Andrew Thonstad
September 27, 2009
Richardson, Will (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Chapter 2: Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice
What is a Weblog and how can I incorporate them into my classroom? This is what Chapter 2 is all about. Mr. Richardson defines a weblog as “an easily created, easily updatable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection.” Weblogs are not static like your typically websites, instead they can be changed multiple times a day and are comprised of reflections and conversations (just like the one we use for these summaries). Mr. Richardson shares research that shows the potential positive impacts blogging can have on students. These include:
· Promoting critical and analytical thinking
· Being a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking
· Promoting analogical thinking
· Being a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information
· Combining the best of solitary reflection and social interaction
Mr. Richardson goes on to explain how weblogs can be used in schools, even supplying links to examples from other educators. He goes into detail about using weblogs for:
· Class Portals
· Online Filing Cabinets
· E-Portfolios
· Collaborative Space
· Knowledge Management and Articulation
· School Websites
While I am just learning about creating and using these tools, based on the text, I can see how the tools can benefit my classroom. With a focus on Personal Finance, Economics, and Business, I can imagine collaborative conversations with business leaders in the community and beyond. Storing ideas and sharing works with others can assist the students in better understanding how their ideas can make a difference. Using a weblog could also lead to discussions (through journaling) about current and relevant topics – the economy, taxes, the impact of health care, job losses, and much more. The lesson (or homework) could change on a moments notice while keeping the students informed. (Mr. Richardson lists many classroom uses of weblogs at the end of the chapter.)
Weblogs can play an important role in involving and educating the classroom. Because of their very nature, weblogs are truly a constructivist tool for learning. Anything posted on a blog becomes part of the body of knowledge of the whole World Wide Web. Classroom assignments can have a far reaching impact as they can be read and discussed by people from around the world. This would expand the walls of the classroom to the ends of the earth. Weblogs also support different learning styles. Even the shyest student can share their thoughts and ideas. As someone who does not always feel the drive/need to share in a classroom setting (an even in a chat setting), I believe that everyone can feel engaged in the discussion.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Chapter 1 Summary
Andrew Thonstad
September 20, 2009
Richardson, Will (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Chapter 1: The Read/Write Web
This chapter shares a brief history of the goals that Tim Berners-Lee had when he began developing the World Wide Web. His desire to make it a “collaborative medium” for anyone to add content was slow to realize. Many people were excluded from adding content due to their lack of knowledge of HTML code. This has changed over the past few years due to the development of many, easy to use, Internet publishing applications. These new publishing tools, including Weblogs (blogs), Wikis, and multimedia publishing, have given millions the ability to “write” content to the web.
How does this relate to education? The author, Mr. Richardson, points out that education has been very slow in reacting and adapting to the changing world. Students are using these technologies on a regular basis. And when these students come to school, we limit the technologies they can use. We take away their phones, set up filters to limit the websites they can visit, stop them from participating in the social network we expect them to be when they are outside of the classroom.
As with using anything new, it is important to test drive this technology before we use it in the classroom. Mr. Richardson shares that even he had to fully understand the power of the technology and how to use it before he was able to see the changes that needed to be made in his own curriculum and teaching. While there are many tools we can use, the remaining chapters in the book will cover these technologies:
· Weblogs
· Wikis
· Real Simple Syndication (RSS)
· Aggregators
· Social Bookmarking
· Online Photo Galleries
· Audio/video casting
The final section of the chapter discusses difficulties in balancing the why and the ways to keep students safe with the benefits of publishing their work online. This also includes following the requirements of the Child Internet Protection Act, requiring schools and libraries to filter internet content. While this might keep potentially inappropriate sites from being viewed by students, it may also limit thousands of sites that would be considered appropriate.
I find this idea of a chapter summary lacking of importance for this chapter. My summary of this chapter: the history of the Internet; the changes and adaptations of the Internet to where we are today; the tools that can be used by educators; and safety concerns regarding students publishing to the Internet. This assignment requires us to regurgitate information based on what we get from the chapter. This is one thing I have never been very good at – just ask all four of my high school English teachers – I never seem to pull the “correct” or “important” ideas from the texts. As this is a Technology class, I decided to research Will Richardson. In doing so, I found some interesting links to other educators and their use of technology in the classroom. These websites lead to by additional educators and parents about the uses of technology in the classroom. I have included a link to one of these blogs: http://lonewolf30.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-shocking-discovery-of-students-take.html.
September 20, 2009
Richardson, Will (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Chapter 1: The Read/Write Web
This chapter shares a brief history of the goals that Tim Berners-Lee had when he began developing the World Wide Web. His desire to make it a “collaborative medium” for anyone to add content was slow to realize. Many people were excluded from adding content due to their lack of knowledge of HTML code. This has changed over the past few years due to the development of many, easy to use, Internet publishing applications. These new publishing tools, including Weblogs (blogs), Wikis, and multimedia publishing, have given millions the ability to “write” content to the web.
How does this relate to education? The author, Mr. Richardson, points out that education has been very slow in reacting and adapting to the changing world. Students are using these technologies on a regular basis. And when these students come to school, we limit the technologies they can use. We take away their phones, set up filters to limit the websites they can visit, stop them from participating in the social network we expect them to be when they are outside of the classroom.
As with using anything new, it is important to test drive this technology before we use it in the classroom. Mr. Richardson shares that even he had to fully understand the power of the technology and how to use it before he was able to see the changes that needed to be made in his own curriculum and teaching. While there are many tools we can use, the remaining chapters in the book will cover these technologies:
· Weblogs
· Wikis
· Real Simple Syndication (RSS)
· Aggregators
· Social Bookmarking
· Online Photo Galleries
· Audio/video casting
The final section of the chapter discusses difficulties in balancing the why and the ways to keep students safe with the benefits of publishing their work online. This also includes following the requirements of the Child Internet Protection Act, requiring schools and libraries to filter internet content. While this might keep potentially inappropriate sites from being viewed by students, it may also limit thousands of sites that would be considered appropriate.
I find this idea of a chapter summary lacking of importance for this chapter. My summary of this chapter: the history of the Internet; the changes and adaptations of the Internet to where we are today; the tools that can be used by educators; and safety concerns regarding students publishing to the Internet. This assignment requires us to regurgitate information based on what we get from the chapter. This is one thing I have never been very good at – just ask all four of my high school English teachers – I never seem to pull the “correct” or “important” ideas from the texts. As this is a Technology class, I decided to research Will Richardson. In doing so, I found some interesting links to other educators and their use of technology in the classroom. These websites lead to by additional educators and parents about the uses of technology in the classroom. I have included a link to one of these blogs: http://lonewolf30.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-shocking-discovery-of-students-take.html.
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