I am responsible for technology integration at my school and it makes my day when I get to work with students who are eager to learn about computers, apps & technology in general. I’ve been able to engage students by creating a “Student Tech Guide Program” at my school. This program provides G-Suite Apps training (Gmail, Calendar, Drive & Search) for those students who want to expand their technology skills. It also helps create a certain level of capacity in each class that ends up helping everyone.
This is a voluntary program for grade 4-9 students and sixty-five signed up for the program. At the start of our first training session I asked each student to tell me why they signed up to be a “Tech Guide”. Their responses tended to be very similar:
- “I love working with computers”
- “I want to learn new skills”
- “I want to help my mom and/or dad with technology”
- “I like helping my teacher when the Smart board doesn’t work”
What struck me was the passion and joy displayed by these students. No matter what the skill or topic was they were engaged, focused and happy. As there are so many groups (14 in total) the training sessions are held only every three weeks. This has led to students regularly stopping me in the hallway and asking when their next training session will be; talk about enthusiasm.
If you are a technology integrator I encourage you to focus on both the teachers and students at your school. I firmly believe that regular and responsible use of technology will develop when you engage both of these very important groups. Good luck!
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