Category: Problem solving
169 Tech Tip #39: My Computer Won’t Turn Off
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #39: My Computer Won’t Turn Off
Category: Hardware
Sub-category: PC, Problem-solving
Q: I’m pushing the power button on my laptop (or desktop, but this is more common with laptops), and it won’t turn off. What do I do?
A: Push the power button and hold it in for a count of ten. It will look something like the inset.
If that doesn’t work (there’s always that one that breaks the rules), hold it for a count of twenty. Still doesn’t work? Pull out the battery.
169 Tech Tip #102: Doc Saved Over? Try This
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #102–Doc Saved Over? Try This
Category: Google Apps
Sub-category: MS Office, Problem-solving
Q: My students often save a blank document over their document. Is there any way to retrieve the file?
A: Absolutely. If you’re on Google Docs, go to Revisions. Select the version of the document you know was correct and restore it.
Websites for Hour of Code by Grade
This December will again host the Hour of Code, a one-hour introduction to programming designed to demystify the subject and show that anyone can be a maker, a creator, and an innovator. Last year, almost 300,000 students (age 4-104) participated from over 180 countries and wrote almost 20 billion lines of code. The 200,000+ teachers involved came away believing that, of all their education tools, coding was the best at teaching children to think. It’s easy to see why when you look at fundamental programming concepts:
- abstraction and symbolism – variables are common in math, but also in education. Tools, toolbars, icons, images all represent something bigger
- creativity – think outside the box
- if-then thinking – actions have consequences
- debugging – write-edit-rewrite; try, fail, try again. When you make a mistake, don’t give up or call an expert. Look at what happened and fix where it went wrong.
- logic – go through a problem from A to Z
- sequencing – know what happens when
If you’re planning to participate in Hour of Code, here are a series of activities — broken down by grade — that will kickstart your effort. They can be done individually or in small groups.
169 Tech Tip #59: Alt Keys
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #59–Alt Keys Add Symbols
Category: Google Apps
Sub-category: MS Office, Webtools, Keyboarding, Problem-solving
Q: How do I create the copyright symbol (or another symbol) in Google Apps or Word?
A: It’s easier than you think. Hold down the Alt key and press 0169. ©. Use the keypad with the num lock on–don’t use the number row. I could not get this to work until someone pointed out that you must use the keypad. Duh.
Have students try out some others that would be useful for them. For example:
Hour of Code is Coming!
December 4-10, 2017, Computer Science Education will host the Hour Of Code–a one-hour introduction to students on coding, programming, and why they should love it, designed to demystify “code” and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, and an innovator. Throughout participating websites, you’ll find a variety of self-guided tutorials that say “anybody can do, on a browser, tablet, or smartphone”. You’ll even find unplugged tutorials for classrooms without computers. No experience needed.
Here’s a video to kick things off–you can’t watch this and not get motivated:
169 Tech Tip #99: Need Email Accounts for Registration? Try This
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #99–Need Email Accounts for Registration? Try This
Category: Email
Sub-category: Webtools, Problem-solving, Classroom management
Q: A lot of web-based tools require email verification. Many of my students don’t have these at school or home. What do I do?
A: This is a lot easier than you’d think. Gmail ignores anything that comes after a + in a username. JonDoe is the same as JonDoe+thinglink. Use that to your advantage with student accounts. They can use your email address and append their name with the +. You can even set up a filter to send all those + emails to a separate folder so it doesn’t annoy you.
169 Tech Tip #83: Find Outlook Follow-up Folder
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #83–Find Outlook Follow-up Folder
Category: Email
Sub-category: Problem-solving
Q: I had to reformat my computer and lost the ‘For Follow Up’ folder in Outlook. How do I bring this back?
A: This isn’t important until it happens to you. To re-create it, choose File>New>Search Folder or use the shortkey Ctrl+Shift+P. Highlight ‘Mail flagged for follow up’ and click OK.
A note: Search folders are collected at the bottom of the folder list.
169 Tech Tip #126: 7 Tips to Differentiate with Tech
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #126–7 Tips to Differentiate with Tech
Category: Differentiation
Sub-category: Teaching, Pedagogy
Here are seven ways to differentiate instruction every day:
169 Tech Tip #17: No Excuse for Spelling Errors
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #17–No excuse for Spelling Errors
Category: EDIT/FORMAT
Sub-category: MS Office, Google Apps, Internet
Q: What are those red and green squiggly lines in my document?
169 Tech Tip #82: How do I use a ‘Read Only’ Doc?
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: #82–How do I use a read-only doc?
Category: EDIT/FORMAT
Sub-category: Security
Q: The file I’m trying to edit say’s ‘read only’. What do I do?
A: A ‘read only’ document means you can’t edit the author’s work. Adapt to this by saving the file under a different name, say, ‘revised’, and then edit. There might be an amber bar at the top of the document asking you to do just that.
