Highlands High School has gained a new adviser for the help desk, named Joe Sumpter.
Sumpter started as a biology teacher for 10 years at his old school, Mount Healthy. He then moved into administrative work before he found his love for technology.
“I see what has happened over the times I have been a teacher. It went from students sometimes using computers, to students having to have a computer in order to do work.”
He then added that there is usually a disconnect between students and teachers when it comes to technology due to kids having grown up with technology.
“I realized that there are a lot of adults in education who have not necessarily progressed with their technology skills as much as students have. It is starting to become hard for school districts to progress in the way they want to progress.”
At his old school, only adults would do repairs on the Chromebooks that they had; students did not have the opportunity to help fix the Chromebooks unless it was for community service.
“When I learned here that it is offered as a class and kids get a credit for it and they are here for a bell every day and it is their schedule, I thought it was awesome and thought that is what we needed to be doing is teaching students technical skills and interacting with customers and being able to listen and fix whatever issue is at hand.”
The final goal with the help desk is to ensure that computers don’t always have to be sent to Apple, but instead, students and faculty can fix it right at school.
Broken screens for MacBooks is the most common problem that is seen throughout the school.
“When you go to grab a MacBook, if you hold it on the corner, all the weight is dangling and then the screen cracks from not being able to withstand that weight.”
Another issue seen is with the Wifi within the MacBook. MacBooks can sometimes not load as quickly as they need to be and the easiest solution is to shut it down and turn it back on.
“The biggest issue we had recently is that students did not have their computers up to date to the newest version, so they were not able to open the state tests and the ACT on their MacBooks.”
Joe Sumpter is excited to be the new help desk advisor and to get the opportunity to work with different students for a whole class period. The progress in the help desk and the student participation will change drastically with Sumpter.
