Tech Team Innovation

Tech teams – innovating the way around north america

Riverside’s Tech Team is only one of the millions of technology-focused groups in various fields across the globe. Riverside’s Tech Team is especially successful because of its unique approach in innovating locally. Riverside’s Tech Team manages various technology-based areas of the Riverside community, including social media, live-stream infrastructure, building development and community engagement. Every area is specifically taken care of by a small group of students who are intrigued and seek improvements in their area, making Riverside’s Tech Team successful.

While success often brings challenges, the Tech Team is no exception. One of the challenges Tech Team faces is consistency. Student and staff members are apart of so many other incredible initiatives, projects and community events, it can be hard for everyone to show up consistently. That being said, it’s a challenge that makes Tech Team unique – and in fact brings positive consequences, as everyone brings back new ideas they have learnt or seen from wherever they were, making every meeting more interesting.

Tech Team has always, and will always be an integral part of Riverside Secondary. Moving forward, Tech Team will need to see more projects supporting Tech Team’s presence in the school, including the new Wave (that is coming eventually) and recognizing the role of technology in our classrooms. With the support of Riverside’s administration to increase Tech Team’s physical presence with the building, it’s supporting Riverside’s unique technology 1:1 program.

To improve support from Riverside, we need to make sure that we’re continuing to do the best we can. We continue to be accountable, to be hard-working, and to be curious.

Tech Teams have proven to work across North America, including one from Burlington High School in Burlington, Massachusetts. Jennifer L. Scheffer digs deeper into their work, on her blog. It builds on the idea of integrating their school onto a 1:1 iPad program, and with the help of students from their school, they had created an “iCU” (iPad Care Unit) to help students transition into a different system. They used similar ideas with Riverside’s system – creating a centralized help-desk to answer questions from students and staff during school hours.

Some of the work they have done in Burlington could be implemented at Riverside, like a personalized help-desk students can come to (hopefully Riverside’s The Wave will be open soon.)