Troubleshoot basic software, hardware, and connectivity problems - Reflective Post #11

Pace University Troubleshooting and Support Site

The first reading this week is a site created by Pace University's School of Education and School of Computer Science and Information Systems. The site was created as a portal of general technology support knowledge base so students and instructors could attempt to solve their technology issues if technical support is unavailable. The site contains common difficulties that computer users encounter and the site provides solutions through common troubleshooting procedures. The site wasn't intended to replace technical support positions, but instead provide a solution to make instructors and students more self-sufficient. The site authors also realize that a robust technical support staff isn't always financially possible in every institution. This site looks to alleviate some of the technical support burden to allow the technical staff to address major issues and high-end technology problems.

A Computer for Every Student and Teacher

The second reading for this week is an article titled A Computer for Every Student and Teacher: Lessons Learned about Planning and Implementing a Successful 1:1 Learning Initiative in Schools. It was written to share findings from a 3-year pilot of 12 high schools from North Carolina where every teacher (400) and student (6,000) were given a laptop or tablet. The pilot had the following goals: improve teaching practices; increase student achievement; and prepare students for work, citizenship, and life in the 21st century. The article recommended a few roles/teams to be developed when supporting such an initiative:

A full-time Technology Facilitator. Responsibilities include: conducting workshops; co-teaching; and assisting instructors with integrating technology into the curriculum.

Multiple On-site Technicians. Responsibilities include: software related issues and installation; hardware repair; network problems; and purchasing. On-site technicians allowed facilitator to focus on instructional support instead of troubleshooting.

Student Technology Teams. Teams of volunteers coordinated by the facilitator and trained by the facilitator and technicians. These teams are responsible for providing initial troubleshooting and technical support as well as creating weekly news to be shared with the school community. 

The article also laid out a lot of other specific recommendations to assist with a 1:1 initiative such was professional development workshops, policies and procedures, software and hardware tools, infrastructure and a plan for leadership. All of the provided resources were listed and created to ease the transition for schools considering a 1:1 pilot. The article even answers the question, "Why go to all this trouble?" If you are wondering what the answer may be, it is, "for the students." This initiative energized students to learn by using their devices in class everyday by, "[increasing] access to engaging educational websites and digital resources and games; for study assistance; for more opportunities to interact with their peers through group projects, collaborative lessons, and research projects; and for each teacher to have a website where students could go for announcements, links to course-specific websites, downloading presentations and notes, and submitting assignments."

Summary

Both readings for the week recognized technical support is necessary to support instruction, even at varying degrees. In some cases, support is required at various levels.

For smaller institutions, or those with smaller budgets, a site similar to the one created at Pace University will be a valuable tool. If the site can be managed in a similar way by faculty and students of specific schools/colleges instead of the campus IT department, technical support staff can focus on larger initiatives. The site would serve those with common questions which will take up less time for the technical support staff. However, the issue with any type of written instruction is that it will be outdated due to software/hardware upgrades and replacements. If someone isn't maintaining the site's information, they become yet another pain point for those looking for technical support.

For larger institutions, having positions such as the technology facilitator and technicians, along with student technology help, would greatly improve technical support in those environments. The University of Findlay has adopted this model, there are two departments Academic Technology Services (technology facilitators) and Technical Support Services (on-site technicians) both of which work with technical support students to provide support for the campus community.

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For those visitors who may read this, that are not my classmates, the following section of this post is a self assessment (see rubric) which part of the assignment for writing this post.

Scoring based on the rubric:

Summary paragraphs: 5 pts. There is at least one paragraph per reading. Each paragraph is substantial, relating to the readings, and is well developed.

Reflection paragraphs: 5 pts. There are two reflection paragraphs that are substantial, well-developed and go deeper into the subjects presented in the readings.

Quality of writing: 5 pts. I have proof-read and used spell-check to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes. I used subheading classes and additional line breaks to provide a visual separation to organize the post and make it easier to read.

Connection to readings 5 pts. I have connections to each reading in the reflection paragraphs by either using a paraphrase, keywords or additional anecdotes from the readings.