Learning on the Blog: Collected Posts for Educators and Parents

by Willard H Richardson

Overview

Education reform: We don’t need better, we need different

Today’s students are immersed in the digital age, but can our educational system keep up? Best-selling author Will Richardson's comprehensive collection of posts from his acclaimed blog, weblogg-ed.com, spells out the educational reform we must achieve. The book’s entries present a multifaceted vision of the 21st-century classroom and describe how a social media-changed world has created new opportunities for:

• Project-based learning
• Student-created media that develops critical thinking
• Extending learning beyond the classroom and school hours
• Cooperative and collaborative learning
• Student empowerment and career readiness

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412995702
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	11/28/2011
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	7.11(w) x 9.95(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

A parent of two middle-school-aged children, Will Richardson has been writing about the intersection of social online learning networks and education for the past 10 years at Weblogg-ed.com and in numerous journals and magazines such as Ed Leadership, Education Week, and English Journal. Recently, he shifted his blogging emphasis to willrichardson.com. Formerly a public school educator for 22 years, he is a co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice (plpnetwork.com), a unique professional development program that has mentored over 3,000 teachers worldwide in the last three years. His first book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Corwin, 3rd Edition 2010) has sold over 80,000 copies and has impacted classroom practice around the world. His second book, Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education, was released in May, 2011. His articles have appeared in Educational Leadership, EdWeek, English Journal, Edutopia, and Principal Leadership, among others, and over the past six years, he has spoken to tens of thousands of educators in more than a dozen countries about the merits of learning networks for personal and professional growth. He is a national advisory board member of the George Lucas Education Foundation and a regular columnist for District Administration Magazine. Will lives in rural New Jersey with his wife, Wendy, and his children Tess and Tucker.

Table of Contents

About the Author
Introduction: Invitation to Participate in the Dialogue
Part I. Teachers as Master Learners
On My Mind: Teachers as Master Learners
Personalizing Education for Teachers, Too
Urgent: 21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others) First
Why Is It So Hard for Educators to Focus on Their Own Learning?
Teaching Ourselves Right Out of a Job
The Next Generation of Teachers
Teachers as Learners Part 27
Unlearning Teaching
"What Did You Create Today? "
Get. Off. Paper.
Opportunity, Not Threat
Response to Jay Matthews at the Washington Post
Part II. Learning is Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone
I Don't Need Your Network (or Your Computer, or Your Tech Plan, or Your . . .)
What do We Know About Our Kids' Futures? Really.
Aggregator as Textbook
The Steep "Unlearning Curve
What I Hate About Twitter
It's the Empowerment, Stupid
So What Is the Future of Schools?
The End of Books? (For Me, at Least?)
No, Actually, You're Out of Balance
Making Kids "Googleable "
"I Never Knew I Could Have a Network "
Part III. The Learner as Network
The Learner as Network
Social Learning
"The Less You Share, the Less Power You Have "
"School as Node "
Part IV. Learning and Leadership
Don't, Don't, Don't vs. Do, Do
Transparency = Leadership
Yeah, You've Got Problems. So Solve Them.
"Willing to Be Disturbed "
"Tinkering Toward Utopia "
"What Do We Do About That? "
Who's Asking?
Part V. Parent as Partner
It's the Parents' Fault. Not.
Dear Kids, You Don't Have to Go to College
"So Why Do You Only Give Your Kids 45 Minutes a Day on the Computer?
A Parent 2.0's Back to School Dilemma
A Summer Rant: What's Up With Parents?
Owning the Teaching . . . and the Learning
The Ultimate Disruption for Schools
Part VI. The Bigger Shifts . . . Deal with It
The Bigger Shifts . . . Deal With It
Failing Our Kids
Why Blogging Is Hard . . . Still
The Wrong Conversations
Index

Editorial Reviews

"An inspiration for innovative educators everywhere providing the big ideas and insights that transform the way we think about, discuss, and support student learning."

Lisa Nielsen

“Learning on the Blog is the single best place to start understanding how to take advantage of the power of social media, and the changes in teaching and learning that digital media have made possible. A great way to start cultivating your personal learning network is to read Will Richardson’s book, follow his blog, and follow him on Twitter.”

Howard Rheingold

… shows the potential when we collaborate to share ideas and best practices for the future.

George Lucas

"Perusing this succinct, reader-friendly book feels like being invited into Will Richardson's restaurant for some fine dining and animated conversation. One of my favorite dishes: teachers at the center of their own learning networks."

Milton Chen

The author, who has focused on social and online learning networks for ten years, presents a series of "blogged" thoughts on important aspects of education today. He includes contributions made by online contributors, and covers six broad topics: teachers as master learners; learning anywhere, anytime with anyone; the learner as network; learning and leadership; parents as partners and the shift in attitudes and approaches to education. Each section holds a collection of short, thoughtful essays related to the bigger theme, and these include references, quotes and web sites. The writing is thoughtful, even provocative, as when Richardson ponders the implication for "the end of books" and dismisses the ideas that parents are at fault for not helping their children be critical about what they post and/or read online. He notes: "I doubt that most of their parents really have enough of an understanding of what they're doing to prepare them" (page 97). Richardson's ideas are timely and worth exploring further. This would be a terrific professional development "prompt" for educators who are struggling to keep up with learning in the 21st Century, and parents whose children have already surpassed them in the confident use of current technologies. Reviewer: Dawna Lisa Buchanan

Children's Literature - Dawna Lisa Buchanan