George Hartnell, the network supervisor at Bellingham School District, Bellingham, Wash., where McKenzie once was technology director, says the added responsibility takes an emotional toll. He has seen students crack under the weight of adult pressure and expectation, he says, but some schools ignore the warning signs of emotional meltdown. Where it's working Still, a carefully thought out program can pay off for students and schools alike, according to Pike County's Heise, a retired U.S. Army officer who is a passionate advocate for student technology workers. His student-run help desk at Pike County Central High School, now in its second year, serves 28 schools and the administrative offices. Last year, Heise's students logged 2,700 calls.
Students get class credit for working on the help desk.
Heise interviews all candidates before they can register for the class. When a help desk client calls with a problem, the students can punch in the symptoms and pull up a solution on the screen. If the students can't resolve the problem themselves, they send a work order to the appropriate vendor and track the vendor's progress in solving the problem. As a result, Heise says, the district has less downtime for its systems. And in addition to receiving class credit, the students earn industry certification on the software that they can parlay into jobs when they graduate.