With nearly 500 students at FHS, each with a school-issued laptop, problems can be expected to arise. To address these needs, Consensus Technologies is under contract with the Freedom Area School District, but many students and teachers still find themselves experiencing technological issues.

Employees from Consensus Technologies work with students and teachers to resolve their technology problems as well as doing a lot of behind-the-scenes maintenance.

Help desk hours are new to the 2014-15 school year and weren’t available in the past. Currently, Consensus employees are available for students in the high school faculty room on Tuesdays and Thursdays from around 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. They’re also available to stay later when students are in greater need of their help.

While the newly-implemented help desk hours have been welcomed and helpful, many find that they aren’t enough.

“We have this new thing this year where we have to fill out a request, and it has got to go through Consensus. And even that, sometimes, is quite a process to get anybody to even answer that or to get that email,” high school math teacher, Mrs. Amy Isanogle said.

“I feel like it’s really difficult to find somebody to help you with your laptop,” Senior Lauren Scott said.

Many students at FHS cite convenience and familiarity as reasons for seeking the district’s K-12 technology coach, Mr. Tom Hickey, with their technology issues.

“I’m not that technologically savvy, so I usually just take [my laptop] to Mr. Hickey if there is a problem that I can’t solve,” Junior R.J. Schlegel said.

“Mr. Hickey’s role, as technology coach, is to be working with teachers on technology integration, and he does that for all of the teachers in the district,” Freedom Area School District Superintendent, Dr. Jeffrey Fuller said.
Despite Hickey’s role within the district, he can often be found helping students with their troubles.

“Kids need support pretty much during any school day at any time, or at least in a wider window of opportunity than just those Tuesdays and Thursdays. And, because of that, I have, at times, filled in those kind of gaps as well,” Hickey said.

While Hickey still guides students and teachers to use Consensus support by way of the help desk and help ticket system, he also explained that he often has a hard time turning away students that need help when he knows other assistance won’t be available in a short amount of time.

“It’s a time management thing for me, sometimes, and a need-based thing, where I will assess a situation and say, ‘It will probably be better if I can just help them right now to get going, versus going through maybe a process of waiting for help to come,’” Hickey said. “The guys from Consensus are always available for emergency callouts,” Fuller said.

While the Consensus employees are easily able to be contacted, many students and teachers still feel a disconnect in availability.

“There have been issues about a reliable resource to help students with their technical issues, and when you have 450 or so students with computers, some of them as old as 5-years-old, you’re going to have problems that don’t happen to just conveniently fall into the Tuesday or Thursday morning window,” Hickey said.

High school Spanish teacher, Miss Ruthanne Gudzan’s frustrations with the help desk ticket system began when she submitted a help desk ticket in November. Gudzan’s problems began when she downloaded PhotoStory, a popular slideshow software utilized by many FHS students and faculty members, which also, inadvertently, installed a virus on her machine. Upon submitting her ticket, she was issued a student version laptop after Christmas break as a replacement while her laptop was being fixed.

“The problem with that computer is that it doesn’t have the teacher version of ActivStudio on it. Which, a lot of my lessons that I teach, I use that software for. So, I had to redo all of my lessons in PowerPoint, which is pretty time-consuming,” Gudzan said.

Gudzan still uses the student laptop because the virus on her infected teacher laptop was extensive. She has also been unable to regain the ability to use ActivStudio, a popular presentation tool used by teachers in the district, because the software won’t install properly.

“We pride ourselves on being a technology school, but if the technology isn’t working, then that kind of hinders the progress, and we are always looking at ways that we can improve that,” Fuller said.

According to Hickey, the physical location of the help desk is paramount. With the majority of the submitted help desk ticket requests coming from the high school, moving the tech support’s primary location from the administrative office to the high school might be most beneficial.

“Yes, I think [having a full time help desk at the high school] would be beneficial,” high school Principal William Deal said. “My mission in the long term is actually to establish that, but have it staffed by students.”

With students, faculty and administrators seeking answers, some have begun proposing potential solutions.

Hickey believes that the answer may be much more complex than a simple one-person-hire solution. He believes that any changes should come along with an involved plan of action.

“I would be happy to kind of share that as a starting point of a discussion about a solution, but I couldn’t hand you a piece of paper that says this is what it should look like. I, in a broad strokes kind of way, have an idea of what I think it could be,” Hickey said.