Fashion at Terrace varies wildly, but despite the myriad of accessories sported by our students, there is one item that is essential to every student whatever their taste.

The black travel cases that contain students’ District-issued 1:1 Chromebooks can be seen toted by many at our school. These black-or-white-colored computers have been met with mixed but warm response from the student body, with praise going to its browsing and processing speed.

“It’s fast. It’s the speed I want it to go,” sophomore Justin Guaren said.

Overall, students seem very pleased with the computers. The majority of students surveyed – 20.4 percent of 54 surveyed anonymously – rated them an eight on a scale of one to ten overall, with the next highest number of students, 18.5 percent, rating them as a solid five, followed equally by one and seven, each with 13 percent.

The Chromebook’s most praised quality is their word processing capability, with 54 percent of students surveyed rating it as a four or above out of five. 48 percent rated browsing and processing speed as a four or above. Most other aspects were received warmly as well; however, a 13.2 percent minority reported ones consistently across all aspects of Chromebooks we asked about.

In-class, Chromebooks were largely welcomed as educational devices. Chromebooks largely succeeded in their intended function; 46.4 percent of students surveyed rated an eight or above in response when asked whether they did.

Most students, however, felt that the Chromebooks failed to make their backpacks any lighter, still requiring them to carry heavy textbooks, binders and notebooks, with 44.5 of students responding with a three or below when asked if their Chromebooks lightened their backpacks on a one-to-ten scale.According to one anonymous student, thanks to the integration of technology in the classroom and the use of sites like Google Classroom and Canvas, “most assignments and announcements are easy to get to.”

Many students also use Chromebooks to stay connected. One third of students reported using their Chromebooks to access non-educational websites. Among the websites students accessed on their Chromebooks were Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud, Amazon, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Despite this, few students have reported their Chromebooks as distractions.

“[The Chromebook was not a distraction] in my case, because I’m used to not using electronic devices in class. However, I’ve noticed that some people are always on their chromebooks throughout the whole period,” one student said, who elected not to disclose their name.

Despite the capacity for abuse, said another, “it is much better than last year.”

Overall, while accepted by most members of the student body, Chromebooks have acquired a small yet vocal minority of detractors.

One anonymous junior described his Chromebook as an “excuse for a computer.”

Senior Kaenan Curry responded bluntly, “Chromebooks are trash.”

Still, in the first year of 1:1 Chromebooks, they have been met warmly by most of the student body, scoring an average of 6 out of 10 for all metrics we asked about.

One junior perhaps best summed up the feelings of the representation of the student body surveyed when she wrote Chromebooks were “useful” and “efficient” but not “indispensable.”