Senior Jack Guy successfully created and published an app called GradeBuzz that allows students to view their grades in what he deems a more user-friendly way than the current Austin Independent School District (AISD) system, TEAMS. The app was released on Monday Nov 4.
“I was disappointed with the quality of the new grade system from AISD and so I just decided to fix the problem,” Guy said. “The current technology is very inaccessible and the technology is super outdated.”
The app is currently available in the app store for 99 cents. Guy explained that price was determined because of the cost of getting the app working.
“It cost me $150 to develop the app, so I feel justified in charging just a buck,” Guy said. “That money also helps to keep the servers online.”
GradeBuzz aimed to be more convenient than the current AISD system by adjusting the login policy.
“The app maintains your login, so you don’t have to log in every thirty minutes and you only have to login once insread of twice,” Guy said. “It saves you like five clicks and then it displays your grades in a very accessible format, which you can update pretty easily.”
The app works by acting as a proxy to the AISD server that records and stores student’s grades.
“He’s using a proxy server and the way he navigates is as if he’s a student logging in, but it’s really as if he’s logging into everybody,” senior Sydney Hutton said. “But he can’t see names or anything, he can just access data- just numbers.”
Prior to release GradeBuzz was rigorously tested by a group of students and some of Guy’s teachers.
“I’ve asked some teachers to put in different grades to test the app and I have a group of student beta testers to help work out the bugs,” Guy said.
The app features several services not provided by TEAMS, namely that users are alerted each time that a new grade is entered.
“Every time a teacher adds a new grade the student will get an alert saying that it’s been put in,” teacher Bree Rolfe said.
This year teachers have noticed that students are less on top of their grades than usual, which Rolfe thinks is due to the change from gradespeed to TEAMS.
“I don’t think students are fully versed in how to use TEAMS yet,” Rolfe said.
Guy has reached out to the technology department at AISD to work with them on his app, though they have not been receptive to his ideas.
“I’ve traded a few emails with the tech department at AISD about the app. They said ‘Thanks, but it’s not really necessary’, so we’re not against each other but they’re not endorsing me either.”
Due to the largely positive reviews that he’s already received, Guy hopes to have the app spread outside of Bowie.
“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me to talk about the app and that’s been exciting because it’s always nice to know that stuff you’ve made is enjoyed by people,” Guy said. I’ve been telling my friends at Austin High about the app to try to have it spread beyond Bowie.”
AISD’s reluctance to meet with Guy may be due to his age, Rolfe said.
“I think that they should definitely should meet with Jack, but I think it’s also hard to trust a senior in high school because they don’t know him like we know him at Bowie. I think that AISD could benefit from him and what he’s doing and they should meet with to see what they can do,” she said.
Though the app was just released very recently, students are already using and learning how to work the app.
Users are enjoying the improvements made upon TEAMS.
“When you open it, it saves your information. The mobile version of TEAMS was really inconvenient because you have to open two pages to see every grade. On GradeBuzz you just open it to see your grades and you can also customize your settings,” Hutton said.