Computer Support Blog

Analytics and data collection is hot area in the technology industry.  There are countless analytics startups trying to help both large corporations and small businesses grow.  However, cool person in technology Rob Mancabelli believes that analytics can help improve more than just business.  Mancabelli is a former teacher and educational technology director that wants to get schools on the analytics bandwagon in order to find better ways to help young students.  Mancabelli’s company BrightBytes has developed a product for schools that provides actionable data that can help institutions improve children’s experiences and increase their learning.  Mancabelli wants to measure how students interact with what’s available at school and seeing what policy changes affect positive change statistically.  If his product can provide these insights, Mancabelli’s analytics could have a major impact on education.  For example, if analytics prove students using the computer lab more often frequently receive better grades, then there is viable data school officials can use to acquire more funds for things like IT support.  Just knowing the most effective ways to spend a school’s limited funds could make serious change in many kids’ educations. Read more »

Many professionals have useful skills that they could pass on to others, but they don’t have the time or credentials for an official teaching position.  Cool person in technology Michael Karanjanaprakorn wants these skilled professionals to have an outlet where they can spread their knowledge.  That’s why he founded Skillshare, an online platform where professionals can apply to teach short video classes in subjects ranging anywhere from archery to sound mixing.  Karanjanaprakorn’s site doesn’t cater to one particular niche or industry, but to a wide variety of disciplines.  With experts teaching their disciplines on SkillShare, Karanjanaprakorn looks to build a more skilled global workforce.  This cool person’s website has video classes that can help people land new jobs or do better in their current roles, regardless of whether those people are laptop repair professionals, marketers, or even entrepreneurs themselves. Skillshare’s main goal is to spread knowledge by allowing experts to share what they know online easily. Read more »

Searching for and applying to colleges is one of the most stressful experiences in a teenager’s life.  Finding the school that gives a student the best chance for his or her success is a difficult and intimidating process.  Despite this fact, many students find themselves applying to schools on their own, without outside help or resources.  Cool product CollegeSolved exists to give these students the resources they need to find good schools that are right for them.  The site aims to empower students to gain acceptance to their school of choice.  CollegeSolved provides students with a complete database of universities to search through while on the site.  Users can filter search results based on their personal SAT scores or high school GPA.  They can also filter results by a school’s tuition price and location.  Each university profile contains complete statistics relating to the school as well as recommendations for similar colleges.  Students who have trouble with the search function on the CollegeSolved website should seek online computer support. Read more »

While universities are centers of education, they are also a business in many ways.  Reputation and student enrollment are major pieces of the puzzle when keeping a college successful.  However, both of those things drop when a college is unable to retain students from year to year.  Whether young people are dropping out of school completely or transferring to other colleges, it always hurts a school significantly.   Fewer students coming back means lower enrollment and therefore lower tuition.  Low retention rates also hurt a college’s reputation and make it more difficult to recruit new freshmen the following year.  Read more »

Schools do not generally allow teachers to have direct communication with their students outside of class due to privacy and safety concerns.  Unfortunately, this mistrust of teachers makes it difficult to keep students and parents informed about what is happening in class at school.  Students do not have permission to share cell phone numbers, so mass texting is impossible; despite the fact that many young people use their phones as their main means of communication.  Some services provide an Internet-based hub or website where teachers can post assignments and updates, but there is no guarantee that students are going to visit the site and check their assignments.  It is equally unlikely that parents would check for their children.  Read more »

Communication between professors and students at the university level is extremely important, but not always easy to facilitate.  Even with digital services such as email, getting in touch with a teacher can be difficult for a student.  Students’ messages will often get lost within a large group of messages that are in a professor’s inbox.  Universities also discourage teachers and students from using public social networks like Facebook in order to communicate, eliminating that option.  Read more »

