Hopkinton High School's Student News Site

HHS Press

Hopkinton High School's Student News Site

HHS Press

Hopkinton High School's Student News Site

HHS Press

New Mac Computers on Campus

Students work on new Macs
HHS students Devon Savion, Jamie Horrigan, and Kelly Kaiser work on the new Macs in the school library. Photo by Nicole McLaughlin

By Adam Cohen
As class starts back up, kids flood the halls of Hopkinton High School, many trying to make it to the library to be the first to experience new Mac computers. The new Mac computers have many advantages for the art and music programs but also some disadvantages and distractions to other students. After sitting down with Craig Muscanell we got his input on the new Macs.  “Macs can be very helpful but there is always a learning process to using them,” said Craig. “I think the time that it has taken for teachers and students to get use to the Macs interferes with student’s ability to learn. But on a positive note, I am an art student who is planning to go to college for art so it is nice to get use to the Macs”.

The Macs do have outstanding abilities to run many different art and music programs such as Maya, Flash MX, Fireworks, Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver, Garage Band, and even programs such as Pro Tools LE and Audio Audition which benefit the radio program significantly. After talking with Craig about the different art programs and how they run on a Mac I asked him what rating he would rate the programs on a Mac, 10 being the highest, “I would say that the new Macs are an 8. For the art students the Macs give them an opportunity to explore art in high definition while using fast loading and rendering programs.”

With all these positive aspects, of course there has to be something that can be said negatively about the Macs.  With all these cool programs that can be found within these computers it can be extremely distracting for students who are trying to do their work, especially if the person right next time you is “goofing” around on these programs. Craig explains his thoughts on how Garage Band and Skype can be very distracting, “If the students are not in radio class, I think garage band is very distracting because it takes students away from their work. Skype is also very distracting. I have seen students using Skype to talk to other students while in class opposed to listening to the teacher. Although a great communication program I think that it may hurt students if they cannot stay away from the program while in classes.”

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    Cam LinaresOct 4, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    I hate macs and apples and most of the citrus family in general.

    But really the macs are an interesting addition to the highschool. For non mac users there is a slight learning curve but ultimately the OS is so simple to use that it takes a whole 15 minutes to learn. However, I bring my laptop to school so I don’t care

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