Lightening can strike twice!

Lightning strikes and light bulb ahha moments do not come by too often unless you go looking for them with a large metal golf umbrella or a kite and a key.

That is exactly how I “stumbled” across the DET portal application “My Library”.  It has revolutionised my life and that of our school.  That being said, as with a lightening strike, the residual currents and heart stopping shocks continued after the initial strike.  On finding the initial site and sharing it with the staff at school we discussed how new it must be and how amazing that it has recently been added to our collection of available sites.  Then strike 2 hit me!

Reading an article from SCAN almost a week after the initial discovery I read about how “My Library” was helping schools and students find resources.  Not shocking you say.  No – but the heart stopping shocking fact was that the article was dated 2010 – BOOM!! The site was 2 years old and completely off my radar.

How does one recover from such a mammoth discovery and start to discover what other million watt light bulbs are out there that have not yet been turned on.

Words of Wisdom Down The Years

The words of Socrates could not be more fitting than to describe my path of the last 3 months.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Socrates

When starting this course I knew it all. TLs sat around and read when they weren’t teaching classes, there would be lots of time to Facebook my friends and my job was all about books, books and books.

 

Oh no – that’s right – that is the complete opposite of a TL’s job!!! 

I guess now I have some wisdom as I acknowledge that I know nothing : )

Reflect on the role of the teacher librarian

Any reflection on my journey in this course must begin with an admission of complete ignorance.  I started as a teacher librarian (TL) almost simultaneously with beginning this course.

Now, I was well aware that TLs existed and as Ray Crotty (2012) put it were accredited “in two disciplines – teaching and librarianship”.  I have to admit though that in keeping with Purcell’s findings (2010) I was under the very mistaken belief that teacher librarians did just return, borrow and read books. .  I was one of Burnett’s 9 out of 10 people who actually selected being a teacher librarian “because I love reading”.  Obviously I was also expecting to assist students make informed decisions about good books and maintain the computers in the library so I could Facebook and surf the web.  But pretty much this was my idea of being a Teacher Librarian – cushy, easy, stress free – LOL (I am)!!

I am pleased to say my eyes have been opened and my preconceived notions eradicated more thoroughly than a box of chocolates left unattended on the staffroom table at the end of term.

So, what do I now believe my role entails?  I know that as a school librarian a very minute part of each day must be spent on tasks such as returning and lending books, assisting students learn alphabetical ordering and, thanks to a Department of Education OASIS one day training course, conducting a progressive stocktake of the library.  But more than this, having spent 13 weeks researching and reading about teacher librarianship, I now understand that my role encompasses so much more than I ever thought possible and is vital to the education of the students in our school.

Within the first few weeks of the course I was happily telling anyone who would listen that there was an ASLA/ALIA (2004) Standards for Teacher Librarians and a UNESCO School Library Manifesto (1999; 2006).  I showed as many people as I could my A3 laminated copy of James Herring’s (2007) “Multi-Faceted Role of the Teacher Librarian” and I spent time trying to come to terms with how I could have been so naive about my role.

My first order of business in addressing my new role was to show my boss the Herring poster and to point out the circle marked “Website Developer”.  In a school of only 4 teachers I was a little hesitant to rock the boat too hard and be seen as the young upstart with ideas.  It became apparent very quickly that this was exactly what they were hoping I would be and they were all very happy for me to take over the school’s IT coordinator position and administration.  My boss happily opened his “purse strings” (Morris, 2007) and gave me an entire day to get the school’s website upgraded.

My second sphere of previously untapped influence lay almost directly opposite Website Development in the area of “Information Literacy Leader”.  Having been involved in special education for the past 7 years I was a little lacking in the area of student directed guided inquiry learning.  I had a personal Archimedes Aha! moment when I watched the fart rap video – Highly Effective School Librarians Cultivate 21st Century Learners(Colorado State Libraries, N.D.).  I instantly started to rewrite my program and, as I mentioned on the forum on September 6^th, “I showed it to my year 4/5/6 class as a prelude to inquiry learning. They also loved it and have gotten stuck into researching a sport or sports person of their choice. It has been brilliant to show them the difference between closed and open ended questioning and the results that they have produced are fabulous. I will definitely be incorporating this into my teaching more” (McCann, 2012).

