In writing my final paper for ETL401, I have enountered a task that requires me to examine the standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians developed by the Australian School Library Association and Australian Library and Information Association. Wow, only a task like this could get me to practically memorize the 12 standards and consider their impact on student learning outcomes!
In collecting resources and reading what experts have to say about how libraries affect student learning outcomes, I have found some pieces that I think are important. I wanted to reference them here so I don't lose sight of them!
I absolutely loved the article by Brian Kenney where he interviews Ross Todd. Ross Todd, being an expert in evidence based practice, was quite convincing. What I liked most though, and what sparked this train of thought, is when he talked about how he asked one random woman in an audience when he was speaking. He said, in a hypothetical situation, that the district is all abuzz about school-librarians being cut, and directly asked her, "How does your school district really impact on student achievement? Look, I'm aware of all of those studies out there, but tell me bout your school district, what evidence do you have that your school district, your library, really matters in the instructional landscape?" He said the audience was in terror. I would be, but it's an excellent question.
I'm not sure if the following articles provide the best examples, but they give me an idea of how I might answer that question, eventually. Grant Elementary School (Scott, 2007) documented their process in how they have attempted to make a an improvement in student learning outcomes by focusing on the library. While they cite a lot of general research out there, they explain how they worked to develop a more effective library curriculum that directly addresses student learning outcomes. Doing so had improved the understanding of the role of the teacher-librarian, created a culture of collaboration, and has heightened the leadership involvement of the teacher-librarian. Student results are yet to be determined, but it was a nice account of how one school is trying to answer Todd's question above.
Another account was about the practices of the Joe Townsley Library at Simsbury High School, which won the National School Library Media Program of the Year in 2008. They have observed improvement on test scores which can be attributed to collaborative practices on what they call "assured experiences" between the library and teachers. The article highlights how they identified skills to integrate into the library curriculum, collaborated with teachers, and ways they support students and teachers in general through PD, meetings, and individualized support. Even more, they document the way they do their own self-evaluation, and ways they have collected evidence to support their practice.
Both of these articles serve as a guide for my own professional practice as a teacher-librarian, as I embark on how to create a program that can improve student learning.
Kenney, B. (2006). Ross to the rescue! Rutgers’ Ross Todd’s quest to renew school libraries. School Library Journal, 52(4), 44-47.
Scott, K. J., & Plourde, L. A. (2007). School libraries and increased student achievement: What’s the big idea? Education, 127(3), 419-429.
Snyder, M. M., & Roche, J. (2008). Road map for improvement: Evaluating your library media program. Knowledge Quest, 27(2), 22-27.
I was just rereading one of the first articles from my ETL401 class about the role of the teacher librarian (TL). I had a note there which was about the role of the TL as a curriculum leader. The text described one view of the TL as a curriculum leader in that he or she worked to promote information literacy development in the school. Not just plan, teach, and evaluate collaboratively with teachers, but to work with principals and senior staff to ensure the school's focus and emphasis on information literacy. This came from Learning for the future (ASLA 2003). My initial response was that I did not see myself in the TL position as a curriculum leader. I felt it was an equal partnership with teachers.
Recently when working on my ETL501 paper, and analyzing what I've learned about my own information literacy skills (well, I was looking at the skills I employed during, and got into some pretty interesting articles), I've come to realize that my own research strategies are lacking. I always thought I was pretty good, but they could be so much better. I found a few studies which analyzed the search strategies of prospective teachers and college students. I am not alone! It seems so many prospective teachers (and I'm assuming many people in general) use "casual" search strategies like my own. We rely on one main search engine, and just use keywords for the most part. Another article explained that many people use similar search strategies, and don't seek to improve them because they are content with what they are doing. It works. However, I've learned about search engine optimization, and how relying on one search engine can really give you skewed results in such a discreet way.
