Leading 21st-Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement

If you like school the way its always been done, this book is not for you. But if you are an innovative educator in a position of leadership, I would recommend this book. This is one of the first pieces I've read that acknowledges the influx of digital native (Prensky, 2001) teachers entering the teaching profession and the resulting change. Today (3/2/10), this is a very current look at the "problem" of doing school the way it has always been done. Our kids today are largely bored and find lessons lacking relevancy and meaning. For many of them the lessons taught in school will not transfer to their future careers and lives. The ubiquitous nature of the Internet has changed the education ballgame (many have said this), but this book goes beyond just identifying the problem and extends to include tools and strategies for practice. This book is not only visionary, but also realistic about the responsibilities and challenges that exist within a public school setting.One thing that makes this book stand out from its neighbors is its format. Each chapter contains at least one story of a real teacher/school leader who is working today. These stories helped to bring the content to life for me and allowed me to more effectively transfer the new knowledge to my current setting. I loved how each chapter started with the key vocabulary and ended with activities to consider. This allowed me to delve into each chapter as thoroughly as I wanted, and implement resources the next day in my classroom. This book's reach is much farther than its 212 pages with numerous Internet links to explore in each chapter. Although I've finished reading it, this won't be the last time I pick up this resource.I do wish that the book were narrower (physically). The large white margins on the sides made it a bit wide for reading on the couch, but this is trivial. If I do have one qualm with the content of the text, I found the language arts resources lacking in comparison with math social studies, and science, but overall this is a quality resource that I'm glad to have on my shelf close at hand.

I read "Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement" for a graduate class I took this semester. I thought the authors did an excellent job combining not only information on 21st century learners but they also provided many resources that an educator can use in his/her classroom that will help lead students in the 21st century.Currently, I am not in a technology leadership position within my school because we don't have a very strong emphasis on technology. I feel as though this book was so informative and I will continue to use it as a resource because of all the strategies with web 2.0 tools it discusses. It was an excellent encouragement of the importance of using technology in my classroom in order to facilitate an environment that students need. I was reminded of how different students are now from when I want was in elementary school 20 years ago. Technology is always changing, as teachers we need to continue to keep up.The last component that I enjoyed in this book was the activities the authors use at the end of each chapter. When I sat down to do some of those activities, it made me think about my own classroom, or my own school or even my own school district. How can we support the continue change of technology but also how can we provide the best environment for the learners that will be entering our classrooms. As an educator my goal has always been to provide resources and information to my students in order for them to be successful in the future, technology is one of those aspects now. Overall, I recommend every educator reading this text.

If you are looking for practical applications of various technology tools, especially web-based tools, for classroom as well as online teaching and learning, this is a good book for you.I consulted, designed and developed online courses for 6 years at Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln and served as a judge for UCPEA DLCoP Distance Course Awards for 6 consecutive years. Much of the content in the book is right on the target and money in regard to the questions and issues that professionals in the field of instructional design and technology frequently encounter on the job. The book doesn't beat around the bush and goes straight to the points that professionals need to know to do a better job, which I spent 6 years to accumulate.The book covers many things that I would cover if I were to write the same book. So, if you are a starting instructional designer or a classroom or online teacher, I recommend this book so you can cut corners and speed up your learning curve.I strongly suggest visiting every single website or URL presented in the book. The ACTIVITIES TO CONSIDER section at the end of each chapter is full of practical resources and examples that you should try. Just finding these resources and links on your own is such a time-consuming, arduous task, which will take you years. Even after 6 years of being in the field, the book really helped me locate useful resources. Worth the money.