These are but 2 of a myriad of areas in which my understanding of my role, my programming and possible student influence has been altered during this course.  I could write blog after blog of the readings, forum comments and references which have shown me a new appreciation for further, higher and lifelong education, for valuing teacher librarians, the role information technology has in education today and how I am the staff member responsible for bringing this into our school.  I spoke to CSU early on in the course about changing to a leadership Masters but the wealth of knowledge and practical information I have gained in such a short time means that I am here for the long haul and the Leadership degree will just have to wait.

References

Burnett, S. (2012, August 3) Online Forum Comment Topic 2 The role of the teacher librarian Subject: Re: All librarians do is check out books Right?.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201260_W_D_Sub5_forum&message_id=5939339.

Colorado State Libraries. (N.D.). Illustrates competency #2 of Colorado highly effective school library programs. Retreived from http://tinyurl.com/COHighlyEffective

Crotty, R. (2012, August 29). Topic 4 Information literacy: Re: What is a TL without a Library??? Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201260_W_D_Sub7_forum&message_id=5961894

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century : Charting new directions in information (27-42). Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

McCann, R. (2012, September 6). Topic 4 Information literacy: Guided Inquiry – I’m a Convert. Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201260_W_D_Sub7_forum&message_id=6000543

Morris, B. J. (2007). Principal support for collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide. 13(1), 23-24.

Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books right? A look at the roles of the school library media specialist. Library Media Connection 29(3), 30-33.

 

School Libraries and Resource Centers Section. (1999; 2006). UNESCO School Library Manifesto. Retrieved from http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/manifest.htm

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) (2004). Statement of standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarian.standards.html.

Information Literacy is More Than a Set of Skills

“Information literacy is more than a set of skills”. Present an argument for or against this statement, drawing upon the research and professional literature to support your views.

 

An expert teacher librarian should, according to the ALIA/ASLA Standards, be able to manage a library effectively while possessing specialist knowledge of curriculum areas, student developmental levels, information services, resources and literacy so that they are able to engage and challenge learners within a supportive, information rich learning environment.   In addition to this they should also understand the principles of, model and promote lifelong learning and have a rich understanding of the school community in which they fulfill a leadership role (ALIA/ASLA, 2012).  From this it is clear that information literacy is but one very small component part of the set of skills required by an expert teacher librarian.

 

Information literacy is central to education and is more than the ability to read and write or information computer technology skills (Williams, 2001).  Teaching students information literacy is a complex task which forms a major component of the role of any teacher librarian (Herring, & Tarter, 2007).  This is especially true when one considers the American Library Association notion that information literacy forms the basis of lifelong learning (Williams, 2001).   According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization it is

 

“the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.  Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve his or her goals, develop his or her knowledge and potential, and participate fully in community and wider society” (UNESCO, 2009, p. 13)

 

Kuhlthau (1995) supports this idea by suggesting that for a person to be literate they must not only be able to identify when information is required but must be able to construct meaningful knowledge from this information (Langford, 1998).  Abilock (2004) reiterates these ideas when he proposes that information literacy shares a fundamental set of core thinking and problem-solving skills with other disciplines.   He recommends that by providing students with cross-curricular problems with which they can truly engage the solving of the problem will allow for mastery of information literacy.

 

There are a myriad of models available to assist teacher librarians in creating information literate students but in Australia, the New South Wales model of defining, locating, selecting, organising, presenting and assessing is used in many schools (NSW DET, 2007). In the UK, Herring’s (2004) PLUS model and the North American Big 6 model designed by Eisenberg and Berkowitz are used but these are very similar to the NSW model.  No matter which framework teacher librarians use they will all lead to students being able to function in a fluent manner in multiple contexts.

 

In conclusion it has been shown that one of the core requirements for any teacher librarian is the development of information literate students.  These students will be deemed literate when they are able to demonstrate that they have learned how to learn.  They will be self-directed learners who can find, use and gain knowledge from information and hopefully be able to share this knowledge with others in a manner in which their audience can learn from their research.  Once this is achieved the teacher librarian will be in possession of one of the skills required to deem them excellent.

