eLearning 2.0 - I'm tring to DO IT

I just saw this post - eLearning 2.0 - I'm tring to DO IT - that's a response to my post eLearning 2.0 - Go DO IT.

I got back from the conference and started this blogging and not only that but I'm keeping it up. It because a little addictive though. The more I read and learn the more I want to express and share. But I'm starting to realize that is exactly what Tony and Brent Schlenker meant when they said that the best way to start learning how to use it and what you can get from blogging is to just start trying.

Way to go Tracy! And thanks for citing me so I knew about your blog. I'll keep track of it for a while to see how things go. But most of all, as a presenter / teacher / blogger, you periodically start to feel like - "Does any of this matter?" Is anyone doing more than coming, asking questions, being polite? After Boston, it seems like there have been several signs that at least a handful of people are DOING IT. That's great.

And, I'm not the only one with this kind of mini-crisis - take a look back at Will Richardson's -Owning the Teaching…and the Learning:

I’ve been growing more frustrated lately and I’m feeling more pessimistic about the prospects for any serious change in how we as an education system see teaching and learning, and I think I’ve figured out why. I hate to generalize, but the thing that seems to be missing from most of my conversations with classroom teachers and administrators is a willingness to even try to re-envision their own learning, not just their students.

So, thanks Tracy - you made my day.

Thanks Joan

Just a quick post to say thanks to Joan Vinall-Cox who was kind enough to take the time to point out a grammar/spelling error in my Blog Guide for First Time Visitors.

FYI - Joan has two very good blogs at:

http://eduspaces.net/vinall/weblog/
http://webtoolsforlearners.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Joan.

Good Job Angela and Technology is Not the Devil

After reading a post by Will Richardson this morning entitled -“Technology is the Devil” and Other Observations where Will recounts a recent experience:

Recently, in the middle of a presentation to about 500 teachers, one woman raised her hand and said something along the lines of “Look, I’m not the most technologically savvy, but I have to tell you that in a lot of ways I think all this technology is the devil. I mean my kids plagiarize stuff left and right, they don’t learn how to spell because of spell check, and I just think we’d be better off without it.” And a number of people applauded.

My last post - eLearning 2.0 - Go Do It was partly out of my sense of concern that somehow people are missing the point and the opportunity.

Luckily I just saw a post by Angela White - who had already Jumped into My Blog Roll now I just saw this post - Conference Highlights Presentation Creates Network.

Go read it. I just did and it helped me feel that maybe technology is not the devil.

By the way, Angela is a fantastic example of great post-conference follow-up activities. See also: a Great Post Conference Practice.

eLearning 2.0 - Go Do It

Since my presentations last month at the Harvard Business School and at the eLearningGuild Annual Gathering, I've been getting several basic questions about what Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 really are. I've been trying to answer these questions by pointing people to various descriptions I've provided in the past such as:

• What is eLearning 2.0?
• eLearning 1.0, 1.3 and 2.0
• Learning Trends Point To and Shape eLearning 2.0

But here's the real answer and I'm going to call it Tony's eLearning 2.0 Law #1:

You will NOT really understand Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 until you begin to experience it yourself.

and that brings me to Tony's eLearning 2.0 Law #2:

You WON'T be effective in helping others with eLearning 2.0 until you help yourself with eLearning 2.0.

To that end, the real advice I have for people to understand the topic is to dive in. You can look at guides such as those mentioned in:

• Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 Start-Up Guides
• Authoring in eLearning 2.0 / Add-ins & Mash-ups
• Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids
• Collaborative Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - A Summary

But the BEST thing to do if you really want to learn about eLearning 2.0 is to simply:

1. Start a blog that you will use to journal your learning experience
2. Sign-up for a few other tools talked about in the guides listed above
3. Answer the question (in your blog):
   
• How can I use these tools to improve my personal learning?
• How can these tools be used to help other people learn?
  

That's it.

NOW GO DO IT. No really! GO DO IT!

Learning from Sports Games

I just saw a post by Tom Crawford - The Rules of the Game. In it he discusses how a very bright person (graduated with a degree in psychology at age 19) from Nigeria who was just drafted by Houston first learned to play the game - playing Madden football.

I had a very similar experience with my son who didn't know the rules of baseball. I took him to a couple of games and tried to explain them - but it turns out that the rules are pretty crazy when you get down to it. Instead, I went to BestBuy and bought a copy of MVP Baseball. It took a couple of hours for him to learn the rules and a lot of the subtleties of the game.

It really made me appreciate the power of learning this way.