Chapter Ten: What It All Means

            One point that resonated strongly with me from this chapter that so nicely summarized his overall message, is that we have an ethical obligation as educators to teach the literacy of the Read/Write Web.  To my mind, the most compelling reason to do so is that we have all but lost the editor as the middleman who was the gatekeeper to what was allowed to be published and what was not.  Because ANYTHING can be published over the net, it is imperative that we teach our students to be intelligent, discerning readers/editors as they participate in this global exchange of ideas. 

In addition, the magnitude of the amount of information available to anyone with a computer (smart phone, ipad, etc.), makes it necessary for us and our students to learn “how to manage what we consume” (p. 149).  The fact that all of this information is literally at our fingertips requires that we figure out logical ways to organize our data in the various forms in which we choose to engage with the information itself  (i.e. how we obtain it, store it, and disseminate it).   Fortunately, There are many out there who have already figured this out and have begun to figure out ways to do this.  Hopefully they will continue to improve upon them.

Lastly, I am left with an appreciation of the concept that real learning takes place within a conversation about a given topic.  As educators we often remark that we want our students to be actively engaged in learning, not just passive recipients of knowledge.  If they are educated well about the potential the Read/Write Web presents as well as how to discern and guard against misinformation, either deliberate or unintentional, then they certainly will have the tools necessary to be life-long learners.       

Chapter Nine: Social Networks

            To be honest, I have been using Facebook at home for years, and there are only a few features that I like about it.   I use it to communicate with friends (which I do more successfully via e-mail), but what I mostly do it use it to share photographs.  I may be wrong, but it really just seems like a form of blogging.  There are so many gimmicky little polls, games, etc. that I get annoyed with all the clutter. 

            On the other hand, Ning.com might be an easier way to create a “social networking site around a topic” that is relevant to the curriculum I must teach (p. 140).  I especially like the idea that I can start out private until I fully understand how it works and what to expect from my students, then slowly open it up to the public in stages as appropriate and/or needed to meet my set goals.  However, I still feel like I need to try something that someone else has already done, learn from their mistakes, and fully understanding the ins and outs before I think I’ll be able to figure out what I can do with it.  This is all still pretty overwhelming for me. 

Chapter Eight - Podcasting: Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

        I don’t doubt for a moment that if a teacher had the necessary equipment and developed the “know how” for how to create podcasts, that it would be a fantastic way to get students actively engaged in the writing process.  The possibilities seem limitless.    I can visualize students podcasting poems, stories, news pieces, book commentaries, news, editorials … the list goes on and on.   Because of the public forum of podcasts, it is would be a strong motivator for students to actively engage in the entire writing process to create quality products to podcast.  In addition, because of the “real-life” feel of the medium (students are very familiar with news shows, radio, etc.) they would most likely be more interested in the work involved to create the podcasts.   Or, as Richardson puts it, when work is “… done for real purposes, for real audiences,” they can have “a meaning beyond the classroom” (p. 122).

        The video publishing component is, as we’ve found with many web-based resources, problematic because of the lack of control over what winds up on sites such as YouTube.com.   I believe that because of how viscerally we respond to action film, particularly when it includes audio (even more so than still photos or printed words), I don’t imagine in the foreseeable future the younger grades having ready access to YouTube in the classroom, despite the fact that they get on it at home.   However, screencasting might be a good alternative for these younger grades.  For example, let’s revisit Flickr and now enhance that already wonderful tool by including voiceovers.  I’ve already had students record over PowerPoint presentations, but it seems that student  “products” can take on so many different layers, both visual and auditory.  In addition, I can get especially excited about the prospect of live streaming with students from the different countries we are studying in World Geography, in the same way that I Skyped with my son while he was studying in Senegal.

       

         

Chapter Seven - Fun With Flickr

            THIS is something I can wrap my mind around and get very excited about!  I love the idea that students can mesh one form of creativity, photography, with another form, writing.  Right away I got onto the “What Can We Do With Flickr?”  site that Richardson recommended to take a peek at some possible projects students could engage in.  I love the idea of using the visual as a springboard for writing pieces that are creative, purely descriptive, informative, etc.  It seems there are so many possibilities!  What makes this more interesting than simply having students write about a photograph they simply upload onto the computer is the annotation tool that can let students zero in on pieces of the whole, but still have the whole intact.  Fun, fun, fun! 

Not only could this be good to use in ELA, but I can see lots of potential for Social Studies as well, as Richardson referred to when discussing annotating Civil War battlefields.   In our World Geography classes students could up load photographs they’ve taken and then annotate the photographs using the five themes of geography.   As they master their understanding of the five themes, they can eventually apply the same knowledge to images they find of places around the world. 

