Product Description

"We need a solid book explaining and illustrating and letting teachers know about these powerful tools. This book meets the need in an awesome way!"
-Mike Muir, Director
Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning

"This author is a gem! It startles me to be 'pulled' so happily through a text about these new Web tools in the context of good literacy instruction."
-Gary Graves, Senior Research and Evaluation Advisor, Technology in Education
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory  

Discover how to harness Web tools to motivate and update student reading, research, and communication!

This book brings teachers a bold vision and on-the-ground Monday morning practicality. It will move educators to think differently about technology’s potential for strengthening students' critical thinking, writing, reflection, and interactive learning. Will Richardson demystifies words like "blog," "wiki," and "aggregator" making classroom technology an easily accessible component of classroom research, writing, and learning.

This guide demonstrates how Web tools can generate exciting new learning formats, and explains how to apply these tools in the classroom to engage all students in a new world of synchronous information feeds and interactive learning. With detailed, simple explanations, definitions and how-tos, critical information on Internet safety, and helpful links, this exciting book opens an immense toolbox, with specific teaching applications for

• Web logs, the most widely adopted tool of the read/write Web
• Wikis, a collaborative Webspace for sharing published content
• Rich Site Summary (RSS), feeding specific content into the classroom
• Aggregators, collecting content generated via the RSS feed
• Social bookmarking, archiving specific Web addresses
• Online photo galleries

This book makes it possible for anyone, no matter how inexperienced, to harness this amazing technology for the classroom today!

(20051121)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11334 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Review
"This book deals with such a hot topic in a wonderfully practical way. We need a solid book explaining and illustrating and letting teachers know about these powerful tools. This book meets the need in an awesome way!" (Mike Muir, Director, Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning 20051121)

"This author is a gem! It startles me to be 'pulled' so happily through a text about these new Web tools in the context of good literacy instruction." (Gary Graves, Senior Research and Evaluation Advisor, Technology in Education 20060322)

"Richardson shares first hand classroom experience of how the read / write web opens up new possibilities for students to learn from each other and from authors, scientists, and other professionals."

(EducationPR, wordpress.com 20060315)

"Whether it’s blogs, or wikis, or RSS, all roads now point to a Web where little is done in isolation . . . That’s not to say that in this new world students don’t do their own work. But it does mean that responsibility for that work is in some way shared. Learning is a continuous conversation among many participants."

(techLearning 20060426)

"Shows teachers how to integrate new Web tools into their instruction to both enhance their practice and foster student learning. Gives guidance on teaching students how to use the Internet responsibly."

(Education Week, April 26, 2006 20060705)

"This comprehensive guide on how to incorporate podcasts, screen-casting, blogs and other multimedia features into today's journalism brings convergence to the classroom." (Melanie Lo Communicator 20060601)

"Richardson understands digital tools and is able to translate that understanding to his readers. He writes about teens using the software in appropriate and innovative ways to illustrate what can and should be occurring in classrooms." (Teachers College Record, June 2006 20060726)

"Very user-friendly. Gives a step-by-step method through which students can maximize their learning strengths and transform into engaging, successful learners." (Magdalena M. C. Mok 20070401)

"An absolute must for anyone attempting to keep up-to-date with Web tools for the classroom. Preservice or practicing educators, teachers, administrators, parents, or interested parties can find all they want to know about the new tools of the Read/Write Web, including what they are, what they do, how teachers use them, and the first steps to take toward using them." (CHOICE, September 2006 20070911)

"Clearly and persuasively written, the book is loaded with information about the cutting-edge Internet features that make up so-called Web 2.0. Richardson meticulously makes connections between these tools and the classroom. He is comfortable writing about both the pedagogical implications of the technologies and also the directions for using them." (Los Angeles Times, 6 March 2007 20071012)

"This is the book to read if you are keen to use Web tools in your classroom but aren't quite sure where to start. Richardson's book makes clear not just how to integrate such tools in your classroom, but why you should and what difference it can make in your teaching." (New Zealand Studies of Applied Linguistics, July 2007 )

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Customer Reviews

Great for Educators!
I am an elementary school teacher who values technology integration in classrooms. Initially, the book begins slow with an overabundant amount of details about the simplicity of blogging. Some advice is given to lead novices in the right direction tailored to their blogging interests.

An aside: As I was searching on the Internet for safe and secure blog sites for young students, I found this website: http://mhetherington.net/blogs/?p=8 which was created by a middle school teacher with similar interests in student technology involvement. It details steps that can lead any teacher into a free (yet time consuming) setup for students to use. (I used this website to create my own blog site for my 32 fourth grade students and it worked marvelously!)

The author then introduced the power of wikis. I really appreciated the real-life accounts from actual educators who use wikis for group projects with students. I did feel a like the examples came mostly from secondary education and did not focus heavily on primary student possibilities with wikis. PB wiki (peanut butter wiki) for educators was explained and the book offered some great resources for teachers on a low budget with wiki interests.

Next, RSS feeds were explained. Although much of the explanations of RSS feeds were still above my head in understanding, I learned a number of values in using RSS feeds with the Web. One of the examples used in the book was that one could subscribe to all RSS feeds in Cyberspace about a topic of interest. If a person is interested in "Global Warming in California," they can subscribe to any place on the Internet that may use those words as an update when stories or writing is produced and submitted on websites you may not know existed. RSS feeding is a promising method of allowing the computer to do the searching for you.

During my reading of this book, I posted two blogs (on blogger.com) about my reflections. Within 3 days of my writing, the author of this book, Will Richardson, posted a comment on my blog thanking me for reading his book. My inferences told me he may have an RSS feed in Cyberspace that brings him news about whenever information is posted about himself or his book. I was impressed by his comment as this showed me he practiced what he preached in his book and really values the technology he promotes.

By the end of the book, podcasting, screencasting, and videos were introduced as well. In all, the book catered more toward novices and technology learners, not experts. Experts may find this book a bit juvenile, while I enjoyed it for its practicality and rapid information. My favorite part of the book stands at the providing of websites and tools that can be searched just seconds after reading about them. I found that using this book as a user's manual was helpful for technology novices on the go.

An excellent resource!
Finally a book all about how to incorporate the newest in technology in the classroom. Combines info that's been floating around on the internet into a concise book and an easy read. Many great ideas.

Great practical ideas and resources for teachers
I started reading Will Richardson's book to educate myself about how teachers and instructors have been utilizing web tools into their curriculum. In October 2007, I attended the Computers in Libraries conference and participated in a workshop called "New Research Tools" where they discussed practical and successful cases of educators using various online tools, like Flickr, Clipmarks, or RSS readers.

As a librarian, a 2nd year educator, and one who personally uses these different tools, I really am interested in incorporating these tools into the curriculum.

During the course of reading this book, I have started reading Will Richardson's blog - Web-logged - as well as other educator and librarian blogs. This book has inspired me to try to incorporate the different tools that I enjoy using personally into the curriculum.

Richardson's enthusiasm for these various web tools is conveyed through each chapter. He devotes chapters to each tool. For example, there is a chapter on Blogs, one on RSS and one on wikis. It is easily explained and whether you use these tools already or not, his writing is easily accessible. I have been promoting this book to my colleagues and have also pointed some of them to his blog.

His chapter on Wikis has caused me to reassess my hesitance towards utilizing Wikipedia as a valid source of information. I am still skeptical but one should be skeptical when approaching print media as well.

The chapters are short and easy to understand. He has an excellent list of resources and great examples of people who are already incorporating the read/write web into their classrooms. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Web 2.0, education and technology.