
Tag: 169 tech tips
Tech Tip #23 I Deleted a File by Accident
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: I deleted a file by accident.
Category: Problem-solving
- Here’s what you do:
- find the recycle bin (in PCs, it’s on your desktop; in Google Drive, it’s called ‘Trash’)
- open (in PCs, right click; in Google Drive: simply click to open)
- find your file; select ‘restore’
‘Restoring’ sends it back where it was before you deleted it.
If you deleted it from a flash drive, it’s gone. There are programs for undeleting from external drives, but they cost money and are more complicated than this ebook allows.
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Tech Tip #169: What is Digital Literacy?
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: What is Digital Literacy?
Category: Pedagogy
‘Digital literacy’ is one of those buzz words floated by experts as being granular to 21st-century students. It’s everywhere, on everyone’s tongue, but figuring out what it means can be daunting. ‘Literacy’ is simple: the ability to read and write–so ‘digital literacy’ should be achieving those goals digitally.
Sounds simple. The difficult is in the implementation. Here are the sixteen transformative tools, activities, and/or knowledge bases digitally-literate students should be comfortable using:
- annotation tool
- backchannel device
- class internet start page
- class website or blog
- cloud computing
- digital citizenship
- digital class calendar
- digital databases
- digital devices–such as laptops, iPads, Chromebooks, or desktops, for daily use
- online information
- sharing digitally to build knowledge
- social media
- student digital portfolios–to curate and collect work
- email–or another method of communicating quickly outside classtime (such as messaging or Twitter)
- virtual collaboration
- vocabulary tool–to quickly decode words students don’t understand
For more detail on the tools, activities, and knowledge bases above—as well as the general topic of digital literacy—visit “Digital Literacy—What is it?” on Ask a Tech Teacher.
More on Digital Literacy:
- How to Assess Digital Literacy
- Digital Literacy in Busy Classrooms
- Digital Literacy–Too Important to Skip
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Tech Tip #167–How to Evaluate Apps
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: How to Evaluate Apps
Category: Pedagogy
Here are thirteen tips to evaluate the apps you’ll find useful in your classroom:
- free or small fee
- stand the test of time
- positive parent reports
- rated ‘for everyone’ or ‘low maturity’
- no in-app purchases or billing
- support the ‘4 C’s’–creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration
- offer compelling content (this is subjective: ‘Compelling’ varies teacher-to-teacher and student-to-student)
- are not distracting or overwhelming in colors, music, or activity
- offer levels that become increasingly more difficult, providing differentiation for student needs
- few ads–and those that are there do not take up a significant portion of the screen
- intuitive to use with a shallow learning curve that encourages independence
- easily applied to a variety of educational environments
- doesn’t collect personal information other than user credentials or data required to operate the app
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Copyright ©2022 askatechteacher.com – All rights reserved.
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Tech Tip #134: 8 Tips to Become Tomorrow’s Teacher
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: 8 Tips to Become Tomorrow’s Teacher
Category: Pedagogy
Today’s teachers have little resemblance to your mother’s teachers—lecturing from the front of the classroom, silent children, and rote drills to reinforce skills. Today, teachers are expected to nurture inquiry, critical thinking, and independent thought, often assessed by projects or anecdotal observation.
Here’s a poster with eight tips on how to become tomorrow’s teacher today:
For more on tomorrow’s teacher, check out these articles on Ask a Tech Teacher:
- Let’s Talk About Habits of Mind
- What is the 21st Century Lesson Plan
- What’s Tomorrow’s Digital Student Look Like
- Set up Your Digital Classroom
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Tech Tip #6: 16 Habits of Mind
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: Habits of Mind
Category: Pedagogy
Habits of Mind are learning skills that address the most granular problem-solving and critical thinking abilities required to prepare a student for college or career. They concentrate on the practical strategies of ‘analysis, evaluation, synthesis. Here’s a poster with all sixteen:
For more on Habits of Mind, visit “Let’s Talk about Habits of Mind” on Ask a Tech Teacher.
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Tech Tip #40: Where Did Windows Explorer Go?
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: Where did Windows Explorer go?
Category: PCs
Q: I can’t find Explorer. Where did it go?
A: Right click on the start button and select ‘File Explorer’.
If you’re looking for DOS, type ‘command prompt’ into the search field and it’ll pop up. I still miss DOS…
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Tech Tip #129: Top Ten PC Shortkeys
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: Poster–Top 10 PC shortkeys
Category: PC, keyboarding
Here’s a poster with the ten most-popular PC shortkeys in my colleague’s classes:
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What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.
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.
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Tech Tip #68: Make Desktop Icons Big or Little
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: Make Desktop Icons Big or Little
Category: Problem-solving
Q: The desktop icons are tiny on my desktop. I don’t know how it happened, so I don’t know how to undo it. Please help!
A: This solution I learned in self-defense, like many other tips I share, when my students figured it out and made my desktop icons HUGE or tiny. Here’s how to fix that:
- Highlight all desktop icons by clicking and dragging a box around them.
- Push Ctrl and roll the mouse wheel. It enlarges or delarges them.
That’s it. How wonderful. I no longer have to squint at icons too small for my eyes.
Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.
What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.

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, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
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Tech Tip #16: What’s Today’s Date?
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: What’s Today’s Date?
Category: PC, MSO, Keyboarding
Q: I never remember the date. Is there a shortcut for people like me?
A: Push Shift+Alt+D. That puts the current date into any Word document (use Ctrl+; in Excel and Google Sheets).
Be aware: This inserted date will update every time you open the document. If you want the date to memorialize the document, skip the shortkey.
Other ways:
- Hover over the clock and it tells you the date.
- Start typing the date in a Word doc and Word finishes it for you.
Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.
What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.

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, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
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Tech Tip #91: Rollback Windows Updates
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: Rollback Windows Updates
Category: PCs, Problem-solving
Q: Windows automatically updated and now one of my programs freezes. What do I do?
A: Go into the Updates list and uninstall the one addressing your problem program. Here’s how you do it:
- Go to Start button>All programs>Windows Updates; select ‘view updates’. Or, search ‘Windows Updates’.
- Select ‘View update history’
- Select ‘Uninstall updates’.
- That takes you to a screen with all of the updates. It will instruct you:
To uninstall an update, select it from the list and click Uninstall or Change’
If things don’t return to normal, see Tech Tip #41 to restore to an earlier date that worked.

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, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.







































