Student techies to the rescue

If a student at Indian Creek High School can’t log into their Chromebook or has an internal hard drive update they cannot figure out, one of their peers will likely be solving their problem.

The student can take their computer tablet into the school’s library before school, during lunch or quickly during class and a student will more than likely be able to find out why their Chromebook is having issues and fix it.

About 10 students make up the Indian Creek High School Tech Tribe. The tribe of students solve some of the most pressing issues students experience with their Chromebooks. Tech Tribe students take turns staffing the room tucked back into the school’s library where students and teachers having issues with their school devices can ask for help.

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Each student enrolled in the tribe receives credit for an elective class and one student will be eligible to earn college credit in computer science if he scores well enough on the advanced placement exam.

Students in the class work on coding and other computer curriculum when they are not helping other students and teachers. Each student can earn certificates from Google, such as being proficient in Google drive or e-mail, said Ashley Boner, technology integration specialist at the school.

The program is currently in the second year. Boner toured schools and spoke with school officials at other school districts while Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Schools were switching computer tablets from iPads to Chromebooks. School districts across the state had come up with similar teams and Boner thought the concept could work at Indian Creek, she said.

“We wanted to offer something for our kids where they were seen as leaders or go-tos,” she said.

Each student who is enrolled in the class goes through about nine weeks of training in learning all about the Chromebooks and the possible issues they may encounter.

They are taught which questions to ask and how to solve the most popular issues that arise. Issues the students are charged with solving are what may be considered user error, with the most popular being a student who cannot log-in or connect to Wifi, sophomore Brayten Kelly said.

Tech tribe students also help their peers download and install system and software updates when needed, Boner said.

Students enrolled in the class because they want to pursue careers in IT, wanted to learn about computers themselves or wanted to try a new elective class, students said.

Most public school districts across the county have replaced textbooks for at least their high school and middle school students with tablets or computers in the last several years.

And as each school district’s technology needs have increased, similar student teams have formed at Franklin Community High School, Whiteland Community High School and Center Grove High School. Students in Greenwood do not have school issued tablets they work with during the school day. Edinburgh Community High School students who have issues with their Chromebooks can see a member of the school district’s technology staff who will solve the problem or give them a loaned tablet.

Student-led teams who help problem-solve smaller issues with their computer tablets has been one of the best ways to solve technology issues, said Matt Sprout, Franklin schools’ director of technology.

Technology staff members at the school district are not being bogged down with multiple smaller issues and students get hands-on technology experience in fixing the computer tablet issue, he said.

“We want to make it a win-win for our students,” Sprout said. “ “It is exciting to see them get engaged in technology and to inspire them to continue to learn.”

Boner estimates that the students have cut the amount of time she spends one-on-one with students having issues nearly in half. Boner is one of five technology employees at the school district.

Before the transition to the tech team, some days were met with long student lines who needed her to fix their smaller technical issues, Boner said.

“It is us doing the smaller stuff that helps her deal with the bigger stuff,” said senior Isaiah Lacey, a member of the tribe.

Now Boner can concentrate on helping teachers find ways to integrate the technology into their curriculum, which is a major part of her job, she said.

“That is what I should be doing, not helping a kid run updates on their Chromebook,” she said.

The next step for the class is to integrate them into fixing more hardware problems and to begin solving some of the same issues for intermediate school students. The knowledge Tech Tribe students have can also help with school-wide technology problems. For example, if Chromebooks have an update that must be done on every single tablet in the school, Boner can teach the students how to perform the update and the students will fan out and teach their classes how to perform the update, saving work for the IT staff at the school, Boner said.

And Tech Tribe students are using the class to give them a boost with their computer skills.

“I thought it would be a good thing to get into,” junior A. J. Reese said.