This last week at Help Desk, we conducted our very own Shark Tank. All members of Northgate Help Desk presented our ideas for ILE's to a panel of Sharks. These Sharks consisted of teachers and staff from around the school. Setting up the TankThe set up for this event began many weeks before where myself and a fellow Help Desk member, Jonathan Burmenko, began by brainstorming ideas for how to set up the room. Initially we though to have the contestants come in from the front door through a tunnel and come out to face the sharks. Later though we decided, after some suggestions from Mr. Tobin, that it would be best to use his upstairs office as a waiting room and have the contestants come down the stairs though a tunnel and to the open presenting area. I then talked to Ms. Moore, the art teacher, about getting some curtains and large boards to cover the computers and make the hallway. The projection of the shark tank logo was suggested as well by a couple other members of Help Desk and so we set it up on the side of the tunnel. Diving into the ArenaOn the first day of the Shark Tank was filled with many differing ideas, from giving internet to low income housing, to designing a new coding web-game, to setting up a Northgate Ted talk event. I went last on the first day and presented my idea for a new Northgate website. I walked into the presenting area and displayed my idea for the new website. Once the short presentation ended I was barraged with questions from all the sharks. By the end of it i had told them every part of how the school would have a new website. It was a great experience and it made sure that I knew every part of my idea inside and out. It also helped my figure out parts of my project that I wouldn't have thought of without the Sharks questions.
0 Comments
Unit 1This introductory lesson on digital citizenship mainly focused on our place online and that what we do in that space has consequences. It started by describing what posting information online consists of, and then moved to giving scenarios where people did post information online. After describing the scenarios, it talked about how to deal with them and stressed the importance of caution. Image was another big topic and how people perceive each other. This section as a whole made me more aware about how I think of people online and as persons. Unit 2 The next part moved to look at what you should do online to make yourself the best person you can be. I mentioned being cautious with your words and to be nice to others. It then described the potential for community that is online and that the communities can provide outreach. It then moved on talking about online relationships and how risky they can be. From this unit, I mainly gained more situational ideas for different problems that you could run into online. Unit 3 Unit 3 changes topics to look at online creativity and internet privacy. It talked about copyright and what is protected and what needs to be. It then detailed about how websites collect data and use it. Finally it talked about how what you post can affect you down the road. I mainly learned from this to be more careful when going to websites and how the internet can affect your future in college and beyond. Unit 4The final unit focues on internet privacy and how websites collect data on you when you visit. It questioned about cookies and saved information, whats good and not. It them moved on to talk more about online commiunity with an empasis on hate speech, and how horrible it is. The unit closes by disscussing digital manipulation and changin your profile online. With that it mentions to be careful as people aren't alwayss what they seem. From this whole unit, I learned about what people do online to get noticed and what to look out for when talkng to people online.
Northgate Help Desk is now moving on to more localized projects within our own room. Drones
New WebsiteOur school is looking into updating the website as our current one doesn't run on the best website. We are looking into a few options: either to build a new one using WordPress, or use another more expensive company to host one. As we are only a high school, using WordPress is a start for now. I have been allowed the opportunity to work on the website and help make it more visually appealing and better than the current one. Although it is only in is early stages, it shows much more potential.
The beginning of Help Desk this year has gotten off to a great start with both a new set of challenges at the school and, help desk being stronger than ever. Personally I have worked on various projects including setting up Apple TV's in classrooms, and working toward chrome carts being in the classroom. Apple TV'sMost of the Apple TV's were set up last year but there were a few locations that did not have them installed yet. First was the little theater, where we were faced with the challenge of getting a TV hooked up from a completely sound proof closed box to a server room through a concrete wall next door. After a multiple periods of work, we ended up discovering a way where we could connect the cable through a projector port and across through a power box to get to the other room. Another location where we set up Apple TV's was the weight room, where we had to put a 80 foot long cable across the entire room to a hole in the back of the TV. With Mr. Ballard's help we set up and connected his iPad to the TV and he was ready to go. Chromebook Carts
At this time most of the carts are in circulation so the next step is to get all the teachers trained and using them for education. Cart Link.
With the third quarter coming to an end, Help Desk continues to remain active in helping teachers, the school and the students. Digital LiteracyWe are almost finished with the digital literacy project, and once that is complete the middle schools in the district will benefit as their students will be more engaged and educated about being online. We are thinking of using Zaption to add an interactive video. Our lessons will hopefully be more interesting then the current ones. Java GameAs the work on my ILE continues, i have started to write the code for my game. I have written out the basic code for an introduction and player input. As well i have continued my research to make my game have random elements and to have a save feature. For more info: http://www.javacoffeebreak.com/text-adventure/ Bad ComputersI am also working on a Powtoon to show how insufficient the computers we have at the school are. They take forever to turn on and log in. They also don't have enough power to use inventor efficiently and are slow on large projects.
