7 Most Common Tech Issues For Teachers — and How to Fix Them
Technology is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s here to stay as social distancing continues. While tech issues occasionally arise in class, during remote learning, they’re more present and may sometimes disturb your beautifully planned remote lessons. To support you, here are the most common tech issues teachers face during this time, and the best solutions for them. Let’s start!
Q: Why does my computer freeze/move slowly during a lesson? What should I do when it happens?
A: Your computer can freeze or become slow for multiple reasons: heating up too much, having too many windows open at the same time, USB or other external devices — the mouse or keyboard can also cause it. Hardware issues or software may have the potential to slow your computer down. To handle that, wait a few moments for the computer to process. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the Windows Task Manager. If the Task Manager can open, highlight the program that is not responding, and choose End Task, which should unfreeze the computer.
If your computer is still frozen, reboot the computer by pressing and holding down the power button until the computer turns off. Once your computer is off, wait a few seconds, then turn the computer back on and let it start as normal.
After the lesson, try and delete your temporary files. Temporary files are used by your system to store data while running programs or creating permanent files, such as PowerPoint documents or Excel spreadsheets. If information is lost, your system can use temporary files to recover data. When these files aren’t automatically deleted, they accumulate and can begin to gunk everything up.
To delete them, type disk cleanup in the search box on the taskbar, then select Disk Cleanup from the list of results. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK. Under Files to delete, select the file types you want to delete. To get a description of the file type, select it, and select OK.
Q: How can I create a document camera to show how to solve a math question during my online session?
A: Many teachers are creating their document cameras by using their phone/tablet camera. Connect to your Zoom/Google Meet session through your phone as a new participant (use another email to do so). Then, tilt your phone/tablet camera to capture your notepad or whiteboard. You can use both your computer camera and your other device camera, that way, your students will be able to see you and what you’re writing at the same time.
Q: Can I control what students post on Google Classroom?
A: Sure. The default is that students can post and comment. You can change this to students who can only comment, or only teachers can post or comment. Go to the “Students” bar and choose “Students can only comment” or “Only teachers can post and comment.”
Q: How can I record my screen?
A: If you want to keep it simple and have a Windows operated computer, there’s a screen recording capability pre-installed through the Game Center, press Windows+G, then select “record.”
If you have a Mac computer, many other options are available for you, but the most popular ones are Loom and Screencastify. Loom pro is free for teachers and students if you sign up with your school account. Screencastify also offers a free upgrade to premium using code CAST_COVID. It provides unlimited recording time and a free video editor.
Q: What is the most accessible platform for teachers to record lessons for asynchronous learning?
A: If you are a Windows user, use Google Meet. Organize a Google Meet session (when you’re the only one present) and record yourself talk and present as it will show students the windows you are presenting and your face. Google Meet saves the recording directly to a Meet folder on your drive and emails you a copy/link to send easily to your students.
Macs have a free software that’s a part of the Mac suite. Record using QuickTime and then use iMovie to edit.
Q: Where should I upload my video or any large file to send to my students?
A: Depends on your preference. If you are recording your video via Google Meet, it will be automatically saved to your Google Drive. You can upload any large file to Google Drive and send students a link to download. If you’re looking to upload a video, another option is to upload it to Youtube and send students a link to view.
Q: Does Tailor-ED work with Google classroom or Zoom?
A: YES! Tailor-ED is designed to sync with your online classroom easily. You can share the Pre-Assessment and Exit Ticket links via google classroom, QR code, or just by copying the link on whichever tool you use to communicate with your students usually i.e., Zoom, Google Classroom, email or Whatsapp.
We also provide you a link to your digital lesson that you can share with your students. Our students’ lesson link is a uniquely generated site for each lesson which instructs the students on their groups and the activities they need to complete, while also providing them with the lesson’s exit ticket link.
We know you deal with issues that continuously surface during this distance learning experience. If you can’t find your solution here, reach out to us, and one of our tech experts will be happy to assist you.
