Tech Orientation for New/Transfer Students During the Year

There are so many positive components to our Tech Support Internship (TSI) class here at Leyden.  Those of you following our 1:1 digital evolution over the past 2+ years may already know that TSI is our Level 1 tech support for the entire district and all of the students work on learning pathways when they are not actively engaged with a support ticket.  Yet another way that TSI is used is to provide a tech orientation for every new/transfer student that arrives throughout the school year.  Here's a list of what gets covered:

• Proper Chromebook Usage & Care
• Storing/carrying the Chromebook (case usage)
• Preventing screen damage
• Preventing charging port damage
• Introduction to the Chromebook
• Logging into the Chromebook
• Capabilities of the Chromebook
• Finding files/downloads
• E-Mail
• Sending, replying to, and forwarding emails
• Organizing emails into folders/labels
• Using tasks to stay organized
• Google Drive
• Creating a document, spreadsheet, and presentation
• Sharing Docs (view vs. edit permissions)
• Creating new folders
• Using/accessing automatic class folders (set up by Teacher Dashboard)
• Google Calendar
• Creating new calendars
• Accessing automatic class calendars (set up by Teacher Dashboard)
• Adding events to a calendar
• Chrome Apps & Extensions
• Accessing the Chrome Web Store
• Extensions vs. Apps
• Adding extensions and apps
• Common educational extensions and apps
• Chromebook Troubleshooting
• Shutdown vs. sleep mode
• Clearing the history/cache
• Deleting extensions
• Accessing the Internet at home
• Home Access System (our student management portal)
• Logging into HAC
• Grade checking and other features
• OpenClass (our content/learning management system)
• Purpose of OpenClass
• Accessing classes in OpenClass

Sure, this may take an entire period to complete, but the new/transfer students walk out of TSI connected to our critical systems and with a general understanding of how we operate in our 1:1 environment.  It's an invaluable service offered by our TSI students and it provides them with additional ownership over what we're doing here at Leyden.  The best part of all... this service was completely thought up, designed, presented, and implemented by the students and teachers!

Leyden TSI rocks!