SOUTH PORTLAND — A new technology class at
South Portland High School is blazing a path for the Red Riot students as they
seek to become a resource for the public.
The 20 members of Julie York’s technology repair
program have formed an outside-support team named RioTech, designed to mimic a
traditional repair shop by solving computer problems for area residents.
Although students at the school have taken on private projects in the past –
the alternative education program, for example, worked last year with
Portland-based nonprofit The Compass Project to build a double-masted sailboat
for a local buyer – this marks the first time students have reached out for an
ongoing business relationship with the public at large.
“It’s really a cutting-edge
program for us,” Principal Jim Holland. “I think it’s a great idea. The class
fits a real niche for those students. It’s certainly engaging and creates
real-world experiences for them.”
York, a 11-year teaching
veteran in South Portland who heads up the high school’s career preparation
program, took the idea to the school board last year via the high school’s
leadership team. The concept, she said, was to create a way for students to
learn computer repair in a way that went beyond the typical listen-and-test
classroom approach.
“Instead of teaching
concepts in the traditional hardware/software model, where students come in and
get their certifications, or they literally study a set curriculum, this new
class is designed to be a hands-on approach,” said York. “Our district’s really
supportive of us giving students different choices. We didn’t have any computer
repair class here at all and I found students in the other computer classes I
teach, like programming, were definitely itching for it.”
York’s students will get a
good deal of hands-on experience working with the laptops assigned to students.
The model used by the school district has been discontinued by Apple, York
said, making repairs hard to come by. To help learn their trade while also
helping their peers, the RioTech students will learn to “Franken” various
broken machines into working models
“They won’t be the best
machines, but they’d be functional, as opposed to the stack of broken equipment
we have now,” said York.
Other jobs, including
troubleshooting, virus removal, and tutoring on various systems and devices,
will come from within the high school.
“The faculty doesn’t quite
know we exist yet. Once they do, I’m sure we’ll get a lot of requests,” said
York.
However, the real driving
factor in the RioTech class will come from its interaction with the public.
York notes that the class is designed to follow the district’s recent
initiatives into Science, Techonology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
instruction. STEM classes are run on a project-based learning model, in which
students learn by conducting real-world experiments that call on problem
solving across a wide array of core competencies. Working with the public
punches that up a notch, York said.
In addition to gaining
customer service and business-related experience, RioTech students have the
added incentive of knowing they have an actual customer depending on them to
get the job done right.
“I feel pretty confident
about it. I mean, I got my first computer when I was 3 years old,” said senior
Emily Lowell, when asked if she feared making a mistake that might ruin a
computer-related device belonging to a local taxpayer.
“A lot of us have expertise
from past experiences with school and hobbies,” said junior Chris Perkins, “but
we’ll also be learning from the experience that we have here in this class. I
like that because we’ll learn how to do a lot of what many of us know already,
but learning how to do it the right way.”
“Mrs. York’s a great
teacher, so I think we’ll be just fine,” said Lowell.
“There are wide variety of
kids in the class, all with different skill sets. So, we do a lot of learning
from each other,” said senior Nate Hoffman.
That, said Holland, ties in
with the school’s model of heterogeneous grouping, wherein students learn from
each other, as well as from their instructor, and cement that knowledge by
passing it on to others.
“Helping people is
something I’m really passionate about,” said Lowell, who plans to pursue a
computer technology degree at Southern Maine Community College. “So, really,
this kind of gives me a bigger step in that direction all the way around.”
Already, RioTech has helped
it’s first “customer” – an 81-year-old woman who needed help learning how
to use an iPad and setting up a wireless home network.
“It took a lot of visits to
set up, maybe eight hours altogether,” said Lowell, “But it was really a
delight to help because she was so thankful afterwards.”
“That was our only real
‘job’ so far,” said junior Isaac MacKinn, “but some people have brought in
broken computers just so we can take them apart and mess with them and figure
out how they don’t work.”
Now, said York, the class
is looking for additional donations and classroom visits from experts in the
field. But, most of all, the RioTech students are eager to begin taking on
customers.
Request forms for equipment
repair and service are available on the class website, as is a waiver form,
just in case. The class is ready to take on all sort of devices, including
smartphones, digital cameras and gaming consoles, in addition to computers,
tablets and laptops, York said. Help also is available for a host of software
and applications. But, York said, RioTech is not out to compete with local,
private businesses in the field.
“These are students, after
all, so this is not the service to choose if you need something back
yesterday,” she said. “However, if you have something that needs to be done and
you don’t mind having students do the work, they’d really appreciate a chance
to try and help you out.”
Customers must buy their
own parts, if any are needed, and payment for services is by donation only. Any
donations given will be put into the program, to buy equipment and other
instructional materials, said York.
Holland said that while the
tech team is “in its infancy,” he expects big things of it. He even plans to
become a customer himself.
“I think this class will be
very good for the students and the school,” he said. “In fact, someone said
recently that I should start a blog, so I think I may snag one of the kids to
help me learn how to do that.”
A CLOSER LOOK
To learn more about RioTech, or to download forms to request computer repair or service, go to the team’s website at https://sites.google.com/site/sphstechteam/home.
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