The Simply Smarter Blog

If you haven’t already started planning the switch to Windows 11, here’s a wake-up call: Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 in October 2025. A report from BizTech Magazine highlights that transitioning to Windows 11 can take up to 14 months from start to finish, making this a pretty urgent issue for your organization. Acting now ensures your technology stays secure, efficient, and ahead of evolving cybersecurity threats. Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s discuss WHY making the switch is critical to your continued success.

K-12 educators and school administrators are on a never-ending quest to equip students with the tools to thrive in higher education and the working world – and it’s no small feat! Lesson plans are carefully crafted, teaching techniques are meticulously studied, and extracurricular activities are thoroughly organized. Amidst these efforts, one lever often goes unnoticed—the choice of laptops that students utilize day in and day out.

While Chromebooks have gained popularity in schools across the country, it's crucial to pause and consider if they truly prepare students for the Windows based systems that they will inevitably use in college and beyond. Every choice an educator makes aims to develop skills that align with the evolving demands of their careers. That's why I propose we take a closer look at a more suitable alternative.

When it comes to reliable and versatile laptops, Sharp’s laptop division, Dynabook, has established itself as a prominent brand, offering a diverse range of products to cater to the varying needs of professionals, schools and business users. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at three laptop series from Sharp’s Dynabook brand: Tecra, Portégé, and Satellite Pro. Each series brings its own unique features and benefits, ensuring that users can find the perfect device to suit their specific requirements.

Picture this. You’re a high school administrator trying to figure out how to best help your students in the stretch run of April and May, gearing up for exams, projects and (gulp) final grades. You assume that they each have reliable personal laptops to get all their work done, in between gaming or binge watching their favorite streaming shows, of course. Or so you thought. What if it turns out their laptops aren’t as new or functional as you all believed them to be? You do NOT want to put your students in a position where they need to wait in line for a library computer to study for their chemistry final.

Whether it’s due to an outdated machine, or accidentally losing or breaking it, unexpected laptop mishaps happen. But educators need not despair. Here are a few tips to help you figure out exactly what kind of new laptop your students will need to wrap up the school year with flying colors and cruise into summer.

If we had to select positive outcome from the disruption that schools and students had to face from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that there has been a renaissance in classroom technology upgrades. And they’re here to stay! See how these schools were able to implement customized technology to remain flexible, and more importantly, open for our children.

I am a proud Gen Xer. I loved growing up in the age where we experienced seismic technology shifts. We are a strange hybrid of digital users who are extremely comfortable with technology but still remember a time when things were a bit more primitive.

There is no question that life is much easier today with the influx of technology, especially in the workplace.  If this past year and a half has taught us anything, it’s that in the education field and business world at least, you have to be somewhat tech savvy to keep up with the times. Read on to learn how tech has evolved.