Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education [Perfect Paperback]

Will Richardson (Author), Rob Mancabelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2011

The Internet connects us in unprecedented ways. New tools allow us to build global learning networks where we can pursue our intellectual and creative passions with people around the world. To prepare students to flourish in this new learning world, schools will need to transform themselves in important ways. Personal Learning Networks is a road map to guide that transformation.

In order to bring these learning networks into classrooms, teachers must first create learning networks of their own. The authors describe a bottom-up progression that will help educators understand the power of these networks and become networked individuals. Learn how to use learning networks in the classroom to improve student outcomes and make the case for learning network use across your entire school. Using step-by-step advice and real-world stories, this book aims to narrow the technological divide, put educators on the same footing as students, and provide a recipe for incorporating these tools into every classroom.

Benefits

* Notes the importance of teachers exploring Internet tools in their own lives before bringing them into the classroom

* Introduces tools such as Twitter, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, blogs, and Facebook

* Offers real-world stories of teachers who have created personal learning networks

* Shares a three-step plan to build a learning network throughout a school or district

* Discusses four common hurdles most schools face when implementing learning networks

Editorial Reviews

Review

Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli have created an essential book for educators, students, and anyone concerned about the future of education. Personal Learning Networks provides the perspectives and the processes we need to use personal learning networks to become educated, empowered and ready for the global economy. --Jason Ohler, Professor Emeritus, Educational Technology, University of Alaska, Juneau

This book presents an innovative, comprehensive strategy for reinventing education to meet the needs of 21st century students and society. Much more than familiar rhetoric on what is wrong with education, the authors provide a compelling vision for education as it could and should be and a road map to help get us there. Mancabelli & Will Richardson have provided us with a step-by-step guide to create globally-connected classrooms, implement powerful project-based curriculum, and introduce our students to tools and technologies with transformative potential. --Angela Maiers, President of Maiers Educational Services, Clive, Iowa

This book is chock-full of useful information and highlights numerous practitioners who are walking the walk. A fantastic resource for administrators, teachers, policymakers, and others who are trying to lead their organizations into the digital, global world in which we now live. --Scott McLeod, Director at UCEA Center for Advanced Study of Technical Leadership in Education, Ames, Iowa

About the Author

Will Richardson -- A parent of two middle school aged children, Will Richardson has been writing about the intersection of social online learning networks and education for the past ten years at weblogg-ed.com and in numerous journals and magazines such as Ed Leadership, Education Week, and English Journal. He was a public school educator for twenty-two years, and is a co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice (plpnetwork.com), a unique professional development program that has mentored over three thousand teachers worldwide in the last three years. His first book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Corwin Press, 3rd edition, 2010) has sold over 75,000 copies and has impacted classroom practice around the world. Over the past six years, he has spoken to tens of thousands of educators in over a dozen countries about the merits of learning networks for personal and professional growth. He is a national advisory board member of the George Lucas Education Foundation and a regular columnist for District Administration Magazine. With nearly twenty years of experience in educational leadership, technology, and planning,  

Rob Mancabelli -- With a background in learning, technology and leadership, Rob Mancabelli builds 21st century learning organizations. His focus is on global collaboration, customized content and engaging learning platforms, and his approach delivers results either for educational leaders looking to improve student outcomes or business leaders seeking to enhance employee effectiveness. A frequent speaker, Rob talks about how to effectively transform organizations to meet the rapidly evolving demands of a globally connected world. He writes for numerous publications, as well as at mancabelli.com, serves on K 12 advisory boards for Dell Computer and Acer Corporation, and is in the process of completing his MBA at MIT. Rob lives with his wife, Gayle Allen, in New York City.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Solution Tree (May 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193554327X
• ISBN-13: 978-1935543275
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that will transform the way you view teaching and learning... June 16, 2011

By Patti Grayson

Format:Perfect Paperback

Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli do an exceptional job of providing a passionate, organized, and informative guide for developing a Personal Learning Network (PLN). The authors are powerful, driven, forward thinkers. The gift of this book is that they are able to translate their expertise and passion into a casual, conversational style makes you feel as if they are talking to you personally - encouraging and supporting you through the process required to connect yourself and your students to each other and the world.

This book is unique in that it combines a clear systematic process with a common sense approach and inspiring personal stories and examples that will bolster confidence and empower each reader. A URL is provided to an incredible page of links to each resource cited in the text. While intended for educators, the meat and potatoes of the book are valuable to anyone who considers themselves a life-long learner and is interested in developing an invaluable network of resources to support their learning. You'll find both a strong philosophy as well as practical instructions and personal advice on such tools as Twitter, Google Reader, Blogger, Diigo, and yes, Facebook.

The book goes on to provide the framework for implementing a networked classroom and a networked school to ensure that our students become connected learners as they prepare to enter an ever-changing global community.

I have spent the past year immersed in the Powerful Learning Practice program, co-founded by Will Richardson, and have found the process of developing a Personal Learning Network to be a truly transformative experience for me both as a teacher and a learner. This book makes it easy for anyone to take those first tentative steps, and work toward the imperative transformation of education that the connected world of the 21st century requires. A must read!!

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy meets reality August 21, 2011

By Nathan

Format:Perfect Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book takes the philosophy of real education change/innovation and gives the reader practical step-by-step directions on how to help make it happen. Richardson and Mancabelli meld their vision of using learning networks to drive student and teacher learning with the writing of John Seely Brown, Tony Wagner or Sir Ken Robinson. Great combination! What you get is 21st Century Skills that moves beyond the rhetoric.

Highly recommended for all in education, from the technology novice to the technology leader.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring Read March 26, 2012

By Librarychic

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book by educationalists, speakers and authors, Rob Mancabelli and Will Richardson, is about education needing to "transform not reform" (p.3). Although the book focuses on implementing a learning network in a school, throughout the book the 'message' is to also participate in PLN's yourself. "Social networks can be used as a timely, relevant, ongoing, professional development tool" (p.25). The book is hands-on, I regularly stopped to access sites of interest cited within the text to reinforce points. The authors are honest about the process of implementation; as well as its benefits, it describes its limitations, risks, and lengthy timeline. I found it inspiring.