Nings, Web 2.0 tools, and Repeating Ourselves

I haven't heard from my colleague at the Harford campus about the Diversity Ning, so perhaps I'll begin and we can collaborate.

Learning the tools. There is this learning curve. How does the tool work? What are its possibilities? How do I plan, create lessons etc. etc. .... We can really get absorbed in the tool.

Like so many other people, teachers too, once we've have reached a comfort level with the tool, the plan, the project, we do some refining and then begin to repeat ourselves. It doesn't make any difference what the tool is - hotlists, audio or video podcasts, wikis, blogs. We just get into this habit of repeating ourselves.

Why am I writing this? Because I just noticed that the wiki I'm developing for the Harford campus class is a repeat of what I did with my Chesapeake Academy classes. Shame on me! I'll go ahead with it, but next time I will not repeat myself. Next time, I'll do some research. Check out what other people are doing with wikis. Ask some questions, explore the possibilities. That's what we ask our students to do; we should not ask any less of ourselves.