Marissa Slack
08-31-07
Richardson, W. (2006). The read/write web. In J. Barbakow, E. Meidenbauer, J. Ward (Eds.), Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
TAP
The internet and how it should be incorprated into our lives, and how it already is to some degree without our control, is the topic of this article. Richardson intends for all who were interested enough or who had to read the first chapter of his book to be his audience for the purpose of modifying the way we view and utilize the Internet.
Claim
Rather than being simply a consumer of the information provided by the web anyone has the ability to contribute by typing their thoughts and clicking a few buttons. This transformation is responsible for the change in journalism, politics, and business work. Additionally, the potential for modification of the education system has increased and the risk of posting student’s work on the Internet is decreasing because of novel ways to keep students safe.
Evidence
The development of new easy-to-use publishing tools on the Internet supports the claim that anyone has the ability to publish on the web. According to Richardson, “A 2003 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more than 53 million American adults or 44% of adult Internet users had used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files, and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content avilable online”. Coverage of major worl events such as the Indian Ocean earthquake or Hurricane Katrina, blogs posted by politicians and many companies as large as GM and COca-Cola, reinforce the author’s claim that journalism, politics and business are being altered in the way they reach people. According to chapter one, The National Technology plan released in 2005 admitted that “Today’s students, of almost any age, are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy. They prefer to access subject information on the Internet, where it is more abundant, more accessible, and more up-to-date”.
text-to-self
This chapter relates to me any time I read information on the Internet because it discusses how so many aspects of society, like journalism, politics, business, education, and each of these areas affect my life. From reading news and updating myself on a politician’s policies, to searching for the correct business to purchase my needs and finding the correct school for my children, the Internet is a part of my life whether I want it to be or not.
text-to-text
This chapter ties into all of the existing blogs and the future of blogs because it talks about just that: the current use of the Internet and what the future may hold if the Internet continues to grow as it has in the recent past.
text-to-world
I can see the day where this text may relate to my future place of employment. For instance, if I worked for a large company/hospital/agency I may be asked to participate in a blog as a community where the bulk of staff meetings or updates on new policies are held on the Internet rather than in person. Additionally, I could be asked to post any fresh ideas about ways in which the company could improve. Although this may appear as a time saver, however, I am not convinced that this would be a positive difference. I could see how getting the tedious, small matters such as what toilet paper is prefered quickly out of the way could be beneficial, but not the crucial topics. I would most definitely not want to be trained how to implement a new therapy technique via the Internet, for example. I’m afraid that the Internet is going to drive people to become less personal.
