Comments on: What are the most important tech basics no teacher should be without?

By: Mobile Musings » Blog Archive » Tech basics no teacher should be without

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:38:45 +0000

[…] « What are the most important tech basics no teacher should be without? […]

By: Midge Frazel

Midge Frazel — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:06:00 +0000

taking a digital photo and uploading it to a photo hosting site for safe archive and editing.

By: Anne Kip

Anne Kip — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:54:33 +0000

After reading the comments from others, I don’t have any new ideas to add. I agree with the topics suggested and like the idea of differentiated exploring for adult learners. I look forward to your movies, a few of which will fill some of my learning gaps.

By: Todd A. Fishburn

Todd A. Fishburn — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:22:23 +0000

Two Words: Information Literacy. We can and should not assume that adult learners have a firm grasp on information literacy, ethics, copyright, leadership, and the do’s a dont’s of web behavior. Great idea Karen!

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:48:10 +0000

File management would be top on my list. I can’t imagine how many hours are wasted looking for files in an endless list in My Documents. When to right click and when to left click
Using Save As when the file is read only
Using Save As to make Office 2007 files backward compatible for older versions
Recognizing different ports on the computer – SD vs. USB vs. VGA
The knowledge that a reboot can potentially solve an endless number of issues
Searching techniques online
How to backup your files to a flash drive, CD, or DVD (How to burn a CD or DVD – using drag and drop and then actually writing files to the CD) – I can’t count the number of blank CD’s I have been given because the files were never written to the CD.
Evaluating a website for credibility
Tips for projecting the computer image through a data projector (Which piece of equipment to start first, pressing F8 on an Dell laptop, restarting if necessary, checking cable connections, etc.)

By: Tina Clifford

Tina Clifford — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:27:44 +0000

OMG! I think file management has to be tops. File formats would be next, followed by clicking…single left-click, double-click (left), right-click. It drives me crazy when people double-click a link! Tabbed browsing is important, as is terminology. Downloading a program is different that installing a program! Burning a CD or DVD is important. Knowing how to use a laptop … touch pad … hook up to a data projector … is important. Knowing that restarting a computer is different than logging off, which is part of basic troubleshooting skills, just like checking cables and making sure that equipment is plugged in. Backing up your own info is an important little tidbit! The list could go on and on!

By: Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:02:13 +0000

Yours are excellent, Karen. Here are some others that you might consider.

I think a very important and overlooked computer skill is learning how to access the help system. Most people are surprised to find out how much they can learn by pressing the F1 key.

Keyboarding skills like using the shift key to select text, and the keyboard to cut and paste, Using home, end, pg up, and pg dn with the cntrl key. The difference between the backspace and the delete key and using the insert key.

How to formulate an effective search by recognizing keywords and using basic search syntax including quotes, minus, and plus.

Recognizing secure sites and why is it important whether the site is secure.

Making backups, how to do it quickly and easily. What is the point of making backups?

By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:36:26 +0000

It will be hard to choose just 10! How about:

–selecting most appropriate apps for a task
–finding alternative apps in the cloud
–screen capture
–downloading (app, image, other file) and finding it!
–built in accessibility options
–using appropriate seach tools and strategies
–basic website evaluation
–troubleshooting techniques

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:32:15 +0000

I agree with many of the items already listed. We were just talking with some teachers about OS skills. Things like:

-files and folders
-file formats
-connecting and using devices like projectors
-file size/download time
-searching for files
-image editing
-file paths

Many of these skills seem to get in the way of some really good ideas that end in frustration.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:18:52 +0000

I think OS skills are #1 on my list:
* Managing and organizing files
* Searching for files
* Installing/Uninstalling apps
* Accessing settings / Control Panel
* Identifying how much RAM, HD space, etc. they have
* How big files are / what type of file based on extension