Article Review: “The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web” by Will Richardson

Aaron Routon: aaronrouton@hotmail.com: 8/23/08

“The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web” by Will Richardson



Article Overview:
This article was written in two parts- part one describes some tools on the internet that schools can use to enhance learning, and part two describes how those tools can be used in today’s changing classroom. Developing technology is changing how students interact with what is written, requiring readers to become judges of information

Part one of the article describes the following: Weblogs or blogs, wiki, furls, and podcasts. All of these are internet tools where people can publish and post information. Blogs are sights anyone can post any information. Wikis are a collaboration of information by many anonyms authors. Furls are programs which collect information customized to a specific user. Podcasts are published sound bites people can record. All of these tools make it easier for anyone to put information on the internet.

The second part of the article describes how classroom teachers’ role needs to shift from content expert to knowledge guide. The author sites that students can now use the internet to interact with people who have more expertise than the classroom teacher. Teachers role now should be two fold: help guide the search for information, and to help students learn what is appropriate.



Reference Points:

• 1. To be literate in the age of the Read/Write Web means to skillfully manage the flood of information now available.

• 2. Now that anyone with an Internet connection can publish and disseminate content with no editorial review process, consumers of Web content need to be editors as well as readers. We need to help students make a judgment about its authenticity and relevance of sources. We must teach students how to actively question and evaluate published information instead of passively accepting it as legitimate.

• 3. Students need to understand the many ways in which they can appropriately share ideas and creations online and teachers need to model how to communicate with experts and how to publish their own work

• 4. Schools have traditionally demanded that students work independently and produce content mainly for their teacher. We should encourage such collaboration and outreach. Current tools have increased our ability to collaborate with others and also expanded audiences. Also school work does no longer needs to be discarded following the school year…. It could be posted for others to see.

• 5. Schools need to think through the potential privacy and safety implications that go along with widespread publishing of student-created content.

• 6. Teachers must also show students how to deal with inappropriate content that they may come across during their Web travels.

Reflection:
This article means that teachers will need to adapt. There are many tools to aid in teaching content and many resources students now have access to. We should utilize these resources and help students learn how to utilize these new tools.

The changing technology is changing how our students view information. Now students question everything. When I was in school something was true because it was written in “The World Book” encyclopedia. Now Wikipedia takes over and students question the authentency of everything written. Now students are skeptics and are not what things are really facts. This can be good, but we will need to help direct students to some things which are concrete. Most students operate well in concrete terms and so much subjectivism could be very confusing and emphasizes our roles as mentors.

I think the two ideas that I will use most from this article are the ideas of blogging and creating our own classroom text book.