Hanging in there

This is "me"

Oh boy it’s Friday again already! I’ve been so busy I just haven’t noticed the time going! Of course it might just be the effect of my advanced years 🙂 May be the time passed quickly ‘cos I was enjoying myself – I had a very pleasant week chatting with lots of colleagues and laughing with some smashing students.

The pleasantness ranged through issues about:

• identity (other than security that is) and what makes a person,
• how to help colleagues feel more comfortable with digital technologies and practices,
• Open Education Resources (OER),
• and where to start when planning a move to online learning.

So lots of big issues and big challenges as well as the little niggly things that always come up when change is proposed.

Some of the chat was about hanging in there – when you feel that all this work, effort and emotional commitment is an uphill struggle – something happens to make the effort seem worthwhile.

• The smiles and excitement of students as they learn about communication (without realising they are learning) and the hope that springs in your breast that they will also learn there is a lot more to being a person than just flesh and blood 🙂
• The students who didn’t see the point of using modern communication technologies (especially when learning) suddenly finding the worth of mobile phones in learning. Taking off with this (new for them) technology and using it in ways that were their invention rather than our instruction. You feel a little hurrah coming on just thinking about it 🙂
• The joy created by lecturers working and learning together about 21st Century learning technologies and the great support their manager has provided. Hurrah for managers who facilitate invention and innovation – it almost brings a tear to your eye 🙂
• The happy realisation that at last there is someone who finds the stuff you work on useful to them. A chance to lean back and say ahh I knew I was on the right track 🙂
• Watching as people begin to see the worth of OER, how it can help them, their current students and their potential future students. Are we at last starting to see the tide turning? Yipee, Digital Literacy is starting to make sense to people 🙂
• Engaging with lecturers in an exploration of the connections between the ways they like to teach, learning theories they are familiar with and ways of teaching online. Ahh at last the reason for my job starts to be realised 🙂

Do you have any “hurrah!” moments to share? We research and report so much about Digital Literacy but we say so little about the hurrah moments. Those little things that demonstrate we are moving forward – little things that we should share with our colleagues just in case they are not having as much success – we might be able to help if they know who to contact. Come on give a little bit … 🙂