With the endless amount of apps to choose from, and the easy access to social media, iPads are becoming more and more of a distraction to the younger students.

Freshmen and sophomores are granted iPads at the beginning of  school year.  The purpose was to help kids who could not get to a library or needed access to the internet.  However, with every good idea comes some obstacles.

The iPads are intended for students to use them to help with school work, but some students like sophomore Dylan Demers don’t even know when the last time they saw their iPads.

“I never use my iPad,” said Demers.  “I think it’s somewhere in my room, hopefully.”

Unlike Demers, freshmen Alania Betts is one of the many underclassmen who use their iPads for the good and the not so great.

“I use my iPad everyday to play games and do work,” Betts said.

Although some students use their iPads correctly, others choose not to.  The iPads create a major challenge for teachers who are trying to conduct a class.  English teacher Mr. Braiser is one of the many who find it difficult to keep students on task. 

“They definitely cause a lot of distractions in the classroom,” said Brasier. “They [iPads] have good intentions but the kids who have them are just not using them right.”

But maybe the reason why the iPads are not used correctly is because they are given to the wrong kids.  Sophomore Gaby Bermeo explains why some kids are just not ready for iPads.

“Some kids are just not mature enough for iPads, or don’t have enough work,” Bermeo said. “Freshmen have a very light workload, so they just end up using their iPads for games.”

Most people believe that iPads should be gifted to the upperclassmen who take harder classes and have more homework. Junior Cara Boisvert is one of the many who would benefit from the iPads.

“Juniors have a much heavier workload than underclassmen,” said Boisvert. “We are required to write a lot more papers and do more research.”

Since the iPads are staying with the underclassmen for now, students wonder if they could get laptops as they enter the second half of high school.  Junior Peyton Foley think that laptops will be so beneficial to the older students.

“Laptops would be so helpful,” said Foley. “In my grade we have to write a lot of papers, and it would be so much easier if we had laptops. They’re more useful than iPads, and will help students do their work.”

Even though students like the laptop idea, it’s just not in the school budget.

“Biddeford opted into 1-to-1 laptops/iPads for 9th & 10th grades with the intention of expanding the program to grades 11 and 12,” said Technology Coordinator Donna Sieron. “Unfortunately, because of budget constraints, we haven’t been able to do this.”

iPads were given to underclassmen to help them out, but it is the students choice on how they use them.  They can either play games and not pay attention in class, or they can write papers and do schoolwork.  In the end, it’s the students who are the ones that decide how to use the resources gifted to them.