Here I am at the end. Or the beginning, I guess. It's a good but nerve-wracking feeling!
I started this course with just a vague sense of what a teacher-librarian is and each week as I explored our assigned topics and read the posts of my peers, I learned more and more. And the amazing part, to me, was that each new thing I learned made me feel assured that I have chosen the right path to be on at this time in my life. I am up to the challenge of learning the technology, doing the work, and sharing it with others.
The most important elements of the course that I will take with me are the connections that I have made with other teacher-librarians, a growing understanding of how I can use Twitter to my benefit as a teacher, and the encouragement to really embrace the concept of being a lifelong learner. When you are taking a course, reading articles, and blogging about your learning, it really keeps you motivated to be a catalyst for change. And really, there are so many technologies that I have learned about and used this term that I am thankful for: Digg reader, Symbaloo, PowToon, etc.
And speaking of change, I started my new 40% position as a teacher-librarian last week. I am excited and hopeful for the ideas that I can bring to this school. I am hoping that my continued connections with my PLC and my growth-mindset will tide me over as I continue to take LIBE courses one at a time while working. :)
To remind you, I created this partly for administration but also to be able to use as an intro on my [new] blog as I start working in this new position as the teacher-librarian at TLA. Who will be reading this new blog? Hopefully, parents and other staff alike! This is my audience. I think that sharing my intended direction with the TLA community will help me stick to my plans.
Without further ado:
(I see it's partially covered by my sidebar so feel free to
click HERE)
Do you ever spend all kinds of time on something only to discover it's been done and done better than what you've created? Haha. On Sunday, I had that video above completed but part-way through, I write "More on that later" in regards to developing the online learning commons. So I wanted to do more - a "part two" to my introduction video that fleshed out what a learning commons really is.
Yesterday, I spent all day (much to my 4 year old's chagrin) working on "part two" and halfway through, I discovered such a great PowToon video that said exactly what I was trying say! Well, I will literally just show this other person's wonderful video to our admin. My "part two" video was beginning to branch into a more personal description of my ideas for my school's space/website but I need to put more research into what I think we need in an online learning commons before I can continue on. And really, I just need to get the above project shared! Like I said in my previous post, you can just keep going and going!
So essentially, my final project was my introduction to my vision video above. But so as to not leave you hanging, I'm willing to share my "project : part two" unfinished product to give you an idea of how I spent my time today.
or the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaF9s7xH1hc&rel=0
Thanks to all you, Bears, who have commented and been great inspiration. I hope you continue to blog and/or tweet as I will be following! Thank you, to Mr. Mueller - I appreciate your time, punctuality, clear guidelines, and feedback. When I get my TLA TL blog up and running, I will post the link here for anyone who wants to add it to their Digg reader! :)
the future
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Monday, 7 December 2015
Late but not forgotten: Final Vision Project Contents - aka. the big F.A.I.L
I'm not sure this will even "count" for marks as I am over a week late with this assignment but I've been working on my final project for days and need a blog break!
I had this great idea for creating an action plan/rationale/proposal and then I got stuck. What am I even trying to say? What do I even know about this? It was great to chat a bit about it with my instructor which guided me to start creating more of an introduction to me. This way, the digital artifact could be used on my library blog or the school website, introduce families to me, but also lay out some of the things that I would like to do in the next year or so. This shifted in my potential audience. His other reminder was that things take time. I can't do it all, immediately. Ahh, yes.
I tend to avoid things that I don't know how to start. Because really, how am I going to make this introduction? My first thought was PowerPoint. Haha. I'm old. It's what I know. I thought I could use Jing to be able to talk throughout the presentation. Now, thinking about this again, it's not a bad idea but I had this thought that I needed something fancier. I downloaded Haiku Deck on my iPad and created a title page. I signed up for projeqt but wasn't sure if that was quite the right medium for what I wanted to do. After feeling overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge of these programs and my lack of direction in the project, I walked away. I went and wrote report cards. I dealt with MyEdBC instead of a new technology.
