Hey there! It’s Allyson from OnlineTeacherAllyson.com where stay at home moms come to learn how to teach online – no experience required! Today I want to get into tech issues. I’m looking at my notes over here sorry. Tech issues are super stressful whether they’re your tech issues as the online teacher or your students tech issues. So I want to start with your tech issues. Next week we’ll get into the student’s because it is so much easier to resolve your tech issues than it is someone else’s. I have six things you can do to help either resolve or avoid a tech issue before it even starts, so let’s get to it!
PS – This is also a YouTube video! If you prefer to watch it’s below. If you prefer to listen, you can grab the podcast episode here or all the way at the bottom 💜
Regularly Shut Down Your Computer
The first thing you can do to help avoid a tech issue is to regularly shut down your computer. Or, if you’re in the midst of one, restart it. Regularly shutting down your computer we all know is great. It closes out those windows. I don’t know if you are a habitual tab hoarder like me, or if you like to keep just a couple open. But, I am a tab hoarder. So I have a bunch of tabs for work, and then I have a bunch of tabs for my own personal business – which is helping you, and then I have my personal tabs like Facebook. If you are a habitual tab hoarder like me that will slow down your computer and it will slow down your connection because there’s a lot of things running in the background. So that honestly forces me to close out of them. So shutting it down regularly, or resetting it. Because that’s the joke when something doesn’t work “Did you turn it off and back on again?” Same with my phone, my watch, all of those things. If I haven’t turned them off in a while they don’t work right and a quick reset will help solve that. I try to turn my computer off once a week. It doesn’t always happen! If I’m being honest, it’s Tuesday and I did not shut my computer off last week and I have not yet. So pick a day of the week, whatever is easiest for you, and just shut it down. Give it a break! Computers work well with brakes. As a human being, you need a break. Everything needs a break! I know it’s weird to compare you to a computer but honestly it’s true .
Change Internet Connections
The second thing is to change internet connections. I have two internet connections in my house. I have a router that sits right here on the corner of my desk and I have a router across the house in my living room. So if I take my laptop and I go do work or just use my computer in the living room I do have to change to that router and I don’t always remember when I bring it back to change it back. So that can affect it. If you don’t have two routers at home another thing you can do is connect to the hotspot on your phone. Most phone plans now come with a basic allowance of hot spots so you don’t need to buy an extra plan if you are just using it for backup. I have used hotspots as backup when the internet went down, when power went down, and it has helped. It’s not ideal. It totally drains both batteries, phone and computer or just phone depending on what you’re working on. But, if you’re going to get in trouble for missing the class, or it’s going to be too much hassle to try to miss it or reschedule, and that’s what you want to do, it’s a great backup plan. Another thing you can do is go somewhere. if it’s safe. So I live in Oklahoma. We just had our first snow snap. My area didn’t see anything but several hours from me saw several inches. If they don’t have power they could drive to Walmart, or Starbucks, or somewhere with free internet. I want to make sure it’s safe. Your safety comes first. So if that’s not going to be safe for you to be getting out in the car and driving a couple blocks please don’t. Please just cancel the class. You do not get paid enough for that hassle, all right? You can also use a neighbor’s, maybe a parent if you live close enough to parents, and you want to mooch off theirs for the afternoon. No shame in that game!
Turn Off Your Video
Number three, this is not my favorite but it really does help, turn off your video. Video uses a lot of bandwidth. It uses a lot of energy and if things are slow the first thing that’s automatically shut down, or slowed down, or lessened in quality is the video. I am teaching a small group math right now and we meet through Google Meet. If my internet’s having trouble, on my students’ profiles, it will say “Video paused because of low internet.” And I think it’s my internet because they tell me “Miss you’re lagging!” and it comes right back up. We know with the internet sometimes it’s just glitches or hiccups. Maybe it’s really busy in your neighborhood, maybe the weather is doing whatever it’s doing. So that’s one thing you can do is turn off your video. It will help with the lagging. Now, I don’t like this because it does take away your presence as a teacher, right? It’s like you’re not there. They feel like they can get away with things. I encourage them to have their camera on. so I need to have my camera on. But, it is something you can do especially if you have a good rapport with that student. You can tell them “My internet is not working very well today. I am going to turn off my camera for a few minutes, but I will try to turn it back on and see if that helps.” Like I said, it’s not my favorite.
