What Do I Do When the Computers Don't Work

One reason we insist that teachers "play" with the hardware and software in our computer classrooms during training sessions is that they discover they already know how to answer many of the questions students will have about our computer tools. ("How do I save on the network drive?" "I clicked on Open but I don't see my DAILY prompt?") These "play" sessions also give us time to cover some of the basic troubleshooting teachers can do in the classroom--rebooting the printer after they clear a paper jam, making sure students haven't kicked the plug out of the wall when a computer screen suddenly goes blank, and so on.

We emphasize, however, that we don't expect our teachers to be computer experts. Instead we highlight two strategies that generally calm most of their fears of technical glitches: