Monday, November 20, 2006

An adjustment


Classroom LAN Party
Originally uploaded by mahlness.
Well, the classroom LAN party happened, sort of. Three brave souls showed up, besides me, and we took a look at some of the K12 Online Conference. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. But definitely a small turnout, considering the invitation list...

Yesterday I had listened to Terry Freedman's excellent (and sobering, for me) podcast from the conference, Selling Web 2.0 to Senior Management, so I was kind of prepared for a low turnout. I think change at this level, from the bottom feeder, grassroots level, will ultimately fizzle - as energy and enthusiasm wane from lack of support and positive feedback.

Time to try another approach, adjust the strategy...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't lose hope. It's folks like you that will make a difference. It may take longer than you'd like but continue to fight the good fight.

Anonymous said...

I had a similar turnout at the event I hosted around the K12 Online Conference... it is frustrating. Let me know if you come up with some other ways to spread the word about web 2.0.

Anonymous said...

Great looking lab! Sorry your turn out was so low. Keep a stiff upper lip and keep trudging forward. It's a tough sell. Cost me a half case of wine and food to get people to turn out. I'll admit it, I'm not below bribery to bring people into the 2.0 world. Shouldn't have to but sometimes you have to. Offer it again in January after the holiday season and they get their new home computer. :)

Anonymous said...

Mark, thanks for mentioning my presentation and making nice comments about it.

Regarding low turnout. You have to bear in mind the following:

1. The 1% rule (see http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_850.php>Rules of the game, which states:

"in any undertaking only about 1% of the people affected are active in any way. What that means is that, on average, if you work in a school which employs 100 teachers, only one of them is going to be moved by your efforts to introduce podcasting etc" So, getting 3 or 4 is probly very good.

2. You only need one or two people to start to create a buzz. So plan another one.

Hope this helps

Terry

Mark Ahlness said...

Thanks, all, for the encouragement and condolences. Have not given up, for sure. Progress is certainly slow - but here's a good sign: this is the first time I've ever been able to leave a comment on ANY blog using blogger.com from school :)