And then I came back. I had my first training day at our resource centre with our current librarian and got a taste of what is currently happening there. I had lunch with one of the tech guys and discussed ideas for the project's medium. He introduced me to Zoom.us which is a video-conferencing tool like a Hangout or Blackboard but you can record yourself talking alone if you're wanting to make a video like that. I thought that maybe I could use this as my tool but left it by the wayside as I didn't think I wanted to be on camera the whole time for this. So where do I go for inspiration when I need ideas? My LIBE477 colleagues! I started checking out your final project blog posts (because you're all always on time and I'm always late! Augh.). I loved how PowToon looks for Jackie's Collaborative Inquiry project and was like, "Yes! This is what I want to use!"
Thankfully, PowToon is pretty user-friendly. It has some similarities to PowerPoint in the way that it's set up as slides which of course, I loved. Haha. But I got in there and came to a halt. What was I even writing about? Here were the notes that I was working from:
I went to Word and began a simple document. YES! This is always where I need to start. I brainstormed, made an outline, THEN moved back over to PowToon.
Now, as I am just finishing up the project, I'm realizing that it could possibly be NEVER finished. Did anyone else find this? Technically, I could keep going forever: editing, adding, etc. At some point, I'm going to be so late on it that I will just have to turn it in as is. And I think that day is today. We'll see where I'm at by 3pm today.
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| image from: https://mmcgrat4.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/meme-project-revised/ |
I tend to avoid things that I don't know how to start. Because really, how am I going to make this introduction? My first thought was PowerPoint. Haha. I'm old. It's what I know. I thought I could use Jing to be able to talk throughout the presentation. Now, thinking about this again, it's not a bad idea but I had this thought that I needed something fancier. I downloaded Haiku Deck on my iPad and created a title page. I signed up for projeqt but wasn't sure if that was quite the right medium for what I wanted to do. After feeling overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge of these programs and my lack of direction in the project, I walked away. I went and wrote report cards. I dealt with MyEdBC instead of a new technology.
And then I came back. I had my first training day at our resource centre with our current librarian and got a taste of what is currently happening there. I had lunch with one of the tech guys and discussed ideas for the project's medium. He introduced me to Zoom.us which is a video-conferencing tool like a Hangout or Blackboard but you can record yourself talking alone if you're wanting to make a video like that. I thought that maybe I could use this as my tool but left it by the wayside as I didn't think I wanted to be on camera the whole time for this. So where do I go for inspiration when I need ideas? My LIBE477 colleagues! I started checking out your final project blog posts (because you're all always on time and I'm always late! Augh.). I loved how PowToon looks for Jackie's Collaborative Inquiry project and was like, "Yes! This is what I want to use!"
Thankfully, PowToon is pretty user-friendly. It has some similarities to PowerPoint in the way that it's set up as slides which of course, I loved. Haha. But I got in there and came to a halt. What was I even writing about? Here were the notes that I was working from:
 |
| Yes - there is no paper in my house that does not have marker all over it. Haha. (#howyouknowyoulivewithkids) |
Now, as I am just finishing up the project, I'm realizing that it could possibly be NEVER finished. Did anyone else find this? Technically, I could keep going forever: editing, adding, etc. At some point, I'm going to be so late on it that I will just have to turn it in as is. And I think that day is today. We'll see where I'm at by 3pm today.
Sunday, 22 November 2015
A Rationale...or a complete shift in the plan...
Well, so much can change in a week, can it not?
Would you believe that three months after I started my first course in my Teacher-Librarianship Diploma program, our school's current teacher-librarian resigned? And would you believe that I would be approached by our admin to step in as the new TL starting in December? No. Too coincidental. BUT IT'S TRUE!
via GIPHY
What now? Does my project change? Do my goals change? Does my audience change? I think it does. Two experiences from this week are the catalysts for the proposal of the development of a new vision project:
(1) This week, I was with a group of friends and announced my big news. Everyone's response was, "An online school has a librarian? What will you even do?"
(2) Yesterday, I spent a number of hours setting up the beginnings of my personal library blog/Pinterest board as discussed in the previous post and I just had this nagging feeling that this wasn't the best use of my final vision project.
