Learning the Web 2.0 is like learning to use a Blackberry

This is an epiphany I had recently in trying new technology and trying to create a Personal Learning Network (PLN)

Step 1 - Be brave enough to try it.

I was finally brave enough to get a smartphone over the winter break.  I really wanted an iPhone, but couldn't get the cell phone coverage with AT&T and I really needed the smartphone to stay connected with my email and calendar - hence I became a Crackberry addict.

Step 2 - Be brave enough to ask someone who knows more than you

The way I learned to use my Blackberry was to ask the experts (the teens at church).  I learned what the little R and D meant in Blackberry messenger and that I needed to download the NEW bbm in order to "scan" barcodes.  (ask a teen what that last sentence means)

Step 3 - Show/Teach someone else how to do it

Next, I showed a few of my principal and AP friends how to download and use bbm.  The next thing I knew, I got a voice chat from one of them (I didn't realize I could do that.)  So what did I do - I sent my next friend a voice chat, so she knew how to do it.

So...Create your own PLN

It took me about 2 weeks of trying new programs, like Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Prezi, Google Earth, and others to realize that the key to learning NEW TECHNOLOGY on the Web 2.0 is to create what Stephen Anderson of Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools called a Personal Learning Network (PLN).  Use Google Reader to keep up with a few blogs; participate in a NING; try Twitter; use Google Docs to collaborate with people in and outside of school.  What that means is you use the technology to ask questions and get help and then you teach others that skill or idea.  That way you really LEARN how to use it because you did it...isn't that the best way to learn anything...