CST 361S Technology Tutors

As for my final thoughts on this class, it allowed me to learn more about other people and other cultures. It also helped me learn how to be more open to others and expand my interests. Before the class, I had a hard time starting conversations with strangers but I think I am better at it than before. I have a new interest in repairing broken technology, like tablets. Because of the program, I have more confidence in my ability to fix broken computers and tablets. I feel comfortable touching them and not being afraid that they will break. I want to keep volunteering and hopefully get enough experience to get a part-time job while I finish school.

CST 361S Technology Tutors

Update your learning journal from what you experienced this week with class and your reflection on this week's reading/with your community partner.

How many hours have you completed to date? 

From this week, I have around 45 hours to date.  I finished my 30 hours last week. Last week, I got to go to the HerScript meetup here in Salinas. I learned a lot about various things from other students and professionals who live in the area. I talked with a student who graduated in 2017. I asked many questions about the internship process and interview process. He told me that every company he interviewed with had some form of a technical interview on data structures and algorithms even though they were not all in the Bay Area. This was interesting because I thought that process was entirely unique to the tech hubs of America/Bay Area and nowhere else. I think I will have to see if that’s also true when I apply to other companies.

           In the article, Five Ways Social Entrepreneurs Use Technology to Increase Their Impact by Ashoka many different aspects were investigated. In the first way, the author explains that teaching someone a technology without hands-on experience doesn’t guarantee long-term success. Instead, people should be empowered to user technology to solve problems. I would say that nothing guarantees success so the point doesn’t hold any weight. It’s also possible for someone to be taught a skill, then they pursue to real world experience of implementing it themselves. In the second point, the author says that solutions that do not take into the needs of stakeholders are likely to fail. I agree with this point, a service that does not address a concern people actually have won’t make any money. In the third point, the perception of marginalized people can be impacted by social entrepreneurs by creating services to help them find employment and hopefully also classes to help them integrate into the work environment. In the fourth point, social entrepreneurs create a community network where many volunteers provide help towards one common goal. In the last point, the data is used to influence decision makers put funds or additional help towards previously overlooked problems.

           There is an article related to point three on the Speciallisterne company, an article called How a Danish Company Is Helping People With Autism Get Jobs in IT and Tech by Zoe Henry. She explains that employers aren’t hiring people with autism because they don’t fit the social paradigm of the happy worker who works well with others and can promote themselves. I think that when hiring managers interview those with autism or related issues, they may see someone shy, withdrawn, demure and be repulsed by those actions. The author explains that employers should change the way they screen candidates because skills that have to do with social interaction have no correlation to success in the workplace and those with autism have trouble doing those.

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 competed to date? 

I have the full 30 hours completed as of today. This week, we had a new shipment of Chromebooks, we received. There was a lot of them this time. We looked over them for minor physical repairs that could be done, then they would be repaired, and checked again to see if they work. 

I talked with another student who was there for the Summer. He said that he was going to volunteer every day and do his data science homework at night. In response to why he thinks Hispanics and African-Americans don't major in CS, he thinks it could be because of the lack of exposure to it as a field. His response was similar to what I thought. We didn't have much exposure to different careers in school. We did have college recruiters have small talks to us in the library. Few students went to those. Career talks and presentations would have been more useful to me. 

I think that career days are great and all, but in-person shadowing would be more useful to see what a person does day-to-day. A benefit is that the student can see in person what the worker is doing day-to-day if they shadow for an extended period of time, like one week. A drawback is that there can be proprietary code that can't be seen by non-workers and students can't really miss that much school during the school year. A good alternative is for a school to set up a shadowing program with companies who agree to have a student shadow one of their kindest and most accommodating workers for a week during the summer. Then the next student would go the next week and so on. When I shadowed in the Emergency Department in order to learn more about the medical field, the doctors would occasionally explain a topic in simple terms after seeing the patient together in order for me to learn and be inspired to also work in the medical field. 

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? 

Include a 1 paragraph reflection on the Black Girls Code video.

This week, I was able to get to my volunteer site. I have about 26 hours as of tonight. My assignment was the same, repairing Chromebooks. I took some time on the first one, where I was taking some time to relearn the process. We were running out of spare parts for the model I am familiar with, the 11e. About a hundred Chromebooks were recently donated and some of those were being taken apart for spare parts. I am not familiar with the model they were taking apart. Chromebooks don’t all take the same parts, unfortunately. I want to continue volunteering while I look for entry level tech positions at schools and internships. I might even apply to do research at CSUMB, but I want to improve and rewrite my projects first. 

I met some students from CSU Monterey Bay who were siblings. I believe it is currently their summer break so they have a lot of spare time to do what they want. I asked the lady what she was studying, and she said Computer Science but she was planning on changing her major because she didn’t want that career. I didn’t ask specifically why, but kind of wish I did. I talked briefly with another student who was back to Salinas for summer from a college in North Carolina. I asked him how it was, and he said the college is fine but he’s experienced blatant racism in the town. If I got a job in the South, I would probably not be happy experiencing casual racism like that. Being called names and treated differently feels very bad to me, but I know its just words. It still hurts though, I think everyone has a similar feeling. 

The TedxKC talk by Kimberly Bryant was informative. I knew of other groups like Girls Who Code, Kode with Klossy, and Code2040 but I have not heard of Black Girls Code. I thought that it was a great program that can keep giving when its students can go on to teach and inspire others. I know some critics would say that it's divisive to make race-specific clubs and exclude others but this group is trying to remedy a specific problem, increasing the numbers of black women in tech. If the group was open to all races but only girls, it might not seem as welcoming to black girls if there are a lot of non-black girls there. Joining a group seems less scary if there are similar faces around. There are groups who cater to all races of girls like Girls Who Code. It's also possible to start your own program for a school if you want. It might take some time and patience though. When I was in high school, one of my underclassmen's engineering dad taught a Robotics 7th period course. 

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.