Learn About GenYES Ohio 2025
GenYES Ohio is a resource collection and project-tracking platform that prepares Ohio students to become Student Technology Leaders (STLs) through technology-infused leadership instructional materials. With these resources, teachers can support a variety of classes and topics from STEM and makerspaces, to industrial arts and student-supported help desks.
GenYES Ohio is intended for middle and high school educators as they help their students become problem solvers, creative digital citizens, and savvy users of technology. Through funding from Future Forward Ohio, INFOhio will offer Ohio schools no-cost access to the customized GenYES Ohio Technology Assisted Projects (TAPs) platform, the GenYES Ohio Classroom Materials Collection, and access to the GenYES Ohio Community in Open Space.
To get started exploring GenYES:
Read more to learn about each of these areas of GenYES Ohio.
GenYES Ohio Community in Open Space
To stay connected to others using GenYES and share best practices, join the GenYES Ohio Community in Open Space. The GenYES Ohio Community is a group for educators who use GenYES Ohio resources in their schools. Group members can collect, collaborate, and share lesson plans. They can use the discussion board to learn from conversations with peers how to support the use of GenYES Ohio resources in their schools and make announcements and share resources with each other. Ohio users should contact support.infohio.org with questions and support for GenYES Ohio.
GenYES Ohio Classroom Materials in Open Space
These materials support technology topics and can be used to plan lessons, teach classes, and evaluate outcomes for students in the program. Find these collections in Open Space under Discover in the drop-down menu at the top of the homepage. The GenYes Ohio Classroom Materials are available under Curated Collections.
These materials support technology topics and can be used to plan lessons, teach classes, and evaluate outcomes for students in the program. Choose from choice boards, resource sheets, and content packages centered on technology topics including STEM, content creation, graphic design, video, audio, and robotics to develop technology and leadership skills.
These resources come in many forms and media styles. This Choice Board on Media Literacy from the GenYES Ohio Classroom Materials Collection is for students. Share it with them when researching or working on projects.
Resource Collections, created in Google Docs, provide educators with options for teaching and learning about specific topics. Use these to materials to supplement instruction. Here is an example of the Computer Science Resource Collection from the GenYES Ohio Classroom Materials Collection.
A content package is a collection of educator-curated instructional materials to support a given educational standard and need. Use the Digital Art Content Package from the GenYES Ohio Classroom Materials Collection to plan or support instruction on digital art.
TAPs Platform Overview
GenYES Ohio’s Technology Assisted Projects (TAPs) is a web-based, project-tracking platform. With the TAPs platform, educators can guide students as they provide IT support and content creation help to their school community. A TAP is what we call a Technology Assisted Project. These projects are assignments and tasks delegated by teacher/facilitators of the program to their participating students or (STLs – Student Technology Leaders.)
Use the GenYES Ohio TAPs platform and resources to empower students to impact the school's technology integration goals. Use the TAPs platform to log students' technology-assisted projects as they mentor, create, and support classmates and educators and help students become creative digital citizens. The GenYES Ohio TAPs platform is a great tool for project-based classrooms in grades 7-12 including: Computer Science, Industrial Arts, STEM, Student-Supported Help Desks, and Technology.
Example of a TAP
In addition to tracking projects, the TAPs platform can be used as a help desk if needed. Requests for assistance from other teachers come into the platform as a Help Request and then can be delegated by a facilitator to the STL or STLs they see fit for the task.
When students log in to the TAPs Platform they can see all the projects they have been assigned and submit their evaluations on the TAPs as they complete their work. A student's evaluation tells the facilitator that the student has completed their work. An evaluation contains the student’s time spent on the task, what work was completed, and what skills were used.
When a facilitator logs in to the system they can see all the TAPs that have been created, filter TAPs by different statuses, complete assessments and review evaluations submitted by the STLs, and run reports to verify information and progress of your TAPs program, classes, students, and TAPs.
If you need help getting started, the TAPs platform includes documentation as well. Simply click RESOURCES and you will be able to download the documents for both Facilitator and STL use.
The flexibility of the TAPs platform and the classroom materials gives teachers the ability to integrate student choice and voice. Many GenYES classrooms have used student-driven interests and passions to develop course content and projects. The GenYES Ohio TAPs platform is available to Ohio’s schools and educators at no cost for the 2024-2025 school year. Teachers can request a GenYES Ohio platform for their district or building at support.infohio.org.
To see what GenYES Ohio teachers are doing in their classrooms check out the following blogs highlighting them and their experiences:
GenYES Teacher Feature: Jerrod Norman
GenYES Teacher Feature: Lisa Ford
“I want my students to understand the importance of a team and that they may not have all the answers all the time, and that is okay. We have topics that academically we must cover, but it is the interaction and life experiences they take away that can be applied professionally and personally.” Jerrod Norman, Business/Computer Instructor East Guernsey Local Schools, Buckeye Trail High School.
“I love that the course allows us to fill the niche areas that help a wide variety of classroom needs. The class is not just about technology but is all about service to our school community.” Lisa Ford, Media Specialist/Library Department Coordinator/GenYES Teacher, Mentor EX Village Schools
For more information visit the GenYES Ohio information page. If you have questions or are interested in this program, reach out to support.infohio.org.
Emily Fitch is a Professional Instructional Specialist with INFOhio. She has 13 years of teaching experience, grades 4-12, visual arts and career tech. She also has two years of experience as the Director of Education for a non-profit art center. She has a Bachelor of Science in Art Education and a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Her primary focus on the instructional team centers around developing the Create-Lead-Empower Ohio toolkit and providing support to the education community on student empowerment through student-driven tech support, self-directed learning, service learning, and career exploration in alignment to Ohio's Strategic Plan for Education.
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For more information about Fetch, please visit the Fetch information page or contact INFOhio support at https://support.infohio.org.
