(above) Anthony Meluso, WHRHS Director of Technolgy
Warrior Distance Learning Tech Squad
Submitted by Denis Kelly
If there is ever a dominant common characteristic enabling the students, faculty, administration, even parents to get the most educational value out of the experience of living during the time of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, it is a newfound appreciation for all the essential workers, who are far too often taken for granted.
Introducing the Watchung Hills Regional High School (WHRHS) Distance Learning Tech Squad – The WHRHS IT Department. Since well before, but certainly doubly so since the start of the 2019-2020 School Year distance learning experience on March 16, they have been on-the-job, supporting students and teachers as the IT facilitators during the whole process.
The Warrior Distance Learning Tech Squad includes: IT Director Anthony Meluso, IT Manager Andy Bohl, Technicians Luis Nazario, Luis Kourany and Kevin Teeter, and Student Information Systems Manager Chris Beckert.
Meluso laid out the broad responsibilities for Tech Support during the distance learning experience.
“Planning started two weeks before the governor made the announcement to close school,” Meluso said. “IT was tasked with assessing available hardware and software for immediate use during the health-related closure.”
Meluso continued, “9th, 10th and 11th graders have 1:1 Chromebooks. For 12th grade, the students used their own devices. Surveys were conducted identifying students without a device and students without internet at home. On the Friday before closing, IT distributed over 50 loaner Chromebooks to seniors. We also have seven students without the Internet at home. We provided those students with Verizon Hotspots.”
He continued, “Any technology hardware repairs or requests for staff and students are processed weekly. Drop off and pick up windows are between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. each day through the Building and Grounds offices.”
Meluso said, “The role of Google Classroom during distance learning is tremendously important. Announcements, discussion, assessments, and grading are processed here. It’s the hub that is needed to make communication flow without physically being in a classroom. Both teachers and students are already very familiar with all the possibilities of Google Classroom from prior professional development and the school’s focus to make it part of the daily learning stream.”
When asked how the transition to online learning was, Meluso responded “The staff at Watchung Hills are professional educators and quickly handled the transition from in-class learning to distance learning. They prepared several weeks of lessons ahead of the school closure. Initially, there were some issues with recording their lessons, sharing their screens, and access to files and other resources. The IT team quickly addressed these and worked on building tutorials to share with the faculty and staff.”
Photo by WHRHS
