Reciprocal Learning

I complete the first of three workshops on Google Apps that I’m doing for faculty in the Maricopa Community College District. I’m focusing on the applications that exist in the educational instances of Google Apps, not the “everything” that we get in a regular google services account. I was surprised at how few faculty I had in the room; instead, I had a bunch of librarians, some people from training, institutional advancement, an administrator, to name a few. I did learn that Google didn’t like having too many accounts being opened from the same IP address; therefore, for the next two workshops we’re going to ask that participants get their gmail accounts prior to the workshop.
What has surprised me the most is who attends…not the list above, but the sprinkling in of faculty (one f2f, one virtually) who I look to for knowledge about technology. Practically, it is extremely useful to have a geeky person in the room to help with techno-glitches as a 20+ people fiddle around with a technology for the first time. What surprises me is that these folks whom I learn from, also learn from me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I was telling others that I always learn something new about the technologies as I prepare a workshop; thus, taking a workshop a year later on the same topic would mean learning new things. In other words, I know from my own experiences I continue to learn, so why shouldn’t people I consider my mentors continue to learn from me.
Or, am I just trapped into thinking that learning always happens in hierarchically, always the same directions from generally the same people. Of course I should know better, but I’m just as trapped in traditional ways as thinking as others can be.
Ultimately, this is just a Thanks to my peers in the district who continue to motivate me to keep on learning. You know who you are, most of you were there last week when we live blogged the Quality Matters training…priceless! 

March 09 2008 | Posted in MCCCD