By Wyatt Shiffler
The 1:1 Student Help Desk is a group of students who are assisting in the setup and support of the new 1:1 computer project at Penn Manor High School. The technicians are Andrew Lobos, Nick Joniec, Collin Enders, Aaron Jandzio and Ben Thomas, all of whom are seniors.
Involved students take the help desk as an independent study class for a honors credit. As of today, there are five students in the student help desk. With 1:1 laptops already in use, the help desk technicians have been busy.
“Currently there are 88 students participating in the 1:1 laptop program.” said Joniec. More students are joining the help desk to address next semester’s increase in laptop use.
Lobos wrote software to set up all the computers automatically. It works by sending the operating system to each computer simultaneously. It also configures all the settings automatically for each laptop.
This allows them to deploy a batch of 100 computers in under 10 minutes. Lobos also developed a program to track support issues and laptop inventory.
“The student tech team has been incredibly helpful to our efforts. The team has been instrumental in assisting with the preparation of laptops for the 1:1 pilot and helping with the distribution and troubleshooting of technical issues.” said Charlie Reisinger, district technology director, in an email.
Joniec works on developing documentation to help students use their computers and posts on the 1:1 resource site. He also works on fixing laptop hardware.
Enders and Jandzio do software support for students when they have questions about how to use their laptop.
Thomas works with Lobos to develop code for the ticket and inventory system. He also works on developing other software projects for the 1:1 computers.
The Open Campus students have already found the help desk useful, as a few of them have had trouble with the computers. As laptops get damaged or the students need help operating the laptops, they just come to the help desk located in the library,and the team fixes the problem.