"The Educator's Guide..." Article Summary

The article entitled, "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web", by Will Richardson, was a very enlightening article for me. It seemed to sway my views regarding technology in a language arts classroom. The point the article made that really stuck out to me was that literacy does not just involve reading and writing, or at least not in the traditional sense.

I'd like my future language arts classes to be based on reading and writing workshops, and I always thought of these workshops to be non-web related. However, I think it would be highly beneficial if I had my students create their own blogs and had a good 5 minutes of free-writing in their blogs everyday, opposed to free writing in a journal.

My main focus for language arts is to get kids addicted to reading, but the purpose for this is to get kids addicted to gathering knowledge. The biggest and best venue for knowledge is the interenet, so I'd be cheating my kids out of the technological education they need if I kept my classroom oldschool, the way I've envisioned it.

Another focus of mine is to get kids to develop their own and unique style of expression. The internet is a great way for kids to express themselves. I've always envisioned putting my student's work up on the classroom walls, but I think another very valuable tool for getting student's work out for the public to see, is to put it on the internet where students, parents, and the public can view student's work without having to acutally come in the classroom.

I also like the point that Richardson made about teaching students what information is valuable, and what isn't. This is an area that I'll need to work on if I'm going to bring these technologies in the classroom.

To build upon this technology, I would want to keep a language arts integrity. Too many times I see information on the internet so bulleted and written as if it were a PowerPoint, this is something I would not want to get my student's very familiar with. While I find it highly beneficial to be a minimalist, I also see the need to be able to fully and thoroughly express ideas, so as to not short-change your expression. Perhaps this is just a personal taste.