What does a DL Resource Librarian do? Do I even know? It's all I've thought about for five days (since getting word on the final decision that I'd be taking this position). I have many ideas of what I'd like to develop and bring to our resource library. In the past, I've proposed ideas to admin that I wanted to implement but they were denied and labeled "something that our TL should do". But now I AM the TL! I can bring these ideas and start something new and fresh! Today, in an effort to procrastinate from writing report cards and completing this blog post, I was googling "organizing a Distributed Learning library" and other similar searches. Then I thought of the largest independent DL school in BC and wondered what their resource library looked like. WELL! They have an awesome, online learning commons page. This LC includes book lists, reading programs, a lending library, an lending ebook library, digital unit plans for parents to use in their homeschooling, book clubs that are run through online mediums like Blackboard and Blogger, and much, much more. I don't need to reinvent the DL-LC wheel! I have those who have gone before me in my very specific field. I already have plans to connect with this school's TL.
Our library is 2 years old. It has had intense growing pains. And unfortunately, it hasn't had a chance to develop in the ways that it needs to for lack of TIME! Currently, the TL of our school orders your books. She barcodes and catalogues those books. She ships you the books that you ordered (if you live out of the lower mainland). She organizes those books when they are returned. She builds the library by purchasing resources that she deems excellent. And so far, I don't think there has been much time (or vision?) for anything else.
I have the luxury of walking into a blossoming library with a solid foundation. There is SO much that can and should be developed to meet the rising standards of a DL school's learning commons. Before taking this class, I had a misconception of teacher-librarians. I had never heard that "libraries" are slowly transforming into "learning commons". If the average person doesn't know what our TL does nor how our resource library works, why will they use it? If our administration doesn't see how libraries are changing and how this could serve our teachers and parents in a much better way, why would they invest in it?
My vision project is going to literally be a VISION project. I am going to create a presentation that gives a vision for our school's online learning commons. This will educate in an overview of how libraries are changing. It will also include the suggestion of how the development of the learning commons aligns with our school vision and mission.
The digital format I'm going to use is still to be determined. I signed up for projeqt account and downloaded Haiku Deck but I think that whatever platform I use, I'll need something that I can talk over to describe what the slides mean. I was thinking about using Jing for element of the presentation this which gives me a 5 minute window. Perhaps I can create a few Jing videos.
My audience: will grow. I'm going to start with our principal and our four department vice principals with the goal of spreading my vision! It's really a proposal for the ways that this LC needs to develop and how we can do it. After I see how the presentation is received, I hope to be able to present it (or a portion of it) to my colleagues with the goal of helping them understand how they can access and use the learning commons to develop their families' learning plans. As the learning commons is developed (likely, this portion would be in the 2016/17 school year), I hope that portions of the original presentation will still be able to be used for sharing with parents to educate them in what a learning commons is and how to make the most of the resources we have. Because this presentation is essentially a proposal for changes that we should made, really my audience will end up being the whole school community as they will get to watch the changes made in real-time and benefit from them in years to come.
Would you believe that three months after I started my first course in my Teacher-Librarianship Diploma program, our school's current teacher-librarian resigned? And would you believe that I would be approached by our admin to step in as the new TL starting in December? No. Too coincidental. BUT IT'S TRUE!
via GIPHY
What now? Does my project change? Do my goals change? Does my audience change? I think it does. Two experiences from this week are the catalysts for the proposal of the development of a new vision project:
(1) This week, I was with a group of friends and announced my big news. Everyone's response was, "An online school has a librarian? What will you even do?"
(2) Yesterday, I spent a number of hours setting up the beginnings of my personal library blog/Pinterest board as discussed in the previous post and I just had this nagging feeling that this wasn't the best use of my final vision project.
What does a DL Resource Librarian do? Do I even know? It's all I've thought about for five days (since getting word on the final decision that I'd be taking this position). I have many ideas of what I'd like to develop and bring to our resource library. In the past, I've proposed ideas to admin that I wanted to implement but they were denied and labeled "something that our TL should do". But now I AM the TL! I can bring these ideas and start something new and fresh! Today, in an effort to procrastinate from writing report cards and completing this blog post, I was googling "organizing a Distributed Learning library" and other similar searches. Then I thought of the largest independent DL school in BC and wondered what their resource library looked like. WELL! They have an awesome, online learning commons page. This LC includes book lists, reading programs, a lending library, an lending ebook library, digital unit plans for parents to use in their homeschooling, book clubs that are run through online mediums like Blackboard and Blogger, and much, much more. I don't need to reinvent the DL-LC wheel! I have those who have gone before me in my very specific field. I already have plans to connect with this school's TL.
