January 5-9

Monday: 12:55-3:30
Thursday: 12:55-2:30
Friday: 12:55-2:30

   
   On Monday of this week, I sat in on a meeting with the Instructional Tech Staff of our school. It was the first meeting of its kind, and I got to act as a staff member of the school, which was really cool. We had a lot of conversations about how to encourage students and teachers to use technology in the classroom and which way is the best way to approach doing so. It is often difficult to get teachers to feel comfortable with teaching with new technology that they might not even be comfortable using on their own. So, we brainstormed some ways to motivate teachers to assign work to students that uses the technology that is available to them. We also took a look at some of the statistics we received from a survey we hosted for all of the students and staff in the school about their technology use at home and at school. Some of these statistics were surprising in respect to who has access to technology or the internet at their homes, but those stats are important for us to know how much we can require students use technology at their homes if not all of them are capable of doing so.
     We also took some time to talk about places the technology in the school can be improved and the future of a student tech team in our high school. It was decided that some of our information systems need to by synced better to make it more convenient for all of those using them. Additionally, there are some aspects used by the library and the offices that should be automated because of their inefficiency. For example, students are alerted of library fines via inch-long slips of paper, which are easily lost and almost never get home to parents. Slips for counseling appointments are similar and are often only given out days after the appointment was scheduled for. Also, when students are called to the office, they can only be called in between class periods so class is not disturbed, but no one can hear the announcements in the hallway because everyone is talking. All of these things could be helped by sending alerts out via student email, or through our grade and attendance reporting system. We also talked a bit about the up and coming student tech team that I will help to run after school. The team will be a group of individuals that are interested in computers in any capacity, hardware or software, that will get together after school to help take care of some easy tickets that tech staff gets, and explore some new ideas in robotics, software, hardware, and anything else we might be interested in. The main idea is to get some experience and have a place where students can learn the things about computers that they might not be learning otherwise in school. We will have an application for interested students to fill out, and there will be an interview process to ensure that the students involved are genuine so that no one will be held back, but also that they can be trusted with the information they will be learning. The meeting was very informational for me, and I felt that we made some important decisions while we met. I felt that my opinion was valued as a student, because getting all sides of an issue is the best way to find an appropriate answer. We have decided to meet once or twice a month from now on to keep up with our progress.
     After Monday, I was sick for the next two days, so I could not make it to school, let alone my internship. On Thursday, however, my mentor met with me to discuss the next steps that we will be taking. The app group is getting smaller as some of our team members want to branch off and do their own projects in addition to the app, and we have begun to use PhoneGap and it is working well. We have hooked PhoneGap to GitHub, which is running smoothly, and we have also decided to encourage all of the teams in Byte Club to use GitHub with their projects. This way, the officers and all of the other teams can keep up with everyone's progress and maybe even get ideas from others' work. GitHub is also a powerful tool to learn to use, so it would be good for all members of Byte Club to understand it for the future. I was also informed that In the next few weeks, I will be starting to get some experience with software like visio and microsoft project to see the professional project management side of things. I will mostly be making diagrams to allocate responsibility among teams, and start looking into network diagrams and how a network consultant would set up networks based on the scenario.
     Despite the shortness of the week for me, a lot has happened. I am glad for the chance to get some work done and continue moving forward. I am very optimistic of all of the projects I have begun thus far, despite the roadblock of dwindling help with the app. If the student tech team works out the way I would like it to, I think it will be an awesome opportunity to encourage technological education in the community. I think we will be able to kindle interest within the school, and I am also just excited for the projects we will be able to do and the things I, myself, will be able to learn. Being able to participate in staff discussions is also exciting for me. Despite the fact that most, if not all, of my teachers treat me as an equal, there is always the age factor in conversation among school staff. So, it was really nice to be able to provide a valued opinion in the meeting despite the fact that I'm still in high school.