Yesterday was a very special day in Help Desk, we got to go on a field trip to Google. We left at about 7:30 and got to the Google campus around 9:00. Our tour wasn't until 10:00, so we explored the campus until our guide arrived. We went to the Android sculpture garden and checked out the Google Street View car that was parked in front. I rode around on a Google bike for a bit, and then our host, Angela Larkin came to pick us up.
We went to a conference room where we watched a presentation about 10x Thinking and did a design challenge. 10x Thinking is a way of approaching a problem where you don't just think how to make something slightly better than it is currently, but you figure out how to make it ten times better than it is currently. We were told to use this approach to envision schools 50 years in the future. In groups, we came up with ideas for future schools by using the design process. After eating lunch, we went on a tour of the Google campus. We walked around the Google Plex, the main hub of activity on campus, and we would have gone to the Google Garage, but a meeting was going on, so we skipped it. We then went to the Google visitor center museum, and looked around at the nap-pods, massage chairs, and ball pit, as well as a wrap around immersive Google Earth experience. We got to see several iterations of the Chromebook and other Google computers. When we went back to our room at about 1:00, we were asked some sample Google interview questions, even though they are being phased out. "What should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle? How many golf balls fit in a school bus? There are no real answers to these questions, but the way that you choose to get the answer is what recruiters are looking for. After our tour, we went to the Google merchandise store, but sadly, we didn't get any free stuff. The trip to Google was definitely the highlight of the month in help desk, possibly even the whole year. (For pictures of the trip, check the help desk twitter @NHSHelpDesk)
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We Need More Power!This reflection is only for the past week, so it will be rather short.
This week, my main engagement was working on my ILE, setting up the BOINC computers. I moved all of the Mac Pros to the server room so that Michael can create a makerspace in the area that they were before. The only issue with moving them into the server room is that there is not enough power to run more than 2 computers at a time. This severely limits our computing capability, and I will not be able to continue to set up the windows computer. Aside from a delayed, ILE, I have been working on my part of our digital literacy project, creating a screencast for LastPass. I had a previous screencast, but it was not comprehensive, and I voiced over it afterwards. This time I just ran through the whole thing in one go, and it came out better. That's all I have for this week, be sure to check back soon for updates. New Projects, New ProspectsThe first few weeks of the semester in help desk, we started several new projects. I got started on my new ILE, worked on creating a cirriculum about digital literacy, and created a screencast tutorial about Zaption.
That's all for this time, be sure to check back soon for new updates. I'm planning to make considerable progress on my ILE in the next few weeks.
New Semester, New Help Desk As Help Desk began to reach the end of the first semester, we started wrapping up our current projects and getting ready for the new semester.
That's all for this update, be sure to check back soon for more content.
Netflix, Flubaroo, and King of Math This update encompasses all that I have done since Thanksgiving break.
That's all for now, but be sure to check back soon for more updates!
Help Desk the Way it Was Meant To Be The past few weeks in help desk have seen a shift in attitude and structuring. After a conference with the Burlington Help Desk in Burlington, Massachusetts, Mr. Tobin decided to loosen the reins on our Northgate Help Desk and allow us to better do what we are supposed to do: help people. By moving away from a regimented schedule of assignments and due dates, we are better able to work on the projects that we have at hand. We don’t have to stop short in whatever we are doing to turn in an assignment, hence something like weekly reflections might include three weeks’ worth of material as opposed to two.
It's the Little Things... Weeks 7 and 8 were cut rather short due to teacher-in-service days, school-wide rallies, PSAT testing, and other interruptions. As such, most of my projects these weeks are unfinished, were assigned to someone else, or only involved making small improvements on existing material. There is not much to write this time around, but here are the highlights:
Things That go BOINC in the Night Weeks 5 and 6 involved more offline work on various hardware projects, which take longer than the short projects such as building websites or reviewing apps.
News from the DeskIn weeks 3 and 4 help desk began to settle in to a routine, but there were some revisions to the original plan. Our first change was to eliminate Google ninjas from the weekly program. It was decided that most people already knew most of the material, and Google is poorly designed. Mr. Tobin came up with a much better way to spend class time. He instituted the Challenge Program. The Challenge Program is where Mr. Tobin groups us and assigns a technology task to fulfill over the course of a week or two. It can be anything from creating an online referral system to 3D printing an object
>> Initializing Program: Northgate Help Desk.tbn_There was a certain learning curve to first week of class, and it took a while to go over all that was expected of us in help desk. But by the end of the first week, help desk was up and running. We began by making websites, which will be the place where we put all of our work throughout the semester. Every day of class, help desk students post a 5 - minute notes entry, which document daily progress. These culminate in a weekly reflection blog post to show what we accomplished that week. During the week, we work on App Reviews, Tech Analysis, Screencast Tutorials, and our Individual Learning Endeavor. And of course we are on call to help teachers with technology problems.
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AboutSemi-regular summary of progress. Archives
April 2016
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