High School students offer computer skill to community
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
The East Troy Geek Squad has been helping teachers and students with their technology needs for quite a while and are now reaching out to the community to offer help where they can during the upcoming Ask a Geek sessions.
The Geek Squad is comprised of seven students – Johnathon Brehm, Grace Christiansen, Rachel Hunter, Lori Heineman, Adam Yakes, Logan Miller and Eli Rand – under the direction of faculty advisor Claudia Felske, English Department chairperson and tech integration specialist.
The students are hosting free technology help sessions on the first Saturday morning of each month starting Nov. 2. The session are from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Community members can come into the High School, room 119, with their technology questions, and if they’d like, bring their electronic devices (tablets, laptops, phones) as well.
The idea came from a discussion Felske had with the squad when she told them how every time she went home to see her parents they had a list of technology needs she had to handle for them.
The students related similar stories and they were already involved with helping other students, and sometimes teachers, with technology needs.
Heineman said she was instrumental in setting up Google websites last year for one of the classes, even teaching the class because Felske was unavailable.
“We were really trying to get the teachers to use Google sites so the classes could share,” Heineman said. “I was the only one who could teach it.”
The “Geeks,” as they like to be called, spend most of their in Felske’s class chasing around the school, trouble shooting problems and creating solutions for anyone who asks.
“The Geeks are very good at problem solving,” said Felske. “They work together on geeky things all the time, sharing knowledge and finding solutions.”
Rand, a senior, said he even created a program for the cross country coach to help him keep track of his runner in real time during a meet. “I didn’t think it was possible at first,” Rand said.
“It was one of those things we figured out together,” said Felske.
She related how when they got into a discussion during a class about how the school could go paperless, it inspired Yakes.
“That night I came up with like 10 ideas of how we could do that,” he said. “That’s how I got inducted into the squad.”
Felski continued, saying the fact that each member of the group had their own specialty was a real asset.
“Adam (Yakes) knows everything Google,” she gave as an example. “He could run a demonstration.”
And Heineman said she calls herself a “problem-solving guru.”
Ask a Geek
Ask a Geek is open to the community and will be tailored to the requests and needs of individuals in attendance, but can include how to manage files, make a slide show with family pictures, use Skype, make a spreadsheet, format a document, navigate Google Apps, etc.
For more information call (262) 642-6760, ext. 5252 or email to felcla@easttroy.k12.wi.us.
