Plus ca change …

Good morning from Zagreb.
It’s a nice place, the people are very friendly – we struggled at the bus station yesterday and a man came and sorted us out. In the market, people were quick to help with their English when someone else didn’t have the words.
After the beers and meeting with Ana and Martina last night, I got thinking about comparisons, and what is different.
Ana and Martina were fast with technology, iPhones and phones with internet access, Facebook users and so on, yet they don’t have a functioning learning technology system to support their courses.
In a way, they are where I was ten years ago, when we barely knew what a VLE was and those that were available were very expensive, and of course content was king.
But in a way they are not – in ten years we’ve moved from content to social networking, and to Web 2.0. For a moment I lost my way and it was very tempting (or too easy) to suggest a long pathway, and then I realised that I needed to leave ten years’ experience behind and suggest something different.
It’s back to the old question: what do they (their students) have to learn, and how could they best learn it. The tools are the things that make the difference. And there are so many web-based tools.
Off shopping with Ana today, and of course more talking and thinking. There will be an evening barbecue … I’m promised that the vegetables will be delicious!