Community House Media/Technology Support

Course
Course Description
Welcome to the CHMS Media/Technology Support Course. This course will examine various problems
and needs throughout Community House Middle School. Each semester, we will be aggressive in
seeking out the problems and needs of faculty and students and addressing them with solutions we
create.
To maintain a good grade in this class, you will need to perform several tasks.This course will elicit and
require skills that are relevant to most of todays professions. You will be instructing, creating, curating
and organizing information for faculty and students. This may come in the form of a blog that you
manage for the department. It may be building electronic resources for one of your teachers. It may be
building a set of instructional videos and text-based materials for the school to use.
The help desk experience will help you to concentrate and grow your talents in the right areas of need.
You will choose one of the following pathways for the first semester. The help desk teacher will make
sure all pathways have students assigned.

Course Goals and Objectives

The Help Desk course is a hands-on study of technology integration in an educational context. Students
will be required to assess problem sets throughout the day and define the best approach to addressing or
solving the problem. In addition to solving problems for their classmates and teachers, students will be
required to complete and maintain several running projects that address problems or solutions in
educational technology integration.

Help Desk Pathways

1) Multi-Media Creators (School News, & Content Creation)
Students will be responsible for authoring and maintaining weekly school communication using any
school approved media platform. Each day there should be new content populating on the site, therefore
you will need to find and create information to post. This can come in the form of a weekly podcast,
interviews, original posts, reaction posts to current events regarding technology, or short documentaries
that you create on specific subjects. Regardless of the subject, this site should be flourishing with new
content each week. Students can also conduct their daily school news announcements. Students will use
a shared drive between teachers and students that allows the content to be updated weekly.

2) Student Trainers
The Student Trainers will be responsible for helping teachers and students with technology. This job will
require an expertise in a variety of applications or the willingness to learn new applications. Also, this
path of the course will require competency in Google Apps for Education (GAFE).You will conduct

tutorials to teachers, staff and students who sign up for one-on-one services. You will also visit
classrooms when requested and assist teachers in using digital tools (such as GAFE). You may be asked
to present at staff meetings to help develop teachers skills in areas of interest or need. When you are
not training, you will be developing tutorial screencast videos, and scripts.

3) Instructional Application: Web and Mobile Device App Evaluators

This pathway will help teachers and staff with integrating Web-based applications and mobile device
apps into the classroom. You will investigate the availability of online resources and apps that pertain to
all content areas, analyze their effectiveness, plan their integration into classroom instruction and coteach with the classroom teacher to introduce them. Students in this pathway will also be responsible for
creating and maintaining the schools Digital Tools website, working closely with the schools
Instructional Technology Facilitator and the Media Coordinator.

4) Help Desk Management

This pathway will help you develop your skills in learning to manage a Help Desk. You will learn
technical tasks that will be marketable. When you are not troubleshooting machines, you will be helping
to track inventory, enter damage reports into a shared spreadsheet with the schools technology
facilitator and other tasks related to the management of the Help Desk.

5) Computer Science/Coding
Students that choose this pathway will use various coding applications to create simulations and games
as tools for communicating help desk procedures, tips and tricks. This group can also collaborate with
the other help desk groups to enhance the functionality of their products and projects. Students will
need to be self starters and comfortable with online courses as a lot of the coding will be from online
courses.

6) Library Science (all students)

Exploration and critique of YA literature. Students will read 4 books and will write 3 annotations with
the purpose of enticing the reader. Students will develop skills in the evaluation of YA literature by
learning about the criteria used to judge the quality of fiction and nonfiction books, They will then
critique one of the books read.

7) All Students
All students will help with daily tasks in the media center. These tasks include, but are not limited to,
checking students in and out, making ID badges, maintaining printers and paper, helping teachers and
students with tasks associated with the media center, and delivering technology to and from the
classrooms.

8) Student Ambassadors (Off-Site Support)

Students in this pathway will travel to Hawk Ridge to provide technical support at lower grade levels.
You will be responsible for checking in with the appropriate supervisor. You will need a sign permission
slip in order to walk over to Hawk Ridge.

Tasks, Assignments & Grading

You will be graded for the quarter based on your completion of the Help Desk Journal (30%), your
participation in the Help Desk Meetings (10%), and an overall performance-based rubric assessed upon
project completion and at the end of the quarter (60%).

1) Help Desk Daily Journal (30%)

Regardless of the pathway you choose, you will document your productivity each day via a Google Doc
journal. At the end of each class or each night, you will post your progress for the day. The timestamp
will be reviewed for each daily post to encourage effective time management. This will be a running
dialogue of your Help Desk progress to support your contribution to the class so you must maintain
productivity and transparency.
Each post should include what you accomplished for the day, who you helped or what you learned.
Depending on which path you take and what you accomplish for the day, your post may come in the
form of a link, video or brief blurb. It could also come in the form of a problem you are having and your
attempt to reconcile that problem. Help Desk is not a study hall; however, there may be times you have
to do other class work or study for a test. Use your discretion and time management skills to integrate
this time into the class so that it does not affect your performance.
Help Desk Journal Rubric
Criteria
Adheres to Deadlines
Thorough Completion
Quality of Evidence Submitted /
Problem-Solving Skills
Demonstrated

Poor
1
1
1

Fair
2
2
2

Average
3
3
3

Good
4
4
4

Excellent
5
5
5

A+ = 15 points = 100%
A = 13-14 points = 96%
B = 10-12 points = 89%
C = 7-9 points = 82% D = 4-6 points = 75% F = <3 points = 68%

2) Help Desk Meetings (10%)

We will conduct weekly meetings to check in on how things are going. Most of the time you will be
working independently throughout this course, so this will be our opportunity to check in with each
other and address any questions. You will be evaluated weekly on your contributions to the discussion
and your interactions with your peers.

Help Desk Meeting Rubric

Criteria
Contributes to discussion
Supports peers appropriately with
encouragement, feedback and advice
Demonstrates problem-solving and
critical-thinking skills

Poor
1
1

Fair
2
2

Average
3
3

Good
4
4

Excellent
5
5

A+ = 15 points = 100%
A = 13-14 points = 96%
B = 10-12 points = 89%
C = 7-9 points = 82% D = 4-6 points = 75% F = <3 points = 68%

3) Performance Tasks (60%)

You will be assessed on at least three performance tasks during each of the 9 weeks. You are responsible
for scheduling at least three performance-based tasks to demonstrate your skills and learning in your
pathway. If you do not schedule the tasks, you will receive a zero for any incomplete tasks. You may
complete additional performance tasks to improve your grade. The tasks can be assessed by the Help
Desk Manager, Technology Help Desk Liaison, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Media Specialist
and/or classroom Teachers/ Administrators. You are responsible for providing the reviewer with the
rubric and turning it into your teacher.

Example of Performance Tasks

1) Students can recreate a vintage video game.
2) Ambassadors can track usage or breakage analytics.

Help Desk Performance Rubric

Criteria
Quality of work completed
Works cooperatively within group
Demonstrates problem-solving,
independence, self-motivation and
critical-thinking skills

Poor
1
1
1

Fair
2
2
2

Average
3
3
3

Good
4
4
4

Excellent
5
5
5

A+ = 15 points = 100%
A = 13-14 points = 96%
B = 10-12 points = 89%
C = 7-9 points = 82% D = 4-6 points = 75% F = <3 points = 68%