About a quarter of the school now thinks the netbooks are more useful than what they thought at the beginning of the school year, according a survey conducted by the Dart. Students got over what they saw as high prices and ugly cases and now believe they are a useful and more efficient tool for learning.

In September, surveys were given out to almost half of the students at STA about the netbooks they had received a month before. The results were then sorted by class. Again in April, the exact same poll was given and sorted. The results between the beginning of the year and end are similar between classes, and are more positive about the netbooks.

Here are the results that the Dart charted, broken down by class.

Class of 2014

The freshman class received the netbooks the most positively in September and in April. For the fall survey, out of 52 freshmen surveyed, 60 percent scored their year better than their previous school year due to netbooks. The comments from the freshmen class were mostly about the price of the laptops.

‘The price is a little ridiculous,’ said one freshmen survey respondent in September. ‘Because by senior year, we could have our own laptops anyways.’

In both September and April, the class of 2014 voted 64 percent in favor of the netbooks being ‘Okay, there are more good things about them than bad.’

Class of 2013

Like the freshmen, 72 percent of sophomores said in April that the netbooks were okay with more positive qualities than bad. This is a 10 percent increase from the survey in September.

‘I like them,’ a sophomore said in September. ‘They are convenient and really helpful, but too much is blocked.’

Class of 2012

The junior class’s opinion of the netbooks went down from September to April. In September, 63 percent of juniors said the netbooks had more good things about them than bad. In April, 51 percent of juniors said the same thing.

Class of 2011

When 38 seniors were surveyed in September, 2 percent reported the netbooks to be ‘Amazing, they’re perfect,’ 52 percent as having more good things than bad, 33 percent as having more bad things than good, and 13 percent to say ‘Bad, they’re a waste of money.’

‘I see the netbooks as a distraction,’ a senior said in September. ‘Sure I use them, but when I do I use them to play Bubble Shooter. We need to be all the way in with technology. Right now we’re half in and half out. Either everything should be online, or nothing should be.’

In April, 40 seniors were polled and reported their opinions improved. Only 1 percent of the class reported the netbooks as ‘Okay, there were more bad things about them than good’, and 33 percent said the netbooks were bad, and a waste of money.

‘… I mainly use them to watch tv shows and play Bubble Shooter, ‘ said a senior in April.

Also contrasting the September survey, 66 percent of the senior class voted in April for an ‘Okay, there are more good things about them than bad.’

‘I can type a lot faster than I can write,’ senior Rebecca Hupp said.