Giving Compass' Take:

• The author shares examples of tech clubs and classes that have helped students gain valuable expertise and increased IT capacity. 

• How can education donors fund more tech programming for students? 

• Read about how technology impacts civic education. 

Understanding how technology works seems to come easy to almost every person under the age of 21. Now, some schools are using tech clubs and classes to give students with these skills and interests the opportunity both to feed their thirst for knowledge and to gain valuable real-world experience assisting educators and others in the community in a tech support role.

This approach not only helps cash-strapped school districts grapple with increasing demands on their IT departments, but meets a need for career and technical educational (CTE) opportunities, with some students even able to earn accreditation in the process. Those who venture out of their schools to assist in the community are also learning the reward of helping others while honing their own skills.

Queens Technical High School in Long Island City, New York, which offers several CTE programs, has an after-school, in-house tech “support group” that troubleshoots, fixes and assists in the installation of any IT work in the building. The group works on SMART Boards, printers, networking printers/PCs, laptops, desktops, upgrades and other devices. At this point, the students are only working inside the building.

In the Prosper Independent School District, a class called Talon Tech trains students to maintain, repair and fix Chromebooks and other technology in the 4,000-student Prosper High School. The name Talon Tech is a nod to the school’s eagle mascot.

“It really helps the district by taking off a lot of the IT department’s workload,” said Michael Pflug, K-12 STEAM curriculum designer for the Texas district. “The students are trained to troubleshoot and even work with the teachers if there are problems.”

Read the full article about tech clubs and classes can boost IT capacity by Shawna De La Rosa at Education Dive.