Activity 4A

C&I 335

Summer 1998

David Barber
Danville Community Consolidated School District 118
Danville, Illinois

Final project

Project description:
For the C&I 335 class I will develop a unit that will prepare teachers to do some basic technical support of their classroom computers. The first unit is titled; The Basics Of How To Support Macintosh Computers. The focus of the unit will be using web based resources. I will create a web site that will provide a tutorial on how to support Macintosh computers. The web site will have pages with trouble shooting advice and links to web resources for servicing the Macintosh computer. I will create an email reflector for the students to use to discuss issues of technical support. If time permits, I hope to develop an intranet based database for requesting service and reporting problems to the District’s Office of Technology.

Needs assessment:
As a technology coordinator I have placed many computers in the classroom and over the last 4 years the need for technical support of classroom computers has become very obvious. Most staff do not know how to trouble shoot their computers, but many have expressed a desire to learn some basics of trouble shooting.
I believe three avenues need to be developed to help teachers keep their computers running. The first is to provide a centralized support service through the District Office of Technology, the second is to develop a building level tech support team and the third is to teach the classroom teacher to do some basic maintenance and trouble shooting.

Target audience:
Each school will provide names of one or two staff members for training. The group will be selected by building principles and will be on a voluntary bases. This group must have a working knowledge of Macintosh computers, internet and have expressed a desire to do technical support.

Project goals:
To create a unit on how to maintain a Macintosh computer.
To develop web based resources for maintaining Macintosh computers.
To create a email reflector for collaborative support efforts.
To create a intranet based database for requesting service.

Project activities:
Develop a web page tutorial on the basics of trouble shooting Macintosh computers.
Setup an email reflector.
Develop a list of web based resources.
Develop a unit plan with detailed lessons.
Develop an Intranet based database.
Explore the use of applets such as page counters and flashing text.

Project time line:
By the end of June, I plan to begin researching resources, develop a rough draft of a web page tutorial and develop a rough draft of the lesson plan for this unit. During the month of July, I plan to refine the web page tutorial, finalize a detailed lesson plan, learn to create a email reflector and learn to create an online database. During the month of August I plan to create an online database, email reflector and setup the first training class.

Materials used in development of this project:

Beta testing of project:
I will seek feedback from fellow CTER students. I will ask them to review my lesson plans, use the web tutorial and use the online database. Through this means I will be able to test the usefulness of the lesson and work out any bugs.

Unit Lesson Plan

Unit of study:

The Basics Of How To Support Macintosh Computers

Unit goals:

Target audience:
A select group of educational staff at each District 118 building. Each building will provide names of one or two people for this group. The group will be selected by building principles and will be on a voluntary bases. This group must have working knowledge of Macintosh computers and the internet. Staff member must have expressed a desire to do technical support.

Unit Objectives:


Daily Lessons & Activities:

  1. Introduction to resources available for tech support (2 hours)
    1. How to use the Macintosh help desk tutorial and the internet.
      1. Students will log in to the tutorial site at http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/barber1/ci335/tutorial/index.htm . They will explore the site and write down questions for things they do not understand.
    2. Other resources, email reflector, listservs and www support sites.
  2. Hardware components of a Macintosh computer. (1 hour)
    1. Parts of a Macintosh computers
    2. Web resources for identifying types of Macintosh computers and how they are configured.
    3. How to upgrade hardware.
  3. Creating an emergency disks. (1 hour)
    1. Using Apple Disk tools
    2. Using Norton Utilities
  4. Maintaining the Macintosh computer. (4 hour)
    1. How to do preventative maintenance.
    2. How to recover crashed disks and lost data using Norton Utilities and CanOpener
    3. How to fix common computer failures.
  5. How to install software. (2 hours)
    1. New system install
    2. Reinstalling the system with a clean install
    3. Updating system hard drive drivers
    4. Installing applications
  6. Technical support resources. (1 hour)
    1. How to download from the internet drivers and other software
    2. Print resources such as the book Sad Macs and Bombs
    3. Human resources using Listservs, email reflectors and telephone support.

Materials:

Evaluation:
Daily: Students will keep a journal of work completed, lessons learned and resources they use.
Final exam: Students will be given a computer problem to fix. Students will demonstrate their ability to use
resources and tools to maintain Macintosh computers. They will make a list of resources used to trouble
shoot the problem and write down a step by step procedure for fixing the problem. Because computer
servicing is very unpredictable the soundness of their trouble shooting procedure will be the most important part of the exam
Post survey:
Students will complete an online evaluation of the achievement of the unit objectives and a list of future needs.

Schedule:
Classes will be two hour blocks of actual training. Classes will be offered twice a week for 3 weeks. Staff will have open labs between scheduled classes. Staff will be encouraged to use the email reflector to discuss issues related to this course.

Location of training:
Danville School District staff training center at Danville High School

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dbarber@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Revised: July 08, 1998.