CST 361S Technology Tutors

This week, I was unable to volunteer due to a wedding I had to attend. Our team moderated the forum this week. We learned about the difference between helping, fixing, and serving. The questions that were chosen mostly had answers on one side or the other. I was surprised at the results of question 3 where many students said that others should be called out when a person has the wrong motivations for helping others. I did not expect anyone to agree with that line of thought. It is a hard action to take if people are being hurt or underserved from a person volunteering and doing what they think is right.

CST 361S Technology Tutors

This week, I volunteered with LFC on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. I couldn’t keep track of my hours this week but it's around 5,5 and 4 I believe. So, a total of maybe 14 this week. This week, I learned how to repair Chromebooks, which was not something I knew how to do before. I learned how to do simple repairs like replacing a trackpad, then moved onto replacing screens, the tops, and bottoms of the case, the keyboard, and the motherboard. I enjoyed doing that work this week. I learned a lot and they were always simple repairs. Hopefully, I do something harder when I come back from my cousin’s wedding in San Diego in 2 weeks.

I talked with another volunteer who was from Monterey Peninsula College, who was finishing up his Computer Networking degree and studying for the A+ certification. I talked with my Chromebook supervisor who had some computer experience a long time ago but didn’t pursue it further. I told him about the different certifications he could take like the A+, CCNA, and Security+ after learning more about them from the volunteer from MPC. The owner of the computer store was waiting for a meeting to start in the same room and told us about the free computer classes that are offered to low-income residents.  

On Friday, I talked to another volunteer from MPC, a young Latina woman majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. I asked her why she thinks Hispanics and African Americans don’t usually major in Computer Science and she told me she thought they don’t because of discrimination in the workplace which affects their ability to get promoted. I thought it was an interesting answer. I believe motivation and what a person likes about their job/programming will explain why people major in what they major in. I asked my boyfriend’s parents who are both software managers why they liked programming. His dad liked programming because you can solve problems with very creative solutions that no one has ever thought of before. His mom liked programming because she could make useful tools for herself like calendars. Another volunteer I asked this same question to said that he liked that when he fixed computers, he could see tangible results and make people happy by fixing something important to them.

CST 361S Technology Tutors

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class/with your community partner. 

How many hours have you completed to date?

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I did about 8 hours. Today, I volunteered around 5 hours. In total, I spent 13 hours volunteering. Today, I was waiting around for the site manager to tell me what to do and another person needed help with replacing         Chromebook parts. I told him that I don’t know how to do it, but he still wanted me to help. I was nervous because I didn’t know if he assumed I knew how to do this or not. He showed me what parts to remove and which screws to take out. I started on very easy tasks like removing a touchpad, and putting a new keyboard in. Later, I learned how to replace a monitor which was harder. Lastly, I learned how to replace the front cover and motherboard both of which include removing everything from the Chromebook to access the very bottom where the front cover and motherboard lie.

I felt proud of myself when he told me that other students shy away from harder challenges like replacing a motherboard on their first day doing repairs but I was able to do it in like 20 minutes.

On my last hour volunteering, I did some hard troubleshooting on a device that wouldn’t turn on. The issue could have come from a number of broken parts. I plugged it in, and tried to turn it on. Then I replaced the battery with a new one. Nothing happened. I replaced the monitor with a new one in case that was the issue. It wasn’t. Lastly, I replaced the entire motherboard with a new one. I connected everything and turned it on. That was the thing that was broken. I put the old battery and monitor back in and made sure they were working properly. Everything was fine after that. The only new piece was the motherboard and no new parts were wasted on it.

What images, videos, and/or information about your service learning site are you thinking of including in your documentary?

I have a few pictures of the back room and the computers I was working on today. In the future, I would like to ask a few other volunteers if I could get photos of them to put in my documentary. I think some interesting parts of my volunteering site are the giant parts room and the snack room. They receive donations of snacks and food so the volunteers can eat Hot Pockets or get coffee whenever they want. Of all the other places I have volunteered at for High School and College, I have never had free unlimited snacks and coffee.

CST 361S Technology Tutors

This week, I volunteered 4 hours at my service learning site. Last Thursday, I had an interview and orientation with my supervisor and was introduced to everyone in every room of the site. Today, I did my first 4 hours at Loaves, Fishes, and Computers. I started out removing RAM, CPU, monitors, and Wifi-adapter cards from the laptops. Some of them were older computers that had Windows Vista and were very heavy. For the second half of my volunteer hours, I erased and checked various parts of Chrome books. I learned how to check the battery life percent and use a website called keyboardchecker.com to see if every key worked. I was in a group of 4 at large tables so I was able to ask another volunteer easily for help when I needed it. Overall, I had a great time volunteering today. I am ready to learn more things tomorrow.