In 2024, people find themselves having trouble with their sometimes confusing and frustrating technology. Potosi’s tech department plays an important role in our school in dealing with these tech issues that might come up, and is integral to making our school function as a whole.
As time goes on and our reliance on our technology increases, we need more professional help to fix our often confusing technical issues. In Potosi School District we have Chromebooks, Smartboards or smart panels, and iPads that are all used as part of learning in our classrooms.
Keith Oyen is our school’s professional when it comes to technology. Most people often know him for working with Chromebooks and iPads, but there is other work that Oyen does concerning technology. Keith's work actually involves about 10 hours on Chromebooks, 10 hours on iPads, 20 hours with questions and security issues, and 10 hours with casting sports on average per week.
While Chromebooks might take up some of Oyen’s time, IT Security is one of the most important and most time-consuming of his jobs at the school. IT security prevents unwanted access to school technology, in other words, IT security protects our school from viruses and hackers who may want to do harm to our technology. In Oyen’s words, “IT security are bulletins put out by the state and federal government on known security issues with programs and devices, which in turn means we need to run updates on devices and software if we are using it” Oyen’s work in IT Security protects our Chromebooks, Ipads, servers, and smart panels.
A central part of our schooling is our Chromebooks. Potosi’s Chromebooks are used for many academic tasks in a student’s day-to-day life. A Chromebook is a necessity at Potosi in order to do your homework; email teachers, staff, and fellow students; and even check your grades. Chromebooks are the cause of most of the tech issues at our school, and we often find them either broken or not working how they are intended.
When Oyen was asked about the most common issues he has at Potosi, he replied: “Chromebooks. There are always issues with them. With roughly 300 Chromebooks throughout the school, there seem to be issues daily with them from update issues to wireless issues.” When a Chromebook is damaged, it is sent to a company for repairs. Ipads are also an important part of our school, and our elementary students use them quite frequently. When a student in the elementary school is done with their iPad in 3rd grade, they are sold, and new iPads continue to replace them.
Oyen’s job doesn’t just involve time with Chromebooks, in fact, some of his time is spent doing physical labor. During the summers Oyen can be seen making updates to wiring in some of the ceiling panels. When asked about manual labor during the school year, Oyen replied, “A lot of the manual labor is going to be during the summer; you’ll have your few break/fix stuff, an issue with an access point (the white boxes on ceilings that provide our school WiFi), but that’s usually few and far between.”
There are also some smaller issues that Oyen deals with around our school: the phone system, clocks, speakers, and the Hudl video system are all things that he works on. The Hudl Video system is fairly automated, and Kieth runs the cameras both at Cassville and Potosi. Another system that Kieth runs is the clocks and speakers, but that is fairly automated.
These technologies help improve our experience at Potosi High School, and without these issues being fixed by professional help, we may not be able to call within the school, check the time, or even watch live sports at home. Our technology department here at Potosi High School helps keep our school in great shape and has helped our students succeed for years.