The restrictions that have been placed on the Chromebooks about the type of websites and extensions that students are allowed to use are a hindrance to our education and our own personal learning.

Recently, BPHS announced that they would be placing new restrictions on the student Chromebooks.  All apps and extensions would be blocked because they weren’t properly being vetted for videos and audio by the system that Bethel Park has in place.

To me, these added restrictions seem pointless.  Most extensions that students download are fun backgrounds that make our screens more appealing to look at or harmless games.

Some of the restrictions are also detrimental to our academics as well.  There’s a lot of YouTube channels that are helpful studying tools.  John Green hosts a channel that talks about themes in books and gives summaries of plots and characters.  Crash Course and Vsauce are also academic channels that we could be using to help further our understanding of lessons or reference in research.

Other websites like Spark Notes are also blocked.  But it could be used to make quick references to a book that we read over the summer and have since forgotten details that we’ll be quizzed on.

Some students that can afford their own computers bring theirs in because the restrictions are just too inhibiting.

It’s unfair that the school doesn’t trust us to make decisions on what we should be looking at.  The school can see everything that we look up anyway, so if there were a problem, the administration can deal with that student one-on-one.

The restrictions on the Chromebooks are excessive and a bit unnecessary.  The school doesn’t need to be so controlling to encourage good behavior.  Showing that they trust the students to make decisions would be just as effective.