Article Summary #2: "The Educators Guide to the Read/Write Web" by Will Richardson

Overview:
"The Educator's Guide to Read/Write Web" by Will Richardson introduces and outlines the recent evolutions of the web and how new tools can be utilized by teachers and students for class work. The author of this article explains how the internet is no longer a resource solely for the purpose of collecting information. The development of online tools such as weblogs, wikis, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and podcasts also allow people to post ideas, ask questions, collaborate info and publish research to a much broader audience.

Collectively, these new tools make up the Read/Write Web and together they offer students new ways to access and share research results, collaborate with fellow students and professionals, and document class work. For teachers it offers new ways to deliver content and assess understanding. These new advancements may also mean that educators need to re-evaluate curriculums and redefine what it means to be literate.

There are, of course, some risks to consider when students are publishing personal works to such a broad, public audience and searching through content that has been freely published online. However, with proper oversight, instruction including appropriate use, and developing students' skills in recognizing legitimate information, results in the benefits outweighing the potential risks.

Reference Points:
1. "The internet is no longer simply a place where digital learners consume information. It is now also a forum through which users can publish and broadcast their own writing."
2. "Weblogs or Blogs enable anyone to create a personal or group Web site... publish text...hold online conversations...collaborate.... contact professional mentors."
3. "Wikis are an even more open and collaborative content creation tool....It is a Web site that anyone can edit at anytime....for the purposeful work of negotiating and creating this accurate online resource."
4. "Really Simple Syndication (RSS) enables people to subscribe to various feeds of information--data that are continually streamed and collected into a file. A student... can
create RSS feeds that will bring him or her the latest research on the topic almost as soon as
it is published."
5. "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."
6. "Literate Internet users need strategies for sorting out, storing, and using relevant
information."
7. "As more content becomes available online, it becomes less appropriate to rely an
traditional curriculum delivery methods like text-books and handouts."
8. "Digital tools allow students to easily work together outside school--for example,
collaborating on projects through instant messaging or text messaging on phones--and to
share the results of that work with a broader audience."
9. Teachers employing these tools must monitor student use and teach students how to use
the tools safely to enhance learning. We must also show students how to deal with
inappropriate content..."

Reflection:

Although I am familiar with blogs and wikis, I found the additional information about how these tools could be utilized in the classroom. I especially like the point made by the author on how a blog can serve as students portfolio of school work, allowing the student to reflect on past work and see the progression of their learning. The information on RSS that was presented in this article is also very useful. This is a new tool for me and I look forward to using its research potential in my science classes.

Not being very technological savvy myself, any advice I can get on how to incorporate technological tools into my classroom is very welcome. Upon reading this article I have come to various conclusions on how I can do this. For example, Blogs may be an excellent way for students to report on long term research projects, such as science fair projects. It also allows me to comment on their work and offer suggestions one on one when time to do this during class can be very limited. Students can also use the RSS in order to help sort through the vast amount of information on the Web and maximize their research time.

I found the most important points of this article to be the need for students to understand how to be skeptical of posted information and how to determine what information is legitimate and relevant to what they are researching. One of the most important skills for a scientist, or anybody for that matter, is to be able to identify bias and misinformation. By teaching students how to weed through the content on the web in this manner, it can only raise the quality of their work and in turn make their results, trustworthy and legitimate.