Chapter 9 Summary

Andrew Thonstad
Richardson, Will (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Chapter 9: What It All Means

Now we have to put everything discussed in this book together, like a jigsaw puzzle. Each piece needs another in order to fit together. These pieces (or Big Shifts as Mr. Richardson calls them) include:

1. Open Content: The content that educators have used in the past (textbooks) are no longer needed. The process for printing textbooks results in information being used that is outdated the day it is written, let alone printed, bound and shipped. With open content, educators and students can create their own “textbooks.” And the information contained in them can be updated immediately.

2. Many, Many Teachers, and 24/7 Learning: The teacher no longer has to be the only teacher for the class; teachers can utilize many other “teachers.” These “teachers” can be experts in their fields, experienced in their activities, and/or knowledgeable in their passions. No longer do students need to watch a movie about chimps when they can converse with Jane Goodall herself.

3. The Social, Collaborative Construction of Meaningful Knowledge: Unlike education, I cannot think of any other activity where we require someone to work independently. The world has moved to collaborative teams: at work, in athletics, in associations, everywhere. Only education requires that students work by themselves (and only up to high school as most college classes have team projects). In addition to that, the Read/Write Web offers the opportunity for the students’ collaborative work to be shared to large audiences.

4. Teaching Is Conversation, Not Lecture: The changes in the way people learn has affected business and education. No longer can the teacher/trainer/presenter stand up front and lecture (always seems to be in a monotone voice). Using the Web, educators can create conversations with their students. This becomes an active process, not a “shut-up and listen” ordeal.

5. Know “Where” Learning: No longer is specific information quite as important as it once was. I remember learning all of the states and capitals, the Presidents (in order), and many other facts. Today I can have all of the same information at my fingertips by knowing how to search for the answers.

6. Readers Are No Longer Just Readers: In the past, most of what we read was checked and double checked for accuracy before publication. With the Read/Write Web, we will come across information that has not been fact-checked. It may sound truthful (kind of like those wild stories from the web) but it could be a complete hoax. We, as processors (not just readers) of information, need to be able to discern the factual from the lie. We also can be writers to the web. A great example of this is Wikipedia, where anyone can add or edit information about a particular topic.

7. The Web as Notebook (or Portfolio): We can use the web to track and manage information we believe is important to save and/or share. Portfolios no longer need to be in books, all the information can be on a webpage. Notebooks no longer need to contain notes from reading textbooks, since the textbooks are online, the important information can be notated in the links. We can also include other media formats (audio, video, photography, etc.).

8. Writing Is No Longer Limited to Text: We now have opportunities to share information through many different mediums: writings, blogs, audio, video, music, digital photography, computer code, etc.

9. Mastery Is the Product, Not the Test: In the past, mastery meant passing a test with a score in a given range (sounds like the Praxis I am about to take). In this Read/Write Web age, mastery can be shown through projects and ongoing assignments, with all of being published for the world to review.

10. Contribution, Not Completion, as the Ultimate Goal: Through these technologies students can contribute their own work and ideas to the Web. This can be a 24/7 ordeal, as the time for contribution is only limited by the access to the technology itself. I can see many projects that no longer have a starting and ending; they have an origination and then keep growing and changing.

What does it all mean? I believe it means to buckle in and hang on – the ride is just starting. For those educators who want to be part of it, there will be opportunities and learning. Those educators who choose to sit on the sidelines and watch may never catch up and the world (and their students) will leave them behind.