I woke up this morning to a shock. I was checking on this blog, when I was surprised to see a weird error message. I wasn’t alert enough to take a screen shot, but it said there was something wrong with this file, “home2/intrepj1/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/vigilance/functions/comments.php” I panicked. My worst fears of weird WordPress shenanigans had come true. A few quick google searches showed me that I would be messing with this problem for hours. My wife had the kids out by the pool was already starting her, “Get off the computer!” mantra. I couldn’t just leave my blog dangling in limbo, something had to be done.

Enter Twitter. After a quick SOS call, @techsavvyed and @mburtis responded within seconds. The cavalry had arrived! Suddenly, I was no longer alone and lost. I was still in an agitated state, but now I had the help of two WordPress experts. They quickly calmed me down and led me to where I needed to be. I went into C Panel, found the corrupted file and began to diagnosis the problem. I sent a copy of the file in question to Marha and she informed me that the apostrophes had been changed to &#39, their HTML equivalent. After some back and forth, I was able to download the original theme, isolate the comment files which had been messed up and reload it. Voila. Problem solved.

Needless to say I was a bit shaken, but came out of the situation much more confident than when it had started. It was a learning experience for sure. It was not just the actual fixing of the problem- finding the correct files, understanding C Panel better or getting a basic understanding of php, which I still don’t have.  No, what was so important for me was that it put me in the place of most of the teachers I will be working with next year. It all felt so overwhelming at first. Google seemed too abstract and the time it would take to figure it out didn’t seem worth it. How many times do teachers feel this sense of isolation and confusion when dealing with basic technology issues? So often, I deride teachers for not understanding what I consider basic computer functions, but here I was just as lost. I needed someone to slow me down and explain where and how to fix what needed to be fix.

This was a textbook example of the power of the network. I knew that I had on hand several WordPress experts, that should I need, would walk me through this problem on Skype. We were able to solve it in  few Tweets, but I know that if I needed it they would have gotten to the bottom of this or any other problem. It is this sense of security that makes my network so valuable, and it is this feeling of support that I think many teachers are dying to gain. As tech facilitators we can help alleviate some of the angst teachers feel, but only when they have made these connections on their own, will teachers begin to feel comfortable enough to try new things, solve their own problems and venture beyond their comfort zones.

Expertise + Empowerment = Experience + Exposure. Next time around, I will know where to start and remind myself to stay calm. But I fear not, because I know I am not alone. If I find a problem I cannot solve, I know I can look to my network. Thank you Martha and Ben. But Ben raised  good question, “Now just have to find out what went wrong!”