Textbooks are not enough anymore . . . Use RWLDs
- They are outdated.
- They are not comprehensive enough.
- They are not interesting enough.
- Based upon the changes that Texas is making to history textbooks, they are not accurate enough.
California has tried to address these needs using eBooks to replace their paper textbooks. but that isn't enough.
Our students are in the Multimedia Generation. These Millennials spend most of their waking hours Reading, Watching, Listening to, and Doing multimedia. This means that their brains are wired to acquire and assimilate information through multiple forms of media but most of our teachers still use paper textbooks.
Sooooo, how do we provide recent and relevant materials for our classes? Our answer is the RWLD. RWLD's provide the Readings, Watchings, Listenings, and Doings that will inform your students in their field of study.
Readings: Just because you aren't reading from a textbook, it doesn't mean that your students won't be reading. It means that you will be able to direct them towards recent and relevant readings in the form of articles, books, and reliable websites. Just because I list the resources on the web, it doesn't mean that I don't assign books to them to read. In my last Emerging Instructional Technologies course, I had them read Disrupting Class by Christensen, Johnson, and Horn.
Watchings: These are the videos or vlogs that you want them to watch. These may be videos that are already available for you to use, or they might be videos or screencasts that you have made to help educate your students. While YouTube is probably the most popular resource for ready-made videos, there are many other resources that you can access.
Here are some of the educational resources:
Listenings: Some of your resources will be auditory. These will primarily be podcasts. There is a huge selection of podcast resources online. The most complete directory of podcasts is iTunes. It doesn't matter if you are a Mac or Window or Linex user. iTunes is available on all of these platforms so you should be able to find them and use them.
My dream for using the Listenings is that my auditory-learning students will be able to download them to their MP3 players and then listen to them as they walk to school or workout. The only problem that I have had is that not all of my students knew how to download sound files to their players. You don't necessarily know how to do that if you are a Digital Native. =-) It may require showing them or creating a screencast to instruct them on how to download these files.
My dream for using the Listenings is that my auditory-learning students will be able to download them to their MP3 players and then listen to them as they walk to school or workout. The only problem that I have had is that not all of my students knew how to download sound files to their players. You don't necessarily know how to do that if you are a Digital Native. =-) It may require showing them or creating a screencast to instruct them on how to download these files.
Check Out These Successful RWLDs
- Educational Technology and Design
- Using Digital and Social Media in Education
- Selecting and Integrating Instructional Technology
- Writing a Graduate Paper/Portfolio
- Notice that I create my RWLDs using a blog. This is the easiest way to get things on the web. Another advantage is that a blog will provide an easy RSS feed for students to capture their assignments on their PLN. Finally, it is even possible to feed the RWLD blog into their YouTube accounts - that means no excuses!!!!
- Include an image on each of the postings. Be careful about copyright - you are the model. You may find what you need using the Creative Commons selections at Flickr.com
- These resources don't need to be ONLY teacher-found resources. I have opened up the RWLD to the students so that when they were taking over the class for a day, they could add their own RWLD resources.
- Another advantage to putting your RWLD in a blog is that you can reuse your postings. You just need to reset your postings to appear on scheduled dates at the beginning of the semester.
photo: flickr.com/wohnai
