A Web of Connections: Why the Read/Write Web Changes Everything Will Richardson Weblogg-ed.com

Changing World

Not About Technology

Imagination

July 12, 2005

Kipling, Saskatchewan

Imagination

The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness"

The reality for many of us…

…The Web

1 billion people

10 billion pages

1 trillion links

The emerging reality…

…the Read/Write Web

Web 2.0

We are at a turning point in the technology industry, and perhaps even in the history of the world. –Tim OReilly (May 14, 2006)

50+ million Blogs

70,000 new blogs each day

1.2 million new posts each day

7 million new Web pages each day Link

2.7 billion links

Linking pages…

…ideas…

…conversations…

…and people.

Society of Authorship Age of Participation Era of Collaboration Age of Engagement

Uploaders --Thomas Friedman The World is Flat

An active, participatory Web

"We do not realize how significant the Read-Write internet could be." --Lawrence Lessig Author Free CultureLawrence Lessig

For educators…

…extremely significant.

69,000 Education Blogs --Joanne Jacobs

25+ million kids creating content online --New York Times

Imagination

They are creating…

Matthew Bischoff

They are teaching…

…and they are learning…

…building networks…

…expanding far beyond the walls of our classrooms.

Its different now.

Kids know it…

…now that we have podcasting and blogging anyone can do it. You don't need to be some rich person in New York, you can produce from your own home. It has also changed how we can learn in today's society. --Student in Clarence Fishers class

So…

Leveraging the Read/Write Web is not about the technology…

Its about imagination…

Its about thinking, literally, out of the box of the traditional classroom

Big Changes for Schools

1. The Web Changes Learning

Learning based on scarcity of knowledge and geography looks like this:

Learning based on abundance of knowledge and interest looks like this:

…and like this:

From do your own work to work with others

Question:

How can we re-envision classrooms that have access to people and ideas?

2. The Web Changes Texts

We can create our own.

Content Providers: Weblogs Wikis Websites News Books Forums P2P Podcasts Screencasts

Rip, Mix and Learn

Question:

How can we create or supplement our texts to be more current and more relevant to our students?

3. The Web Changes Teaching

Teacher as Connector

Teacher as DJ

Question:

When we have access to great expanses of content and billions of people, how can we re-envision teaching?

4. The Web Changes Learning

Learn Anything Anywhere Anytime

U-Learning

Ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate. --Mark Federman

Learner decides what, when, where and how she learns.

From just in case learning to just in time learning

Nomadic Learning

Learning networks based on meaning not proximity. --Stephen Downes

Learning is a social process. --John Dewey

Social Networks

Social Research

Social Photos

Question:

How do we best support students to be self-directed, ubiquitous learners?

5. The Web Changes curriculum

Audience

From Hand it in to Publish it

Students can teach.

iTunes K-12 Podcasts

Audiocasts Photos Videos Digital Stories Screencasts

Question:

What needs to change when our students can publish to audiences far beyond our classrooms…when they themselves can begin to teach?

6. The Web Changes Literacy

Changes Reading

Changes Writing…

On the Net, documents/pages get their value to a large degree not from what they contain but from what they point to. --David Weinberger

Literacy is Editing

Literacy of Networks

Working in distributed, collaborative environments (Jill Walker)

Question:

How do we define literacy in a world where we must not only know how to read and write but to edit and create and publish?

7. The Web Changes Computing

Web as app

Question:

How can we use open source and open content to connect students more fully?

8. The Web Changes Culture

MySpace would be the 12 th most populous country in the world.

MySpace adds 200 new accounts every minute. --Wired

280,000 new accounts each day

When you meet someone, the question is not Whats your number? Its Whats your MySpace. By checking out a guys profile, she said, you can actually get a feeling for who they are. --Heather Candella NY Times

MySpace friends can be movies, cellphone companies, even deodorants. --NY Times

We need to teach MySpace.

But, we need to know MySpace.

We cant be afraid of it.

Responses

Blocking/Filtering

Restricting

We take the tools they use out of their hands

The result?

Schools are looking less and less like their real world…

…and are in danger of becoming irrelevant.

Change is inconvenient. --Al Gore

The inconvenient truth about education…

US DOE, 2000

30% of 9 th Graders dont graduate high school in 4 years. --Education Week

Only 27% of adults over 25 have a college degree. --US Census

But change may be coming…

School 2.0

We educators need to embrace these changes. We have no choice.

So…

Be imaginative…