In preparation for a Critical Media masters course that I will be completing the beginning of July, we had to read "What Would Google Do?" and blog with fellow classmates about our reasons for recommending the book or not recommending it.
First, I’ll just give a brief summary of what the book was about, for those who have not read it.
Jarvis uses "Google" in the title to lure people into thinking the book is going to be about the ever popular search engine "Google". But it is not really about Google at all. It's more of an analysis of how the internet has changed our lives and our culture. He focuses on how Web 2.0 has influenced business, and makes suggestions about what the future may look like using several industries as examples in the second half of the book. Jarvis describes principles and rules for businesses to abide by if they are to succeed in this new 2.0 world.
Overall his principles could be applied to many facets of life, including education. Several major themes found throughout the book were: collaboration, trust, choice, quality, access, honesty, open minded, helpful. Who wouldn't want all these things in our relationships with others? I don't think it matters if you are a teacher or a business person.
The first half of the book was quite thought provoking and I found myself underlining many inspirational ideas as I read. I was able to make connections with how we could change our education system to incorporate some of Jarvis' rules and principles to enhance learning for both students and teachers.
The second half of the book was quite boring. Jarvis' attempted to relate the rules and principles of his business model to various industries. He includes a small section on reforming education, but I was a little disappointed with his ideas. This could have partly been because this topic was not covered specifically until the end of the book, and by that time my eyes were starting to glaze over. I had to force myself to finish the book, and I did so only because I had to- in case I was questioned on it in my upcoming course. I found his ideas to be very repetitive and I kept asking myself if there was something new in what I just read, or if it was more of the same. I concluded that it was more of the same.
As far as recommending this book to educators, I would not. I think there are far better books out there to emphasise how education should be more student directed and teacher facilitated- a student-inquiry approach to learning. Not all teachers will be able, or willing, to make connections to education based on Jarvis' business model. If we want to make a change in education, I think we should be encouraging teachers to read literature that is more specific to our field, with practical examples of what change looks like in our classrooms. As a teacher, I would rate this book a 5 out of 10. If I had read this book prior to completing my first year of a master’s course I would have rated it lower.
However, I would recommend the book to business minded people (as I have done already- I am passing the book on to a friend when I have the course completed). I think the information in the book warrants something to think about with regards to future transactions and business opportunities (I still think the reading the second section of the book would be boring for even people in this field). Overall, I would rate this book 7 out of 10 for business people.
Although this book offers a great insight into how we, everyday people, can make a difference in the world using platforms such as Facebook and Blogger, I don't think many people would read beyond the first few chapters. If they even got that far, if might not even be necessary to read the rest, as it is more of the same (missing except for a few name droppings along the way). Reading from the perspective of this group of people, I would rate the book 4 out of 10. I think they could go to his blog page and read just what interested them, instead of reading all that didn't.
Agree or disagree?? I would love to hear from other people about their opinions on this book.
