“MUUUUUUMMMMMM/DAAAAADDDDD!!! I CAN’T FIND MY HOMEWORK FILE FROM LAST NIGHT!!!”

Ever had one of these requests at your house? When I went to school, all of my homework was done in an exercise book. This doesn’t seem to be the case for our kids, as more and more homework becomes ‘online’ and requires some sort of computer work. I’m all for this new technology—our kids need to be tech savvy for when they eventually make the leap to tertiary studies or the workforce—so the more practice they get, the better!

But how is your child saving their files on your computer? Is it one big mess, or like my home computer, one very busy looking desktop? Filing your computer homework becomes all the more important when your children are sharing a computer—the ability to quickly find documents (and avert fights from accidental deletions!) is something all home computer users need.

• Start with something easy … set up a folder for each user’s name, then you might want to have a sub-folder for the year, and then further sub-folders for each subject. That way your child could file their work in a way that makes sense and is easy to remember. An example could be:
  • Jayne > 2009 > English or
  • Jayne > 2009 > History. 
  
  
• You can even create sub-folders under these headings to make them easier to find. For example, your child might have a topic area in English of Romeo and Juliet. In this case, your child might have the following folder set up to hold all of that unit’s work: Jayne > 2009 > English > Romeo and Juliet. 
• If you are new to creating folders, you can usually do this by clicking on File, then New, then Folder on your desktop or in your ‘Documents’ folder. If that doesn’t work, ask your kids—they are usually best at answering help desk requests!
• Your child’s school may also have a specific filing system in place for electronic files; check with your child if they do and try to follow it at home as well, so your child gets into a regular habit.
• Also, remind your child to name their documents something obvious and memorable. For example, an essay on Romeo and Juliet would be best called ‘Romeo and Juliet essay.doc’ instead of ‘Document 1.doc’. Remind them also to not use any symbols when coming up with a name.

Accidents happen, and so do viruses and basic computer meltdowns! Losing all of your computer files could be disastrous for an ongoing HSC work, and not to mention how upset you would be if all of those digital photos that you were going to print ‘eventually’ were no longer in existence. So the best way to prevent this kind of problem is to make sure you have a backup of all of your files—and that you do it regularly.

Try to do a backup of your computer regularly—once a month is a good start, and it can be as simple as burning a CD or copying to a USB memory stick all the files you wouldn’t want to lose in case of a computer meltdown.