Tech Tip #111: Quick Internet Fix

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: The internet website is quirky. Stuff I know should work doesn’t. Is there any quick way to fix that without having to reboot?

A: Refresh the webpage with the ‘reload current page’ tool. About half the time, that works.

Tech Tip #110: Sound Doesn’t Work?

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: Headphones are so difficult. There’s always someone who can’t get theirs to work. I’ve tried the usual solutions, and still, we have problems. I know the sound works. What else can I do?

A: Another solution to the no-sound problem is to switch where headphones are plugged in. Sometimes, the front port on a CPU degrades and doesn’t work well anymore. Pick your reason–little kids jiggling jacks, overuse, leprechauns. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is students can’t hear what’s going on.

Switch headphones to a different jack. In my case, since I always use the front jack so students can independently plug them in, I switch to the rear jack. Problem’s over.

Tech Tip #112: Five Second Back-up

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I’m paranoid of losing lesson plans, report card comments, and other school work. I back up, but is that enough?

A: Truth, I am the most paranoid person I know about technology. I have an external hard drive for back up, Carbonite in the cloud, a 128-gig flash drive for my ‘important’ stuff (which turns out to be everything), and still I worry.

Here’s what else I do: Every time I work on a document I just can’t afford to lose (again, that’s pretty much everything), I email it to myself. If you’re using MS Office, that’s a snap. Other programs–just drag and drop the file into the email message. I set up a file on my email program called ‘Backups’. I store the email in there and it waits until I’m tearing my hair out. I’ve never had to go there, but it feels good knowing it’s available.

Tech Tip #109: How to Open 2 Gmail Accounts at Once

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I have a home Gmail account and a school one. How do I open both at once so I can keep track of what my kids/home business/etc is doing while at my teaching job?

A: The quick answer I got from my e-friend and tech guru Chris Hoffman is: Open each account in a separate browser (in my case, I use Firefox and Chrome). Click here to get all the details why this works. It has to do with each browser keeping its own cookie.

Why do you need this:

Tech Tip #108: Three-click Rule

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: Some websites/blogs are confusing. It takes too long to do something. What’s with that?

A: I hadn’t put a lot of thought to this until I read Pete‘s response to Kate’ post about Blog Navigation. He cited the oft-debunked-but-just-as-oft-followed 3-click rule  made popular by Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman in his book, “Taking Your Talent to the Web.”. This claims ‘that no product or piece of content should ever be more than three clicks away from your Web site’s main page’. 

This is true with not just programming a website, but teaching tech to students. During my one-score-and-seven-years of teaching, I’ve discovered if I keep the geeky stuff to a max of 2-3 steps, students remember it, embrace it, and use it. More than three steps, I hear the sound of eyes glazing over.

Whether you agree with the ‘rule’ or not, it remains a good idea to make information easy and quick to find. Readers have a short attention span. Same is true of students.

Tech Tip #107: Got a Tech Problem? Google It!

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: Sometimes, I just can’t remember how to accomplish a task. Often, I know it’s simple. Maybe I’ve done it before–or even learned it before–and it’s lost in my brain. What do I do?

A: One of the best gifts I have for students and colleagues alike is how to solve this sort of problem. Before you call your IT guy, or the tech teacher, or dig through those emails where someone sent you the directions, here’s what you do:

Google it.

25 Most Common Problems Your Students Will Face

There are 25 problems that stump students most often when they use the computer. They’re questions like, ‘My audio doesn’t work’ and ‘My screen is frozen’. How about ‘I deleted *** and didn’t mean to’? Does that sound familiar? These 25 problems account for 70% of the issues that make students unable to use the computer for whatever they’re trying to accomplish. If they can solve these, they are much more independent and the tech experience much more authentic.

I’ve updated this from my last year’s list. Did I miss any?

Dear Otto: My computers are old. What do I do?

Do you have a tech question?

Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Laurie:

Dear Otto,

Do you have the new Common Core in the state that you work in?  Do you have any tips for working in a district such as I do, that in the current economy naturally that has a tight budget for updating lab computers.  Most of the computers that are in the lab I work in are old and slow working.   Unfortunately, I do not have a Smartboard or Interactive Whiteboard.  I do use an old Epson projector.

