Helping Others to Help Oneself: As Student-Run IT Initiatives Evolve into Full Curriculum Programs, Schools Find That Students Aren't Just Supporting Technology-Technology Is Supporting Them

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT'S AN AGE-OLD ADAGE: Students pick up technology faster than their teachers. So when it comes to troubleshooting technical headaches in the classroom, it's not surprising that schools are turning to their own best resources--the students themselves. Whether staffing a genius bar in the media center or troubleshooting a balky projector, students at some schools are forging working partnerships with teachers and IT staff that are a far cry from the days when a few kids helped repair old computers. For such partnerships to flourish, though, the conditions must be right. Trying to do too much--or giving students too little support --undermines collaboration, which is the very foundation of a successful program. And given today's fiscal restraints, not many schools are in a position to build such programs from the ground up. However, a couple of not-for-profit organizations do offer established programs that allow schools to start small before scaling up. The oldest is Generation YES (Generation of Youth and Educators Succeeding), founded in 1995 to help train students to support technology in their schools. many of our schools, the students work one-on-one with a teacher who has a project that they're going to integrate in their class, explains Sylvia Martinez, president of GanYES. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Our curriculum teaches the student a number of things: the project process, project planning, mentoring...speaking to an adult. This is not just about technology skills. Scalable Technology GenYES has developed a technology curriculum that is part instructor-led lessons and part student help desk. It offers certification in a number of technology areas, and promotes best practices for developing good digital citizens. To date, more than 75,000 students in 2,000 schools worldwide have participated in the program. GenYES uses a scalable program structure that provides varying levels of support depending on a school's needs. A basic site license, for example, grants schools three basic curriculum units with projects and activities that the instructor can teach, as well as suggestions for future projects that instructors and students can design themselves. An optional, extended curriculum adds 20 units covering hands-on topics such as troubleshooting hardware and software problems, but it also focuses on media literacy, career opportunities, and building a portfolio of work samples. Both tiers include access to an online tool to track and manage help requests, making it possible for schools to run student-manned help desks. For schools without a history of student participation in IT, the two-tier structure makes it possible to begin with a small after-school program where students learn what's needed to provide tech support. If all goes well, schools can then ramp up to a semester or year-round course in technology training. In the first GenYES programs, students focused on repairing hardware. Today, most programs concentrate on leveraging technology throughout the school. This might include working with teachers on incorporating technology into their lesson plans; teaching their peers how to create a class blog or website; or introducing kids to moviemaking software as a replacement for traditional book reports. Schools are encouraged to start their programs by identifying specific needs, such as meeting a school-wide objective to use more technology in the classroom. They then implement the component of GenYES that will include students in helping achieve the goal, gradually building on that success to expand the program. For those schools using the expanded license, no special training is needed for the teacher; she simply needs time to learn and incorporate the lesson plans, which include activities and instructions. We first started as a club after school with seven kids, says Dabble Kovesdy, a media specialist and GenYES adviser at Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix. …