As I reread my initial “Setting the Stage” post, I sensed four distinct feelings or thoughts I had at the start of this course: nostalgia for “the good old days”, a sense of being overwhelmed by Web 2.0, a fear of learning new web tools, and a view of technology as something I have to do to keep up with the 21st century. I am happy to report that except for my feelings of nostalgia (memories are a good thing, right?), my feelings in the other three areas have all changed thanks to this course, Eric, and all of my course colleagues.
My feeling of being overwhelmed by 2.0 has transformed into a feeling of being amazed. That is a huge change in state of mind! Being overwhelmed makes me “freeze,” while being amazed gets me excited. The fact that the Web is incredibly vast has not changed in the past seven weeks, but my frame of mind about that fact has. Now I feel like I am focusing less on how scary it is and more on how incredible its opportunities are. I guess you could say that I have moved from a state of apprehension to a state of appreciation!
Fear is crippling. My fear of learning new web tools prevented me from stepping out into the web tool jungle much prior to taking this course. Now I am not only wading through that jungle, but I am doing so with much greater confidence. Maybe someday I will even be running through it! What really helped me overcome my fear was the supportive environment offered by this course and the knowledge that this support is not ending even though the class is. I now understand why Eric emphasized the importance of our PLNs.
The last paragraph of my initial “Setting the Stage” post was heavy on the need for me to learn and use web tools in my teaching. Now I actually want to do so! That just might be my most important transformation yet. Desire is a powerful thing.
As I finish my last “official” post for this class, I want to thank Eric and all of my colleagues for helping me grow both as a teacher and as a student. All of you have played a part in broadening my view of teaching and learning. When I signed up for this course, I thought I was just going to be adding some new tools to my web tools belt. Little did I know I would also be gaining a new perspective and a new Personal Learning Network!
I have heard several different people comment on how kids today are so good at technology because they aren't afraid to try "pressing a button", whereas some of us in the older generation have that fear of making something "crash". I also sat in on a webinar that showed data indicating that today's youth, as a whole have increased their problem solving capabilities tremendously- perhaps again because of this lack of fear. I went through similar emotions as you did when I started to take the web 2.0 plunge and came out of the plunge with the same sense of excitement and enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteI think youre onto something... I think we often dont trust technology because we have been through the "totally unreliable" stage. As the technology becomes more reliable, we will need to change our thinking as well. There are a lot of great opportunities, we just have to have a little trust they will work when we need them to.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I appreciate that you shared how much you have grown through this course! I was also wondering how you added the "feed the fish" and world map of visitors on the side of your blog. I still have not figured out how to add gadgets to the side of a blog that are always there. If you could share how you did this that would be great!
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