Interview with Ms. Neil

We recently had the pleasure of engaging in an interview with Ms. Neil, a teacher from Florida who is looking to start up a help desk at her school. We talked about how Rockets Help Desk got started up and why we decided to join. Next, she asked us why we feel other schools should consider this type of learning in classrooms. To see and hear us answer these questions and talk about how we got the program off the ground, the biggest challenges along the way, our favorite memories, and other reflections on our program, you can watch the interview below. Also, Ms. Neil wrote her own post on the interview which is also worth checking out.

Google Hangout with Catherine Carr

Last Friday afternoon, we interviewed Catherine Carr, CIO and Vice President of Marketing for Haiku Deck, through Google Hangout. From Reading, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington we discussed the future of technology while also touching upon Haiku Deck's features and the new program Haiku Deck Zuru. Catherine was pleasant to speak with and excited to share her ideas and experiences with us.

We started the interview talking about the inspiration behind Catherine’s work with Haiku Deck. After that, we moved on to ask about how technology continues to inspire her every day. She responded that simple apps and web software really fascinate her and help her inspiration process. Considering her work with technology, we asked about her education and how it led to her job as CIO (Chief Inspiration Officer) for Haiku Deck. Catherine mentioned the importance of writing and communication with many different kind of people, no matter what career path a person chooses.

Catherine was very genuine with her answers and was attentive to our questions. She made a great interviewee and we loved talking to her! See our Google Hangout with her here.

Google Hangout with Swaroop Raju

The other day, Rockets Help Desk did a Google Hangout with Swaroop Raju, creator and cofounder of eduCanon. EduCanon is a great tool for teachers, allowing them to take an online video and then edit it to fit your students' needs. To learn more about eduCanon, you can read Rockets Help Desk's recent tutorial blog post.

Teachers all around the country are already using eduCanon.  This year, eduCannon was listed in EdSurge's top 10 apps. You can see the article if you click here. 

We asked him what he likes EduCannon; he learns best from video, being able to pause and rewind the video is what helps him learn. We questioned him about his inspiration for eduCannon, how he works with teachers and students, and his future plans for the app. 

Below is the video of the Google Hangout:


To keep up with Swaroop, you can visit his twitter.

GHO with Andy Marcinek

          Today we engaged in a Google Hangout with Andrew Marcinek. Mr. Marcinek has been a technology integrator throughout several school districts, in which he has helped bring importance to the student voice through the use of help desk programs. As an innovator he has created something that has been expanded upon in various schools such as Burlington, Groton-Dunstable, and currently in the Grafton  Public School system. Andrew has inspired many to engage in this student development philosophy including Rockets Help Desk.      

        We chatted about his personal experience with help desks; he believes that the process of creating a help desk can be integral to a school. It all started with him wondering why students are not a more important part of decision making in their own schools. Students are more tech savvy in general, therefore they are a useful tool in better understanding technology.

        He then vitalized the program through interview processing in order to build the most effective team possible. Below is the entire Hang Out, you can watch hear more about his insight. If you want even more information visit his blog and get a copy of his book, The 1:1 Roadmap  available now.
 

Google Hangout with Reshan Richards

Today we talked with the creator of one of our favorite apps, Explain Everything. Reshan Richards teaches in New Jersey and is the Director of Education Technology in his school; the self described app designer has a blog, The Constructivist Toolkit and can be contacted through twitter.
We met Reshan at the MassCUE conference in October and attended his presentation on his teaching philosophy and his app. Afterwards we introduced ourselves and told him a little bit about Rockets Help Desk.  We asked him if he would do a Google Hangout with us, which we did today.



In our chat, we asked Reshan about his own use of technology in the classroom and his experience in a one-to-one school. Reshan gave honest and in depth answers about how supportive the administration was toward the tech integration at his school, parent and student response, and why he felt the need to create an app that centered on giving students choice and freedom in an educated way.

To hear more from Reshan Richards watch his Ted Talk "About Assessment".

First Demo Slam!

On October 16th, Rockets Help Desk was invited to participate in a Demo Slam with Burlington High School Help Desk and others from our GEG Hangout on Air earlier this month. A Demo Slam is when you present how to use an application, website, or any other basic tutorial. Demo Slams take place between multiple parties in order to find the most entertaining and informative way to convey a tutorial and teach a broad audience without boring them. They can have more specified rules too! In this case the teachers involved created a rule list for what might have been the first ever solely student run Demo Slam.

Teachers used a Google Doc to communicate and plan the Demo Slam,

The Demo Slam started at 10am but since classes do not break until 10:35, Megan and I entered a  little bit later. We spent the first few minutes of the period preparing something informative and fun to present. After a while, we both decided to show an app called ChatterPix. This app can be used to create a 60 second video making a photo talk. Here is one of a dog speaking Spanish.

Megan and I did a demo on ChatterPix. Here we are showing a talking tissue box.

After we demo slammed, we talked a bit about our blog and some of the things the Rockets Help Desk is planning to do next year. Overall it was an exciting experience and helped immensely with learning more about tutorials in an exciting medium. Hopefully we can do it again and if we get the chance, I definitely would like to have more prep time so we could not only demo the app but also show other samples students had made and how it can be integrated into classroom. Below is the edited version of  the Google Hangout we did to present the demos. I hope to see some of these lovely faces at the MassCUE conference next week.

Connecting Students with a Help Desks Hangout

Rockets Help Desk was invited by Jennifer Scheffer from Burlington High School to participate in a Google Hangout on Air panel discussion about how schools around New England are leveraging student genius with student tech teams.  It is all part of Connected Educator Month with the Massachusetts Google Educators Group.




We learned a lot about how different tech team programs are designed based on the needs in their particular school and district.  While we were the least experienced help desk on the panel, we felt like we both contributed to and learned a lot from the experience.

Read about what other help desks gained from the experience and learn more about their programs at their websites:

• Burlington High School Help Desk - Jennifer Scheffer
• Lynnfield High School Student Helpdesk - Janice Alpert and Jenn Judkins
• Groton-Dunstable Regional High School Tech Task Force - Audra Kaplan
• Hamilton-Wenham Help Desk - Eric Tracy
• Cape Elizabeth School Library Learning Commons E-Team - Jonathan Werner

I know for sure that some members of my own educator Professional Learning Network from around the country watched the Hangout live on YouTube: Scott Capro from New Jersey, Tammy Neil from Florida, Sarah Thomas from Washington D.C., and Jessica Raleigh from Colorado.   Some even showed it in their classes in the hopes that their students will want to start of their own help desks.  Scott sent me this quick picture he took as he watched us on his laptop from his classroom.

Rockets Help Desk was in a GEG Hangout on Air this morning! So proud of them! Thx @jlscheffer #thankateenager pic.twitter.com/5mvibrKaxq
— Kerry Gallagher (@KerryHawk02) October 1, 2014

Those of us that were on the panel are looking forward to help desk students meeting later this month at MassCUE, and doing another Hangout on Air within the next two weeks to exchange more ideas!