My Expectations for this Course

Exponential times mean exponential possibilities, exponential participation. No more pressure to feel you need to be firmly seated on the latest bandwagon. No more insiders and outsiders. The technical tools available for us to use together in our learning are multiplying, evolving and mutating exponentially. The number of users and ways they'll develop for using these technologies is far too big to draw simple lines that could leave me on the wrong side. I can hide my ignorance, intimidate my neighbor by clicking on something I just tried, all this while casually watching what someone else is doing to try to get a clue, just like a million others are doing. And it's not bad. It's necessary. Exponential growth in knowledge, cultural technologies and human problems guarantees millions of solutions are not only possible, but necessary.

I like it, usually. It's a great time to be a learner and a teacher as long as I'm still employed. Exponential learning set against exponential numbers of other learners doing something different than yourself is exciting and humbling. We're all constantly evolving what we do. No more talking about staying on top, getting it down, who's is and who's not cutting edge. I'm one among billions. And even within my quasi-comfort zone of the day, I know I'll go to log on and there will be a new twist, an unexpected glitch, a forgotten pathway, password or quirky fix, or simply the battery is dead. I have to be ready to change in an instant. If I can't bear to postpone till tomorrow, I'll tell my students I can't remember how, but I'm sure they'll figure it out or I'll persevere patiently while six different kids all try the same 6 solutions because the seventh one by the seventh student will probably work. Above all, I'll laugh a lot. I won't be bored.

Every technology is a hotbed of potential solutions and problems. Working together with colleagues and students more than ever means we toss in different possibilities till start to settle on something that seems to suit our needs. For today. Colored markers, paper & scissors, Voicethread, Panthernet, blogs, googledocs, Google Earth...? Someone will have an idea and someone else will come up with a better way to adapt it and someone will know how to make it work better. And next time we'll change that.

So, one thing I know I'll enjoy and learn in this class is more of what I enjoy already: discovering & exploring new possibilities. New programs, new sites, new tricks, new shortcuts, new ideas, new possibilities used in intriguing, more streamlined ways by others. All good. Already this week thanks Chris Betcher and Jeff Utech for lots of great new ideas and cool tools I can use right away including:

• Google Square - lists search results in a table format
• Google Wonder Wheel - Click 'Show Options" for any Google Search to see your search in a webbed format
  
• Tag Galaxy - Search for images and see them come back as planets
• Newsmap - See major news headlines in different countries organized by size
  

When I get overwhelmed, I can tune out and calm myself in the assurance I'll forget or never get around to using a lot, and that's fine. I'll enjoy learning about it again in future in whatever mutation it exists then. And so much is within my limited reach now. It's not like the days when I had to sit through hours of classes to learn how to build just the title for my class website or to animate a sphere bouncing across a page. I don't think I have quite the same gumption for the exponentially steep learning curves anymore. I'm old enough to know there will be a quicker, easier way if I procrastinate another day. Maybe I'll get back to that bouncing ball as a result of something I see in this class.

The other thing I know I'll enjoy is thinking about us and our world. When we see ourselves in different contexts we see the constants--the human in us all, for better or worse. The kids Prensky refers to with "a myriad of devices" in their backpacks, downloading, texting & gaming, can seem a little intimidating demanding their teachers to "engage me or enrage me." Then I remember the kids growing up on my street (back in the dark ages) spent evenings and weekends running around the neighborhood, the woods, and across the highway when we got really courageous doing all sorts of things that could fill up an article and intimidate any teacher. We weren't anymore in place sitting at a desk in the fifth row from the black board. You can see us both striving for autonomy, personal growth/challenge and meaning. It's fun to watch us in different contexts. I'm sure I won't I'll discover the key to breaking down institutional walls, but it will be fun to look at what we do as the walls change.

I will enjoy thinking about us, how we learn, how we teach, how we advance, how we manage or not. I'll enjoy the autonomy of navigating around while I'm probably supposed to be following something else. I'll enjoy the satisfaction of gaining new tools and skills and thinking about how I'm going to use this or that to make my class more meaningful. I'll enjoy thinking about texts like this week's "Genres of Participation with New Media." I'll have more fodder to toss in to the hopper. My students will, no doubt, benefit from hearing my ensuing banter on such issues as "maintaining a continuous presence" and hanging out and subverting institutional barriers. I'll think about what to teach and how to teach in a world of 'always-on" communication or where hanging out online is especially important for marginalized kids or how to compose that perfectly controlled casual comment on your wall or one line headline for your text. When my students are on three other websites and chatting when I clearly said they were to be writing their essays, I'll probably wax eloquent and drive them nuts. They won't be listening anyway. But I'll enjoy thinking I just constructed the perfect casual comment and run to post it on my blog.

Yes, it'll be fun hanging out together in exponential times.