Hendron, John. (2008). RSS for Educators: Blogs Newsfeeds,
Podcasts and Wikis in the Classroom. Eugene, OR:
International Society for Technology in Education
Pp. ix + 308 ISBN 978-1-56484-239-8
Reviewed by Andy Brovey
Valdosta State University
October 22, 2008
A common scenario from version one of the World Wide Web (Web
1.0): You search across thousands of sites using a browser,
looking for the information you want. You find a valuable site
with regularly updated content. The only way you know when that
site and the inherent information is updated is to frequently
return to that site. The same is true for multimedia such as
audio and video. For example, many web sites offer direct
downloading or streaming of their audio files, and no doubt
you’ve listened to one or more of these audio files on your
computer. Once again, to discover freshly uploaded content you
needed to revisit the original site.
One of the widely recognized benefits of computers is the
capabilty to automate repetitive tasks. You shouldn’t need
to return repeatedly to see what’s new on the web. The
computer should do that for you. We already have a successful
model for this automated information delivery system. We call it
a subscription. What if you could receive updated web-based
information automatically, much like a newspaper, magazine or
journal? For multimedia, your computer would act like a digital
video recorder (DVR). DVRs allow you to set a season pass that
will automatically download every new episode of your favorite
television show as it becomes available. As John Hendron shows us
in RSS for Educators: Blogs Newsfeeds, Podcasts and Wikis in
the Classroom, RSS makes automated web delivery a reality.
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication helps drive the new web, Web
2.0.
Web 1.0 was mostly a “read-only” web, where a
relatively small number of companies, institutions and
advertisers produced content for users, and controlled and shaped
the flow of information. There was little user generated content.
In Web 2.0, the read/write web, many individuals and groups
contribute and share content, shaping the flow of information.
Blogs, podcasts, and wikis allow students and teachers to access,
share, and publish content online. RSS is the mechanism that
makes automated delivery of that content possible. These RSS
publish/subscribe channels are often referred to as “push
services.” That is, whenever new content is available on
one of these channels, the server pushes that information out to
the user’s computer, rather than the user having to access
the server and pull down the information.
RSS reached prominence due to podcasting. The term
“podcast” was first coined in 2004, by blending the
words iPod and broadcast. Many now correctly associate the term
podcast with “personal on-demand broadcast” as the
majority of podcasts are played back on computers, not portable
handheld devices (Deal, 2007). The term podcast can mean both the
content and the method of delivery. In its simplest form, a
podcast can be thought of as an internet radio show. Usually a
podcast features one type of show, with new episodes released
either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily or
weekly. Podcatching is the process of locating and downloading
available podcasts to your computer and iPod or other portable
digital media player (Brovey, 2006). Subscriptions using RSS
allow automatic downloading of new episodes or releases. As
Hendron tells us, RSS and podcasting marked a new era on the web,
and we may consider the shift from “pre-podcast” to
“post-podcast” as a defining moment in web content
syndication (p. 1).
But Hendron’s book is not a treatise on web history, or
a manual on how to author RSS code. Instead this work is
“for anyone who is interested in making sense of how to use
an emerging class of World Wide Web-based technologies” (p.
x). Aimed at teachers, administrators and staff developers,
Hendron describes how to use the web-based applications RSS
supports for education and professional development. Hendron
dispenses solid advice and wisdom based on personal and
professional experience using the tools he discusses. The book is
based on his work as an instructional technologist for the
Goochland County Public Schools in Virginia, a 2005 presentation
at the NECC, and his personal interest in the Read/Write Web.
Hendron’s educational technology expertise is widely
recognized in his home state of Virginia, where he was the
recipient of the 2006 State Technology Leadership Award from the
Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Education. In
2007, he received the Virginia Tech Excellence in Education
Award for the Goochland County Schools blogging initiative
described in Chapter One of the book. Hendron currently serves on
the board of directors for the Virginia Society for Technology in
Education.
Hendron introduces his work by offering a brief rationale for
why Web 2.0 technologies should be used in education, describing
how the read/write web fulfills traditional goals of information
literacy and fosters emerging 21st century skills.
