Prioritizing adoption of E-learning technology.

A New calendar year - for me a time to put aside the excesses of the Christmas season, and maybe look towards a leaner (on a number of fronts) new year (without getting too much into the traditional resolutions). My school is semestered - semester 1 ended today - my students all start formal examinations tomorrow. In my own classes, my exams were all in-class. Along with a pile of exams to mark, I have a lot of final projects to do as well - so my main activity (along with some exam supervision) is to get all that completed. But with that background, and the MOOC starting next week, its also a good time to reflect on this past semester - and especially as it relates to how technology impacts my teaching. I created a list of all the things I did this past semester (including some time in the summer) that benefit my teaching long term - it had about 11 items on it - much of it was the mundane, reorganize curriculum, create newer versions of assignments, or in some cases, new assignments altogether. That is all well and good. Some of it involved some new learning on my part in terms of technology. In the summer, I read in someone's blog post, "10 things educators should learn from a technology standpoint". I adopted a few of them - Evernote was one - although I use it more in my personal life than in professional - Prezi was another - the philosophical reasons why it was better than PowerPoint, along with some spectacular examples - was enough for me. I revised 4 large slide shows in my course into Prezi presentations - and beyond the simple mechanics of how to use the software, how to use it effectively is a learning curve. And I forced my students to use Prezi, and that went well as well. I was given a "Mimeo Teach" - ability to create a SmartBoard type system with much less hardware - and incorporating that, along with "Mimeo Pad" - wireless tablet to control computer projection - was also a learning curve, and now its onto using both comfortably and seamlessly in order to enhance teaching. Already starting up with groups in this MOOC, I have, in reading the blogs, Twitter and FB posts of other members learned of some new stuff that looks intriguing and that I want to explore. What I am finding in all this is a real need to sift through all that is cool, new and exciting, and winnow it down to what makes my teaching, and more importantly, what makes my students' learning more effective. I envy those out there who have a full time job as technology coaches in educational settings - and get time to play with all the new stuff out there. The mundanities of everyday life in the classroom take up a large proportion of time - and the opportunities to "play in the sandbox" are limited. Also, perhaps as an artifact of living in the digital age, perhaps for me a sign of aging, is the ADHD that comes from having so much of interest to look at, to read, to explore on the Internet - my list of bookmarks on Chrome and Diigo keeps growing - but often I don't get or take the time to actually read the stuff I come across. So my fear in embarking on this MOOC is information overload. How to be selective in terms of which blog entries to read, which people to follow on Twitter, who to friend on Facebook. I find it hugely fascinating to suddenly have access to a huge diversity of people all over the world who share some common interests - and who have interesting perspectives. And that's before we've even had a chance to hear from the "experts" who run the course. I hope I will be able to pick out 3 or 4 things that I can continue to focus on as I embark with a new group of students starting on Feb. 1 - and hopefully at the end of June look back and be able to measure the progress that I have made, but more importantly, the progress they have made. Which is what this business is all about!