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Technology Leadership Book Summary

Will Richardson’s //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms// is an easy read, full of information about the technology tools that our students have incorporated in their daily lives, and educators are beginning to implement in their classrooms. This book is like a how-to. Richardson goes into great detail in each chapter devoted to a particular web tool, giving instructions on how to get started with that tool and providing examples from real life teachers that have already incorporated that tool.

To begin the book, Richardson gives an overview of the development of the internet, which began in 1989 and was used mainly by researchers and developers. By 2003, “more than 53 million American adults, or 44 percent of adult Internet users, had used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files, and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online (Richardson, 2010, p.2). The World Wide Web and its technologies have become a staple not only for adults, but in the lives of our students as well. //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms// gives readers a fundamental knowledge of technology tools that can be integrated in the classroom.

Each chapter in the book gives a detailed description on the web tools that are slowly but surely making their way into our classrooms. Weblogs, or blogs, are web pages created by an author. Only the author has the ability to edit their blog, while others (depending on the level of security) are able to publish posts and make comments about the content. Wikis are very similar to blogs. They are also web pages created by an author, but any member of the wiki can add or edit material on the page. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are created on an aggregator to divert information from a user’s favorite or most viewed websites to one site, thus making it easier and more time efficient to view the pages. Rather than going to each individual website, RSS feeds are all placed conveniently in one location and are able to be viewed from that location. Social bookmarking sites are similar to RSS feeds, except that bookmarking sites allow the user to save pages from a site, not just a link. Audio/video casting, also referred to as podcasting, video and screencasting, and live streaming, and online photo galleries such as Flickr are used to share digital content with audiences of the World Wide Web. Did you know that “in early 2009, over 20 hours’ worth of videos were being uploaded to YouTube.com each minute“ (Richardson, 2010, p.2)? That number is staggering! Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have been mainly used for exactly what the name states - social networking. Social networking sites have become controversial issues in the educational technology world, in that some believe these sites should be allowed in schools, while others believe they should continue to be blocked.

Educators are falling behind in their methods of teaching. Students of today want their information delivered to them in the ways in which they stay connected outside the classroom walls - through technology. //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms// focuses on “the ways…technologies can help educators take full advantage of the potentials for personal learning with the new Web and show ways in which teachers can effectively bring these technologies to their students to enhance their learning and better prepare them for their post-education worlds” (Richardson, 2010, p.11). This is a very informative book, designed as a tutorial to help teachers along their way in the technology world.

Richardson, W. (2010//). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.