Journal #6 Change Agent NETS-T 3,4, & 5

Change Agent, an interview with Will Richardson from the Education Week’s Website

Richardson, W. (2010, October 11). Change Agent. In Education Week Teachers Pd Sourcebook. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cb7dc75d0303b73,0

Summary:

Will Richardson was a high school English teacher, and wrote a book called “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.” Richardson is now an educational-technology consultant and co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice, a professional development provider devoted to fostering online community for teachers. Richardson speaks at engagements and blog about his belief that schools need to transform their models of teaching and learning to reflect broad changes in information technology. He believes that teachers need to be “ Googleable,” which is that teachers need to be on the web and using it to enhance their teaching, as well as their learning on ways to teach. Richardson says, that kids need to be taught how effectively, and safely find information on the web. Teachers and students need to learn web 2.0 tools in order to participate in networks of other learners and teachers.

Question #1: How can teaching Web 2.0 tools in the classroom help students?

We live in a technology based world. However, schools are not teaching the true potential of what students need in order to survive web paced world. Students are unfamiliar with how to find information. There is a world of knowledge just a mouse click away. Technolgy is growing everyday, and schools need to prepare students for the future

Question #2: Why is helpful for teachers to be Web 2.0 educated?

Teachers need to compete with the distractions of the world, and lecture style teaching will not keep today’s kids focused on the lesson. Teachers need to learn different ways to teach. With web 2.0 tools, teacher can use blogs and other forums to discover ideas to bring into their own classroom.