We’ve all experienced educational technology problems in our classrooms. You know, the kind that can completely throw you off your pedagogical (is that a word?) game and threaten to RUIN a great lesson plan.

If you haven’t experienced this in your own classroom, rest assured it’s not a question of whether or not it will happen, but a question of when it will happen.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems

Let me give you a brief scenario:

You’ve prepped a great, engaging lesson for your students. Your engagement activity (bell ringer, do now, whatever term you prefer to use) involves students using their devices (did I mention that you’re a BYOD school?) to access a Google Form you’ve created.

This form will take student answers for a quick review of yesterday’s topic. Yes, you’re checking for learning but you’re also getting your kids “in the zone” and focused for today.

Your students come in and see the link you’ve posted on the board (whether it be the chalk, white, or smart variety) and they start getting out their devices.

Then it happens…

For some strange reason, the technology gods have decided that your students can’t access Google Forms that day. Whatever the cause, the effect is your students are now clearly unfocused and cries of frustration have already begun.

“I can’t get to that page!”

“What am I doing wrong? It won’t open!”

“Are you sure that’s the right link?”

End scenario.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems/

ALWAYS have a backup plan – in the short scenario I gave you, there are a number of options that could work to replace the Google Form. Any number of digital tools that work on multiple platforms can collect student responses to questions.

Have a quiz in Socrative ready to go. Change the plan a big and use Kahoot! to start the class. You can have the quiz set up with Plickers and pass out the cards to the class, eliminating the need for a network connection altogether.

Back up plans abound, your job is to have one ready in case of emergency.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems/

Keep your attitude right and don’t get frustrated – your students know when you’re not having a good day.

Some of them, once they pick up on this fact, will choose to take advantage of your difficulties. Don’t let your minor tech issues ruin the day.

Stay focused, be happy, and know that in the grand scheme of things, the problem is minor and you can try again.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems/

Be open to having your students help you – let’s face it, sometimes our students know a lot more about technology than we do. A LOT more.

So don’t let your pride be hurt and draw back into a corner when one of your students asks if they can help fix the problem.

Who knows? Maybe they will fix it in less than 3o seconds. Or maybe the failure turns into an epic life lesson of collaboration and problem-solving that the whole class experiences together.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems/

Remember that everything is an experiment – so something you tried didn’t work exactly how you though it should? It was an experiment so all you need to do is learn from it.

Look back at what happened. What did you do wrong? What did you do right? What could you do next time you try this to avoid having the same problem?

Admittedly, sometimes the problem is out of your hands (like network or access issues) but many times the root cause of the problem is something you did or didn’t do. Look back and see how you can make it better for next time.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems/

Take immediate action to fix the problem – don’t let time slip away from you.

Don’t get caught up trying to make sure that your first plan works only to lose have the class period. Move on to you back-up plan quickly or abandon this task altogether.

Don’t be afraid to break out the chalk and write on the board if you have no other option. It’ll be ok.

- See more at: http://teachflip.com/3-tips-to-survive-educational-technology-problems/#sth...

No matter how badly things went during your class, know that you can always try again tomorrow.

When you students see you fail at something and move right along, they learn that they can do the same.

Failure is a big part of learning. Embrace it when it comes your way.

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