Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms

by Will Richardson

This may look like a book about technology, but it's really a book about the connections, collaborations, and conversations that new tools of the Web are allowing us to create. It is less about blogs and wikis and podcasts than it is about the educators behind them who are using them so creatively to motivate students to learn more deeply and contribute what they know to the amazing body of knowledge that is the World Wide Web. And the best part of it is that very few of these educators have any great technology skills.

This book has three main goals. First, is to give educators some context in terms of what these technologies mean for our society as well as for education. More than anything eise, the fact that the new Interactive Web is weaving so many drastic changes in Journalism, business, and politics convinces me that its effects on education will be equallv transformational.

Second, this book aspires to challenge and motivate teachers to think differently about their classrooms and the potentials of the technologies discussed in terms of pedagogy and curriculum.

And finally, lt hopes to snare enough of the how-to needed to get teachers started using these tools right away. Luckily, the barriers to entry to Publishing to the Web have come way down.

This is a great guide for those who have yet to start with social software. It provides many examples that make you eager to get started. The advanced social software user will of course see much familiar stuff, but this target group also has much to gain, especially from the last chapter which clearly details the meaning of social software for education. The extensive focus on information skills is also positively remarkable.