Positive Feedback

I offer several workshops each year on college campuses around the country. One thing that I am hoping to get better at is following-up later to see what impact the workshop might have had on the teaching and learning for those who attended. I prefer to wait at least six months after the workshop to find out what has happened in an effort to give them sufficient time to have explored and possibly adapted some of the tools and techniques from the workshops.

Suffice it to say that there is at least occasionally a response that warms my heart. This is one response from a workshop I did in Michigan during October 2007. I think it's safe to say that she is my star student:

• After the workshop, I started a personal blog to test the waters. I now have 3 blogs, one of them is professional.
• I have inspired and guided two family members to begin blogs
• I have several flickr accounts for my blogs
• I am playing with converting our website to a wiki. It is launched, but a work in process.
• I use bloglines to track 60 blogs.
• I trained a teacher to use the podcasting software to incorporate audio into her online class.
• I have trained my co-workers how to use flickr for sharing their digital photos and how to use picnik to edit them.
• I have attended a second workshop of yours for reinforcement
• There may be more examples, but that's it for now.

Most participants in the workshops don't start using as many tools right away, but several report getting started with a couple of the tools shortly after the workshop. Still many others report that they just don't have the time to start doing anything new. More about that later.