All I want for Xmas are Ed-tech Books

What can you get for Christmas that would most help you with facilitating distance/blended learning?  How about some books about educational technology?  There is some great reading to be done about the wave of innovation that is shaking up instruction.  Here are a few that I'm hoping to tear into soon. Have you read them?   If not, let me know if you picked one up based on seeing it here. Care to add a book to this reading list?

 

I've been following this Will Richardson guy on twitter, admire his prolific blog, and speeches at various conferences.  And now we have a book, an ebook, rather.  His book on personal learning networks looks good too.  

The business of education is a powerful thing with federal government-backed initiatives, giant publishing companies, and long-standing traditions firmly in place.  Once the machinery gets going, it's hard to stop and turn it in any direction.  Nonetheless, innovative change comes out of left field, usually from the sector with the most important needs and the least power in the whole equation: the learners.  Solutions to adult education's problems may not mesh with the agendas of any of those larger entities.  We may not even recognize them as relevant and viable until we're woefully behind, because our orientation is fixed on the things we see as static and/or top-priority.  Disruptive forces can be harnessed to meet your needs if you reorient to integrate them. This is very much the story of my company, GED Academy's, development parallel to the field of adult education (and now intersecting with it).  I'm hoping this book will help me understand the phenomenon that I'm very much a part of.   

What can be said about Khan Academy that hasn't been said before?  As an adult educator, my imagination was captured by Khan's infrastructure of the flipped classroom.  But, integrating his tools into adult ed requires more time and effort than many teachers or learners can afford.  I'm curious to see how this book relates to adult education.  Anybody read it yet and care to comment? 

  

The title of this book says it all.  Look for my book report on the topic coming soon.  And yes, it will come with game recommendations. 

Have you asked for education-focused books for Xmas? What's on your reading list? Have you read any of these? Drop a comment and let's grow this list.