The Over Enthusiastic Sales Pitch
I must admit that I’m guilty of this one:
When Moodle is pitched to new users, it is easy to discuss all it will do. A person who has limited experience of IT can be overwhelmed by the idea of e-learning, quizzes, surveys, blogs wikis, podcasts etc etc. They may feel that this is just too much and stay clear.
When I first started training teachers to use Moodle, I wanted to (and did) show them everything: forums, wikis, workshops, resources. You name it, I showed it. I was so amazed by everything the software could do, and I knew that if these teachers heard about it all, then they were bound to find something in it for themselves.
In the end, though, I just scared them away. Without focusing on any one thing that teachers could practically accomplish with the tool, they left my training completely overwhelmed.
It seems to me that the best way to sell any new technology is as a solution to one problem. Find out what teachers would like to do. Perhaps give them a ten minute overview of the software’s capabilities. Then, ask them what they’d like the training to center on. Then, and this is the important part, don’t stray from this one thing to show them that “other thing” that you just thought of and is oh-so-cool.
Keep it simple so they’ll come back for more.
It is the same with me. On first trainings I buried teachers with everything Moodle can do. It didn’t work much. Recently I am trying to “hype” all features in quick introduction and then I ask them, what is their’s normal work day. What materials do they share with students, what do they want their’s students do for homework, how is finished work hand over and how it is marked… And then I try show them, how can it be done in Moodle. I think, this approach earns better results of the training. And teachers aren’t so scared anymore
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