What aspects of Tech Team are successful? Explain why.

I think the students in tech teams ability to help our peers and teachers in class with their technology is quite successful. We are all very strong students and our leadership skills we learn from this course are really put into use in the classroom. I also believe that our Social Media is very successful since we have a wide audience and get a lot of activity on our platforms and have been able to include more personal posts on the instagram. In the same sense, I believe that our other teams in tech team such as the Wall of Excellence, etc. are all doing great projects to positively impact our school community that are also successful as they are coming to the years end.

What aspects of Tech Team are challenging? Explain why.

I think the scheduling is challenging for Tech Team because we only meet once a week and sometimes meetings get cancelled, and scheduling a time to Skype or meet with some teams can be quite challenging since everyone has they’re own schedules that can be hard to all work with.

What support does our school need from the Tech Team moving forward? Explain why.

I think our school community needs more opportunities to get help from the Tech Team. We only work in the Wave for the first two weeks of school but some students or teachers might need tech help during the remainder of the school year and might not know who to go too. Also I think another very helpful thing would be at the beginning of the school year, for all the Tech Team students to go through how to setup any new equipment and how to do the projectors/speakers/wifi in general, for the new students in the team or just as a refresher for the rest of us, to help us be more efficient when we are helping others.

What can we do to improve our support for our school?

I think having a “System,” so more people are available to help others during school could work well. Whether it be people having spares or before or after school, just having people there for support if others need it, and advertising the Tech Team more so people know about our support system. Also, I think maybe updating our cords in the library that are available to students to take out could be helpful because there are many student who have new computers that we don’t have the adaptors or chargers for.

What are some things other Tech Teams are doing that we may want to apply at Riverside?

A school in Burlington has done what I believe could help our school, they have a “Help Desk”. “The Help Desk was modelled after Apple’s Genius Bar. Located in the back of the high school library, the Help Desk is open throughout the day for teachers, students, staff, and administrators.” This reminds me of the wave, but way more available. The students that work on this Tech Team have a blog where they post all the Tech updates for the school and host a Live Google Hangout On Air Show and they also present at state and regional educational technology conferences, consult with app developers and local businesses. Their Tech Team is advertised greatly throughout the school and in the community as they were guests on a local radio station, which I think we need to do a better job of. Lastly, they have also appeared in the Mind Shift and TED-Ed blogs, getting more exposure as well.

Has you research created any ideas that the Tech Team can implement here?

The biggest idea I saw while I was researching was that other schools that have Tech Teams have students available all day at school for support. This idea I believe can make an impact on the students and teachers in our school, and would be a great idea for Tech Team moving on next year.