It has been coming increasingly important to get students involved in the planning and carrying out of the technology plan. One of the aspects of that plan is how to anticipate and problem solve situations that don’t exist. One person and even one department will have a difficult time keeping up with the task.
Our solution: recruit and train students to help as a first line of defense. We saw this in action at the Hong Kong International School. Myron Buck, the high school technology facilitator shared his ideas with us. Rarely is there a unique problem that a student will incur. For the most part it is a repeat performance.
Time to call in the first line of defense. Starting next week we will begin the training of 6th and 7th grade students in the care and trouble shooting of Mac problems. Our plan it to introduce them to our computer system at school, how the Mac will integrate with the system, and what we would anticipate as common problems. These may include creating shortcuts, printing, losing work, etc.
We’ll start with giving them an identity. We will ask them to give themselves a name. It’s their club so we’ll let them decide … within reason J . Once they have a name it’s time to design t-shirts. This will help them be identified in the fall so others will know whom to look for to help them.
Once school starts in the fall, we will roll out the 300 laptops in the middle school. Their task is two-fold. First, they will need to help teachers and students in classes. The second commitment we ask of them is to man the student help desk located outside the technology repair center. They will be the first stop for students with problems. Hopefully we will have trained them in the basics of Mac and they will be able to thwart a lot of minor problems. What they can’t handle is passed on to the tech department.
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