Book Review of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts

Hello Everyone,

Below is my review of Will Richardson's book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms".


Book Review
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
G. Medina
Cal State University, Los Angeles

EDIT 490




Will Richardson makes several strong arguments in support of the use of the Read/Write Web in the classroom in Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. The strongest arguments are made in Chapter 9 and the Epilogue, where ten “Big Shifts” are identified and summarized for the reader. Arguments in favor of these classroom shifts are strong and supported through anecdotal and research-based studies. These arguments would have made the book stronger by being placed at the beginning of the book prior to introducing Weblogs in chapter two. Rather than launching into an explanation about the background and use of Weblogs, giving a stronger philosophical grounding into the classroom changes these tools will herald lends more support to the argument the author makes at the beginning of the book, “The Read/Write Web hold transformational changes in store for teachers and students of all stripes” (p. 3). The remainder of the book introduces the reader to the functions and potential uses of blogs, wikis, and podcasts in a K-12 educational setting while the epilogue presents a vision of a classroom embedding these tools into established teaching pedagogy. The epilogue and the impact on educational pedagogy will be examined in greater detail in subsequent paragraphs
Overall, the text presents an optimistic tone about the potential these tools have in altering classroom instruction and learning. Richardson does take ample time throughout the book to note the dangers of letting students use blogs or post pictures freely, especially at the K-12 school level, “It means teaching kids never to publish personal identifiers about themselves or others” (p. 49). The most detailed introduction, pedagogical discussion, and standards correlation takes place at the beginning of the book in the introduction to Weblogs. This area seems to be Richardson’s strength in integrating Weblogs into the course content. This is the only place in the book where a discussion on state standards takes place. In his introduction to Podcasts and Wikis, Richardson presents a brief pedagogical discussion and introduction to using the tools in the course content, but this is not presented in the same depth as the chapters on Weblogs. The most glaring weakness is the lack of connection between state standards and the tools presented in the book. The largest educational change to take place in the past decade has been the implementation of state standards, yet this topic is hardly addressed in the book. Teachers, administrators, and superintendents need to see data showing the benefits of using these tools, and by leaving a discussion on this topic out of the book, Richardson opens to the door to questions about data showing student improvement using these tools as part of the curriculum. Overall, Richardson introduces the reader to several useful educational tools and their classroom benefits with student use.
In the epilogue, Richardson presents an image of a classroom and classroom teacher fully implementing the tools presented in earlier chapters in the text in a morning planning montage. In this vignette an English teacher, Tom McHale, updates his personal blog, checks student summaries on their blogs, updates and shares resources with other English teachers via the school English weblog, and downloads a student podcast with the school principal. This was a creative way of demonstrating how a teacher can fully integrate the tools presented in the book into their classroom instruction on a daily basis.
Richardson uses this vignette to tie in “Big Shifts” he identified in the final chapter of the book into a vision for the future of the classroom. Two “Big Shifts” envisioned in the book: “Readers are no longer just readers” and “The web as a notebook” (p. 110) are prominently displayed in the vignette. The ability of Tom McHale to have his personalized news feed directly to his blog allows him to stay abreast of current affairs quickly and relay that knowledge to his students, or allow his students to use RSS feeds to find similar stories and share their thoughts in a class discussion. This empowers students to take control of the learning by finding news and information relevant to their lives and express their thoughts in a meaningful class discussion or dialogue. Secondly, Tom McHale makes use of the web as his notebook and instructional planner, an idea that is growing throughout school systems. The ability to use Google Groups and Docs to store and access created materials allows the instructor to edit, and share those resources from any location. This can allow a teacher to move away from being tied to a textbook and use the substantial resources available online to supplement class instruction. The ease in which the teacher used these tools to simplify planning of instruction and gathering of resources allows the teacher to focus on high quality teaching and discussion with students. This may be the author’s main unwritten argument, the potential for both teachers and students to use these resources to maximize instructional time may be the biggest benefit of all for using these read/write tools.
This is a powerful book for an instructor looking to make a fundamental change in their teaching and instructional planning. The author requires the reader to approach text and learning from a different perspective, one in which our entire educational system is
not entirely ready to embrace. A more in depth discussion on standards and data supporting the use of these tools is needed to engage a larger audience in the educational field.

Reference
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for
Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.