‘Digital natives’ need more IT support

For a while now I've been thinking about how to better support students in their IT skills via peer support. It periodically slips back into my conciousness and it did so yesterday when I saw someone tweet about a piece entitled Survey: ‘Digital natives’ need more IT support.

This quote resonated in particular...

While college students are adept at manipulating complex social-networking tools through their iPhones and BlackBerries, along with video and computer games, “they’re not nearly as proficient when it comes to using digital tools in a classroom setting; this turns the myth that we’re dealing with a whole generation of digital natives on its head,”

And...

“Clearly, students are asking for better guidance, support, and training in using digital tools in the classroom and we, as an industry, need to pay attention and effectively respond to those needs in order to improve engagement and learning outcomes”.

I never did get a satisfactory reply to my email six weeks ago regarding funding for an IT peer support coordinator, so I'm going to try a different tack...

IT peer support resurrection

I was reminded on Friday of my IT peer support project. It died a death due to lack of funding back in June last year. Well, last Friday I bumped into the person who chairs the group that said 'yes' to the project but 'no' to the funding. So I emailed them afterwards to chivvy them along.

You mentioning SEEG and the various working groups reminded me of the IT skills working group that I chaired. As you know I was disappointed that no money was found for the peer support idea and was wondering if now would be a good time to re-submit the proposal. In particular tying it into the Leicester Award.

I hope it works...

Where can I find money for a good idea?

By doug88888

I blogged about our IT peer support project a few months back and, as some of you know via my tweeting, after very hopeful noises from the committee we were reporting to, it turns out there's no money to fund the project after all. The email I got from the committee chair said:

"The upshot is that there is no money at the moment, but [we are] continuing to look for funding from somewhere. It’s a very tough year and [we are] waiting to hear the final Corporate Services budget outcome which should be known soon.

It’s very regrettable, but we may need to put the scheme on hold. I haven’t lost hope just yet, though."

So whilst there's still a chink of light there, I am, to say the least, disappointed. And all the more so because we (the IT skills working group) have been beavering away on this for more than a year.

My initial reaction was one of resignation, however, having just had a conversation with someone entirely unconnected with the project I've been reminded that this is a good idea and one that needs to see the light of day.

The benefits of the project, as I see it, include the following:

• students who are users of the service get contextualised and personalised help on their IT skills queries
• in particular, distance learners will get increased support on their IT skills queries
• peers support students will improve their own IT skills (IT literacy?) as they deal with student enquiries
• peer support students will gain loads of experience in dealing with people - face to face and online (great stuff for CVs)
• peer support students will gain a Leicester Award and recognition on their transcript (more great stuff for CVs)
• a bank of FAQs (and associated answers) will be built up - a useful resource
• the project will serve as a good test-bed for peers support in other contexts in the university

So the question is, can you (both my readers) recommend any potential sources of funding for the project? All suggestions gratefully received.

IT peer support project update

Just about managing to keep up my once a week blogging habit. I posted a couple of weeks back about our IT peer support project and this is a bit of an update. The paper went to our snappily titled Student Experience and Enhancement Committee a week ago. The reception was very positive but they did ask for a few clarifications on how the project will:

1. relate to the current IT help desk;
2. support distance learners;
3. be evaluated.

So this week I met with the Service Desk Manager (in IT Services) and the Enquiry Services Manager (in the Library) to talk about 1 and 2 respectively. Both were good meetings and there seemed to be genuine interest in the project and a keenness to collaborate. In fact the common theme in both conversations was the need for the project to complement and reciprocate  their services rather than simply ensure we're not treading on their toes. In terms of evaluation I've bluffed something about uptake, impact and viability.  So I'll be emailing the chair of the snappily named committee with the clarifications very shortly.

On a tenuously related note, I came accross this natty thing via Twitter this week - http://supportdetails.com/ - which could be handy for system testing of distance learning students' systems. Good ol' Twitter.

Publishing this on a Friday afternoon is sure to generate lots of traffic, I'm sure.

IT peer support

Well, the IT peers support paper has been sent to our Student Experience Enhancement Committee and we'll wait and see what they say about it on 8 May. The paper requests funding for a 12 month 0.5 post to coordinate an IT peer support scheme. The costs of the project don't include the cost of paying students to do the peer support because we're asking for volunteers to join an IT peer support programme validated by the Leicester Award. We're hoping it will prove an innovative and helpful way of extending the IT peer support available to both campus-based students and distance learners alike. Do you know anyone else who is doing something similar? Does anyone have any advice.