An innovative public-private partnership between Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) aims to engage students in helping teachers better use the latest technology. Six schools—from California, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia—have been selected to participate in the new Service & Technology Academic Resource Team (START) project launched in January. Education Northwest, one of CNCS’s primary contractors, has been charged with coordinating the initiative.

The goal is for these six schools to develop a set of best practices—illustrating a new kind of collaboration between students and teachers through technology-focused service learning—that programs can adapt. At one of the pilots, Philadelphia’s Parkway West High School, 10th-grade students are being trained to provide project-based digital media support in K–8 classrooms, including developing lesson plans; working one-on-one with students in the areas of literacy, math, and reading; and creating “legacy projects” to address community and school technology needs, such as tech manuals for teachers and school Web sites.

“At first I wasn’t sure how a project like this could work and how it could improve my students’ academic outcomes. After I stepped back and let my students teach me about technology, I realized the tremendous benefits of these service-learning projects,” says Linda Clifton, principal at Tupelo Middle School, another pilot in the START project. “Teachers have been amazed at the things students can do with technology and by integrating students’ expertise in technology into the learning process: You give them the opportunity to expand their learning opportunities, while creating a much-needed technology support system for the teachers.”

As part of the project, a national help desk model will be created that combines service and tech support in schools and communities. “This project allows us to capture the best practices from established student help desk models around the country and infuse them intentionally with the principles of service learning,” explains Education Northwest’s Nicky Martin, who is managing the project. “Student participants will gain technology, academic, career, and customer-service skills that will all contribute to their future success.”

Watch videos from each of the six pilot schools that give details about their projects.