Education

Techsperts to the Rescue

By Elizabeth Rich — November 29, 2007 1 min read
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No one doubts the ability of students to find their way around a computer—sometimes to their advantage, sometimes to their detriment. Teachers can often fall at the other end of the spectrum. Occasionally tripped up or stymied by computer problems in the classroom, teachers are also increasingly objects of cyberbullying courtesy of their students. How to make the most of this odd marriage?

At Maine’s Nokomis Regional High School, tech savvy students are being used to solve teacher tech problems, according to The Christian Science Monitor. “Tech sherpas,” as they are known in the hallways, do everything from recovering computer files to building Web sites. Teachers are enjoying the benefits—“Something that would take me a couple of hours, they can do in five minutes,” says teacher Jim DiFrederico. And the district is enjoying the results—improved communication, greater respect for teachers, the potential for higher test scores, and skills that will translate to the workplace.

Kern Kelley, the district’s technology integrator who channels the requests from teachers to the students, sees success in the sherpas’ future, “…later in life, [the students] won’t be the ones sitting in the cubicle working, they’ll be the boss.”

A version of this news article first appeared in the Web Watch blog.