Because it is full of problems.

Could the same logic be applied to schools? I really don’t know. Schools are full of problems but people solve those problems all the time. Should one really be sad if the

problems are constantly being solved? Students and teachers solve problems all the time. Some people can’t solve certain problems. We seek out help from others who may know how to solve our problem.

My name is Nick Patsianas, I help others solve technology troubles at school and online. During my 4 years at high school I have embarked on an incredible journey. My journey has taken me in many different directions. Right now I currently work with the Oz Minecraft Educators group but I do a whole lot of other stuff too.

Last year I began working with a few Year 8 students on some preparation for running a bring your own device program. I provided technical information and shared my experiences with bringing my own iPad. Sharing my experiences was probably one of the most important parts. One major point I tried to make was that things will need change from constrained tasks such as something like “use this program to do this” to “create something that shows topic of interest”. I expect that we will need to a little bit more before everything is set.

Another task I worked on was providing both technical and student point of view feedback on a program we plan on running with some of Year 7 and 8. Some of my suggestions and ideas were implemented. I was also responsible for trialing out the many different ideas and reporting on which one worked best. Some other work I had done involved looking into the future of the project. I can’t say much about this just yet but I know it’s going to be awesome when in action.

Towards the end of the year, lots of stuff happens. Our annual talent show, Year 6 visits and their orientation day are just some the major things that happen. I’m involved in a lot of these things in some way. Each year I am borrowed by Music to work with our Sound and Lighting team during our annual talent show. Every year I try to step things up a little. Last year I think I managed quite well, I have written a post about some of things I did to improve behind the scenes stuff  for our talent show.

I always try to be a part of Orientation Day, I didn’t really have a great time at Orientation Day when I was in Year 6 so every year I try to make sure everyone has great time. During their break times I actively seek out people who look lonely and  talk to them. I speak with groups of people and tell them about our school. Minecraft is a popular topic so I tell them about some of the Minecraft stuff we have done throughout the year. Usually all doubts are cleared and they can’t wait to be apart of our school. Orientation Day once left me only more worried and confused.

That’s just a short summary of some of the things that happened during 2013. Every year I try to be better. This year things will need to change, I’m not sure how yet but I know there’ll need to be change. I hear Year 11 is very different, difference always results in change. I’ll still continue to work on projects that I’ve committed myself too but I’m not sure about working on new things. I like to share but often forget to do so because I get so caught up in what I’m working on. I’m on Twitter, if you’d like, you can scroll back and read some of my tweets to follow my journey from Year 8 to Year 11. Best of luck in 2014!

@nickpatsianas
Year 11 student empowered through technology