinson said that he “sees (the money) as all student funds, and (ASG and CCS) are happy to allocate it and give it to students.”