There are a lot of teachers trying to keep up with tech ed changes despite older labs and computer set-ups. Some are lucky with 1:1 set-ups and classroom iPads, but lots of teachers make do with what they have.

Like you, I don’t have a smartscreen. Our IT guys attached my computer to a screen (probably like your Epson) so I can display samples and rubrics, and I have Splashtop on my iPad so I can get back to my screen from anywhere in the classroom (albeit, it’s a bit clunky) so that-all helps. I have students come up to the screen and point or share–a way to involve them more in the lessons. At times, I let them use my computer–when I flip the class and have them teaching a skill. This is quite popular.

Monday Freebies #37: Use Oregon Trail to Teach Westward Expansion

This year more than any before, classroom budgets have been cut making it more difficult than ever to equip the education of our children with quality teaching materials. I understand that. I teach K-8. Because of that, I’ve decided to give the lesson plans my publisher sells in the Technology Toolkit (110 Lesson Plans that I use in my classroom to integrate technology into core units of inquiry while insuring a fun, age-appropriate, developmentally-appropriate experience for students) for FREE. To be sure you don’t miss any of these:

• Subscribe to Ask a Tech Teacher by Email
• Sign up to the RSS feed

…and start each week off with a fully-adaptable K-8 lesson that includes step-by-step directions as well as relevant ISTE national standards, tie-ins, extensions, troubleshooting and more. Eventually, you’ll get the entire Technology Toolkit book. If you can’t wait, you can purchase the curriculum here.

I love giving my material away for free. Thankfully, I have a publisher who supports that. If everyone did, we would reach true equity in international education.

Oregon Trail to Teach Problem Solving Skills

Show students how to get the most out of Oregon trail by reading the headings on each screen, thinking about problem solving skills and applying the simulation to their classroom discussion on westward expansion. I include a worksheet of questions they can answer as well as additional websites to extend their education.

Tech Tip #88: 20 Techie Problems Every Student Can Fix

Kids can solve tech problems

There are about twenty problems that cause eighty percent of the tech stoppages. I’m going to tell you what those are and how to solve them. Trust me. They’re easier than you think to solve. I routinely teach them to third, fourth and fifth graders, and then they teach their parents.

I’ll tell you the problem first, then why it generally occurs and the most common solution to fix it:

Deleted a file

Why? By accident or changed my mind          

What to do: Open Recycle Bin; right-click—restore

Can’t exit a program                                      

Why: Can’t find the X or Quit tool. This happens with young children’s programs and those pesky internet ads that marketers don’t want you to be able to exit

What to do: Alt+F4 works 95% of the time. Try that.

Can’t find Word                                             

Why: Shortcut moved, was deleted by accident or became inactive        

What to do: Right-click on desktop—select ‘New’—“Word Document”

The Secret to Teaching Tech to Kids: Delegate

There’s a secret to teaching kids how to use the computer. It’s called ‘delegate’. I don’t mean sluff off the teaching to aides or parents. Here, I’m referring to empowering students to be their own problem-solvers, then expect it of them. Here’s how you do it:

• Let them know that computers aren’t difficult. Aw, come on. I see your scrunched faces. Here’s the ugly little truth: Computers are only hard to learn if kids are told they’re hard to learn. Don’t mention it. Compare keyboarding to piano–a skill lots of kids feel good about–or another one that relates to your particular group. Remove the fear. They might not believe you, but you’re the teacher so they’ll give you a chance
• Teach them how to do the twenty most common problems they’ll face on a computer (more on that later). Expect them to know these–do pop quizzes if that’s your teaching style). Post them on the walls. Do a Problem-solving Board (click the link for details on that–it works well in my classes). Remind them if they know these, they’ll have 70% less problems (that’s true, too) than the kids who don’t know how to solve these. If they raise their hand and ask for help, play Socrates and force them to think through the answer. Sometimes I point to the wall. Sometimes I ask the class for help (without saying who needs assistance. Embarrassing students is counter-productive). Pick the way that works for you. The only solution you can’t employ is to do it for them
• Teach students keyboard shortcuts. Does that sound like an odd suggestion? It isn’t. Students learn in different ways. Some are best with menus, ribbons and mouse clicks. Some like the easy and speed of the keyboard. Give them that choice. If they know both ways, they’ll pick the one that works best for them. Once they know these, they’ll be twice as likely to remember one of the two methods of doing the skill like exit a program (Alt+F4) or print (Ctrl+P).
• Let neighbors help neighbors. I resisted this for several years, thinking they’d end up chatting about other topics than tech. They don’t when sufficiently motivated and interested. They are excited to show off their knowledge by helping classmates.

