There have been two times in the last two days where I found myself thinking (and saying out loud), "Gawd, I love the internet". The first was when I was introduced to Instructables.com and the second when I was researching a feature a student wished to incorporate in his Weebly page. With a simple search of "linking slideshow photos to store", I was brought to the press release for the feature, a step by step guide, and much, much more.
Being the first point of reference for my students' questions and needs, I have encountered many issues. Everything from lost Notability notes to disabled Google accounts, to disabled iPads to frenetically flashing iPad screens, you name it.. I've probably seen it. But every once in awhile a student brings something to me that I'm not entirely sure of and today was that.
I have taken on the task of teaching my students, all 500 of them, troubleshooting methods. Some of them ask, "How did you get so good at computers and technology", and I never really know how to respond. It is really just exposure, a willingness to fail, and like everything else, knowing where to look: Google. Over the last week I have encountered a few problems where I didn't know the answer or couldn't figure it out on the spot, so I just told the students I would get back to them. Once they left the office, the furious Google Searching began and before you knew it, I found exactly how to do what they needed to do.
Along with Googling for troubleshooting, I also put together How To directions for our students and faculty members. If I can't find a clear "how to" somewhere on the web, I will walk myself through the process taking screen shots, upload photos to Drive, pull them into Drawing, and annotate them. Then pull them into a Google Doc with step by step directions and inserting the photos as reference.
Here is a snippet of the directions I made for our air printing system and downloading iTunes U courses:
Have you figured out a better way of transferring the knowledge of troubleshooting?
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