LIBE 477B: Developing World Libraries / Mobile devices

One of the takeaways from my exploration of mobile devices for education being implemented in economically developing nations is to not take the technology lightly. It seems there are careful ways to get technology into the hands of students in these nations without resorting to a universal approach. Keengwe notes that “technology tools and applications that are familiar in developed nations may pose unique challenges in developing countries, so ‘one size fits all’ or ‘one technology for all contexts’ does not practically work.” (2014). Keengwe also discusses the different context for these mobile technologies depending on where you look, with schools in Africa and schools in Finland showing very different contexts (2014).

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of Justin Parmelee

I think much if this relates directly to potentially transforming the library. Depending on the school, I imagine a library may be limited, mixed-us, or potentially non-existent. Richardson’s suggestion to “rethink assessment” comes into play here once again: “Stop asking questions that can be answered by a Google search” (2014) - this is a sentiment that I believe may be amplified by a developing nation school receiving access to mobile technologies for the first time; their teachers will want to address this head on.

It also opens up a host of challenges that we increasingly face as Teacher-Librarians in the modern school system. Discussions surrounding digital literacy, information literacy, fair use, plagiarism, and internet safety are all suddenly on the table with new access to these technologies, perhaps even amplified by the unfamiliarity and novelty of the mobile technology.



Works Cited

Keengwe, J. (12/01/2014). Mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education Springer.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Conferences Publishing.

Parmelee, J. (Photographer). (2010). Glowing Keyboard [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/7GucS3

LIBE 477B: Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: On-going Professional Development

This question of professional development and library support is an ongoing conversation in Surrey school district. This year in particular, there has been a roll-out of several brand new ADST materials sent to all schools in the district, and in many cases it has fallen on the Teacher-Librarian to manage these resources.

There have been some initiatives to help teachers become more confident with these tools, including several opportunities for after school workshops and pro-D put on by our district helping teachers. Even beyond the scope of my own school, I have been active in contributing to these workshops as an “expert” (their words not mine!) to answer questions and demonstrate the tool.

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of thepigs

I mentioned this in our weekly chats, but two of the big takeaways I have learned from working with these new materials from a pro-d perspective are:

• The students will help you discover how to use them! 
• Beyond the basics, students are almost always keen to jump in and start exploring right away, and they can help you figure out options or techniques that you didn’t even know existed. I know when using Bloxels for the first time, I was very open about not quite knowing how certain features worked at the time, and asked the students to let me know if they figured it out so we could share with the class.

• Exploratory time is massively helpful to my own pro-d with new technology tools.
• Taking the resource home or spending some time exploring and working with it is a very good way to become more familiar with how it works. Back to the same example of Bloxels, it is an intimidating app to start using, but spending the time “playing” in the app was a great way for me to become a lot more familiar with it and teach my colleagues how to use it.

Bloxels video tutorials
http://kids.bloxelsbuilder.com/all-tutorials

Sample lesson (Other lessons need an education account)
http://www.bloxelsbuilder.com/choose-your-own-adventure



Works Cited

thepigs (Photographer). (2012). analogue pixels [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/q1zRnu

LIBE447B: Developing your own ICT Skills and Pedagogy

Ongoing Skills development and Pedagogy are important aspects of being an educator. There are many ways to do this, but one way that has been helping me this school year are various professional networks of other teachers.

This year, I have been a part of the Surrey Schools mentorship program for both new and new-to-role teachers in the librarian cohort. This is a slightly different mentoring style that involves 2-3 mentors and several mentees, rather than one-on-one. This relationship has been very helpful in my first year as a teacher librarian, both for lesson and layout ideas as well as having a support network to bounce ideas off of and see what others are doing. If you are part of Surrey School District, I highly recommend the program.To find out more, please check the link below.

https://mentor36.com/

I am also part of a large email thread of all the teacher librarians in the district, which functions like a message board. Everyone has an account on the basis of needing it for work, which is both good and bad; it risks cluttering email inboxes and messages getting skipped. I am wondering if a different medium might be more efficient for the same functionality, but for what it is I think it works well for asking a question or starting a short discussion. As a new TL, this has been great for a quick question or resource share.