 

References

 

Abilock, D. (2004). Information literacy: an overview of design, process and outcomes.  Retrieved from http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/1over/infolit1.html

 

American Library Association 1989 in Williams, D (2001) Information literacy and learning on-line IN SCROLLA Networked Learning Symposium, University of Glasgow, Retrieved from http://www.scrolla.ac.uk/resources/s1/williams_paper.pdf

 

Herring, J., & Tarter, A. (2007). Progress in developing information literacy in a secondary school using the PLUS model. School Libraries in View, 23, 23-27.

 

Information skills in the school. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/isp/index.htm

 

Langford, L. (1998). Information literacy: A clarification school libraries worldwide, 4(1), 59-72.

 

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) statement of standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarian.standards.html.

 

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2009).  The next generation of literacy statistics: Implementing the literacy assessment and monitoring programme (LAMP). Retrieved from http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/Tech1-eng.pdf&sa=U&ei=N4BSUPitPMmaiAfevoHIDQ&ved=0CBQQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNF63-qjjUZ1JT6QeKCoNuEnil87hw>

Guided Inquiry and TLs

Using your readings for this unit, choose ONE (1) of the following topics to write a 500 word reflective piece which demonstrates your understanding of the role of the teacher librarian with regard to this aspect of TL practice.

Comment on the role of the TL in practice with regard to implementing a Guided Inquiry approach.

Whether one calls it “guided inquiry”, “inquiry learning” or “enquiry-based learning” (Britain) (Wikipedia, 2012) this blog will be looking at John Dewey’s active cyclical pedagogical practice of ask, investigate, create, discuss and reflect.  Using the term “guided inquiry” (GI) it will explore the role of the teacher librarian with regards to implementing this form of teaching.

Originally publicised by the works of John Dewey and Jerome Bruner the philosophical school of pragmatism was responsible for shaping the progressive education movement (Inquiry Learning, 2011).  Today it is grounded in a constructivist approach to learning, based on the Information Search Process (ISP) developed by Professor Emerita Dr Carol Kuhlthau (Fitzgerald, 2011).

Guided Inquiry (GI), as the name suggests, involves teacher librarians guiding, instructing and coaching students in how to learn to think for themselves, make good decisions and create and find meaning from multiple information sources. (Kuhlthau, 2010).

In an ideal school situation the teacher librarian would work with other staff to design authentic learning experiences for students which were relevant, motivational and challenging (Scheffers, 2008). Once taught, the teachers involved would then meet to reflect on how well the GI engaged students and whether what was produced met their expectations (Shore, Chichekian; Syer; Aulls, & Frederiksen, 2012).

For students, being given an opportunity to follow a self determined, real world, line of inquiry to answer an open-ended question is an empowering experience (Boss and Krauss, 2007). By working in pairs and small groups students are also aided in their intellectual and personal development (Levy & Petrulis, 2012).  In particular, when supported by technology, GI can develop significantly improved higher order thinking skills.  (Littleton, Scanlon & Sharples, 2011).

The link between GI and information literacy is well reported based on their mutual use of question formulation, evaluating information and building new knowledge.  Web based resources are particularly suited to GI as they allow students to find multiple sources of information which they can sort, organize and analyse (Boss and Krauss, 2007).

The teacher librarian is at the forefront of incorporating meta-literacy into pedagogy and in training students, teachers and caregivers in its use (O’Connell, 2012).  As such the teacher librarian should be the staff member leading the way in incorporating GI into instruction.

According to the ALIA and ASLA’s Statement of Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians the teacher librarian is also expected to assist individual learners to develop independence in their learning.  GI is a perfect way to achieve this because it is a collaborative process in which teachers and students work together to negotiate various aspects of the curriculum (Sebas, 2012).

For all teachers, and not just teacher librarians, GI is a very valuable learning tool.  It is a form of learning in which students are assessed on how well they develop experimental and analytical skills rather than how much knowledge they can memorise and regurgitate (Takaya, 2008).  It allows students to take ownership of their own learning and for teacher librarians anything which fosters life long learning is worth including in their teaching role.

