Final Thoughts on the Web 2.0 Dream

       I began reading Will Richardson’s book with skepticism.  I picked his particular brand of Web 2.0 tricks because I anticipated his book giving me the most practical ideas that I could use in the classroom.  I was looking for less an explanation of how things worked and more of where and when they worked.  I was not disappointed.  From his incredibly innovative uses for RSS feeds to the sheer number of ways that he has collected that you can use Blogs in the classroom, Richardson is thorough and has a very simple way of explaining how to get the best results.  It might have been his one man crusade for Wikipedia and social networks that finally won me over, but Will Richardson has a very unique way of presenting situations that gets you excited and makes you want to tackle everything he suggests.

       Referring back to a previous post, I still feel that the most important aspect of all of Richardson’s tricks is having them work together.  Blogs can easily be augmented by RSS readers and Wikis can be a collaboration of not only documents, but even podcasts.  I commented on Nick’s blog regarding the end of the book and how the epilogue was important for tying the ideas together.  The epilogue puts us in the shoes of English teacher Tom McHale, who is not spending hours at his computer, his eyes red and unfocused from staring at the monitor.  Tom has integrated technology not only throughout this classroom, but throughout his life.  He is able to incorporate his daily RSS readings, keeping up with his personal blog, checks in to his student’s blogs, evaluates the newest entries to his research feeds, organizes some assignments, and then as the students stumble into class less than an hour later, he starts his day.

       Tom McHale is the future.  Admittedly, setting up your technological world can be time consuming at first, but once you have it to the level of customization where you can fit your entire digital life into an hour before class, there is nothing stopping you from fully integrating it into your classes.  With all of the new technology and software that is being created every year, it is not a matter of learning every new piece of technology, but picking a few key ones and getting comfortable enough to make it work.  A lot of the latest and greatest is not made with education in mind, and it is up to teachers to adapt it for classroom use.  With a little technology and creativity, we are able to stimulate students and bring them into the future with us.