Student+Cheat+Sheet

While discussing the upcoming one-to-one initiative with the campus Instructional Technologist, we talked about the fact that though many students use video game platforms and the internet for entertainment, they do not generally use it for educational or organizational purposes at home. That many of our students do not have the basic skills to organize and find files on a computer. We concluded that a basic usage guide would be helpful to the students and teachers alike. The document will be loaded on each machine and locked so that it can’t be changed or deleted. It will help students by providing a basic guide to computer usage, and teachers by reducing the number of questions students need to ask them.

It was decided that directions on basic care (such as how to carry the laptop), saving a file, and how to change their background. This is affectionately called the “Student Cheat Sheet”. The directions were written in short, simple sentences. To assist those with limited language skills and technological knowledge, pictures were included to help them find the appropriate buttons. So many of these steps are things that the technologically literate don’t even think about, consciously mapping them out actually took some effort. The images were culled from the internet and screen shots from my computer. I’m sure the document will be revised as it is used and students and teachers need change.