Monday, August 08, 2011

Playing with Media: A Great Classroom Companion


I work with teachers who use technology to support their classroom instruction. Wes Fryer's new e-book, Playing with Media, has arrived just in time for school to start. Remember "make and take" workshops? This is it for the digital classroom. It is exactly the kind of book that should accompany any teacher workshop or training because it supports great teaching. It will be an invaluable resource all year long. It is relevant to any classroom in both pedagogy and instruction. The book is presented in a succinct, understandable manner. There are tools, explained with clear directions and graphics; big ideas, and follow up reading. Taken together, these will have a profound impact on any classroom. Everything is clickable. And the fact that's it's an ebook means that Wes will keep it up to date. 

The more I read through and listened, the more excited I got. Not only did I learn many little tips and tricks, the reminder that we must keep creativity in our curriculum is ever present. I also enjoyed how Wes used his own children as models to showcase student work. He is passionate about sharing and celebrating what students can do on the web.  In each category multiple tools are shown, modeling creation choice for student projects. 

I chose to download and read the versions on my iPad and Kindle. The Kindle experience was less hands on but still easy to read. There is a companion website to go with the book. The interactive experience on the iPad was fantastic. Being able to click out to websites and bookmark them was great. There is so much in this book that I will be using the resources time and time again. I really appreciated how this book is organized and would highly recommend it. I would love to see other classroom books modeled on this kind of ebook. I am going to think about it as a text book for a professional development course that I teach to education graduate students. #playingwithmedia

No comments: