As the school year begins, many problems are at the top of students’ long checklists. Students and teachers, however, would not think that tech problems would be one of the few atop that list. 

But at the start of this year, school tech caused one of the biggest problems. 

Many students ran into problems with their iPads including wifi and app updates. Some even needed full replacements of their device.

The quickest solution for these students was to go to the school’s media center where they got the help they needed. 

Early on, backups of students in the media center at Prior Lake High School was common as a line formed for students to get their iPad problems solved one at a time. 

Their tech problems were diagnosed by Corey Soukup, Prior Lake High School’s media specialist and go-to source for all tech problems.

The early tech problems affected everyone in the school, but what exactly caused the issues? “The beginning of the year has been worse and part of the reason is there’s a new Minnesota law about children’s protection. So there’s a new filter software that had to be put on every iPad,” said Soukup

Soukup also said that this new filter software is the main reason behind most of the problems related to the iPad as it blocks many sites and applications. One example of this was the filter blocking the Schoology reCAPTCHA software, denying students access to Schoology for a short period. 

Because of these problems, students lost some learning time in class or dealt with inconvenient workarounds. 

Senior Logan Lehrer said, “iPads have been the more relied-on source of today’s learning, so the amount of learning students are getting might be slowed down or halted.”

This also applies to the other schools in the district as the same software is being used there as well. 

The bigger Schoology problem has now been thankfully resolved. However, students still have questions about what can be done in the future.

Senior Nicholas Scheffert said teachers obviously can’t stop class but should be equipped to be able to deal with minor problems, although the teachers’ main focus should be on teaching and not taking time to diagnose tech problems.

Nicholas also said, “If you don’t use it (I pad) you’re falling behind.”

This information shows that these problems impeded the flow of learning throughout the school and/or schools as we began this new school year.

“I’d say we’ve settled into kind of a normal routine,” said Soukup as the number of students coming in each day has slowly dwindled to a standstill.