Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is a resource for teachers in the K-12 classroom and beyond. Written by Will Richardson, this book provides an overview of technology and its impact on the educational community. The book allows teachers to find Internet resources and learn new methods to incorporate technology in an always-changing classroom environment.
Chapter One: "The Read/Write Web"
Chapter One gives an overview of Tim Berners-Lee's original intent of his creation, the World Wide Web. His vision was "a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write" (Richardson 1). As Richardson explains, the Internet has spawned into all aspects of our lives, from social-networking to business to education.
Focusing primarily on the realm of education, Richardson explains how he utilizes weblogs, wikis, RSS, aggregators, social-bookmarking, online photo galleries, and audio/video-casting (Richardson 9-10) in the classroom. Richardson acknowledges that the Internet can be dangerous, but with proper instruction and guidance, students can use the Web effectively and safely to learn.
Chapter Two: "Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice"
Richardson defines a weblog as "an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection" (Richardson 17).
One may ask, so what? In the second chapter, there is evidence for why blogs are being used in education today. Richardson writes, "Blogs engage readers with IDeaS and questions and links. They ask readers to think and respond. They demand interaction" (Richardson 18).
Today, in education, blogs are being used in a multitude of ways. One way blogs can be used by students is to discuss novels in English class and "talk" to classmates online. Also, educators and their colleagues are using blogs to network with one another, creating a professional development atmosphere, 24 hours a day.
Richardson clarifies what a blog is by explaining the fallacy behind Facebook and MySpace. Users often think they are "blogging" via these sites. However, what they are really doing is social-networking, describing their emotions, actions, and reactions to their online community.
Chapter Three: "Weblogs: Get Started!"
Chapter Three gives a brief explanation of how to get started using weblogs. Richardson explains the topics of "Blogging for Yourself", "Blogging Safety", and "Blogging Software".
Richardson provides a list of successful educator's blogs from the Website, tinyurl.com.
Chapter Four: "Wikis: Easy Collaboration for All"
The word "wiki", as Richardson explains, is derived from the Hawaiian term "wiki-wiki", which means quick. "A wiki is a Website where anyone can edit anything, anytime they want" (Richardson 55).
Richardson goes on to describe how wikis can be used in education, particularly by using wikispaces.com and wetpaint.com. He acknowledges that educators May Be fearful of using wikis because they can be edited by anyone. However, he explains that, in general, there are more people editing with good intentions than those who wish to sabotage an entry. Moreover, content errors are quickly and accurately corrected by site-users and administrators.
Richardson closes the chapter with the Wiki prayer:
"Please grant me the serenity to accept the pages I cannot edit, The courage to edit the pages I can, And the wisdom to know the difference" (Richardson 69).
Chapter Five: "RSS: The New Killer App for Educators"
"RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and if you're an educator, I think it's the one technology that you should start using today, right now, this minute" (Richardson 71). RSS is a way to filter information from the Internet. As Richardson describes, this is helpful in our information-hungry society.