Professional Reading

I always have a pile of journals, books, articles, etc. on my desk so I can pick up and read during down time. Whenever I clean my desk I shuffle the pile but rarely do I have time to do uninterrupted professional reading. If I try to do it at home before bed I get through about one paragraph before falling asleep. I really welcome the time on sabbatical to do professional reading and I have  quite a list of books, articles, blog entries, etc. that I want to read.

I'm starting with a book that I was excited to hear about before it was even published - What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, Edited by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann. I've heard Chris Lehmann speak at conferences more than once and really respect his vision and leadership in many areas of education. I reserved the book when it was first possible and finally received it in the fall. I started reading it today on the exercise bike (no chance of falling asleep there!) and as I read I will post blogs about what I'm thinking. Since it is composed of discrete articles, I'm going to interweave reading this with other activities on my list.

The book is a compilation of articles by various leaders in the field of instructional technology and appears to be a combination of tools and ideas for teachers as well as for administrators. The first two chapters are about Blogs and Wikis. Reading these chapters got my wheels turning regarding some possibilities for teacher training. Many of our teachers want to use Blogs with their students just to get them writing but the article in this book reminded me of the importance of purpose and audience. I think reading these articles would be a great launch to a professional development session on Blogs and Wikis where the outcome of the training would be not so much how to use the tools but instead designing a meaningful in-depth project to do with students where Blogs and Wikis may be tools which allow for relevant audience, collaboration, feedback and building meaning.