Along the way, he manages to include recent references to the
popular book Wikinomics, podcast luminary Adam Curry,
futurist Ray Kurzweil, and well known educational technology
initiatives including the MIT Open CourseWare project, iTunes
University, and the $100 laptop project. The remaining chapters
are divided into three parts. Part 1 - School Applications,
introduces blogs, wikis, podcasts, and voice-over-internet and
synchronous communication. Part 2 discusses software
applications, devoting a chapter to audio editing with Audacity,
another to audio editing with GarageBand, and a chapter each to
blogging tools and using news aggregators. Part 3 addresses
classroom integration of blogs, wikis, podcasts, news feeds and
advanced uses of RSS. An extensive list of web resources, a
helpful glossary and a copy of the latest National Educational
Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) complete the
book.
Hendron’s roles as instructional technology specialist
and staff developer are evident in Part One. This section serves
two primary purposes. The first is to improve the reader’s
basic knowledge of weblogs, wikis, podcasts, and computer
conferencing. The second is to encourage his primary audience of
teachers to explore the tools for themselves. For example, with
his own school district’s blogging project as a backdrop,
he describes how blogs can be employed to showcase student work,
communicate with parents, and keep principals informed of
classroom activities. In Hendron’s Goochland County, the
public school system has required every teacher to maintain a
blog since late 2005. Hendron makes a compelling case for
teachers blogging, especially for improving communication between
the school and the home, a theme first seen in the book’s
Introduction. Other educators confirm this benefit (Fratt, 2007).
However, Hendron pushes his argument too far when he states
“communication equates to parental involvement” (p.
11) while offering only a few anecdotes to support the direct
benefit of parental action as a result of blogging.
Hendron suggests a number of wiki tools and describes each in
detail. His experience shows that once established, a wiki is
easier for teachers to use than a blog. Part One devotes the
greatest number of pages to podcasting. Goochland County Public
Schools launched a podcasting initiative in 2006, so the author
speaks from direct experience here. When it comes to podcasting,
Hendron correctly introduces subscribing to existing podcasts
before explaining the more demanding task of creating your own.
The best way for podcast newbies — students, teachers or
administrators to learn about the medium is to view and listen to
podcasts (Fratt, 2007). Overall, Part One has clear explanations
of weblogs, wikis, podcasts, and computer conferencing. Each
chapter contains useful recommendations for popular web-based
applications within each category, an introductory lesson for
learning the recommended applications, actual case studies, and
suggestions on how the applications can be used in school
settings. Hendron does have readers wait until Chapter Seven
before introducing any tools for authoring weblogs, but his
coverage in Chapter Seven is thorough.
Part Two, Core Software Applications, is more technical than
Part One. Digital audio concepts such as bit rate, compression,
and MP3 file encoding are clearly explained, and guidelines for
choosing a blogging platform are detailed. These chapters delve
more deeply into the navigation and manipulation of programs for
producing a podcast, authoring a blog, or configuring aggregators
to collect and manage the flow of RSS based feeds. Hendron
chooses mostly free, widely used, and generally well regarded
applications and services. These are not hands-on tutorials,
since limited space is devoted to the programs and services, and
several of the included screen shots are difficult to discern.
Rather, these chapters are a glimpse into the inner workings of
the software and services addressed. Hendron does include links
to websites or additional resources for the programs and services
he discusses.
Part Three, Classroom Applications, is a collection of
blueprints for building lessons with blogs, wikis, podcasts and
RSS feeds. These chapters are a valuable collection of methods,
templates, models, and examples for teachers. Research shows that
teachers typically lack knowledge about how to integrate
technologies into the routine task of teaching (NCES, 2000), and
that the Internet is not well integrated into their classes
(NCES, 2006). Hendron offers over 100 pages with specific
directions for classroom integration and student engagement. All
the lesson plans are tied to the most recent National Educational
Technology Standards (NETS-S) for students, and also reference
standards from professional societies such as the National
Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), National Council for the
Social Studies (NCSS), National Business Education Association
(NBEA), and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM).
RSS for Educators: Blogs Newsfeeds, Podcasts and Wikis in
the Classroomcovers much of the material found in Will
Richardson’s 2006 book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Richardson,
2006). But technology has continued to advance over the past two
years, and Hendron offers updates in many areas. Hendron's book
is over twice as long as Richardson's, but both are approachable
and easily read. Richardson covers blogs, wikis, RSS feeds,
content aggregators, social bookmarking, podcasting and
screencasting, though blogging receives the greatest attention.
