Technology+Leadership+Book+Summary

Empowering Students with Technology By: Alan November “We need to focus much less on teaching students to be computer literate and much more on teaching students to be information literate and communications literate” (November, 2010). Empowering Students with Technology is a wonderful resource for teachers looking to learn more about technology. This book not only provides teachers with the resources needed to introduce and integrate technology in the classroom, but also enlightens teachers about the proper use of technology. Throughout the book, November provides “E-Venture” boxes which allow the students or teachers to actually participate and use the information that they have learned from the chapter. In Chapter One, Teaching and Learning the Structure of Information, Mr. November relates a very eye opening experience about a student and the internet. The student encounters false information on the internet, but did not have the tools to decode the information. November introduces the concept of MAPping the Internet. There are three key areas in MAPping the Internet: Meta Web Information, Author, and Purpose. Meta Web information includes web addresses, links, and search engines. One of the most essential tools that Mr. November provides is the ability to decode web addresses. This information will prove helpful to teachers and students in validating the information from the internet. As with any source, students must be mindful to validate the information, as well as investigate and evaluate the author’s credentials, and finally evaluate the site’s purpose. Chapter Two, Empowering Learning by Expanding Relationships, November suggests that teachers need, “to create partnerships between students within their city, their country, or even around the world” (November, 2010). Many technological avenues are available, including email, web sites, blogs, Skype, and videoconferencing. Teachers should be publishing students work to the web. This will, “affirm the importance of the students and their work” (November, 2010). Perhaps with the students taking ownership and pride once again in their education, then real progress can be made. Reverse Mentoring is a topic November discusses in Chapter Three, Emerging Roles within the Knowledge Community. “Teachers need an ability to manage the use of many technologies in the classroom without having to know the technical details” (November, 2010). Reverse mentoring uses a few select students to teach the teacher what they have been doing on the computer. Another method mentioned is called the Anonymous Reviewer. Simply put, the student’s work is review and commented on by an anonymous person. This means that, “The role of the face-to-face teacher can switch from judge to student advocate, helping students to understand how to interpret the outside review” (November, 2010). Chapter Four, Accessing Primary Sources to Enhance Critical Thinking, covers primary sources. The National Archives and Records Administration is in the process of making primary documents available on the web. This task is a huge undertaking and will put history at our students’ fingertips. Online Learning is discussed in Chapter Five. Online learning is no longer a dream, but has become reality. There are many pluses to online learning and November covers them during this chapter. “At its core, Online learning means that the role of the teacher, the responsibility of the student, the relationships between school and home, and the traditional boundaries of school departments, grades, and schedules will become much more permeable” (November, 2010). Empowering Students with Technology is a powerful resource that all teachers should read. Technology is here to stay and our Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001) will thrive if given the right opportunity. Use this book to empower yourself as well as your students. = Bibliography   = November, A. (2010). //Empowering Students with Technology.// Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. //On the Horizon//, 2-6.