So Long Owner's Manual!

I recently had a problem. The drain to my sink broke. Though I installed the sink to begin with, it had been a while so I had forgotten exactly how to do it. So, I found a tutorial on Youtube. Three minutes and thirty-five seconds later, I knew how to install a new drain. I had another problem. My dryer was not drying clothes properly. It would either run through the sensor dry cycle and still have wet clothes, or it would quit a few minutes after I started the cycle, thinking the clothes were dry (they were not). Manual dry worked and dried the clothes, but whenever I used the sensor setting, it didn't dry, so I figured that was the problem. So I called Sears (where I bought the dryer five years ago). Sears said they could send out a guy to look at it. It would cost $80, plus whatever he had to do to fix the problem (parts + labor). Or, as the polite phone operator informed me, I could pay $400 to get all my appliances covered for the next year. So I did some thinking and decided that both options seemed rather pricey and that there had to be a better way. A cheaper way. So, I checked YouTube. I had a pretty good idea the sensor setting was the problem so I "youtubed" Samsung sensor problems. Sure enough, I found a video showing how to replace the sensor bars. Piece of cake. I then looked up online how much sensor bars cost. $1.50 per sensor bars. Perfect. I ordered the sensor bars and eventually fixed the problem. All it cost me was $3 and 4 minutes of time watching YouTube. I was driving down the road and I had another problem. I wanted to customize the control panel on my dashboard. Did I pull out the thick owner's manual, locate the correct 'chapter' and figure it out? Nope. I went straight to Youtube and found what I needed. 

In our world, technology and in these examples YouTube specifically, creates a more efficient way of doing things. It saves time and money. If you have a problem or want to know how to do something, sifting through a big owner's manual or waiting for someone to show you in person is a thing of the past. You have a gazillion tutorials at your fingertips on YouTube, just waiting to be watched. Just waiting to teach you how to do something or help solve a problem. 

We want our students to have this mindset and equip them with the skills and knowledge to know HOW to find the best way to solve a problem. YouTube creates active problem solvers. They have a problem-they seek out the solution via Youtube-and problem solved. New thing learned. They do not just sit back and wait for someone to show them how or just give up because it's "too hard." 

Feel free to leave a comment on this blog post of how YouTube has helped you solve a problem. If you do not know how to leave a comment on blog posts, then look up a tutorial on Youtube! :)