Required Reading


Here are some books, sites and blogs might help get your brain around the Read/Write Web.

 

Connective learning is based on the idea that we learn through our network of connections to people and content, and that the Web is creating all sorts of new potential connections for each one of us.

 

Small Pieces Loosely Joined--David Weinberger

Just from a Web philosophy standpoint, this is a great place to start. It really provides a great deal of context in terms of how the Web is evolving and what that means for us humans. Not education specific, but all sorts of connections.

Free Culture--Lawrence Lessig

Lessig is my hero at the moment. I've seen him speak three times and I just find his ideas and vision to be amazing. He's the person behind Creative Commons which is as good an idea as I've seen in a long time. This book made me see many things in a totally different way. Best part is it's free online.

We the Media--Dan Gillmor

I have a journalism background, so maybe this book appeals to me more than to others. But these changes are already being felt in journalism, politics and business (we'll get there eventually) and this book does such a great job of describing the effects in media. And guess what? It's free too.

Scan This Book--Kevin Kelly

If you want to get a picture of what the future holds, read this fantastic article from the New York Times magazine in May 2006.

The World is Flat--Thomas Friedman

I actually like this book less and less as time passes because I think Friedman is capitalizing (and overusing) an easily accessible metaphor, and in doing so, I think he makes his argument a bit too lopsided. I've read much since that tempers the picture he paints. Nonetheless, the general idea that our world is changing in large part due to the technologies that connect us is an important one. And he does make that idea very accessible in this book.

Convergence Culture--Henry Jenkins

Should be required reading for educators attempting to understand how social technologies are playing out in students hands and the implications for teaching and learning.

bglogging--Barbara Ganley

There are many really good ed bloggers out there that I love to read, but if you really want to cut to the chase, Barbara's blog is the place to start, I think. No one that I have found writes more eloquently and with more synthesis than she, and I really love it when my Bloglines account shows a new post on her site. She's one of the few bloggers whose content I don't read in Bloglines because I just find it more engaging to do it at her blog.

OL Daily--Stephen Downes

Stephen is a pretty amazing thinker about these technologies, and this article in Educause and his daily wrapup of interesting links should both be required reading by anyone seriously trying to understand the Read/Write Web.

A Whole New Mind--Daniel Pink

As Pink says, our the relevance of what we do will be based on how we answer the following three quesitons:

1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?

2. Can a computer do it faster?

3. Am I offering something that satisfies the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age?

Must reading to those who want to figure out how to best respond to the "flat world" that Thomas Friedman writes about.

Connectivism Presentation--George Seimens

This is a presentation done in Articulate which goes into depth about the idea of Connectivism as it relates to learning.

Sir Kenneth Robinson's Presentation at Ted--

Watch this in concert with reading the Pink book.