Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (Kindle Single) [Kindle Edition]

Will Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Traditional educators, classrooms, and brick-and-mortar schools are no longer necessary to access information. Instead, things like blogs and wikis, as well as remote collaborations and an emphasis on 'critical thinking' skills are the coins of the realm in this new kingdom. Yet the national dialogue on education reform focuses on using technology to update the traditional education model, failing to reassess the fundamental design on which it is built.

In 'Why School?,' educator, author, parent and blogger Will Richardson challenges traditional thinking about education — questioning whether it still holds value in its current form. How can schools adjust to this new age? Or students? Or parents? In this provocative read, Richardson provides an in-depth look at how connected educators are beginning to change their classroom practice. Ultimately, 'Why School?' serves as a starting point for the important conversations around real school reforms that must ensue, offering a bold plan for rethinking how we teach our kids, and the consequences if we don't.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere is mandatory reading for anyone who cares about the education of their children. It is the perfect jumping off point for anyone interested in beginning or continuing a conversation on the long overdue changes that are schools need to undergo in order to provide a relevant learning experience for our students." ~Patrick Larkin, Assistant Sup. for Learning, Burlington (MA) Public Schools

"As a teacher, father, and educational visionary, Will Richardson tears down the walls around the classroom and rethinks what schools can and should be. Listen to him. Learn from him." ~Jeff Jarvis, Author, What Would Google Do?

"Will Richardson beautifully and disturbingly captures the new reality of learning. Why School? shows us an exciting future unfolding before our very eyes, and leaves you breathless about what to do about it! ~Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/University of Toronto

"A must read for parents! Why School? is the right text to help frame important conversations between parents and schools, students and teachers, teachers and administrators, school districts and communities. Right Question .....Right Time!" ~Lisa Brady, Superintendent, Dobbs Ferry (NY) Schools

"Written by a parent, an educator, and a teacher of teachers, Why School? offers a set of useful tools for thinking about the fundamental and crucial question posed by the very title of this book". ~Howard Rheingold, Author, Net Smart

"Why School offers bigger dreams for the networked age, where we use new technologies to envision and design entirely new models of teaching and learning, where we seek to fulfill human potential rather than covering a dusty curriculum." ~Justin Reich, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Product Details

• File Size: 281 KB
• Print Length: 51 pages
• Publisher: TED Conferences (September 10, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00998J5YQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,012 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Aims & Objectives
  • #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Essays & Ideas
  • #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Computers & Technology

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very different (and needed) vision for schooling September 13, 2012

By Scott McLeod

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Why School? is a superb summary of why schools need to be different. We now live in a world where the rule is abundance, not scarcity. Where teachers are from all around the world, not just in those buildings down the street. Where students can make and do and share, not just sit passively and regurgitate.

There are lots of insights in this short text. I read the entire book in a sitting of an hour or two. But the ideas within will last much, much longer...

A few quotes to whet your appetite:

1. "let's scrap open-book tests, zoom past open-phone tests asking Googleable questions, and advance to open-network tests that measure not just if kids answer a question well, but how literate they are at discerning good information from bad and tapping into the experts and networks that can inform those answers. This is how they'll take the real-life information and knowledge tests that come their way, and it would tell us much more about our children's preparedness for a world of abundance."

2. "Discovering the curriculum changes the teacher's role in the classroom. It becomes less about how well the teacher develops the lesson plan and what that teacher knows (though those ingredients are still important). Instead, they must inspire students to pursue their own interests in the context of the subject matter. Teachers need to be great at asking questions and astute at managing the different paths to learning that each child creates. They must guide students to pursue projects of value and help them connect their interests to the required standards. And they have to be participants and models in the learning process."

3. "'How do your teachers learn?' Most answers I get follow along traditional lines: 'They go to conferences.' 'They take after-school workshops.' 'They read books.' They see their teachers' learning as an event, not an ongoing process."

4. "We saved every bit of paper that came home in the Friday Folders that year, and they grew to a three-foot-high stack in the corner of our bedroom. It was an impressive collection of stuff that my kids never again looked at once it was added to the stack. Countless hours spent filling in those worksheet blanks, working those test problems, finishing off those projects, and Tess and Tucker had literally zero investment in any of it after their grades and our signatures were in place. Zero."

5. "I'd articulate the shift to teachers like this: Don't teach my child science; instead, teach my child how to learn science -- or history or math or music. With as many resources as they have available to them today (not to mention what they'll have tomorrow), kids had better know how."

