Big Shift 1: Open Content
The sources that students have access to for learning can no longer be controlled by schools like they were in the past. The Read/Write Web has blown the doors open on information accessibility, and teachers need to shift their attention to including these new sources of knowledge and educating students on how to digest them efficiently.
Big Shift 2: Many, Many Teachers and 24/7 Learning
Learning is no longer restricted to the time period between bells or the start/end of the school day. Teachers have the opportunity to interact with students through blogs, wikis and social networking systems anytime and from anywhere. The Read/Write Web never sleeps.
Big Shift 3: The Social, Collaborative Construction of Meaningful Knowledge
The idea that students produce work in isolation, turn it in for evaluation by a single source (a.k.a. their teacher) and then the process ends has expired. We need to shift to the realization that students need to learn how to work in a collaborative environment, publish their work to a large audience and then continue to refine their understanding through continued feedback and more collaboration.
Big Shift 4: Teaching is Conversation, Not Lecture
Students, more so than ever, are turned off to learning when a teacher talks to them. The response greatly improves, however, when we talk with them and give them a say in how the class tackles the issue. Students cease to be passive learners and become active learners, contributing their knowledge and experiences to enrich the learning experience for everyone.
Big Shift 5: Know "Where" Learning
This one may be my favorite. "In the Read/Write Web classroom, it's not as essential to know what the answer is as it is to know where to find it." (Richardson, 2010) Teaching-to-the-test just doesn't cut it in the real world, but teachers continue to feel pressure to do this to meet standards and expectations set by an administration that is, well, clueless. The answer is not going to do a student any good if they don't understand how they got it. The destination is not as important as how you got there.
Big Shift 6: Readers Are No Longer Just Readers
Thanks to the "write" part of the Read/Write Web, anyone can publish anything online. Whereas before we had book, magazine and newspaper editors who would check content for accuracy, this is no longer the case. The result is that teachers must shift their focus to include educating students on how to be readers and editors of Internet content in order to seek out what is true and what is hooey.
Big Shift 7: The Web as Notebook (or Portfolio)
When I watch a teacher instruct students to print off two copies of a product (one to turn in, one for their portfolio) it drives me nuts. More and more of the content that students are creating today can't be printed on an 8 1/2x11 piece of paper (have you tried to print a podcast? Trust me, the results aren't pretty). Digital or ePortfolios are the future, because they allow students to include rich multimedia artifacts like podcasts, videos, Voicethreads, Storybirds and much more to show their mastery of fact and skill.
Big Shift 8: Writing Is No Longer Limited to Text
We need Shift #7 because student production is no longer limited to just text. Students are "writing" about their knowledge and experiences through the genres of podcasts, iMovies, digital photography, live-streaming and others. I'll never forget a presentation by two 7th grade boys on "Italian Food" and "Coca-Cola." They started their presentation off with a podcast which was animated, even funny at times, and yet still addressed each of the requirements set by their teacher for the assignment. However, they had run out of time to finish the podcast and had to rap things up via traditional oral presentation…it was painful to watch! I asked their teacher if she would grant them an extension so that they could finish their podcast, she agreed.
Big Shift 9: Mastery Is the Product, Not the Test
"Would you feel safe in world where kids were awarded drivers licenses by just passing the written test?" (Richardson, 2010) That question right there hit me like a Mack truck (I won't say how old the driver was). Think back to Shift #5 here; we asks students "how" and "why" because we want them to be able to show us that they have mastered the skills so that, when they are confronted with similar (or different) scenarios in the future, they will have what need to be successful.
Big Shift 10: Contribution, Not Completion, Is the Ultimate Goal
What students have to say and contribute to our community has value. As teachers, it is our job to help them add to this library of knowledge so that their contributions become stronger, fuller, richer. The work students do is "…not meant for the teacher or the class or even the school. It's meant for the world - literally. It's not meant to be discarded or stored in a folder somewhere; it's meant to be added to the conversation and potentially used to teacher others." (Richardson, 2010)
That is the power of the Read/Write Web. That is the power that our students are already using, whether we are aware of it or not. It is this power that we as teachers must educate our students on how to understand, control and use to contribute to the greater good of our society.
One final note…I have to admit that I'm finding my experience reading this book incomplete. I think it may be because the final chapter ends in a comma. Seriously, I think my book is incomplete. So, I am making a official shout-out to my colleague Bryan to ask if his final chapter in his book ends with the line, "Here is where the real learning,"
I think the culprit was Colonel Mustard…
Diigo: Book link list
Yikes! Let me help you out...although you are not missing much...
ReplyDelete"Here is where the real learning, and the real fun, begins."
That being said, I somewhat agree with you about the ending of the book, however I did enjoy his epilogue where there is a clear demonstration of technology as he follows the mornings of Tom McHale, English teacher. It is a nice follow up to the crazy amount of information that Richardson throws at his readers, because it really shows how effective technology is, and once it becomes part of your routine in the classroom, does not take that much time out of an already hectic teacher's schedule.
Ah, thanks Bryan for the rescue.
ReplyDeleteAfter I had made my peace about the missing ending to chapter 10, I did read the epilogue and agree that it does a nice round-up of everything Richardson has talked about. Now, if I could just find someone to build all of this into my routine I'll be set…