It’s a common phrase uttered to college students: “You should really go abroad.”  It’s true that studying abroad while someone’s in school can open a person up to new experiences and give them insight they otherwise would not have had.  However, not all study abroad programs are equal.  Many students unfortunately go on the recommendation of others but choose a less-than-excellent program.  Cool person in technology Mitch Gordon has created a website called Go Overseas that looks to prevent students from choosing the wrong study abroad program for them.  Gordon’s website is a directory for thousands of different study abroad programs that are available to students.  People can look at abroad programs available for travel all over the world on Go Overseas.  Users can also leave reviews and give third-party advice about specific programs to help anyone who’s searching through study abroad ideas.  The resources that Gordon offers through his website are potentially far more useful to interested students than the usual advertising brochures that different programs distribute.  If someone is looking for honest opinions and the complete picture about different study abroad programs, Gordon’s website provides a comprehensive look at a person’s options.  If a student has problems accessing different areas of Gordon’s website, they should seek help from a computer tech support provider. Read more »

Online discussions, chat rooms, and forums can be frustrating to see sometimes.  Due the anonymity of the Internet, these discussions often break out into arguments, name-calling, and a place of offensive anonymous statements. However, Clivir is a cool product that aims to create a more productive forum of online discussion.  Clivir is website that hosts many online discussion boards, but this cool product organizes its discussion sections into “classrooms”.  Clivir is a community dedicated to learning above all else.  Clivir’s organizes its “classrooms” by subject and category.  There are sections on the website for art, entertainment, business, computer technology, writing, disease, food, current events and more.  Each of these sections has several of Clivir’s “classrooms” inside it, where Clivir users post structured information meant to inform and educate.  Unlike typical discussion forums, which tend to be a free for all with some limited moderation, Clivir classrooms require users to post complete “classes”.  Each class must have citations and sources for the material it teaches.  Clivir moderates each classroom to ensure that classes live up to the website’s standards.  If a user has trouble accessing classrooms on Clivir, that person should get in touch with a remote computer support service and acquire help.  Read more »

Hiring personal tutors to help students with subjects that they are struggling with in school has been a growing trend for many years now.  With standardized tests carrying so much weight in college admissions as well, an entire sub-industry of SAT preparation tutoring continues to grow as well.  However, despite these trends, there aren’t many online resources for finding a quality tutor when a student needs help.  Cool person in technology Andrew Geant is trying to change that with his company WyzAnt.  WyzAnt offers people a database of tutors in a slew of different available subjects.  Website users can book tutoring services directly through the website.  WyzAnt has tutors available for all primary and secondary school grade levels.  Subjects that Geant’s company provide help for include math, foreign languages, science, English, and test prep.  Geant also offers a limited number of tutors for other, advanced subjects such as economics, finance, accounting, and computers.  WyzAnt even offers some physical education tutors and personal coaches for sports.  Geant wants WyzAnt to be the go-to resource for tutoring help with all subjects so that any student that needs the help can get it.  Those who have difficulty using the WyzAnt website can get computer support to help them use the site and book a tutor. Read more »

ELearning and education technology are two of the hottest areas in the tech industry currently.  Startups are attacking this area from many different angles. While some companies, such as Coursera, are trying to transplant the traditional experience of college-level education onto the Internet, many other companies are trying alternative methods to propagate learning on the web and through technology.  One such cool person who is working to accomplish this is Emily Foote.  Foote is the co-founder and vice president of curricular design at ApprenNet.  ApprenNet is a web-based learning tool that Foote and her colleagues designed to promote educational discussion about a variety of topics.  Foote is a co-founder of the company and an originator of the idea.  She handles the curriculum and the application of it ApprenNet programs while her partners and other co-founders—Karl Okamoto and Paul Tzen—handle other aspects of the company.  Okamoto works with business aspects as CEO and Tzen is the engineer who builds the backbone of ApprenNet’s software.  Since Foote and her team designed the ApprenNet product for use in large institutions, organizations that want to use the product will need large-scale computer support help to integrate and maintain it.  Read more »