Sunday, December 14, 2014

17. End of the Year / Interview

The End of the Year is Here!

There is much to do at the end of the year.  This afternoon, I started answering the questions from the reporter from 'Administrators Magazine'  I thought, since this is your program, I'd list some of the questions below and see how you would answer them for this weeks blog assignment.  Some questions seem like they are directed at the teacher, so answer them from both our point of view -or- assume what answer you think I'd give.   Since, I give a lot of responsibility to you guys...go for it.  This is a nice recap of what we've done and after considering your answers, what we might plan for 2015...



Hello Debbie, I am a writer with District Administration magazine. I am writing an article about students in the role of tech support and Dennis Harper of GenerationYES said you would be a good resource for the article. If you are willing, I would like to schedule a half hour phone interview with you between now and Dec. 17. Below are the questions I would like to ask you.  I am on eastern time. The article will be published in the March edition of the magazine.

  1. Describe the overall setup of the program and how it works. Please include who handles what, with what funds, student training, help desk staffing hours, and who is in charge?
  2. Do you have any other student help desk programs, besides the GenYES one, in place?
  3. What is the benefit of having students in a tech support role? Include benefits to: students in the program, teachers and staff, and general student population.
  4. Is the district saving money with this approach?
  5. How has 1:1, BYOD, the proliferation of mobile devices, apps, cloud computing, etc. impacted the need for additional tech resources?
  6. What do you call your students who help with tech support, and how do you promote their availability?
  7. How could you handle tech support if you didn’t use students?
  8. What are the biggest challenges of having students provide tech support?
  9. What are the best features of the GenYES program?  What would you do differently?
  10. Would you recommend this to other school districts? Why?