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of jon satrom

One challenge area for me is becoming more active on broader professional networks such as twitter, if nothing else but to follow and contribute. I see the value in these networks but I sometimes find it difficult to properly engage and feel like I am contributing.

Another area I hope to improve upon is sharing and putting my work out there in a general sense. As Richardson notes in Why School?, “We can raise the teaching profession by sharing what works, taking the best of what we do and hanging it on the virtual wall” (2012). It’s so great to see lessons and other materials shared by other teachers, so it only makes sense to do the same.

Earlier this year, I shared a full lesson centered around the book Faraway Fox by Jolene Thompson that incorporates core competencies and a STEM activity. We put it up on the book of the year website (see last post), although when those areas update for next year it will likely change. Here it is again if you are looking for a lesson to try:

Works Cited

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Conferences Publishing.

Satrom, J. (Photographer). (2011). Reconnecting... [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/aWNi6e

LIBE 447B: Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools

There are a number of initiatives that we have been doing in our library learning commons, some being carried over from the previous school year before I arrived in this position. In this post I will share a few of them along with potential changes we could make here and there.

We have an “EZ reading” category present in the library, and I have had some reluctance about continuing with that system. I find that it could be potentially embarrassing for students reading at a slightly lower level if they find themselves needing to go to the “EZ” section to find a book. I also do not want students to feel “restricted” to just this section. The issue I have been facing with this is the labeling - all books in the section are tagged with the EZ classification sticker along the spine, and making broad changes is not an easy task.

I am very supportive of free book choice in the library. I will often let students take books that are at their interest, but potentially above their reading level. Instead of not allowing students to take the book, I will often recommend a second book to go along with the first.

I think this ties in to the much broader discussion of book leveling. This is a huge topic, but one of the potential downsides is having students feel restricted. In the article “Leveled Text: The Good News and the Bad News”, Brabham notes “some teachers described school or classroom collections of books sorted by reading levels that confine students to browsing and reading in a color-coded or level-designated range" and "such practices deny students the opportunity to develop strategies and motivation to locate and immerse themselves in appealing literature" (2002). In this case, it is not a leveled system in the traditional sense (just an EZ section), but it does offer some of the same drawbacks. I was considering a possible reclassification of this section in the future, but for now it remains as it is.

State Library in Stuttgart, Germany. From Stadtbibliothek, Stuttgart, by J. Urdaneta, 2014, https://flic.kr/p/j4xLvx Copyright 2014 by J. Urdaneta.

In another example of fostering a reading culture, our school participated in the “book of the year” vote for our district this school year. Several books are chosen as nominees by a committee, and students get a chance to vote for their favourite book in the month of May. I think this has been a great way to encourage a reading culture centered around these particular books, and gives students common ground to share and discuss their favourites. New to this year was the narrative nonfiction vote, which incorporated nonfiction titles into the mix. I have the links to the info pages for each vote below (the grade 4-7 fiction page has already been updated to next year, but you can find that below as well. Overall, I think this has been a very successful program, and I hope to continue with it in the future.

Links:
Surrey Schools’ Picture Book of the Year Website:
https://sites.google.com/view/surreyreads

Surrey Schools’ Narrative Nonfiction Book of the Year Website:
https://sites.google.com/view/surreyreadsnonfiction

Surrey Schools’ Book of the Year Website:
https://thessboy.weebly.com/


Works Cited

Brabham, E. G., & Villaume, S. K. (2002). Leveled Text: The Good News and the Bad News. Reading Teacher, 55(5), 438-41.

Urdaneta, J. (Photographer). (2014). Stadtbibliothek, Stuttgart. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/j4xLvx