Junior High Class Saves District Money
Marsi Anderson’s computer technology class at Pineville Junior High School is saving the school district money by doing basic work on the school’s computers.
Marsi Anderson’s computer technology class at Pineville Junior High School is saving the school district money by doing basic work on the school’s computers.
Marsi Anderson said the principal talked to her about starting the class at the end of last year, and this is the first year for the class, which includes seventh- and eighth-graders. Since the class started, the students have become regular IT problem solvers in their building.
Marsi Anderson said, “I planned and planned over the summer for this class, thinking there would be a lot of basics I would have to teach them, but the very first day they were able to fix five computers in the computer lab. They have great instincts.”
She noted the whole district has three IT techs, “So if it’s something we can handle here, it goes a lot faster.”
Usually, it is a simple issue like cables being unplugged, she said.
Student Dayson Fickle said sometimes students need to update software or do other simple tasks that do not need the IT techs’ attention.
Marsi Anderson has no formal training in IT, just troubleshooting experience. Her husband, Dusty Anderson, is one of the IT techs for the district. He is a network administrator. She uses him for questions, she said.
“I am their math teacher, and problem-solving is a necessity, so I jumped at the chance for this,” she said.
Dusty Anderson has come to class a couple of times and taught the students how to make patch cables and how to salvage parts from nonworking computers, she said. They know how to put a new end on a cable if it is bad, she said.
Dusty Anderson said, “I’m proud of them. There’s not a lot of kids I would let mess with the computers. They’ve gone through a lot of training and they do a good job. They certainly make my job easier.”
In addition to salvaging old computer parts, the class has also learned to vacuum the dust out of computers, which also saves the IT department time. They also clean the air filters on the projectors in the classrooms. Marsi Anderson said now teachers will ask her team to come look at a problem before putting in a ticket. Every time the team fixes it, that saves on mileage for the IT techs, which saves money for the district.
Marsi Anderson said her team fixes about four to five computers a week.
“It’s given these guys a sense of ownership over our machines,” she said.
Student Andrew Watkins said, “We’re working on a 3D printer right now. We just installed the motherboard.”
Marsi Anderson said, “This came as a kit. The primary reason we needed this is the STEM class has been needing one for some of their lessons. We bargained our way into this kit and we can share it.”
Student Eli Jackson excitedly said, “We get victory cats every time someone fixes a printer.”
Marsi Anderson explained that, whenever Jackson fixes a printer, he prints the image of a cat and calls it a victory cat. There is a collage of them on a filing cabinet in the classroom. She said the first thing they will print with the 3D printer is a cat.
“When you’re fixing a computer, you’re just learning things as you’re doing it,” Fickle said. “Sometimes it’s something you’ve never heard of and you find a whole new way you never knew you could fix a computer.”
He said they get a lot of help from Google and Microsoft’s website.
Watkins said in the early days of the class, the students would work on a computer for a while then give up and get their teacher for help.
“But now we persevere,” he said.