For online teachers, knowing how to use your phone as a mobile hotspot is a must. As online ESL teachers, it’s our responsibility to teach class and to overcome technical issues and no other tech issue is more annoying than your home internet going out.
While we would all like online teaching companies like VIPKID to be a bit more understanding as to why we were a teacher no-show it still does not negate the fact that we missed class and it was our responsibility to teach during that booked class.
To avoid being a no-show for your class you should be using your mobile phone as your backup internet source. It’s saved me more than once from missing a class.
Check your data plan
Please note, carriers sometimes differentiate between your mobile data plan and how much data you’re allowed to give out to tethered devices. So while you may have 30 GB data plan in the United States, you may actually only be allowed to 5 GB of data for tethering. Again, this is just something to be aware of.
Using your phone as a backup for class will come no where near using this sort of data. From my own testing, 10 classes for VIPKID ended up being 700 mb of data.
How to turn your phone into a hotspot for Android
- Find settings on your phone.
- Next you’ll want to find an option for “connections” or “wireless and networks” depending on your phone.
- Find and tap “tethering and mobile hotspot” on your device.
- Last is to configure your hotspot with a password.
- Done, your phone is now a hotspot and other devices can connect to it.
How to turn your phone into a hotspot for IOS
- Find settings.
- Select cellular.
- Tap on setup personal hotspot.
- Find settings again.
- Select personal hotspot.
- Turn on your personal hotspot using the on screen button.
- Agree to wi-fi and USB only.
- Your phone is now a hotspot. To turn it off, simply select the on screen button to turn your hotspot off.
How to Connect Your Laptop to Your Phone
Once your personal hotspot is active you should be able to select your phone from your laptop. Just click the wi-fi icon on your desktop and select your phone. You will have to input the password you set and that’s it. Your laptop is now connected to your phone which is connected to the internet.
Please note, do this BEFORE you need it as it takes time to setup. As an online teacher, you may lose internet 5 minutes before class. You just don’t have the time to do all this in 5 minutes. Once setup properly however, if you lose internet you can then quickly and easily turn your phone into a hotspot with the click of a button and your laptop will automatically connect.
Happy teaching! Make sure to checkout our portable, mobile hotspots buying guide.