How to Balance Teaching and Independent Discovery

I had a question from a reader about how I keep students from messing up the desktops, deleting icons, going into files they shouldn’t, while still encouraging a

sense of exploration and adventure. It got me thinking of all the tricky stuff I teach that makes computers both challenging and fun. For example:

• how to create wallpaper, which means they have to change the lab computer’s screen
• how to add shortcuts to the desktop (which means they might add some I don’t like)
• how to change the direction of the screen (after a precocious fifth grader inverted it 90 degrees)
• how to add shortcuts to the start menu (which means they might add some I don’t like)
• how to move the taskbar from the bottom (and then another student likes it at the bottom, but doesn’t know how to fix that)

It’s a balancing act as a technology teacher (or a homeschooling mom) to teach students how to problem solve on the computer and personalize their station while reigning students in from making computers useless to others. Especially when our job as technology teachers is to model problem solving, which includes playing around with icons.

#81: Problem Solving Board

Have students teach each other the 28 most common techie problems. They learn how to solve the problem and teach the class as a presentation, then answer questions. They will feel accomplished and tech savvy.

If the lesson plans are blurry, click on them for a full size alternative.

–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom. Preview available on Amazon.com and Scribd.com

20 Common Computer Problems and Solutions (a Third Grader Can Do)

I received a lot of requests for copies of a document I published a year ago, Troubleshooting Common Computer Problems. At the suggestion of Edtech Sandy (aka Sandy Kendell), I tried to upload it through Google Docs to no avail (though it kind of worked in my WordPress.org site) so I’m guessing WordPress.com doesn’t allow Google Docs. Please feel free to disabuse me of that conclusion.

I uploaded instead through my Scribd account. Here is the original document and a different way of displaying the same problems (viewed best in FireFox):

How to Teach Problem-solving With Oregon Trail and Win7

My students love Oregon Trail (check out my lesson plan). It fits nicely with a unit of inquiry in both 3rd and 4th grade so

Oregon Trail doesn't play well with Win 7

students learns the history of settlers moving west the first year and reinforce the second year.

Oregon Trail makes it easy to catch the important concepts because it puts them right at the top of the screen–You die of malaria, You reach the Blue River. I ask questions of students like What were problems faced by settlers along the trail (they caught diseases)? What natural landmarks did they cross (the Blue River). I have 3rd graders fill out a questionnaire and I have 4th graders complete an expanded version digitally. They bring a Word doc up electronically and fill it out on the computer as they play the game.

Besides the obvious learning experience about the Oregon Trail, students cover valuable computer skills:

8 Simple Fixes if Your Computer Won’t Work

A while ago, I did a poll:

Almost half the people who voted said their biggest computer problem was that the computer didn’t work. They probably pushed the on button, or moved the mouse around, maybe tried to turn the screen on–and nothing happened.

That is a common problem in my classes. Students sit down to work, excited about whatever project we’re doing, and are stuck until I can come help them start the *** computer.

Here are some simple first steps that I have them do before they are allowed to ask for help. These eight steps fix the problem over half the time:

Tech Tip #30: Menu Command is Greyed Out

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Tech Tip #29: I Can’t Find My File

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Tech Tip #28: 5 Ways to Fix a No-Sound Problem–For Free

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Tech Tip #7: Transparent Backgrounds

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Tech Tip #1: the Insert Key

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents and students about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Are You A Critical Thinker?

Not a MENSA Math Marvel, but able to logically think through an answer. These focus on math, but they address life skills of problem solving:

Take the official critical thinking quiz* and test your knowledge with questions from our award-winning titles.

