Student Tech Leadership

Title/Name of Resource: Tech Yes Portal

Topic: Student Tech Leadership

 Source/Author:  

For free resources check out the”galaxy of possibilities” section
http://www.techyes.net/resources/  For information about the program (and related programs) $$
http://genyes.com/programs/techyes/

Intended Purpose:

The TechYes Web portal is to support participants (middle school students, advisors, and peer mentors) in a student tech leadership and certification  program for middle school teachers. 
(But wait…. Check out the collection of resources they have for these kids to use in their “tech leader role”  it offers a “galaxy of possibilities”  for us “older folks” they call tech integrators.  
You don’t have to be a logged in to access this wealth of resources

 Intended Audience:

The free resource collection could be used by student tech leaders, advisors, peer mentors (and ANY technology using educator)  .  Many resources organized by topic such as "music"  or "mathematics" under Rsources.

Resource Requirements:

The resource collection I’m focusing on is FREE. (you will need Internet Access to view it)  If you are interested in implementing the TechYes Program  at your school, you’ll need to buy the Starter Kit for $495, but as you will read below, lots of value here without spending a dime.

Justification:

There are many justification for incuding this program, but one of the reasons I'm putting it here is that it challenges the concept of a "checklist" of skills as a way to prove that you have tech literate.  Although the program does incude a table that specifically aligns each of its components to the ISTE NETS-Students,  it prides itself on the fact that it does not have a "tech skills list".

The TechYes certification program philosophy  is that tech skills are learned by applying them to significant work and not through a “watered down vocational checklist” (quote from the TechYes site).  Hmmmm sounds like good topic for an online discussion thread! ;-)

Now... I struggled about incuding it here, because there is a fee involved to purchase materials or programming .... BUT....I chose to include the resource here despite the fact that its not (all)  free, because there is MUCH Value in this web site without spending a dime.

1)      The section of the webportal that is accessible for FREE (collection of resources).
http://www.techyes.net/resources/ is incredible.

First I see value in the content. Check out the TUTORIALS ranging from email etiquette to programming.  As if that wasn’t enough value, check out the the GALAXY of resources – these kids (and their advisors, have collected great resources)

2)      The format of the Web Portal (i.e. a la del.icio.us) is very pleasant on the eyes and easy to use. The way they used tags and thumbnails  might be an inspiration for sections of our final  VTCITE product.

3)      The concept of student tech leadership is worth considering in and of itself by exploring the many, many many links on the GenYES section itself.  Since I work with middle school students at present, I spent most of my time at
http://genyes.com/programs/techyes/ 

The site offers justifications, research, and much structure to anyone considering a student tech leadership team in their school.  Whether you want to write a grant to purchase this program or create your own home grown version,  you’ll find research, language, framework ideas and much more just by following the many links on this site.

But if you  VALUE your time as an educator, and you value the EXPERIENCE of others, you might want to consider spending a dime or two, to take advantage of the materials, resources, structure,  “experience” captured in some of the programs offered here.

I have ten years of experience in designing and implementing student leadership programs; so I come with a pretty critical eye about what I think a student tech leadership should look like.  I actually didn’t expect to like the TechYes program as much as I did.  After reviewing the program (we bought the starter kit),  I find that it will save me countless hours in creating materials  for a Middle School Tech Leadership Program that I’m working on.  

I had the pleasure of attending a workshop presentation at NECC 1996 in Seattle when Dennis Harper (founder of Gen Yes) and his students were first starting out.   I am pleased to find that 10 years of experience, materials, and resources has been fine tuned and packaged in several different flavors of Student Tech Leadership programs.  The least expensive (and the one that matches my needs the best is TechYes -- Middle School Literacy through Student Tech Leadership version.) What I liked about it was that it was not a “one size fits all” program, but was very flexible for implementation in many forms.  For us, it will be a “part” of a vision that extends a little beyond the TechYEs program;  but it will provide some nice structure and resources to a significant piece of our emerging Student Tech Leadership Program.  It will give our students a feel that they are part of a whole generation  of digital immigrants moving our nation’s schools forward, and that adds momentum, power, and value to premise that I’m a student tech leader helping one of my teachers. The program is structured around project based learning pedagogy which I subscribe to, and which tech integration allows in whole new ways