Shooting Trouble - Helping Students Help Themselves.

As we close out the year here in the Northeast U.S. - our last day isn't until June 20th - I am still struggling with students and teachers who just want me to tell them what to do. Despite the multitude of screencasts and written directions I have created, kids and adults still want me to solve their technology problems. I've started responding with a new question: "What have you tried so far?" Unfortunately, the answer is often "Nothing."

I believe that the best thing you can learn in computer class, or in professional development, is to troubleshoot your own problems. I try to tell my students that I don't have all of the answers, I just have a lot of experience figuring out the answers. I do want to help people out, but only after they have tried to help themselves. I'm not always going to be there to solve their problems. They need to learn how to work things out for themselves. Where does this laziness come from? Why do some people become so helpless when sitting in front of a computer?

My first instinct is to solve the problem for them. I have to stop myself from reaching over, taking the mouse and doing whatever it is that needs to be done. Sometimes I feel like I should put my right hand in a sling to stop myself from taking the wheel. It is really hard not to just do it. But that has been my goal this year and it will continue to be my goal next year. Hopefully, I won't have to resort to duct tape to make it happen.

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Comment by Sylvia Martinez on June 4, 2007 at 12:16pm: I think the "we're number one!" mindset is exacerbated by the risk-aversive behavior we encourage in schools. Mistakes are supposed to be learning experiences, but there's no time for that. Students receive detailed rubrics for every assignment, and then we wonder why there's a lack of creativity and initiative. Teachers are asked to teach in ever more standardized ways to increase test scores when there's every evidence that this deprives teachers of the opportunity to develop their own creativity as educators and decreases their ability to seize teachable moments.

To be cynical, why would a teacher or a student try something new, or think beyond the obvious? It doesn't help that we shroud computers (and machines in general) in mystery by not teaching programming or basic engineering anywhere in K-12.

Lots of teachers I work with tell me that they have to spend significant amounts of time with students to break them of the habit of dependence on the teacher and the habit of having everything spelled out for them. You are on the right track with not doing it for them, even if it's more frustrating for you in the short term. The hope is that some students haven't been trained into submission just yet. You might see it's the "troublemakers" who get it first - encourage them to become mentors for others!

Comment by Elizabeth Davis on June 4, 2007 at 5:47pm: Skip - What are "social imperatives of working parents?" I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

As a working parent with pre-school children, I do know that I consciously work against "high anxiety parenting" and try to let me kids be who they want to be without pushing any academic agenda. I also try very hard to praise them for working hard, and not for being "smart."

I do think that pushing our kids too hard to achieve can backfire - creating children who are afraid to fail and risk looking dumb. I have been very interested in the work of Carol Dweck on "achievement goal theory:"

"Students for whom performance is paramount want to look smart even if it means not learning a thing in the process. For them, each task is a challenge to their self-image, and each setback becomes a personal threat. So they pursue only activities at which they’re sure to shine—and avoid the sorts of experiences necessary to grow and flourish in any endeavor. Students with learning goals, on the other hand, take necessary risks and don’t worry about failure because each mistake becomes a chance to learn. Dweck’s insight launched a new field of educational psychology—achievement goal theory."
-Krakovski, Marina. The Effort Effect. Stanford Alumni Magazine. March/April 2007. http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/features/dweck.html

Comment by Lucie deLaBruere on June 4, 2007 at 9:52pm: Here is a slide in a presentation I did about a year ago.. that has a great cartoon on this

http://www.techsavvysolution.com/tsw/img21.html

Comment by Peggy Soong Yaplee on July 1, 2007 at 4:31pm: Hi Elizabeth,
One of the things I do at the beginning of the year is a technology boot camp for all staff at our school. I tell them that they have to go through the boot camp or I won't come and help them resolve issues with their computers until they learn to check certain things first. Since I have more privilages on the network, I do have a certain amount of work I need to do because teachers don't have those permissions. But basic things like how to hook up their computers, hook up their printers, etc, they have to learn how to do before I will come and troubleshoot for them. I made up a list of things for them to do first before they can request help. Reboot, unplug and replug, etc. I also created a Tech Report Journal that I send out once a month with tips and tricks for teachers in dealing with their hardware and software. In that I also add items that have to do with technology integration and best practices. I found by giving my staff more knowledge to work with, their comfort level increases and their fear of screwing up diminishes.
There are the older teachers that I still have to walk through the process with because they forget easier, but after awhile, I don't hear from them either.

On a social note, it seems rather ridiculas that we as staff have to always resovle and solve issues around our technology when in the real world, there is someone 24/7 in most business. Imagine someone having to solve computer and network problems at Microsoft and still do their job.
Peggy