Early chapters in Richardson's book focus on content creation
with blogs and wikis, and later chapters turn to content capture
through RSS, specifically in Chapter 5, titled "RSS: The New
Killer App for Educators." Hendron starts with RSS as the
foundation. Both contain numerous classroom integration and best
practice examples, as well as tutorials on Web 2.0 tools.
However, Hendron's covers a larger number of tools and services,
often with greater detail. He also devotes an entire section,
over 100 pages, to classroom applications that include specific
lesson plans, most linked to national standards from groups such
as NCSS, NCTE, NCTM, and ISTE.
Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools, by Gwen Solomon and
Lynne Schrum, also covers the topics of blogging, wikis,
podcasting, and Web 2.0 tools for professional development
(Solomon & Schrum, 2007). They too offer tutorials on
blogging, sound editing, and feed gathering. They also include
other online tools such as bookmark sharing, photo editing, and
graphics applications. Solomon and Schrum offer many examples of
individual teachers who have used these tools with their students
in a variety of subject areas. Hendron’s work offers
considerable first hand experience and detailed lesson plans in
addition to stories of implementation. Web 2.0 New Tools, New
Schools devotes more discussion to Web 2.0 tools in general,
their roles in schools, and dedicates a chapter to the important
role of school leadership in technology integration. Hedron tends
to address safety, security and similar concerns in the context
of each application, while Solomon and Schrum devote a chapter to these
issues. Hendron’s book is more practical, Solomon and
Schrum’s is more scholarly.
One of the obvious challenges with writing and publishing a
book on emerging technologies is that the contents can rapidly
become dated. This holds true for a number of items in
Hendron’s book. For example, the Yahoo podcasting directory
closed in October of 2007, the NewsGator RSS clients are now
free, and the latest Apple operating system is Leopard, not
Tiger. Hendron (2008) recognizes this challenge, and maintains a
blog page for his book. At his weblog Hendron’s
Digest he writes, “The Read/Write Web is ripe for
innovation, and it’s happening everyday! Parts of the book
are now 2 years old; the latest resources are a year old.
That’s not to say they no longer exist! But some go out of
fashion, and some are still emerging on the scene. I plan to add
content here that supplants the resources I have provided in the
book.” A visit to the site confirms the addition of a
number of web links to emerging Web 2.0 applications and
services.
Web 2.0 tools such as podcasts, weblogs and wikis are becoming
more and more common at all educational levels, both as a way of
distributing content to students and as creative assignments
themselves. John Hendron’s RSS for Educators: Blogs
Newsfeeds, Podcasts and Wikis in the Classroom, is a valuable
resource for educators curious about these tools, and a reliable
guidebook for helping the curious become capable
practitioners.
References
Brovey, A. (2006, September 26). Podcasting and podcatching
demo 2. Podcast retrieved from
http://web.mac.com/macademics/podcasting/Demo_Podcasts/Demo_Podcasts.html
Deal, A. (2007). Teaching with technology white paper:
Podcasting, Educause CONNECT.
Retrieved August 7, 2007, from
http://connect.educause.edu/files/CMU_Podcasting_Jun07.pdf
Fratt, L. (2007, April/May). Podcasting at school: Districts
turn to push technology to engage parents, community and kids.
EdTEch Focus on K12. Retrieved from
http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
Hendron, J. (2008). Hendron’s Digest. Retrieved from
http://www.johnhendron.net/digest/book-rss-for-educators/
National Center for Educational Statistics (2000).
Teachers’ tools for the 21st century: A
report on teachers’ use of technology [Online].
Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000102
National Center for Educational Statistics (2006) Internet
access in U.S. public schools and classrooms 1994–2005
[Online]. Washington, DC. Retrieved from
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007020
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other
powerful web tools for
classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools,
new schools. Eugene, OR:
International Society for Technology in
Education.
About the Reviewer
Andy Brovey is an Associate Professor of Curriculum,
Leadership and Technology at Valdosta State University, Valdosta,
Georgia, where he teaches graduate courses in educational
technology. He also leads professional development activities for
his colleagues and local teachers on his area of interest - using
web applications and services for teaching, learning and
professional development.
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