In reading these articles and working on this paper, I've learned that I need to become an advocate for improving the search strategies of my school community. It sounds like a daunting task. However, in order for students to become more effective and aware of the searches they are doing, they need to see that their teachers and peers are also using these strategies. If I don't take on this task, who will?
This brings me back to the first article I was referring to in the first paragraph. I can see that at first, I was feeling reluctant to take on leadership in curriculum. However, I've learned that there are some areas that really fall under the expertise of the librarian. These things cannot be expected to be handled equally with classroom teachers, as they are busy and it doesn't really fall under their "umbrella." Everyone's got their area of expertise, and I should not feel reluctant to recognize what might become my responsibility (by default). I'm beginning to see the need for leadership in some areas for the TL.
Cahill, K., & Chalut, R. (2009) Optimal Results: What libraries need to know about Google and search engine optimization, The Reference Librarian, 50: 3, 234-247.
Martzoukou, K. (2008) Students' Attitudes Toward Web Search Engines - Increasing Appreciation of Sophisticated Search Engines, Libri, 58, 182-201.
Şahin, A., Çermik, H., & Doğan, B. (2009) Crawling in the virtual environment: prospective teachers' usage of Google search engine, Egitim Arastirmalari - Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 35, 77-92.
I'm writing my final paper for ETL501. I've just created a pathfinder for a grade 4 class at my local school. It didn't seem like too daunting of a task, in fact, I quite enjoyed it. What I'm finding particularly challenging right now, however, is having to write part two, which involves reflecting on the process of creating the pathfinder. Particularly, having to support all of my work with academic literature--this part is killing me!
To be quite honest, I'm not a fan of having to support all of my ideas with academic literature, but I suppose that it's good to know the research. As a librarian especially, I should be able to back up all of my ideas and good practice with professional references. I find this to be redundant though, in a way. I'm probably doing this backwards, but I've worked on the task, and am planning my papers (so I know what I want to say) but I'm not using the literature to give me ideas. I'm writing my ideas and then trying to find literature to support them. Seems backwards doesn't it? I dont think it will be a big problem though, because I believe there will be literature to support any of my ideas. It's like how some people say you can cite statistics to support any claim. I think literature works the same way. There has been research on so many topics, surely there will be some literature to support my arguments (unless I'm completely off the wall!).
Anyway, in writing this paper and the many coming up in the next few weeks, I'm finding that I'm having to reflect on how I function as a student. I haven't quite found a system that works for me in my research. Do I use online tools like Noodlebib, do I just type up my notes and reorganize, do I physically write out note cards? How do I go about this? I certainly don't feel like I'm following the information literacy models that we are studying in ETL401. I have, however, identified well with Kuhlthau's emotional markers in the Information Search Process (going from apprehension, to confusion, uncertainty, optimism, confidence and increased interest, to relief and satisfaction).
I have worked with a lot of web 2.0 tools as a homeroom elementary teacher. The challenge for me, however, is to now look at all of this from the perspective of the teacher librarian. Blogs, wikis, and podcasts have become well integrated into my school’s culture. However, I have not done a very good job of using social bookmarking in an effective way, both personally and professionally.
I have used Del.icio.us for quite some time. I love having access to my bookmarks from anywhere, and I love being able to share sites with friends. I also love being able to see what my friends are linking to. I see so much potential to social bookmarking.
When students have access to teacher bookmarks (assuming it’s an education account), they can see a model of sites we have preselected, and can view our descriptions to decide if the site is appropriate for them. Social bookmarking allows students to practice evaluation of resources. Could social bookmarking be an alternative (or take the place of) pathfinders? Imagine the possibilities and skills in place when students are able to locate and socially bookmark sites on specific topics, with appropriate annotations and tags. While I haven’t been able to access Diigo or Furl (I’ll get to that), I’ve read that there is a teacher account (on Diigo) where you can set up a class with a bulk number of student accounts. These students would only have access to this class community. I understand the same situation exists with BuddyMarks.
