Chapter 10: What It All Means

I have definitely learned a lot about the web tools out there through reading this book. Until reading this chapter, however, I had trouble really seeing the bigger picture. I understood how all of these web tools could theoretically better meet the needs and interest of our students, how they might make collecting information and collaborating easier. I lost sight, however, of the fact that these are the skills that our students will actually need in order to be functioning members of society as adults.
Richardson points out that our methods of teaching from textbooks, turning in papers, and returning those assignments to students who throw them away, don't really have as much value in the real world as we would hope. We should be asking students to use writing as a starting point to a conversation, and to read information critically knowing that it may not be from the most reliable source. Having students publish their work online gives it a real purpose beyond earning a grade, they will be putting it out there for others to learn from. This gives real validation to the effort they put into it, their work, their ideas.
Richardson makes a great point when he says that it is no longer imperative that we know every answer. Asking students to memorize facts is losing its importance. We now need to focus on teaching them where to find the answers. Most profoundly, we can let our students know that we don't have all the answers. We must show them that we are learning from others together, as part of a global community. We must only teach them "the skills of the Read/Write Web and motivate them to seek their own truths and their own learning". This is the best service we can provide to our students in order for them to be prepared for what they will have to do in the adult world.