Students on the S.W.A.T. team provide various services at Algonquin such as creating tutorials and reviewing and recommending educational computer applications.
I am sure I would be far less effective in my job as Instructional Technology Teacher without the help of Algonquin’s awesome student tech support team. The students involved in the program have been an invaluable resource to me as well as to the school community. Algonquin’s S.W.A.T. (Students Working to Advance Technology) team began in the winter of 2015. It started solely as an elective class that students could take during the school day and has since expanded to include an afterschool club.
As the S.W.A.T. team has grown in popularity, the curriculum and requirements of the class have evolved to a level I could have only dreamed of a year ago. We focus on helping with and promoting the use of classroom technologies and are less involved with troubleshooting hardware issues. Students on the S.W.A.T. team provide various services at Algonquin such as creating tutorials and reviewing and recommending educational computer applications. S.W.A.T. has also done some community outreach by hosting technical support nights at the local libraries.
Our new blog describes the program in more detail and has links to the student tutorials. Working with the Northeast Comprehensive Center (NCC) helped us explore how online sharing and collaboration could support implementation of these practices.
When I started in my new position it did not take me long to realize that I was going to need help promoting the use of technology, and who better to help but the students as “digital natives.”
Algonquin Regional High School has 1,450 students and over 100 teachers. Prior to August 2014 it did not have an Instructional Technology Teacher. When I started in my new position it did not take me long to realize that I was going to need help promoting the use of technology, and who better to help but the students as “digital natives.” After doing research and learning about other student tech support teams, I was inspired by two well established programs: the Burlington High School Desk in Burlington, MA and the Tech Sherpas from Nokomis Regional High in Maine. I appreciated their advice and guidance and hope our blog will be able to offer similar advice and assistance to others who are interested in starting a student tech support team. Contact us today to share your success story or reach out to us with questions.
The Office of Digital Learning, supported by the Northeast Comprehensive Center, a federally funded technical assistance center, collaborated with Algonquin Regional High School’s S.W.A.T. team to share how they establish and maintain their student technology support team. To learn more about student technology support teams and how they are transforming technical support in schools, please visit the Student Technology Support Teams page.