Tip: What To Do When You Don’t Know the Answer

I have been training music teachers on how to use technology for the last 35 years. In that time, I have been asked thousands of questions about specific functions and features of software and hardware. In the 15 years that I taught in the New Jersey Public Schools I was asked tens of thousands of questions by my students on the same subject. Did I know the answers to ALL of those questions? Absolutely not. In fact, my students stump me almost every class, and I am supposed to be a music technology expert! In my opinion, this is the reason why many music teachers fear using technology to teach. What happens when the students ask you a question about a specific piece of software and you don’t know the answer? We are supposed to be subject area experts and not knowing an answer might make us look ill-prepared and less than an expert. Well for 99.9% of music teachers, we are NOT subject area experts on technology - we are experts in music and music education. This post is intended to provide you with some guidance on what to do when you don’t know the answer and hopefully illustrate that those moments are actually wonderful opportunities for both you and your students.

So here is a VERY common scenario for me. I am teaching a specific software title, something like Ableton LIVE, and my students ask me how to do something that I simply don’t know, or may have forgotten since I haven’t done that function for a very long time. What often happens in my mind is that I first search for the answer in all of my previous experience with the software in my mind, and if I come up short, I always follow these steps:

1. I respond to the student: “That’s a great question. Does anyone in the class know how we can do that?” If another student does know the answer, I let them explain it. In my opinion, this is the perfect scenario. Think of ANY other teaching scenario where a student asks a question. It is Teaching 101 to allow other students to answer the question before you do.

2. If none of the students know the answer, rather than saying “I don’t know” myself, I ask the students: “OK - this is a great opportunity to show you how you can find the answer if I’m not here to show you." What is the first thing I should do if I don’t know how to figure this out?” Here I usually point out the following steps:

   1. Look for the Help menu and enter search terms that will help you find the answer.

   2. If you can’t find the answer that way, go to YouTube and enter your question in the search bar. There is almost ALWAYS numerous videos that show you exactly how to answer the question.

3. If I can’t find a tutorial video on YouTube, it is likely that I am either asking the wrong question OR that functionality doesn’t currently exist in the software. At this point, I would recommend a Google Search. Here you will often find MANY results - including links to message boards like Reddit or User Groups for the specific software. You’ll typically find that someone has posted a similar questions (often from a few years ago) and threaded responses that either answer the question or commiserate that the function isn’t available.

4. When I find the answer I show it to the entire class right away and explain that the process that I went through and remind students to use the same process when they are on their own.

There are times when I stray from that process and when a student asks me a question that I don’t know the answer to right away, I’ll instead say something along the lines of “Great question. I’ll be right back.” I’ll then go to my computer and try to figure it out quickly. If I do figure it out, I’ll interrupt the entire class and say “OK everyone - X just asked a great question that I am sure that many of you will need to know the answer to. Look up here for a moment so that I can show you how to do Y.”

I think that every difficult question asked by a student is a teachable moment. No teacher know the answers to every question. When you add something like technology to the mix - that changes ALL the time - you simply can’t know all of the answers. By illustrating the various ways that you can find the answer to questions, you are teaching students how to be autonomous. In doesn’t matter what subject you are learning - whether in school or something like a hobby - knowing how to find the answers to questions is pretty much an essential life skill. In NONE of the scenarios above do you look ill-prepared or less than an expert. You are modeling exactly how to teach. You are doing your job!

I hope you find this tip useful. Trust me, I use it every day that I teach.