Life Wisdom From Your Computer #3: Shortcuts

Don’t you love keyboard shortcuts? Instead of mouse clicking through all those steps to get something done, a quick Ctrl+I italicizes, or Ctrl+S to save. So much more efficient.

Life is like that. You can do it the long way or the short way. Often that means, learn from someone else’s experience. Don’t always feel you must reinvent the wheel. You’re not capitulating if you take the road more traveled.

  • Learn from your mistakes as well as other peoples
  • Accept advice from people you trust.
  • Don’t feel you have to go it alone. There are lots of friends and family, and sometimes new friends, who will help you get things right.
  • Go with your strengths. They have been honed by use. Your weaknesses, well, you never quite know how they’ll work out.

Having said all that, sometimes these shortcuts don’t work. At that point, try something else. One feature I love about Windows is it has multiple solutions to every problem–drop down menu, mousing, shortkeys, usually a few of each. Incorporate that into your life. If one solution doesn’t work for you, try another.

Now, go get ’em!

PS–Here’s a list of my favorite keyboard shortcuts. I can’t do without them.


Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Author: Jacqui
Welcome to my virtual classroom. I've been a tech teacher for 15 years, but modern technology offers more to get my ideas across to students than at any time in my career. Drop in to my class wikis, classroom blog, our internet start pages. I'll answer your questions about how to teach tech, what to teach when, where the best virtual sites are. Need more--let's chat about issues of importance in tech ed. Want to see what I'm doing today? Click the gravatar and select the grade.

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