This video from Brett Moller (Blog: 21st Century Educator) shows a student produced tutorial about how to create a podcast using Garageband.
YouTube - Dylan Teaching the Teachers How to create a basic podcast.
If you have teachers who need help, why not let students create tutorials for them? Students have an authentic project, and teachers get help with the exact hardware or software, not some generic tutorial. This is a win-win for everyone involved.
And think about this - if you are teaching a technology applications class, or asking students to pass technology literacy standards, why not have the projects the students do actually do some good? Why not have student projects that have an authentic purpose - helping teachers (or peers, or the community, for that matter).
One of the most important parts of project-based learning is having a sense of who your audience is - and the audience for student work does not have to be one harried technology teacher.
These can be useful additions to any school’s suite of tech support tools, plus, create a climate of student ownership. Brett says, “They did a series of five this year - they’re now training next year’s group to continue! Teachers love them.”
Sylvia
Thanks Matt for turning an audio interview with 5 people on the phone into a great article! Plus, they did caricatures of us — kinda cool.