Technology+Leadership+Book+Summary

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Book Summary: Blog, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom //Blog, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom// by Will Richardson is a great resource book for educators that want to implement technology in their curriculum. The book is filled with practical advice on how teachers and students can use Web 2.0 to learn, create and communicate more. The reality is technology has changed the way students receive information, the way they interact with each other and the way students learn. Teachers must integrate technology in their classroom because the traditional classroom is not as fun and effective as a classroom that integrates technology. The book describes blogs as a collaborative space where students and teachers can respond to questions and scenarios. Blog have made writing easy and accessible to everyone. “Every teacher and every student – every person with access – will have the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the internet. We will be writing the human story, in real time, together – a vision that asks each of us to participate (Rushkoff, 2004).” The internet is forcing us to review many of the basic ways in which we live our lives. For this reason, teachers have to rethink their curriculum to reach audiences far beyond the classroom walls. We need to make our students not just readers or writers, but editors, collaborators and publishers. “Giving students a chance to share their work with a global audience is an important first step, but there is much more to it. It’s the conversations, the links, and the networks that grow from them afterward that really show us the profound implications for lifelong learning.” Will Richardson, also mentions that teachers must first experience their own blog before they incorporate blogs into their curriculum. The book describes Wikis as a collaborative, interactive website that allow the current user to create new content. Teachers can create an online textbook for their classroom, exchange lesson plans and collaborate with other teachers. The book provides a great introduction and clear explanation for teachers to create their own wiki, as well as, provides ideas on how to implement wikis in the curriculum. Another good resource I found in the Will Richardson book is RSS. I did not have any idea what RSS was, until I read some articles for my class and chapter 5 in this book. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The book explain why teachers should use RSS and stresses that when information is in RSS format the teacher can read more content from more sources in less time. “I think it’s the one technology that you should start using today, right now, this minute. And tomorrow, you should teach your students to use it (Will Richardson).” Another subject mentioned in this book is the social web. The social web allows educators to step out of their classrooms, states and countries and join in conversations without limitations and become part of the world community. Educators can do this by using Facebook or other social webs. Also, pictures are another way to communicate and make classrooms interesting. Flickr is mentioned in this book as a way to tell stories and interconnect without words. Using this book, educators can also take Podcasts to the next level. Podcasts allow students to create without limits and their voices can be heard on any media source device; adding screencasts students can add voice and video together bringing education to the next level. Taking notes in the classroom is no longer significant. The way that students learn and communicate has been changed by web 2.0.