Sarah Miller

3.5 Basic Troubleshooting

Candidates troubleshoot basic software and hardware problems common in digital
learning environments.

1. Briefly describe the artifact and the context in which it was created. What was/were
your individual contribution(s)?
The artifact for this standard is my NETS-S Internet Lesson Plan. This artifact is a lesson
plan that implements the NETS-S standards. This lesson plan describes my “Organelle
Campaign” in which students used technology to compete as the “Most Important
Organelle in the Universe”. The lesson requires higher-order thinking skills and
processes of the students. The artifact describes multiple aspects of the lesson, as well as
my thoughts and reasoning. My contribution was creating the artifact and all of the
supporting materials myself.

2. Explain how this artifact demonstrates mastery of the standard/element under which it
is placed. See the portfolio rubric and watch the videos for more details on what to
include in your reflection for this question. You must respond to each of the items on the
rubric in this question! It is VERY IMPORTANT that you address ALL of the criteria on
the rubric. This one question may need to be several paragraphs long in order to address
all of the items on the rubric.

This artifact includes a small section on preventative troubleshooting strategies. In the

artifact, I explained that on the morning of the lesson I would check all of the required
websites to ensure they were not blocked by our filters. Sometimes these filters update
overnight, so it is important for me to check the morning of. Additionally, to avoid losing
instructional time, I reserved enough Chromebooks to have extra. If there happened to be
a problem that I could not solve right then, the student could continue working on the
assignment on another device.

3. What did you learn from completing this artifact? What would you do differently to
improve the quality of the artifact or the process involved in creating the artifact?
From this lesson, I learned that overall students needed more direction than I anticipated
when it came to creating and editing photos/videos from their phones, and then adding
them to their Google Drive. I thought that with the amount of time these same students
spent on social media, they would have those skills mastered. Overall, they learned very
quickly- they were able to combine their skills from the social media world to my skills
in the instructional technology world fairly easily. Teaching these skills required a basic
level of troubleshooting experience with multiple different devices (iPhones, iPads,
Andriods, etc.).

To improve this artifact for troubleshooting, I would have including the “little things” that
I do almost every time we use Chromebooks in class. For example, each class period
there is an issue with logging in. The student has trouble with their login information or
the device is not recognizing the wireless login. Sometimes the inverse accessibility
feature is on when the student logs in, and we have to turn it off. Another common
troubleshooting fix we do often is regarding the headphones or microphones. Most often,
 Sarah Miller

it is either the connection or the playback levels need to be adjusted. All of these “little
things” add up to basic troubleshooting skills that I did not include in my list within the
artifact.

4. How did the work that went into creating the artifact impact school improvement,
faculty development, or student learning? How can the impact be assessed?
This artifact impacted student learning by giving them the opportunity to use their higher-
order thinking skills with a wide range of technology options. I believe these students
have had limited exposure to this type of lesson, and they were highly engaged.