TECHIES GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND PART I

Wendy Edmondson and Sherry Westbrook
Pike County Elementary School

As a Tech person have you ever asked yourself “How can our Technical Staff offer something to all employees that would really benefit them professionally and personally”? After attending the GaETC Fall Conference 2004 a light bulb went on and we had the perfect answer – TECHIE TUESDAY’S!!

Beginning in January 2005 we began offering two one hour training classes each Tuesday immediately after school. These training classes are open to all school system employees

Our training classes have ranged from beginning “Where Is That Techie?” (basic computer troubleshooting techniques and resources), to intermediate “Where Did I Put That Document?” (file management), to Advanced GIMP (General Public License Image Manipulation Program).

Benefits being derived from Techie Tuesday’s are attendees are more comfortable and receptive to Tech’s, attendees are more comfortable with using computers, and attendees are receiving PLU credit for their attendance.

Techie Tuesday’s are working so well with the system staff that we are looking to offer these classes to parents as well in the 2005 – 2006 school year. However, it has not all been a bed of roses – follow-up and read:

“TECHIES GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND PART II”

to find out our pitfalls and drawbacks before you implement a training class in your school system.

Pitfalls encountered when implementing Techie Tuesday’s were few and far between. Pitfalls were organization, user level of experience, class sizes, and of course technical problems.

When organizing training in your school system avoid doing too much too soon. Draft out your classes for the entire year but only offer them 30 days at a time. You will avoid having to do a lot of canceling and re-scheduling due to system wide changes. Some classes may not get completed in the hour allowed and will require a Part II. By only offering 30 days at a time you have the flexibility to add a Part II.

Always consider that you will have attendees that know nothing about computers as well as attendees that use a computer daily. When organizing your classes, class descriptions need to indicate basic, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Also you need to make sure that your schedule includes a variety of each level.

Consider the level of your class and set your maximum attendees based on that. A basic or beginner class should have lower teacher ratio – these attendees will need more assistance. The intermediate and advanced classes can have higher teacher ratios – these attendees will need less assistance.

Always remember if “It can go wrong it will” – especially when dealing with technology. If possible have tech assistance available during your classes to “fix” the technology related problems. If you must do it alone do a trial run prior to the training class.

After 2 months of live training we would recommend all school systems starting a training program for their staff. The benefits derived from this program far out weight the pitfalls and drawbacks!!

(Clip Art derived from MicroSoft Word 2003.)

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