1) You have only an 8-liter jug and a 3-liter jug. Both containers are unmarked. You need exactly 4 liters of water.How can you get it, if a water faucet is handy? Question from Classroom Quickies • Show/Hide Solution Answer: Fill the 3-liter jug three times, each time dumping the water from it into the 8-liter jug. The third time, this will leave one liter of water in the 3-liter jug, and the 8-liter jug will be filled. Dump the water from the 8-liter jug down the drain, and then empty the one liter of water from the 3-liter jug into the 8-liter jug. Now fill the 3-liter jug again and dump the water into the 8-liter jug. The 8-liter jug now contains 4 liters of water. Various answers are possible.

2) What can you add to 1,000,000 and always get more than if you multiplied the 1,000,000 by the same value?Question from Scratch Your Brain • Show/Hide Solution Answer: zero, any number less than and including 1.000001, any fraction less than a whole, or any negative number.

3) Determine the common saying depicted in these verbal picture puzzles.a. DECISION b. ANOTHER     ONE Question from Think-A-Grams • Show/Hide Solution Answer: a.) split decision b.) one after another

4) What is the 50th number in this sequence? Explain how you got your answer.5, 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41, … Question from Dr. Funster’s Think-A-Minutes • Show/Hide Solution Answer: 299. The pattern involves a difference of 6 between adjacent terms of the sequence. Add 6 to 5, getting 11, then add 6 to 11, getting 17, then add 6 to 17, getting 23, etc., until 6 has been added 50 times, ending in 299. Answer explanations will vary.

5) Determine both one-word answers. The floor of ship or boat, They walk on me at sea; Where there’s a C, make it an S, At school you sit on me. What am I? _______________ Question from Spelling DooRiddles • Show/Hide Solution Answer: Deck, desk

6) The reason he gave the press for leaving his job was illness and fatigue. That wasn’t exactly the truth and it wasn’t exactly a lie.Why did he leave? Question from Red Herring Mysteries • Show/Hide Solution Answer: He was the coach of a professional ball team. The teams owner fired him because he was sick and tired of the teams dismal performance.

7) Determine both one-word answers.Another word for sick, Your forehead is quite hot; Now put an H in front, A mountain I am not. What am I?______________ Question from Spelling DooRiddles • Show/Hide Solution Answer: a.) ill b.) hill

8) Use the clues to solve the puzzle.A duck, a goose, a goat, and a horse all entered the barn at different times one day last week. 1) A mammal entered the barn first. 2) The duck entered before the goose. 3) The goose entered ahead of the horse. Who entered the barn first? ____________ Question from Dr. Funster’s Creative Thinking Puzzlers • Show/Hide Solution Answer: the goat

9) Determine the common term or phrase depicted in these verbal picture puzzles.a. CHIEDITOREF b. T   2222 Question from Think-A-Grams • Show/Hide Solution Answer: a.) Editor in Chief b.) Tea for two

10) Use the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division symbols once each to make these equations true.a. 600 __ 200 __ 400 __ 300 __ 200 = 200 b. 200 __ 300 __ 600 __ 400 __ 200 = 200 Question from Dr. Funster’s Quick Thinks Math • Show/Hide Solution Answer: a.) 600 x 200 / 400 – 300 + 200 = 200 b.) 200 / 300 x 600 – 400 + 200 = 200

11) While relaxing on the deck outside her cabin one summer evening, Vivian fell into a deep trance-like sleep. When she awoke, she felt as if she had slept only an hour or two, but it was now the middle of winter.How could this be? Question from Red Herring Mysteries • Show/Hide Solution Answer: Vivian was on the patio of her first class cabin on a cruise ship. She fell asleep just before the ship crossed the equator on a trip from Hawaii to New Zealand. The equator is the dividing line between the opposite seasons. She fell asleep north of the equator while in the middle of summer and awoke two hours later south of th equator in the middle of winter.

12) What do you get when a math teacher is a magician? ________________Question from Scratch Your Brain • Show/Hide Solution

What Do You Think is the Hardest Techie Problem?

If you read the last blog (askatechteacher.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/twenty-techie-problems-every-student-can-fix/), I’d like your feedback. This is your chance to cast your vote for your experience fixing computers during your child’s computer time. If you come up with a problem your child faces that I haven’t addressed, I’ll find out the answer for you: