February 12, 2014

I walked in and my mentor (a TLT Student Help Desk Consultant) for the day was already answering phone calls, assisting students who just pop up randomly, and reading emails. Let’s just say, I am in for a busy hour.

I observed what my mentor did for a 10 minutes before we talked about what I learned in my previous session with another mentor. My mentor was able to answer the calls quick and efficiently while helping the person on the other end as best as she can. She was also very polite to the student who came up to her. The student had some clicker issues and it was best dealt with then she was able to receive full attention from my mentor.

After my mentor was done, we both recapped on what I learned last and talked to me a little about clickers. Due to the fact that technology is always being updated, the clickers used in Stony Brook University had to be updated for classes. Students who bought used clickers had trouble using them because previous owners did not deactivated it through blackboard so it is still registered under their name. It provides a huge challenge because some students may not know the previous owner. At this point, we just offered ways to help the student as best as we can.

We focused on the procedure of updating clickers. It’s very simple and requires a laptop and the cable that connects to the clicker.  Once the clicker is connected and the program to update it is open, the program will let the TLT Student Help Desk know if the clicker has been already updated.

I also learned that students are unable to share their clickers with their friends if their friends are in different classes. When I first got my clicker in my 1st year at Stony Brook University, I was able to share it with friends as long as they were not in my class. I did not know that now that is not the case. I believe this will affect my role as a  Senior Consultant because I can get rid of what I use to know and inform students about what I do know in terms of sharing clickers.