Will Richardson (1)

During my recent vacation, I had an opportunity to read a number of books; this is one of those books. As Will Richardson explains in his book, Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere*, he often struggled to get his son to do school work but watched in amazement as his son became a learning machine when introduced to Minecraft. His son not only learned how to use the program on his own but also tapped into an online network that supported his learning. Because of this experience, Richardson wrote this book. He questions the purpose of school as "real learning happens anytime, anywhere, with anyone we like". Read more… (meer)

A personal learning network is a method of linking kids and adults to major sources of information on the Internet. It is like choosing your closest friends that you want to listen to because they keep you up to day, you trust what they have to say, and it is your method of keeping current on what is going on. Richardson has created a very very important book here that every teacher librarian should read and implement both in their own lives and in the lives of their students. Will provides a number of tools that help all of us link to our favorites and even provides directions for getting started with each toll he recommends. More importantly, he describes and promotes the idea of the classroom (and we can say Learning Commons) where PLNs are as natural as plugging in and turning on. We see a bit larger picture than Will describes here: The creation of a portal by learners into the world of information and technology under their control, the development of the personal learning network by every learner, and finally, the creation of a personal portfolio with both private works and the creation of a public face. Richardson is trying to raise our consciousness as a profession that we have a responsibility beyond the teaching of the research process if we are to help kids, teachers, and ourselves build a personal learning environment that will carry on beyond formal schooling. Our recommendation is for every teacher librarian to purchase this book, read it carefully, implement the skills in your own life not already mastered, and then begin to exhibit what you know to others. It is the new information literacy – an extension of what we have been doing for decades, and an essential life skill for the foreseeable future. Couple this book with chapter seven in the reviewers new book on personal learning environments titled The New Learning Commons Where Learners Win, 2nd ed., and you will see how Richardson and others see as a dynamic toold in every learner’s success in the juggernaut world of the Internet.… (meer)