Make school different. Start by reading this book. I've already ordered multiple copies as gifts for colleagues, friends, and family members, with plans to expand the circle even further. If you like this book - and you will - do the same for your own circles. And then start talking with each other about what school could (and should) be.

[Now if I only could get legislators to read this!]

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Clear Vision Indeed October 9, 2012

By J. Gomez TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere by Will Richardson

"Why School?" is an inspirational plea to a new vision of education that incorporates tools of learning that are all around us. The author's contention is that the current educational system does not adequately provide what our kids need to know and thus doing school "differently" is necessary. Educator, blogger and author Will Richardson, provides the reader with a brief different vision of doing school. This stimulating brief 51-page book is broken out into two main parts: Part I: Old School and Part II: New School.

Positives:
1. Brief and to the point.
2. An important topic, a "different" education.
3. A brief book that is intended to inspire and whet your appetite. Mission accomplished.
4. The impact of abundance of information and how it relates to education.
5. A look at the old educational model and why it fails in preparing children for future success in a fast-changing world.
6. A policy paper by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) that lists the new set of 21st-century literacies for all readers and writers.
7. The contrast between the two very different visions for educational change. The first is about doing what we currently do "better". The second requires a fundamental revision of the value of school and the roles of teachers and classrooms.
8. Interesting and thought-provoking arguments, "What they don't tell you, by the way, is that we just looked at test results from U.S. kids living in high-income homes, we would be first in the world in just about every category. Our scores reflect our very deep issues with poverty, not inherent problems with schools."
9. The importance of discovery over delivery in education. "It's a kind schooling that prepares students for the world they live in, not the one in which most of us grew up."
10. The objectives and goals of the new school approach. The approach the steps to take.
11. The problems with standardized tests.
12. The six unlearning/relearning ideas for educators.

Negatives:
1. No formal bibliography or links to websites or blogs to access from Kindle.

In summary, this turned out to be quite an inspirational and compelling plea for a new approach in education. The author does a wonderful job of providing compelling arguments for a new or "different" vision of education. This brief book is quite quotable and the essence of it will stick with me. "Don't teach my child science; instead, teach my child how to learn science..." If you are looking for an educational appetizer, this is a sweet treat indeed. I highly recommend it!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars We all know the conversation needs to be had. This is a great starter for it! September 29, 2012

By Scott Floyd

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've read lots of "school needs to improve" books over the last decade or so. What happens is that they get bogged down in repeating the same problem with different verbiage over and over. It gets old and boring and I quit reading. Will went the right track with this text. He nails the issues at hand, offers a little commentary, and moves on. This is a quick, but insightful read for any person interested in making positive, proactive changes in their schools and classrooms. Keep in mind what you want for your own child as you read throughout. One of my favorite passages from the book:

"What doesn't work any longer is our education system's stubborn focus on delivering a curriculum that's growing increasingly irrelevant to today's kids, the outmoded standardized assessments we use in an attempt to measure our success, and the command-and-control thinking that is wielded over the entire process. All of that must be rethought."

I would postulate that the group who contends "if it was good enough for me when I was in school, then it's good enough for these kids" are the group causing all of the drop out issues we are facing today. The quote above describes the Industrial Revolution education systems that are still in use today in far too many places. It is that mindless, fact regurgitation system that bores kids and disconnects them from the love of learning new things they had as toddlers. Failure to adjust leads to failure to succeed.

Listening to politicians and big business has gotten us nowhere over the least several decades, unless you consider making the testing companies giant, rich automation factories. Take from this book and consider the part you can play in improving the education system. Quit letting others with their own special interests make the decisions for you.

More About the Author

I consider myself an "evangelist" for the use of Weblogs, RSS and related Internet technologies in classrooms and schools. Over the past six years I've had the chance to speak and work with thousands of educators from around the world on the merits of "The Read/Write Web." I was a classroom teacher for over 20 years who integrated these technologies into my curricula for over four years. In various Weblog projects, my students have collaborated with best-selling authors, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and with students in classrooms from around the world. One of the first educator bloggers, my Weblog at www.weblogg-ed.com has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Times, Syllabus and others, and it is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level. My articles have appeared in Educational Leadership, English Journal and Principal Leadership, among others, and I have presented throughout the United States and in New Zealand, Australia, China, Norway, Canada and others on the shifts that are taking place in education because of these online social learning tools. I'm currently a national advisory board member for the George Lucas Education Foundation.