"It's purpose after
all is to help us spend more time with our students and focus on the learning
process and fostering relationships among our students."
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| Technology Ambassadors |
Anyone who has been in the
business of education, and it is very much a business in many ways, knows that
technology in education is important. In fact, it is often the second
most expensive budget in your schools next to athletics. If you think
about it, technology is really the only category that permeates each level of a
school and has the most profound impact, especially when it doesn't work! If
you are in a 1 to 1 school, those that require each student to have a device
(tablet, chrome-book or laptop), then chances are much of your professional
development budget and a good portion of your in-service days are spent around
the venue of technology integration. Even the federal government
allocates billions towards technology innovation, integration and
infrastructure each year (if you dare to view the last 3 years of the federal
educational budget plans click here!). In private schools, that trend has extended
into a new category of job opportunities within the realm of technology
integration. Titles such as Technology Coordinator or Specialist,
Educational Technology Director or Innovation Coordinator, Director of 21st
Century Learning, and Chief Technology Evangelist all usher in a new era of
educational focus on technology.
"There is a fine line
between utilizing technology and being used by technology!"
Technology does play an
important role in school. But often, it can overshadow the purpose we
first sought it out for...to make our lives easier, consume and create
information and content, and to be more collaborative. There is a fine
line between utilizing technology and being used by technology! I have
always found that technology works best when it bends to your goals. It's
purpose after all is to help us spend more time with our students and focus on
the learning process and fostering relationships among our students.
Schools across the country
are in a constant state of financial reassessment as to how much to allocate to
technology, staffing, professional development and deployment of new
devices. That's a good thing. Needs change each year and budgets need
constant tweaking. When considering this, I have found that one of the
most underutilized "free" tech support resource is not a tool at all,
but our own students! The idea of a student driven technology support
team has been around for a while. In fact, many schools have deployed
such a program. When I investigated starting one my school, I sought out some
forward thinking educators who had already started the process (many thanks to
Nichole Carter)! Twitter was an amazing resource to find and reach out to
those tech leaders who had already begun or established one (thanks again @MrsCarterhHLA ). But each school has different needs, requirements
and administration questions and concerns. So, when creating one, there
are many important aspects to remember in order to deploy a sustainable and
viable student driven operation. Today, we have over 25 "Technology
Ambassadors" serving in many ways across our campus leading technology
initiatives with faculty and parents in areas such as basic hardware tech
support, serving in the help-desk on a weekly basis as tech support back ups,
social media implementation, promoting new tech tools and cloud resources, self
help YouTube video creation, all school weekly tech announcements, and even
tech driven trivia games for faculty and students! Here are a few steps
to help you through the process to get this kind of program started, running
and most importantly sustainable...
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| A Technology Ambassador helping a teacher |
1. Administration support and student
leadership roles: If you want this to be a success, admin needs
to be in the loop from the beginning. Have a well defined purpose (see
mission statement below)and deployment idea for your students to do this kind
of initiative. Remember, their school work must come first! To make
this even more robust, offer it as a leadership role for students (similar to
other leadership positions in your school (Honor Council and/or Student Gov.
positions). This gives it more weight and attracts a wider scope of
students.
2. Name it!: Give it a good
name. "Student help-desk support just won't cut it with kids.
Make it as trendy as possible. We got our students involved in this
process and debated many names before settling on "Technology
Ambassadors". We had used “SWAT (Students Working to Advance
Technology) but it sounded to militant as if the FBI were on campus!
3. Recruitment: This is NOT
just a role for the typical tech kids anymore. You want this role to
reach as many groups/interests as possible. I reached out to my tech
kids, athletes, drama programs, artists, debaters, math club,
extroverts/introverts and more! Make it diverse and more kids will want
to be a part of it.
4. Mission statement: What is this
group about and what are its goals. Similar to the purpose you sold to
the administration, students need a clearly defined idea of what their roles will
be, expectations and what future roles there may be.
5. Meetings: They are
important! We meet weekly at lunch each Monday for about 30-40
minutes. These are mandatory (remember this is a leadership role for
students) and they are held accountable for being there if they want to be in
this role. But like faculty meetings, make sure your meetings have a well
defined agenda with action steps for students to do. Give them tasks and
deadlines. This will make it more meaningful and rewarding when they are
accomplished. Remember, this is about
them doing and creating, not you lecturing.
Give students a big voice in these meetings!
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| Technology Ambassadors Twitter Account |
6. Student roles: Make sure
each student has a role. Every Technology Ambassador must serve at least
one study hall a week in the in Technology Center. While there, we have
various jobs for them to do as well as man the front desk. To ensure each
of my 26 members have a particular job, I created 4 committees, each with its
own purpose, agenda and deadlines (Convocation committee (weekly student
presentations to entire high school), YouTube committee (students create self
help videos for teachers and students on various tech tools), Social Media
committee (students manage and tweet from Twitter account and promote our
YouTube channel...Instagram and Snap Chat coming soon!), and Trivia/gaming
committee (organize trivia games in Tech Center, monthly trivia in cafeteria
during lunch). Each student is assigned a role in these committees.
7. Deployment and time lines:
Create a realistic timeline for creating a group like this. Also, once
created, establish a training schedule, committee assignments and expectations
as well as planning weekly meeting times and responsibilities. Having a set schedule and setting the tone
for accountability is key. Remember,
these students are already busy with a mountain of work, so be realistic about
expectations and time frames.
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| Badges...we need stinking badges! |
8. Branding: Kids love the
BLING! We have badges (yes we need stinking badges!) and hats and
t-shirts are coming soon. Our Technology Center logo, created in
conjunction with our communications dept., is on our badges, hats, and
t-shirts. We established our Twitter account (@techbucs) and #hashtag (#techbucs) as well. Be
consistent so that your message and symbols are well known from the
start. Re-branding is harder than branding so be thoughtful about what
your image and message will be (from a t-shirt to tweets!). You want brand recognition immediately when
people see your bling! Get your communications department involved in this
process (and admin).
"The important thing
to remember is that this is a student driven initiative. Let them own
it. Failing is part of the process."
9. Ownership: Giving students
ownership can be frightening for teachers and administration. That is why
they need to be part of this process from day 1! The important thing to
remember is that this is a student driven initiative. Let them own
it. Failing is part of the process. Faculty supervision is
important as well, but don't be so overreaching that students don't feel that
they have any ownership. If that happens, they will leave. Like parenting, stepping away and letting
students create and manage things can be challenging. It’s ok if they fail. Make it a teachable moment at you next
meeting! (Here’s looking at you Eric Sheninger! )
10. Sustainability: You want this to last long after you are
gone. Make sure you are having regular
conversations with admin about the status of this organization, its evolving
purpose and accomplishments. Making this
part of the leadership structure is key to sustainability. Becoming regulars on the schedule for school
events like parent’s night, grandparent’s day, board meetings and others will
ensure your organizations presence. Be
seen and heard often! It also helps to
have a co-chair as well. Finding someone
with equal passion for the initiative is helpful…it takes a village!
These steps are by no means exhaustive, in
fact I welcome your thoughts and opinions about your own path to creating this
amazing organization within your school.
As always, if you would like to know more please reach out to me via
Twitter @jasonstamand and/or on LinkedIn by
clicking here!
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