The new printing policy at the Upper School is causing problems for many students trying to connect to the school printers.
Some students had a hard time following the steps to installing PaperCut, as the tech office’s instructions to download the application were too technical to comprehend.
“I had no idea how to download [and install] PaperCut. I was just clicking on random boxes, and more boxes would appear. The instructions were really hard to understand,” Izzy Gross (9) said.
Others did not realize the emails sent out by the tech department specified that PaperCut is a required application for students to access printers on campus. They thought installing PaperCut was optional or missed the email entirely.
“I think the instructions were pretty clear, but what a lot of people were confused about was [the fact that] downloading and installing PaperCut [was mandatory],” Izzy Connell (12) said. “They didn’t make that crystal clear, so not many people have installed it, and their printers don’t work.”
Additionally, PaperCut is not compatible with Snow Leopard, an older Mac operating system, so students with older laptops must have the tech help desk create a new profile on their laptops.
“It’s confusing because to print I have to use an entirely new account,” Kevin Moss (11) said.
However, not all Upper School students found connecting to the printers problematic. Some more tech-savvy students easily deciphered the directions to download PaperCut and were able to re-connect quickly.
“It was easy. I just followed the instructions and it worked, and now I can print,” Adarsh Battu (11) said.
The tech department is trying to assess the problems with the download instructions and re-phrase them in a way that makes them easier for all students to understand. Additionally, it is thinking about finding a new application that is compatible with older operating systems.
“Obviously, we haven’t written instructions that are clear enough […] and we’ll try to fix it once we find out exactly what’s wrong with them,” Director of Instructional Technology Dan Hudkins said. “We assumed people [had downloaded] applications like this before […] and we need to find a medium between instructions that are too basic and too complicated.”
The tech help desk is open to help anyone who cannot install PaperCut or connect to the printers.