I think there are several challenges with social bookmarking. While I am a big user of del.icio.us, my bookmarks are so disorganized! I have organized and reorganized them, but the tag categorization process is not working for me. I have too many tags! Thank goodness for the search tool. If I have trouble with using tags, I wonder if it will be even more challenging for young students (or in some ways, it might just be more natural for them)? I can also see how this would work nicely for a classroom teacher with a set number of students as the community is set and controlled. I’m not sure how this would work for a teacher librarian. Is there a way that all students and teachers could have access to the librarian’s bookmarks? I’m not sure that Diigo or BuddyMarks gets that complex in its access management. Finally, I am an expat teacher living and working in China. I can’t get access to Diigo or Furl for the same reasons (I think) that I can’t get to Youtube, Blogspot or Facebook. So many websites are blocked. Living here, it is always unpredictable as to what web sites I’ll have access to from one day to the next. In developing countries where censorship is actively practiced, this is always something that we have to strongly consider when relying on web 2.0 tools. In lieu of social bookmarking, we have relied heavily on posting information on wikis and blogs that are stored on our servers in-house.
(This is coming about because in my ETL501 class we are looking at web 2.0 tools)
There are so many interesting topics in this section that it's hard to narrow down. I've been dabbling in these web 2.0 tools for about 7 years now, as a homeroom teacher for students ranging from age 8-11. We've worked with wikis, blogs, podcasting, and have even dabbled in social networking a bit (with primary students!). Web 2.0 has developed so many interesting ways to learn and engage with each other. The challenge for me now is to look at this from the teacher librarian's perspective.
First of all, no, a teacher librarian cannot afford to ignore web 2.0. I don’t think anyone can. The web is no longer just a portal to the library, or a place to collect information. It is a major means of communication and productivity. I cannot function (for long) without being online, as I have personally grown very dependent on web 2.0 tools.
As an expat living overseas, social networking has become a primary way that I stay in touch with my family and friends around the world. While some might think it’s a bit sad, a good portion of my “social life” had gone online due to the nature of my lifestyle and the advent of new technologies. I communicate with friends and share pictures or video using tools like Facebook, Viddler, Picassa, Twitter, Plurk, not to mention my email and chat apps like Google and Yahoo. Since there are so many social networks to keep track of, I use ping.fm to update my statuses across social networks so that I don’t have to log onto each one separately.
For my personal productivity, I use several web 2.0 tools. I use an online password management system to keep track of my personal information, because these days with so many web sites, there are a ridiculous amount of passwords to keep track of. I use online social bookmarking because I may surf the web from different computers. I don’t use this functionality to the fullest.
With work, I also rely on many online tools. My students (9-10 years old) blog weekly about their reflections in learning as well as just to jot down the details of day to day life. They comment on each others’ blog entries, and are anxious to see what their friends have written. Many even monitor comments, deciding which are approrpriate to post and which are not. Our students and parents use the school wiki as a regular tool. It has newsletter-type information that is updated sometimes daily, contains handouts for parents, project information, and showcases student work. In some cases, student work IS on the wiki. Even with teachers, we have used Google docs quite often to record anecdotal information about students when there has been a lot of collaborative and cross-class teaching.
There are major limitations to using web 2.0 tools, however. Once you develop a reliance on these tools, life becomes very difficult when you no longer have access to them. It’s more than just not finding a wifi-spot. Since I have moved to China (5 years now), I have been constantly frustrated with internet censorship. My social networks are blocked. Some of my productivity applications have been intermittently blocked (Google apps, Youtube, Wikipedia, etc.). Even as a distance education student pursuing a Masters degree, I am constantly at a disadvantage when I am referred to resources online that are blocked (i.e. pbwiki, blogspot). Yes, I have found workarounds to get me past the blockages, but these are not always reliable, as the nation cracks down on such services. Not having access to some web sites and online tools has meant that I lose contact with friends and family, can’t be as productive of a teacher as I have been, and am restricted in my education.
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