Travel Diaries of a Web 2.0 Newbie

Enjoyed this. Enjoyed being able to listen to the session over again; enjoyed being able to do it at my convenience. I chose the session called “Overcoming entropy” by Louise Maine, purely because the title intrigued me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she covered a lot of the issues that had recently begun to creep into my mind: How can we, as teachers, change our environment? Why is change considered so difficult? She gave several good ideas on how to be an influence for change in your environment, such as leading by example; having enthusiasm; taking time to help and explain to others; and “tell a story” about what you have done and how it worked, even if you don’t consider yourself an expert.

On the Barriers page of the wiki from the session I found an excellent list of things that tend to block changes happening, and I could virtually count them all off as comments I have heard at some point about the idea of increasing the use of technology in helping our students learn.

While there was nothing in the session for me to use with my classes, it did feel like a “pat of the back” from a sympathetic friend and was an encouragement to keep on with things despite the opinions of others.