After two years of having iPads as the main device for school work, USD 497 implemented MacBooks. For all students except seniors, this would be the first year with MacBooks provided unless they participated in special extracurriculars.

Senior Brody Mitchelbrink, who had a MacBook his freshman year, said he appreciates the change back to MacBooks because they are more accessible.

“The MacBooks are definitely better than the iPads because there’s just a lot more stuff to do on them. The battery life’s a lot longer, which I enjoy very much,” Mitchelbrink said.

For underclassmen, this is the first year that they have access to MacBooks. Junior Sejun Yun said he appreciates the change because MacBooks are high quality, but he is still having trouble getting used to the new device.

Even though Yun still had problems transitioning back to MacBooks, he said he is still glad that the district is getting rid of iPads.

“The iPads weren’t too bad, but they definitely had their limitations,” Yun said. “All the time, I experienced my keyboard bubbling up kind of weirdly, which makes it a lot harder to type.”

Sophomore Eloise Marsh had access to a MacBook in previous years through participating in Speech and Debate. Marsh said she was having issues with the new MacBooks that she hasn’t experienced in years past due to the implementation of a new security software, Cisco.

“Sometimes you can’t connect to certain internet [networks], or it keeps trying to download Adobe Flash on my computer. Then, they can’t stop it because it’s a Cisco thing. It’s really annoying,” Marsh said.

Although she said she is having problems with MacBooks, Marsh said the district should have invested in them earlier.

“Having an iPad in middle school made me unable to type. I couldn’t type very well and if I had a computer earlier, it would have solved that,” Marsh said.