Eliminate Other things or People Using Bandwidth
Number four, you can’t eliminate other things using bandwidth if you are sharing a house with people. For example if my husband is in the other room gaming, and streaming, and doing all the things on the same internet, he probably has to get off. Sorry dear but I am making the money right now! So think about that too. Or, if your kids are streaming music, or streaming games, same thing. That’s also the thing with public internet, like at the library or at Starbucks, is other things are using that bandwidth. Now I am alone and I can shut down tabs. I use a lot, they’re always refreshing, even if you’re not using them, and that slows down your computer. It drains your battery. So that’s another thing you can do for your tech issues.
Clear Cache, Cookies, and Free up Memory Space
Here’s one thing a lot of people don’t think about, it’s your cache. Not like cash money but your cache on your computer: c-a-c-h-e. You can clear your cache and you can clear your cookies. I always get annoyed when I have to do this because then I have to retype in all the passwords my usernames, and emails that have been saved. I don’t even save that much because I’m weird! The ones that do get saved I don’t realize it until I’m sitting there trying and failing to remember my password. But if you clear your cache, you clear your cookies, sometimes even your history, those things all speed up your computer. Cookies are like memories. That’s the thing that targets those ads to you. They know you’ve been to this website, they know you’ve Googled whatever it is, and that’s how you get those targeted ads is the cache and the cookies. Sometimes even just the platforms have a cache. So VIPKid, they have their own little cache I could clear on my own. That was one of the first things I did if I had tech issues was I cleared it. I always had to log in again but that was fine. I knew that one. So see if your platform has something like that too rather than going into the deep dive of your computer to get to your cache and your cookies. Maybe there’s just one specifically for your platform. VIPKid had it. I can’t speak for experience from really anything else but it is worth looking into and asking on those Facebook groups, or asking other teachers that you know.
Don’t Install the Update the First Day
The last one, this one got me. I know this one and it got me this summer! So whenever your platform, if you’re on one, pushes out a new update – do not do it on the first day! That is the rookie mistake and I want you to avoid it. We all know when new updates come out there are bugs and those bugs will affect your entire day’s worth of classes! If you’re lucky they won’t, but you do not want to take that risk. So over the summer the platform I was teaching on had an update and it asked “Do you want to update it?” I was like yeah cool let’s do it! As soon as I pushed that button I knew I had made a terrible mistake. So the whole morning I had four classes. My first one went great! My second one I got kicked off and I could not get back on. And my third and fourth one could not get back on. So then I had to spend time talking to customer support, and the tech people, and taking pictures, and proving that I’m there, and I’m trying to go on. I was telling them “Oh my gosh, I don’t know what’s happening! I am trying to teach, but it’s not working.” So this company is based in Canada. I was teaching early in the morning like seven o’clock my time before there their tech support was even open so I was just kind of on my own. If you’re teaching for companies like VIPKid where they are based in Asian countries it’s probably going to be the same thing. You send a ticket but you’re not going to get an immediate response. So do not do the update the first day. I like to wait about a week and then I’ll do that update. By then the bugs have been sorted out. People have found the issues and found workarounds if you are on the Facebook group. So VIPKid I was part of the Facebook group. I could always tell when teachers had done the update because they would complain and there was a huge thread about other teachers who had the same issue. Once you start seeing the update chatter quiet down on the Facebook group you know it’s pretty safe. So all that to say, do not do the update the first day. It is not worth the headache of not being able to get to classes, or having your classes affected, and then having to potentially fight to still get paid because even though you couldn’t technically teach you were still there trying to teach. I was lucky this summer. They understood it was a tech issue and I asked them “What do you want me to put in my timesheet?” and they said “Go ahead and put for it like you taught the class and we’ll set up a makeup for those students.” So I don’t want that to be you. I don’t want you to have that headache. Just wait to do the update and everyone’s life will be easier.
Worst Case Scenario – New Computer
Okay so those are just six quick things you can check for if you are having tech and internet troubles. You might need to upgrade your computer worst case scenario if it’s just not up to the task. When I first first started teaching online I had this old computer and it could not handle the graphics with the lessons. It was so laggy that I might as well have not been there. I gave a bad class or two before I forked out the money and I bought a new one. So if you have a really old computer you might need to buy one with more RAM, more working memory, and more memory just in general. Because the fuller the memory on your computer is the slower it loads. It just has less space to do things. So talk to whoever you’re going to. I think I went to Best Buy. Talk to them, they’ll be more knowledgeable than me – than I ever will be in any of that. And, a gaming computer if you are in the market for dropping some good cash, a gaming computer is always a really good option. They are built specifically for streaming just like that. All right I hope that was helpful. Next week we will get into the student side! I hope you’re having a great week and we will chat soon. Bye!