Chapter Six - The Social Web: Learning Together

            This chapter left me a little cold in terms of how I could use it in my sixth-grade classroom.  For one thing, Richardson’s comment that “Twitter is a bit too Wild West” (p. 88) was a huge red flag that this tool wouldn’t work well at my grade level.  Another problem I see is the brevity of the writing that can be done.  While on the surface that may seem great, at this grade level we are working very hard to get students to write more in their responses by providing details and explanations.  Having them write in a format that inhibits that ability seems counter productive.   It seems like a more appropriate tool for the upper grades when you are working to teach students to write more densely. 

            The social bookmarking may have more practical uses for the grade level I teach.  I’ve always believed in the adage, “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.”  Tagging seems like a great way to piggyback on research other people have done on topics that are relevant to others with the same interests and/or research needs.  I like the idea of using Diigo to tag relevant sites and annotate the sites to guide students as they utilize it.  I’d have to get into it and really figure it out for myself first, but on paper it sounds like it could be a great tool to customize searches for particular classroom/student needs.  

Chapter Five - RSS: The New Killer App for Educators

                I found Richardson’s chapter on RSS answered a major concern I have about the readily available access to so many sources of information; how to narrow it down and organize it.  Having said that, I once again feel I’m on learning overload; so much to learn, and so little time!  The good news is, Richardson gives step by step instructions on how to go about this with the ever appreciated admonition to “start small.”  You better believe I’m all over that!  I also love the idea that after setting up my aggregator(s), it (they) will not only keep me abreast of topics of particular interest to me, but also vastly reduce the amount of time needed to gather that information.  I was already sold on RSS just from Keri’s quick demonstration in class of using RSS to monitor student additions to blogs without having to go into each student’s weblog.  Richardson's thorough discussion of how to do it gives me confidence that with time I’ll be able to utilize this tool effectively.

                In addition to how to use RSS, Richardson’s point that being able to effectively utilize RSS is an indispensable tool for students when learning to disseminate vast amounts of information (p. 73).  This tool then dovetails with the Common Core State Standards Initiative that states that students should “habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally.”  Likewise, Richardson quotes the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) decree that “twenty-first century readers and writers need to manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information” (p. 73).  RSS seems made to order to help students reach these levels of literacy.

Chapter Four - Wikkis: Easy Collaboration for All

            Keri’s having already covered Wikis in class certainly helped me to grasp more of what Richardson was writing about in this chapter.  Like many of the teachers he referred to, I often told (tell) my students not to bother with Wikipedia for information, as it is unreliable due to the fact that anyone can write anything on its pages.  However, his comments about how closely the content being added is scrutinized by many who want accuracy, is a level of policing that I had not considered.  I’m not sure I’m sold on the idea, but I feel more open to checking it out as he suggested.  If I’m convinced, it is quite likely that I’ll start to encourage students to use it after careful discussion and practice in checking for accuracy with them.  Again, they use it anyway (whether we gainsay it or not), so we may as well teach them to be critical/sophisticated users (possibly contributors?) of this tool.

            In particular I was drawn to Richardson’s argument for the use of Wiki’s “… that everyone together is smarter than anyone alone (p. 57).”  More and more the idea of teaching solid collaboration skills using this medium appeals to me.  I think most students will be enticed by the forum for sharing knowledge and thoughts on topics, as well as be motivated by the challenge of making sure their input is correct to the best of their ability, as well as checking the validity of input by people they are collaborating with.  The public forum raises the ante in terms of wanting to do the work well, and learning to work with others to assure success of the overall project, thereby success for all.

             

Chapter Three - Weblogs: Get Started1

           Chapter three is just what I have been waiting for … the nitty gritty of how to create an educational blog and the reminder to start small, acclimate, then build up (p. 44).  While we’ve already covered a lot of the basics in class, I like having Richardson’s additional set of directions as well as the list of resources at the end of the chapter that we can reference to help us build our own classroom blogs.  After looking at several, I have a clearer idea of how clean and uncluttered yet inviting sites should look.  I like David Warlock’s use of graphics and how cleanly he set up categories (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/).  I also like how Jeff Utecht hooks his readers in with interesting “headlines” (http://www.thethinkingstick.com/).  In fact, there is something from just about every site I looked into that I admire and can see experiment incorporating into my own blog site in order to make the information in it accessible and interesting to my students.

