1. How can teachers find a new solution to answering the same old questions.

2. Introduction  This is the common scene within most classrooms throughout campus and around the country.

3. Rationale…  Students in the courses I have taught ask many questions about very similar topics like:  Where do I save to?  What type of file do I save as?  How do I login to my locker?  Where do I turn the file in?  What do I title to file as?  Can I open this file at home?

4. Rationale Cont.…  Those questions get asked several times each class period.  Students don’t listen when solutions are given to classmates and then expect the instructor to repeat the solution  Instructors in-turn:  Feel Frustration  Lose patience  Lose instructional time

5. Explanation of Current Situation  Instructor will explain how to solve the problem  Another student (B) asks similar question  Instructor either explains answer again or tells the student (B) to ask classmate  Student (B) in turn:  Completes the process  Waits till end of period and asks again  Gets classmates help  Just puts it off and doesn’t finish task

6. Drawbacks to Current Situation  Drawbacks  Frustrated teacher  Long waiting time for teacher’s help  Less instructional time during lesson/class  Less time for lesson closure  Students feel like instructor doesn’t care about “them”  Class climate isn’t conducive for learning

7. Solution Idea  The idea for a solution would be to create a Q&A web based resource that has the ability to guide students in a step-by-step direction process.  This process would:  Allow students to be responsible for their own learning  Alleviate some of the pressures on the instructor  Teach students to be independent and resourceful

8. Solution Goals  Goals for the solution:  Reduce instructional time wasted on routine questions  Create more teacher to student interaction about the daily lesson vs. routine questions  Foster problem solving skills amongst students  Build independent learning skills and help develop self-guided learning skills  Allow instructor more time to interact with students and create a better rapport with them  Be modified to add more routine solutions as needed

9. Creation Process  The goal would be to create the above mentioned page or set of pages in the form of Wiki pages.  There would be a page designed around one theme of common issues  A separate page for saving, application type, location of documents, recovery of files, etc.  There must also be a way available to edit and add new solutions for more problems  There would also be a survey or rating system setup to evaluate the solution process (feedback)

10. Examples of Wiki’s  Wikispaces  http://www.wikispaces.com/ http://www.wikispaces.com/  Free for educational use  Wiki Spot (free)  http://wikispot.org/Create_a_wiki http://wikispot.org/Create_a_wiki  Google Sites (free)  https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?continue= https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F%3Ftab%3Dw 3&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F %3Ftab%3Dw3&service=jotspot&passive=true&ul=1 https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?continue= https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F%3Ftab%3Dw 3&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F %3Ftab%3Dw3&service=jotspot&passive=true&ul=1

11. Further Development  This pilot process would be geared for the Windows drafting lab, but there could be other pages setup that reflect other labs within the building/district.  Each teacher would have access to edit or create pages that reflect their own needs for help questions or menus.