I've recently done a couple of workshops on blogging and web 2.0 in education and I've got a few more coming up. As I talk to people about the powerful learning experiences these technologies foster I have a creeping concern that people are looking at blogs and other read/write tools as a panacea for teaching. While blogs have lightened my load in some respects I find myself spending my prep time in new ways; I'm not working less, I'm working differently. There are a growing number of people beginning to address this issue and I wanted to use this post to track the articles, blog posts and presentations that are having the greatest impact on my thinking in this regard. I'll probably continue to add to and update this post for a little while. Here's what I'm reading and learning about now ....

• » Learning Ecology, Communities, and Networks Extending the classroom
  by George Siemens (the "gardener" analogy is right on the money!)

• » Crash course in learning theory
  by Kathy Sierra

• » Learning Objects: RIP or 1.0?
  by D'Arcy Norman (read the article he points you to)

• » Connectivism and Web 2.0
  by George Siemens

• » Learning is Conversation
  by John Pederson

• » An Introduction to Connective Knowledge
  by Stephen Downes (listen to his podcast if you prefer)

• » Ubiquitously Connected and Pervasively Proximate
  by Will Richardson (be sure to read "Why Johnny And Janey Can't Read, and Why Mr. And Ms. Smith Can't Teach: The challenge of multiple media literacies in a tumultuous time" by Mark Federman)

• » informL learning presentation
  Jay Cross summarizes his thinking and learning over the last year

What I take from all the above is that the essential change brought about by the read/write web is not that teachers and students work less, teachers work differently to foster greater effort on the part of students. The read/write web doesn't make teaching and learning easier. Teachers and students have to think and work differently because the definition of teaching and learning is evolving.