Cassidy Knoll
Sugar Beet Staff Reporter
Ebackpack is an app that has had a huge influence on education. Some students and teachers have mixed feelings about it, and therefore people are starting to question how useful eBackpack really is. Some teachers have even started to use different applications like Google Classroom.
“I think that it is a really bad program that could be improved upon if we did it correctly,” Gage Gallardo, arts and comm. senior said. “It’s not very good but it could be extremely better. Sometimes your files won’t submit or it will tell you that your files have submitted when they haven’t. I’ve noticed that for students who don’t have notability, it’s impossible for them to take notes on the iPad because the note-taking feature on eBackpack rarely works, and it’s really difficult to organize saved documents on there. I personally find google classroom more useful out of the two because it’s more reliable and it spans across multiple apps that allow for easier and more reliable access.”
Teachers have the option as to how students receive and turn in classwork, and for some eBackpack just isn’t cutting it. The grading process can be frustrating and teachers and students alike often end up confused and annoyed. Most problems with the app didn’t show up until recently, with the new update.
“It’s so hard to find classes now with the update and my assignments never save,” Brandon Henry, public service senior said. “Sometimes it will submit multiple documents when I only meant to turn in one, and teachers will give me the wrong grade because they were confused. It will also tell me that I missed a deadline when really it was just a mistake the app made. I never used to have problems with it but after the update, nothing works right.”
Different teachers use different apps because they each work differently. Most teachers seem to favor eBackpack because it’s been used for so long, so students already know how it works.
Neeta Mandsager, math teacher, said, “I do like e-backpack as I can post all the assignments for the students. I don’t like the grading part as you have to open every single document. I can use Google Classroom but I heard from students that sometimes they were not able to open their documents. I also wish that I could grade the tests and every day classwork assignments. Every app has its pros and cons.”
Cassidy Knoll is an arts and communication sophomore. Contact her at knollc@student.gckschools.com.
Garden City High School 