MassCUE Reflection |
Some background information before we get started:
Freshman Year (2015-16): School devices and all personal devices (phones, laptops, etc) were allowed on the BPS Network. All was well (from a student perspective atleast) Sophomore Year (2016-17): In January of 2017, a somewhat radical experiment was implemented to limit the number of wireless devices connected to the network. Excessive devices on the network caused connectivity issues (personally, I did not notice this). After the experiment, the verdict was to limit WiFi connection to a school issued deivce (for most, this was an iPad). Soon, havoc broke loose among the upperclassmen, who pleaded that their iPad's were useless (and rightfully so, they were old and slow) and that they needed their laptop's and personal devices connected in order to do schoolwork. This was reasonable, so for a while, the school allowed upperclassmen to have a school device and a personal device connected. Junior Year (2017-18) - the year of the bootleg network: The password to a network called "BPSDevice" was leaked and many people in the school began to connect phones, laptops, and other personal devices to this network. This went on for essentially the whole entire year, with people being connected to this network (even though they weren't supposed to, but I can't judge because I too was connected to it). All was well. Senior Year (2018-Present): All of a sudden, the BPSDevice network was removed, and chaos broke out again, as many personal devices were disconnected. This is currently still an ongoing cat and mouse game between students finding the password, the IT Department changing the network, the network coming back online, etc. My outlook: The current policy (for juniors and seniors atleast) allows us to have a singular device connected to the network. Most upperclassmen use their laptops to do a lot of work, but also need access to our iPad, and the current policy requires students to give up their iPad in order to get a personal device connected to the network. Me personally, I need my laptop for Computer Science and VHS courses, but need my iPad for Notability and notes. My solution: Allow kids to have one personal device and one school device on the network. This whole network situation is a cat and mouse game. Us students are smart - no matter what IT does, it is inevitable that we will end up finding the network password and connecting our personal devices to it. We aren't asking for radical change, and aren't asking IT to simply let us connect every single one of our devices to the network. Maybe start with something small - allow a personal device and a school device to be connected to the school "BPS" network, and see how that effects the network speed and bandwidth. I'm sure that the above solution would result in more productive and generally happier students in school. |
The first few weeks of HelpDesk has been interesting and unique, to say the least. Throughout the first week, we were extremely preoccupied with Customer Service, in that many new students and freshmen were coming in and out of the HelpDesk to inquire about problems with their device. The main issue seemed to be network connection issues, so those were not too complicated to fix. While I definitely like the actual "help" aspect of HelpDesk, I definitely enjoyed it once all of the chaos died down so that we were able to zone in on some personal/independent projects.
The main project we worked on in these first few weeks was drone related technology. Initially, we worked on programming and flying the Parrot Mambo drones, which introduced us to basic programming and basic flying techniques. However, we were finally able to fly the real deal, the DJI Mavic Pro, and were able to get outside and capture some really high quality footage with the drone. You can check this footage out above! I'm certainly looking forward to using the drones more. Mr Wong also informed me that I will be attending the MassCUE conference in a couple of weeks, where we will be presenting our work with drones so I am looking forward to that. Another thing we have worked with was the Nintendo Labo, and although the intended audience for this product is young children, it actually seemed to be very beneficial for even high school aged kids. Esesntially, we created our own device using cardboard, and were able to incorporate the Nintendo Switch's controllers into our cardboard creation to play online games. My personal favorite was the vehicle kit (seen below) . Overall, the first couple of weeks of HelpDesk have given me a glimpse of what is to come later on in the year, and I am definitely looking forward to what is to come in the future! Nintendo Labo Vehicle Simulator: |