For most students at Van Nuys High School, using technology is just part of the routine. They log onto their devices without really thinking about it. Behind the scenes, Andrew Kim, one of the school’s IT support technicians, makes sure everything runs the way it should. Most students don’t even know who he is or what his job actually involves.
His job involves managing thousands of devices across campus, including over 2,000 student Chromebooks. While students and teachers rely on technology everyday, the majority of them don’t notice the work that goes into keeping the network stable.
Walk me through what you actually do on a normal morning before first period starts.
I clock in with the main office, say good morning to them and then I usually have 30 minutes before students start walking in because I get here at 7:30. I look at emails from teachers, admins and staff and I try to plan my day out. Pretty much every IT technician has what’s called a support ticket. That’s how anyone submits an issue to me, and then I review it. By the time 8:00 hits, students start coming in for support with their Chromebooks.
What is the most common problem teachers bring you, and what do they actually think is wrong versus what really is?
Usually, it’s printer related. A lot of teachers think their printers are actually just broken, but sometimes you literally have to turn it off and turn it back on again, or just unplug the USB cable and plug it back in.
What do most people at this school not understand about what your job actually involves?
This is a school with 1,800 computers being used by students every single day. There are over 100 staff members, each with their own computer problems, so I have to be as realistic as I can about fixing things and under what timeline. There are also a lot of projects coming directly from the district that a people don’t see. A lot of it is managing people’s expectations, letting them know I can’t do something right at this second because I’m currently working on something else.
Students blame you when the Wi-Fi is slow. Is that fair?
No. The Wi-Fi is almost never slow unless a router actually goes down in a classroom and students are using a signal from next door. The Wi-Fi is actually very fast. The problem is the Chromebooks might be older and slower, so the internet speed is getting bottlenecked by the computer — not the actual Wi-Fi.
What is the thing on this campus that is held together with the technological equivalent of duct tape — something you fix constantly but can never fully solve?
Probably aging Chromebooks. A lot of the Chromebooks are just getting older and students sort of mistreat them, and I think that combined makes it hard to keep a fleet of working Chromebooks going. They’re expensive, so the school doesn’t always have money to replace them. I can work on hardware repairs, but it’s a very time intensive process. One Chromebook could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
