The Wikiness

and that is why I can’t feel impatient with my department colleagues, none of whom has run along side me headlong into this read/write web business. I am still awaiting the first dialog via web 2.0 tools with them, but they are making progress.

Evidence of their willingness occurred today in a collaborative team session today, where I was able to showcase a little of my use of voicethread, a popular web 2.0 tool for engendering, preserving, and extending discussions. Here is a link to a provocative discussion thread for Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=445516
I must respect where they are, my tentative colleagues, who spent most of the day discussing how they might utilize the tool inside the given curriculum. And these are the mavens, the young guns of our department who present at NCTE, the national organization’s annual convention, and do pioneering things with podcasts.

I must remember that these are people who first of all are at more difficult places in their lives and careers than am I. They are 20 and 30 somethings, who’ve got babies in the making, toddlers running round at house, marriage difficulty, parents sickening and dying, student loans to pay off etc. Who knows what all? That they are not eager to step out in faith into unproven technological innovation is hardly strange.

If you are feeling adventuresome, check out the available free new tools in Google’s experimental labs. You’re sure to find something cool and potentially educational.