At Northgate Help Desk, we are starting to create curriculum and present new apps that teachers can use in the classroom. Using ZaptionLast week Nathan and I showed off the Zaption software to all the teachers at a staff meeting. Zaption is a cool tool that allows a teacher to add questions built into a video and analyze the responses. Within Zaption You can import a Youtube video or any ones you have stored, and then within Zaption add questions will pause the video and ask the viewer. Another part of Zaption is the analytics section, where the creator of the video can view information about the responses, how long people watch, etc. ILE: Adventure Game
Digital Literacy
Other ProjectsOther projects I am working on are a new App Review that will be out next week about Twitter for both mobile phones and iPad's. Be sure to look for that.
Also I just helped Mrs. Reimer publish a website for her classes which you can look at here: www.thereimerreason.weebly.com. With the new semester comes a change with help desk. We now have a big whiteboard with all of each person's jobs listed, so everything can be kept track of easily. Personally I worked on a few smaller projects. Google Digital LiteracyAt Help Desk we are creating a set of instruction guidelines for middle school teachers to teach about cyber safety and about the students watching their presence digitally. My group was assigned to create curriculum for teaching about online scams. For more on digital literacy: http://ikeepsafe.org/educators_old/more/google/ New Ticket System?At the suggestion of Tobin, I conducted more research about potential new ticket system where a ticket could be assigned to multiple people and was still free. What I found was that all of the services that were free, required that the user download a program and host it locally, which we don't have the resources to do. So Zoho is here to stay as it is free and allows for unlimited technicians. Things to Look For This SemesterHelp Desk is doing a few projects as a whole:
With 2015 coming to an end, Help Desk continues to work on various projects and looking at cool apps for teachers. If you have any questions or need help visit Northgate Help Desk's website for more: http://northgatehelpdesk.weebly.com Weebly Interview
FlubarooA new extension for Google Spreadsheets, Flubaroo allows teachers to use Google Forms and Spreadsheets to create and grade forms as quizzes and tests. First the teacher creates a Google Form with all the questions that the students then answer online. Second, the teacher uses Flubaroo to grade the responses and it will give you each student's response as well as statistics for the quiz and each question. Hour of CodeAlong with those projects Tobin also had Help Desk participate in the Hour of Code session for Computer Science week on December 7. At the website Code.org, they have a coding learning tutorial where anybody can, in an hour, complete the short course and know a little more about coding. Plus at the end you get a great certificate to show off. More NewsApp ReviewAbout one week ago, i posted my next app review for Remind, a teacher and student communication app. I highly recommend checking it out. Ticket System UpdateThe Zoho ticket system is now updated so there can be home pages where anyone can submit a ticket. I have posted a form on the front page and I am working on getting one on the Northgate Help Desk one. Once this is set up, anybody at Northgate can submit a problem, this will allow Northgate Help Desk to be more effective at assessing and managing problems.
Week 9, 10 and 11 have seen a change in the pace and structure in help desk. From a ticket system to helping with strategic support. StructureAfter an interview with the BHS help desk, done by my classmates David Pearl and Henry Blanchelle, we decided to change the structure of the class. Now instead of having set days where we have assigned projects for each day, we are assigned tickets on a help desk ticket system called Zoho, which I set up as part of my ILE. ZohoAs my ILE, I got Zoho ticket sytem up and running for our class so now everyone can have their assigned tickets to know what work then need to complete. in this ticket system, we can assign tickets to member, which everyone in the class signed up for, and give them due dates for their problems, or tickets, to be solved, as well as the info that goes with that. Spread SheetsI also helped Ms. McClelland with creating and organizing a spreadsheet for strategic support tutors. I organized different teachers into their departments on a different spreadsheet, as well as having a master one. The original spreadsheet was very messy so I changed the formatting to be more concise and the same throughout, as you can see below. BoincFinally, along with David Pearl and Nathan Sunbury, we have up multiple old Macs that we are using to run a scientific research program called Boinc. With Boinc the program allows you to connect with one on dozens of research projects, from cancer cell research, to star identification. What your computer tually does, is process all the data captured by scientists and processes it, for science! The Powtoon I created for Help Desk is now on YouTube!
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiEIbldEc3Y Finishing up the eighth week at help desk, I have completed many new projects including: a letter to the principal, a Google Hangout, and an App Review. Along with that I have found the time to get progress done on my ILE. Letter and HangoutsOnce that was passed on, I worked on recording a Google Hangout about the Individual Learning Endeavor. A Google Hangout, is a Google Application where you can talk and see other people in real time, much like a Skype or Facetime call. Duolingo
Northgate Ticket SystemThe remainder of the week i was working on creating or finding a ticket system that will help improve the work flow of Help Desk once finished. First I tried creating one with google forms and spreadsheets, but after finishing the form, I realized that that system wouldn't be able to communicate and track the inputs effectively. I need a system that had more organization and also had a system where the owner could assign projects to other people on the help desk. So I turned to looking online for a ticket system. Turns out there are actually tons of ticket systems out there for people to use, but most all cost a reoccurring fee. Of the free ones, I tried a program called Spiceworks. This program could track input and problems, but it would be a lot of inefficient hassle to get others on with the system to look at the database and be assigned problems. So second I tried another program called Zoho, where we can have unlimited other "technicians" on the help desk, to be assigned and see the problems. |
AboutBi-Monthly write up of progress. Archives
March 2017
Categories |