The Highlands High School Help Desk manages the software and configurations of all of the MacBooks of students in the high school and middle school, making sure any problems with them are fixed. The goal of the people who work there is to provide as much support to students regarding technological issues so they can continue learning with technology.
This service can troubleshoot basic problems with technology, but also those more in depth. If any important applications or anything else is not working due to technical issues, the computer can be wiped to its original state if any files are interfering with their function. Although this means that everything someone has will be deleted, a student will have a chance to save important files to their Google Drive beforehand, and most of the time everything works after the wipe.
Physical problems with computers are unfortunately commonplace at Highlands, such as broken screens due to the more vulnerable ones on the models schools in FTIS received a few years ago that are used now.
Luckily, the help desk can repair MacBooks by sending them to Apple. Within days, they will be fixed and returned to students. During this period, students will receive loaner computers so that they can still have one to use for school.
After students get their computers back, the loaner will be returned to the help desk so that others can use them.
The policy says that students are eligible to get their Macbooks physically repaired for free only two times, so they should try to take care of them.
“As far as students coming in here, the biggest thing that’s hard to help them I would say is making sure they understand that these computers are much more sensitive and fragile than a lot of people treat them. They can’t be used as a folder, you can’t put stuff in here and shouldn’t be because that will crack the screen,” Help Desk manager Joe Sumpter said.
Located in the middle school near the library, students can access the help desk at any time during school hours to diagnose problems with computers.
Students who take the help desk class learn how to ask questions so they can figure out what the technology issue is and solve it, which helps them have experience if they are planning on having jobs related to customer service.
“It gives kids raw experience doing something that they could do out in the real world for a job, and also as far as our school-wide environment, we need the MacBooks in order to work for kids to get their stuff done, so having students to be able to help complete that process is good for the school,” Computer Science Principles teacher Sam Volpenhein said.
The high school and middle school are lucky to have a service that students can directly go during the school day to seamlessly diagnose and fix problems as well as to support students.
