Computer Support Blog

CoachUp CEO Jordan Fliegal played basketball as a kid and while he loved the sport, he wasn’t very good at it—not at first anyway.  On the CoachUp website, Fliegal speaks about how he was lucky enough to find a personal coach to help him train in his favorite sport.  Through the private coach’s help, Fliegal managed to improve enough that many top colleges tried to recruit him.  He even went on to play professional basketball in overseas leagues.  Fliegal attributes his success to his private coach, and that’s why he founded tech startup CoachUp.  CoachUp is an online service that conveniently connects parents and kids with private trainers and coaches to help them with a sport or activity.  Fliegal attributes finding his private coach when he was a kid to pure luck.  It seems he wants to take luck out of the equation and make private coaching available to as many young people as possible with CoachUp.  This cool person in technology is using the connected world to try to help kids achieve more in their athletic activities. Read more »

Despite the thousands of SAT preparation books and college admissions guides available on the market, the most helpful information for high school students applying to college often comes from either former admissions officers or recently admitted students.  Getting help from a former admissions officer usually means hiring them as a college admissions coach.  This situation can get very expensive for parents and is therefore prohibitive for many students.  However, cool product AdmitSee wants to offer college applicants more affordable help by leveraging information from the profiles of recently accepted students.   AdmitSee obtains information from current university students and recent graduates and compiles that information into admissions profiles.  AdmitSee then stores that information on its site and gives access to those still in the college application process.  By viewing the profiles of successful graduates, high school students can find out what different schools are looking for specifically.  This information can then help AdmitSee members in forming their own successful applications.  This advantage will help kids get in to a great school for whatever career path they choose, whether they want to be a writer, aviation engineer, or even a cloud computer repair professional. Read more »

For many professional careers, including ones in the IT support industry, professional certification and additional training are becoming a requirement to get ahead.  Unfortunately, many working adults cannot find time in their schedules to dedicate to training and additional education, especially if they’re taking care of family as well as working full time.  Cool technology product Simplilearn is utilizing the Internet’s flexibility to offer working professionals training and certification options that they can actually fit into their schedule.  Simplilearn offers users a wide range of courses in multiple fields that adults can take both online and in classroom settings.  They even offer courses that use a combination of the two methods to attempt to fit the needs of as many adults as possible.  Simplilearn also offers a slew of online practice tests for users so they can prepare accordingly for their certifications.  Each Simplilearn course comes coupled with a set of online resources specific to that certain class.  These resources often include online forums for students to interact in and ask questions before their certification exam.  Read more »

PowerPoint presentations, while useful for businesses and professional conferences, aren’t always ideal for educational situations. More often than not, students simply do not find themselves engaged while staring at static lists and bullet points.  Cool product bContext aims to help with this issue with their iPad app.  The application allows teachers to upload static file types such as PDFs and PowerPoint presentations and then transform those documents into interactive presentations.  When a user uploads a document onto their iPad to use it in the bContext app, the app lets teachers mark up the document with their own handwriting.  Rather than requiring expensive projector equipment or smart pen technology, bContext offers teachers a cheap solution for interacting with their presentations through markup and added notes.  Teachers can make notes on their PowerPoint presentation or PDF files as they discuss them in class, creating a more dynamic experience that teachers can use to get students interested.  Teachers who have problems transferring their documents to their tablet will need iPad support to get the app to work properly. Read more »

Compensation in any form is always a powerful motivator, and cool person in technology Jeremy Gelbart counts on that every day as he runs Ultrinsic.  Ultrinsic is a website that allows college students to put up their money for the chance to earn more through their grades.  Essentially, students deposit a certain amount of money to get access to the site.  Once a student has access, they can submit what courses they are taking in a semester and essentially place bets that they will receive A’s in those classes.  When a student comes through and makes the grade, they not only get their deposit back but also a monetary reward and their balance on the site increases.  When students fail to make the grade, Gelbart’s company takes their deposit and places it into a general fund.  Gelbart believes that students can use the site to motivate themselves to perform better and that an immediate monetary stake in their grades will give them a sense of urgency and drive that college students can sometimes lack.  Students that have trouble depositing to the site and submitting their courses should get access to PC tech support for help. Read more »

New crowdfunding sites seem to pop up every day since Kickstarter blew up on the tech scene.  Most sites focus on one particular industry or type of project that can benefit from the now-popular model.  Almost all of these sites are very capitalistic in nature, looking for backers to support businesses or commercial music, writing, and art.  There is nothing wrong with helping entrepreneurs or artists chase their dreams, but cool person in tech Beth Schmidt believes there’s another group who could benefit greatly from this concept—poor and underprivileged youth.  Beth Schmidt is the founder and executive director of the non-profit Internet company Wishbone.  Wishbone finds promising young people who do not have the resources to pay for the education that would allow them to chase their goals.  Schmidt’s company then provides them a space on the Internet where backers can crowdfund their education.  Rather than use the crowdfunding model to invest in single projects or startup business, Schmidt wants people to invest in a proven resource for society’s future—smart, young students.  Read more »

There is constant discussion in education circles about how to use technology to improve students’ experience and performance.  New startup and cool product Quizlet is directly addressing this issue with its online tools to aid children in studying.  Quizlet attempts to take the stress and tedium out of studying by solving two problems: the consolidation material that a student needs to study and the engagement of the student in the studying process.   Quizlet solves the first problem by allowing students, teachers, or parents to input their own study sets so only the necessary information gets into Quizlet’s system.  This cool product solves the second problem by turning the information provided into a series of games that randomize the material to optimize it for multiple playthroughs.  Each time a user adds a study set to the Quizlet website, they also post it publicly for any others who may want to use it.  This makes it easier for teachers to utilize Quizlet for their classes, as they can simply link students to the appropriate study set to ensure all students are studying the correct material. If you ever have trouble uploading study sets onto their website, remote tech support should be able to help you. Read more »

Given how vast the tech sector is, it is very easy for workers at all levels to find themselves suddenly working in an area in which their expertise is limited.  Keeping up with the tech sector can require quite a bit of continual training and often workers who are focused on their work-related tasks do not have the time to learn about the very latest practices or developments in the tech sectors.  That is why many companies utilize professional trainers who both update workers on current events and instruct workers on how to utilize programs with which they have limited prior experience.  One of the best trainers in the business is Jennifer Page! Read more »

Despite what all of the major computer and smartphone manufacturers might want you to believe about their products, there is one of the bestselling computer products in the world that they do not manufacture.  The computer device that is facing almost no competition from any of the major manufacturers is the LeapPad.  The LeapPad is an educational tool that LeapFrog designed to look like a tablet computer, but is programmed exclusively with educational software for children from ages 3 – 9.  This is a noble idea, but it is hard for educators not to be wary of it. Read more »

There are many executives for whom their technology business is the end of their personal or professional growth.  This can make a lot of sense, as it is a herculean task to establish a successful business within the tech sector.  So, it is always interesting to find an executive who remains close to their roots and uses their businesses success to fund the causes dearest to them.  Lorne Trottier is one such executive. Read more »