References

Boss, S., & Krauss, J. (2007). Power of the mashup: Combining essential learning with new technology tools. Learning & Leading with Technology, 35(1), 12-17.

Boss, S.,& Krauss, J. (2007). Reinventing project-based learning. Your field guide to real-world projects in the digital age. International Society for Technology in Education.

Fitzgerald, L. (2011). The twin purposes of guided inquiry: Guiding student inquiry and evidence based practice. Scan, 30(1), 26-41.

Inquiry Learning (2011). Retrieved from http://www.sebas.vic.edu.au/cb…/Inquiry%20Learning%20Information.pdf

Inquiry Page. (2012). Who was John Dewey? Retrieved from http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/inquiry/johndewey.html

Kuhlthau, C. K. (2010). Building guided inquiry teams for 21st-century learners. School Library Monthly, 26(5), 18.

Levy, P., & Petrulis, R. (2012). How do first-year university students experience inquiry and research, and what are the Implications for the practice of inquiry-based learning? Studies in Higher Education, 37(1), 85-101.

Littleton, K., Scanlon, E., & Sharples, M. (2011) Orchestrating Inquiry Learning Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

O’Connell, Judy. (2012). Learning without frontiers: School libraries and meta-literacy in action. Access. 26(1), 4-7.

Scheffers, J. (2008). Guided inquiry: A learning journey. Scan, 27(4), 34-42.

Shore, B., Chichekian, T., Syer, C., Aulls, M., & Frederiksen, C. (2012). Planning, enactment, and reflection in inquiry-based learning: Validating the McGill strategic demands of inquiry questionnaire. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 10(2), 315-337.

Takaya, K. (2008). Jerome Bruner’s theory of education: From early Bruner to later Bruner. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, 39(1), 1-19.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) statement of standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarian.standards.html.

Wikipedia. (2012). Inquiry-based learning. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning.

TL Training

Having attended a Mid North Coast training session on library Oasis system stocktake on Friday I am a little daunted by the task ahead.

I was, until Friday, blissfully unaware that every library resource had to be reviewed on a biannual basis and that the computer software has to be put through a stocktake every year – Yikes!!!

I have begun the biggest cull of school library books possibly ever undertaken at the school but I dread the culling of the software – I am sure I will find 3/4 floppies in there.

I don’t even want to think about completing a stocktake of the teacher’s resource room.  I wish one assignment was just stocktake 2250 library resources instead of write an essay – at least I know my time would be spent completing a much needed task.

Anyway – Less writing more wanding!!

A Rare Breed

There is much fear mongering in the literature that teacher librarians are a rare breed which the Department of Education will happily expend to save costs.  This leads me to question what is a teacher librarian without a library? – Is she not a fantastic teacher with an expertise in IT, inquiry learning and cutting edge program design.  Surely without a library she is still at her core a teacher librarian.

Books will always be available, computers will always be in classrooms and a good teacher librarian will always be better than a plain teacher.

So while they can take the teacher out of the library they will never take the library out of the teacher!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teacher Librarians and The Convergence of Literacies in the 21st century

Demonstrate your understanding of the role of the teacher librarian with regards to the convergence of literacies in the 21st century.

There is consensus among experts that the role of a teacher librarian or library media specialist (Harvey, 2009) is multi-faceted.  According to Purcell (2010) and Cooper and Bray (2011) the four key roles of the school library media specialist are defined in Information Power (1998) as teacher, instructional partner, information specialist and program administrator.  According to Lamb (2011) the role is more diverse than this and also incorporates the roles of promoting school volunteerism, curriculum director and government and grant officer.

The clearest depiction of the role of a school librarian is seen in the circle diagram of Herring (2007).  Relying heavily on the Australian School Library Association (ASLA), the Australian Library and Information Association’s (ALIA) Standards of Professional Excellence (2011) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) School Library Manifesto Herring incorporates “budget manager” and “staff manager” into the role of teacher librarian.  He also adds “website developer” to the role which goes above and beyond the position of website administrator or contributor offered by other authors.

In all of these role descriptors the teacher librarian is expected to “have the state-of-the-art technical and pedagogical expertise to engage 21st century learners” (Gaver, n.d., p.3) while also providing students with the ability to “develop critical thinking skills”, “evaluate and analyze (sic) the information at hand” and perform the mental process required to “change knowledge from information to concept” (Bomar, 2010, p 72).

