by Chris Guld, aka Mrs. Geek
As Geeks on Tour, my husband Jim and I travel around the country and present seminars on personal technology like how to use smartphones, how to manage all those pictures you take with your phone, and how to use Google Maps, among other things.
This is usually done at RV Rallies. When we’re at a rally for 3, 4 or 5 days and we’re only busy in seminars one or two hours each day, I spend the rest of my time giving free, one-on-one half hour sessions to answer people’s questions about their devices.
Why do we do this for free? Because I get as much out of it as the people I teach. How else would I get to learn about LG phones, iPhone Xs, Moto phones, and Samsung tablets? We buy a lot of devices to play with but we can’t own them all!
I love hearing people’s questions. It helps me know what to teach in our seminars. For example, it is second nature to me to keep my appointments on a calendar on my phone. Only when I get so many questions about how to do that do I realize it is something we need to teach.
Easy Questions Sometimes their questions are easy, like: how to use their fingerprint reader, how to adjust their screen timeout setting, how to install my favorite app: Google Photos, or how to use the keyboard to type word by word – called swiping or gliding.
Hard Questions Sometimes their questions are harder, like: why does my iPad not automatically connect to the data on my iPhone like it’s supposed to? or How do I get back in to my original Facebook account when I forgot the password and mistakenly created another account?
One Person Teaches, Two People Learn Every time I teach a one-on-one I get a little smarter! Here are some more of the questions I get to help people with:
- Installing/uninstalling apps
- Rearranging app icons on the home screens
- Setting up widgets
- Recovering passwords
- Setting up email to sync to computer
- Taking screenshots
- Solving problems by rebooting phone
- Backing up contacts
- Backing up photos
- How to navigate with Google Maps
- How to make a blog with Blogger
- How to copy/paste with phone
- How to save photo received in a text
- How to send text to multiple recipients
- How to make a video call when you can’t use Facetime (because one person is on Android not iOS)
- How to record your location and send it to someone you want to meet you
- How to get photos from their Mac to show up on their Android device (Google Photos)
- and lots, lots more!
If you are a Geeks on Tour member, you can ask your specific questions on our Ask the Geeks: Q&A page. It’s not as good as sitting side-by-side, but it is specific to your question. And, if it really can’t be handled in writing, I’ve been known to arrange a phone call or a video call.
Keep on Learning!