Kent ISD — With three more grandchildren on the way, Joyce Hall wants all of her grandkids’ photos in one place on her phone.
“I just want (it) so I am not looking through my phone,” said Hall, a resident of The Oaks at Byron Center.
With Hall’s phone, Comstock Park senior Logan Hoyle showed her how to create a “baby” album.
“There are a couple of ways you can do it,” Logan explained. “First, you can select the photos and add them to the album. Or you can go to the album, tap the plus sign and add the photos you want.”
“I wish I was as smart as all these students,” Hall said. “This is something I didn’t learn growing up.”
Logan was one of about a dozen students from the Kent Career Tech Center’s Cybersecurity and Networking program who visited The Oaks to help residents with their technology questions.
Trilogy Health Services, which operates the post-retirement living facility, has been a long-standing partner of the Tech Center, having worked with students in its health program, said cybersecurity and networking instructor Joe Lake.
Lake said it was through that partnership that Jackie Hall, director of community lifestyle for The Oaks, reached out and asked if the cybersecurity and network students would be interested in helping its residents with technology questions. He presented the idea to his class, and students were eager to participate.
“I am super proud of them because it takes a lot of heart and willingness to help people,” Lake said.
He added that the experience also helps students see how they can apply their tech skills in different settings.
“Everybody has tech, whether it’s manufacturing, medical or a senior living community,” he said. “It gives them an opportunity to broaden their horizons on where they can go with these skills, while developing their customer service skills.”
Servicing iPads, Computers, Cellphones & More
The students visited three times during the second semester. They came in the morning, had breakfast with some of the residents, and then provided tech support, returning to the Tech Center before the end of the first session, which is 9:10 a.m.
For about an hour, students split off working with residents and answering a variety of questions about cellphones, computers and iPads. They even helped with setting up televisions.
In a community TV room across from where Logan sat, a group of students were working to install a new Roku streaming device.
“They had an Amazon Fire Stick, but it was taking over the television when they wanted to use the CD player,” Lake explained.
Students removed the Fire Stick components, installed the Roku and then tested the CD player to see that it worked.
The students then sat with Jackie Hall to go through how to program the Roku and how to access YouTube TV, and free TV apps such as Tubi.
“My biggest thing is that it is a real-world experience,” said Forest Hills Central senior Jackson Grimald, an opportunity to not only answer tech questions but connect with The Oaks community.
Hall said making those connections was one of the reasons that she asked if the students could come to the facility.
“They are helping teach the residents things they need to learn,” she said. “A lot of it is things they didn’t learn when they were young because this technology didn’t exist.
“So the students and the residents are connecting with each other and learning a little through the process.”
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