Students as Tech Support

This is from one of my presentations at the 2011 Building Learning Communities Conference this summer. The best part is about 20 minutes in where the presentation is taken over by one of my students Kris Redman. He interacts with the educators in the room talking about ways he works with teachers as tech support in R.S.U. #19.

Students as Tech Support BLC11

One of the best aspects of the session came after the camera had been turned off. Kris was chatting with Dave McCollum from Tech Smith about how the skills that he was showing, his poise with adults and his ability to communicate, are skills that cannot be represented by a standard paper resume. And with this video, he would be able to show a real example of what he's capable of. To be honest, for me the most important part of presenting at a conference like BLC is as an educational opportunity for my students. Anytime we can show students that we are learning, just like they are, is always a good thing. (And helping teachers is an added bonus.)

Building Learning Communities Conference 2011

'My students watching Marcos Torres Keynote at BLC 2011.'

Another Building Learning Communities Conference has now come and gone with a slew of amazing presentations, conversations, and ideas. There's too much to unpack here, but I think what surprised/encouraged me the most was people talking about education and using the word love. At least three speakers spoke of love, not in the abstract context of a teacher loving their job or subject area, but how when educators passionately love learning (and working with children) the rest will follow. For my part I discussed district wide implementation of Google Apps for Education and Students as Tech Support.

Unquestionably the coolest thing that happened was presenting with one of my students, Kris Redman. He really knocked it out of the park talking with educators about having students help teachers with technology. In fact, after the session while I was picking up, he convinced TechSmith representative Dave McCollom to give copies of Camtasia to our entire high school!

I'm very proud of him and need to let Dave know that Kris won't be available for employment for a few years yet. :)