Is it broken for me, or everyone?

Monday, during several demonstrations with faculty using Google Drive, Google Classroom, and Google Presentations, the 'network' seemed to be performing more slowly than usual. We noticed the slowdown seemed to be pronounced with Google products. Whenever Google Drive, or other Google tools break, seem slow, or are simply not behaving the way I think they should behave, I head on over to the Google Apps Status Dashboard. The Apps Status Dashboard lets users see if various Google services are experiencing disruptions, outages, or if they're operating normally. A quick look at the Apps Status Dashboard yesterday confirmed that something indeed was amiss. Knowing that there is a problem can help you make informed decisions about options for lesson and classroom activities. While there's nothing that we can do to help effect a repair, knowing that some of the brightest, most capable geeks on the planet are hard at work resolving the issue as we consider plan B is somewhat comforting.

Other tools for checking a site's status include

http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ and http://isup.me. Both will give you a good idea if a site is down, or if it's an issue with your computer or network. 

Consider using these tools before reaching out for help. If a tool hints that there are issues with a resource you're trying to use, your local IT gurus probably can't help. If you find out it's just you, then an SOS to IT makes sense.