I was also glad to find some very specific ways in which to help keep blogging as safe as possible for students.  In particular, I found Bud Hunt’s site (http://www.tinyurl.com/5y919n) packed with links for all types of relevant topics for teachers trying to incorporate blogging into his/her classroom (p.47).  I am sooooooo very thankful that there are many pioneers out there who are willing to share their expertise (true bloggers that they are!)  so that more of us can join in and utilize blogging more effectively sooner rather than later.    In addition, his insights into assessing blogs makes sense to me.  Like Richardson, I don’t see how one can grade every single post, but do see the wisdom in having a rubric  that “evaluates the level of participation, the intellectual depth of the posts, the effectiveness of the writing, the level of reflection regarding the ideas expressed, and the willingness to contribute to and collaborate with the work of others” (p. 47).

Chapter Two - Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice

             I continue to be overwhelmed while trying simultaneously to figure out how to use these innovative tools and wrap my mind around ways to use them in a sound, educational manner.  Having said that, my excitement for them grew as I read in Richardson’ work how he and other educators are finding innovative ways to enhance their students’ education.  I was particularly taken with the understanding that blogging is a tool that when used effectively can push students do more than simply “journal” ideas (p. 20).  Richardson cites Eide Neurolearning Blog, 2005 and notes the various types of deep mental engagement and social participation that can take place while blogging.  As educators, we are constantly looking for ways to get our students to use higher levels of thinking, and it appears that blogging can be an effective tool to achieve this.

             We’ve known for some time that students’ ability to attend to a given task vary from child to child and age level to age level.  We’ve learned to vary our teaching style and intersperse activities and social engagement so that children can better focus and utilize social skills in order to learn.  It is looking like, again, if used correctly, that blogging as a teaching tool can be used to meet many of these needs while providing even more content related stimulus and opportunities to develop, check, and/or reinforce their comprehension of what is being “blogged” about.  On top of that, they are simultaneously enhancing their cognitive, technology, and communication/social skills in general.  Blogging allows students to have access to a huge amount of ways and means to make a point, counter an argument, check for accuracy, enhance an idea … you get the picture. 

            I really am beginning to believe that if I can understand the many benefits that blogging has to offer and effectively use them,  it will be well worth the effort to then come up with creative “projects” for my students to work on as a community of learners.  The fact that they will always have a broader audience for their work besides the teacher is a fine motivator for them to put more effort into their work.  In addition, the opportunities for a lot more feed back from a potentially large and varied group of participators will make the learning experience richer and more meaningful (p. 27).  

Chapter One - The Read/Write Web

Responding to Chapter One of Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.   Crowin: Thousand Oaks, CA., 2010.

           

            I found Mr. Richardson’s opening chapter a little intimidating, a little reassuring, as well as enticing.  I consider myself a “surface” technology user in that I don’t understand anything about technology other than what I can see transparently with my own eyes (no clicking to get to what’s going on behind the screen for me!).  If something doesn’t work the way I think it should or “disappears” without my intentionally making it do so, my immediate response is to get in touch with a “techie.”   When I’m at home, my 23-year old son hears my frustrated cry for help, as he has since he was about 10.  I am, in other words, that generation of educator of whom Richardson refers to who must face the “daunting task  … to catch up to their students” (p. 8).  I ask myself, is it really possible at this late stage in my teaching game?  After all, he isn’t just talking about learning how to use some new programs on a computer or other communication devices.  He is talking about a whole new way of thinking about learning and therefore of teaching.

            Paradoxically, Richardson has also lit some excitement in me about using technology in new and more far reaching ways.   I was intrigued by Richardson’s brief discussion of William D. Winn’s research on how repeated exposure to and use of technology from early childhood has neurologically altered our students from sequential thinkers to parallel thinkers (Prensky cited in Richardson).  This has me thinking about using technology not just in terms of “engaging” students, but also as a necessity to facilitate the kind of learning that their brains are now being wired to do.  He isn’t just talking about new ways for students to “publish” the same kind of learning we’ve been teaching to for years, but literally expanding the classroom to encompass the world by providing opportunities for students to think in multiple layers as they use various types of media to research, get input, share discoveries and ask questions about limitless topics with people from all parts of the world and walks of life.  Which, of course, also forces the issues of assuring our students are kept safe.

            Fortunately, I finished reading the chapter with a sense of reassurance about being “selfish about their use in your own learning practice” (p. 8).  My first instinct when I am learning something new to use in the classroom is to jump right in and figure out how to use it NOW with my students.  Instead, I understand from Richardson’s words that the wiser course would be to use these tools in my own life and from that practice make determinations about how they can best be used with my students.  After all, much of my teaching about reading and writing stem from my own experiences with them and my depth of understanding of what students can gain from doing them both well.    Once I start figuring out ways to authentically incorporate these technologies’ use in my classroom, I’ll have the added bonus of learning even more from my students and others as my practices evolve.