Web 2.0 and Reluctant Staff

[Tracy Poelzer]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for ideas around getting my technophobic staff to start using technology more with their students. Unfortunately, I am on a staff where the favorite and most frequently used word to describe anything new is "onerous" and few people will do anything on their own time, including even just playing around with new web-based tools to enhance learning in the classroom. It is very frustrating.

I am thinking that in the fall, I would like to start offering 20 minute tech-talks about different tools and websites. If I want anyone to attend, my guess is that I need to make it "all about them", and not necessarily about working with students. What I mean, is I will have to market these sessions to appeal to my staff members' personal senses of fun. I was thinking of starting with having them set up an iGoogle home page with RSS feeds and gadgets. I have also been considering having them use family photos or something personally meaningful to create a Voicethread I am hoping that once they start playing around with things for fun, that they might actually be inspired to use some of the tools with their students.

Does anyone have any suggestions of other tools, sites, etc. that I could use to appeal to my group? Your suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Tracy Poelzer]

Thanks, Randy. I've heard of Zoho before, but haven't delved into it too much. It seems kind of similar to all of the Google tools. It's good to hear that it is still accessible from your school computers. That's definitely a "plus" as not all sites are. Thanks for the tip... I'll be checking out some of the Zoho suite of tools in the very near future!