This transliteracy means that teacher librarians are responsible for the relationship between people, technology and the social meaning of literacy in past, present and future modalities (Ipri, 2010).  They are also responsible for bringing together the old and the new in an establishment where they and their colleagues never experienced the sort of school library program the profession advocates today (Lance, 2010).

A teacher librarian in the 21^st century is not just responsible for reviewing, buying,cataloging, shelving, dusting, locating and repairing books, (Buzzeo, 2007) but rather they are expected to stay abreast of the proliferation of new technologies and literacies.  They need to have a working knowledge of digital citizenship, copyright laws, privacy conventions, intellectual property rights, and electronic publishing (de Groot & Branch, 2011).  In addition to this it is also expected that they be multi-literate and able to converse in meta-literacy, active participants in social media and collaborative online community members, (Mackey & Jacobson 2011), have a working knowledge of cyber safety, Web 2.0 and be experts in an array of software on multiple platforms (Linworth, 2012).

In short, I understand my role as a teacher librarian to be varied and diverse.  I am the person who must create a school library which is flexible and personal for students and teachers (O’Connel, 2012) while bringing pedagogical order and harmony to the multi-media clutter of information.  I am responsible for crafting challenging learning opportunities for my students while helping them to use the virtual world, as well as traditional information sources so that the students of today are prepared for living, working and learning in the world of tomorrow. (Gaver, n.d).

References

Bomar, S. (2010). A school-wide instructional framework for evaluating sources. Knowledge Quest, 38(3), 72-75.

Buzzeo, T. (2007). Literacy and the Changing Role of the Elementary Library Media Specialist. Library Media Connection, 25(7) 18-19.

de Groot, J.; & Branch, J. L (2011). Looking toward the future: competences for 21st-century teacher librarians. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 57(3), 288-297.

Gaver, M. (n.d.) School libraries, now more than ever: A position paper of the center for international scholarship in school libraries. Retrieved from http://www.nmm.net/TheImportanceofSchoolLibraries.pdf

Harvey, C. (2009). Hands on handout: What should an administrator expect a school library media specialist to be?Library Media Connection, October, 45.

Ipri T. (2010) Introducing transliteracy. College & Research Libraries News, 71(10), 532–567.

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.), Libraries in the twenty-first century :Charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Lamb, A (2011). Bursting with potential: Mixing media specialist’s palette. TechTrends, 55(4), 27 – 35.

Lance, K.C. (2010). The mind of a researcher. Teacher Librarian, 37(4), 81-82.

Linworth (2012). Where do I start? A school library handbook. Santa Clara County Office of Education Learning Multimedia Center.

Mackey, T.P., & Jacobson, T.E. (2011). Reframing information literacy as a metaliteracy. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62–78.

O’Connell, J. (2012) Learning without frontiers: School libraries and meta-literacy in actionAccess, 26(1), 4-7.

Purcell, M. (2010) All librarians do is check out books, right? A look at the role of a school library media specialist. Library Media Connection, November/December, 30 – 33

Google TV

I await with both trepidation and anticipation the arrival of Google TV to the mass market in Australia.

I wait with trepidation because at the moment I watch precious little TV as there is very little worth watching other than ABC Iview and this may cause me to find a lot more worthy content to view and thus take up time.

I wait with anticipation though because I am hoping it opens a whole new world of reality based non fiction viewing for our students and encourages them to use their viewing time to learn not just soak up cartoons.

I know that a picture speaks a thousand words so I am hoping this new tv platform speaks a Googol.

We are in the digital age.

I found it so poignant this evening when thinking about the role of a teacher librarian introducing students of 2012 to e-resources, technologies and other students blogs to look up from my iPad to see my daughter and her cousing sharing a Nintendo DS, my other niece on a Samsung Tablet, my husband and son playing chess on an additional iPad and my sister in law texting on her Blackberry.  I wondered where my brother in law was but he was in an adjoining room on a desktop computer chatting to a friend on Skype.

I realised that it is not a case of us teaching the students about the technology but trying to keep up with it.