Our library is 2 years old. It has had intense growing pains. And unfortunately, it hasn't had a chance to develop in the ways that it needs to for lack of TIME! Currently, the TL of our school orders your books. She barcodes and catalogues those books. She ships you the books that you ordered (if you live out of the lower mainland). She organizes those books when they are returned. She builds the library by purchasing resources that she deems excellent. And so far, I don't think there has been much time (or vision?) for anything else.
I have the luxury of walking into a blossoming library with a solid foundation. There is SO much that can and should be developed to meet the rising standards of a DL school's learning commons. Before taking this class, I had a misconception of teacher-librarians. I had never heard that "libraries" are slowly transforming into "learning commons". If the average person doesn't know what our TL does nor how our resource library works, why will they use it? If our administration doesn't see how libraries are changing and how this could serve our teachers and parents in a much better way, why would they invest in it?
 |
| image from: http://www.bythebrooks.ca/leading-learning-in-the-school-library-learning-commons/ |
The digital format I'm going to use is still to be determined. I signed up for projeqt account and downloaded Haiku Deck but I think that whatever platform I use, I'll need something that I can talk over to describe what the slides mean. I was thinking about using Jing for element of the presentation this which gives me a 5 minute window. Perhaps I can create a few Jing videos.
My audience: will grow. I'm going to start with our principal and our four department vice principals with the goal of spreading my vision! It's really a proposal for the ways that this LC needs to develop and how we can do it. After I see how the presentation is received, I hope to be able to present it (or a portion of it) to my colleagues with the goal of helping them understand how they can access and use the learning commons to develop their families' learning plans. As the learning commons is developed (likely, this portion would be in the 2016/17 school year), I hope that portions of the original presentation will still be able to be used for sharing with parents to educate them in what a learning commons is and how to make the most of the resources we have. Because this presentation is essentially a proposal for changes that we should made, really my audience will end up being the whole school community as they will get to watch the changes made in real-time and benefit from them in years to come.
Sunday, 15 November 2015
And here we are: final project scope - thinking aloud
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| comic from: http://tbdteacher.tumblr.com/post/90871407364/forget-21st-century-learning-make-it-real |
A lot of my ideas feel small - like, these are just for my own benefit or the benefit of a few. Some of my ideas seem to lack vision of the future but they meet the criteria of being a digital resource that I can share. I feel like this whole blog/course has been a brainstorm for this project therefore repeating my ideas here will seem redundant. I could use some honest feedback but no one I've talked to "gets it" because they're not in the class! So where should I go for feedback? To you, my LIBE447 colleagues. This is just intended to be a brainstorm - not THE final project so are are three main ideas that I've thought most about. Don't hold back. :)
Idea 1: Build community by getting my personal library ONLINE as a local resource for families who homeschool.
Here's an idea that seems maybe too self-benefiting but would be totally amazing for me, my school, and the families I work with:
> What if I catalogue all my personal books (I have a ton of novels and picture books) PLUS all my teacher resources into a website of some kind? When a child wants to learn about oceans, mom or dad can open my site as a starting place to see what I have about oceans. When mom or dad need art project ideas, they can open my site to see what books I have about artists or art lesson teacher resources I have to borrow. I'm local, I don't charge late fees, and I have experience with the resource that I have shared on the site.
-- this project gives me a platform for helping parents develop meaningful learning experiences using the resources that I have and know.
-- the technology would entail a Pinterest account that would have folders (or pages) such as "Teaching Art", "Novels for grade 4/5", etc. with photos of my resources in them. Then the link from the picture would take a person to my blog where I've blogged about that resource, written a description, or showed photos of how it has been used in the past.
> audience: parents and other teachers I work with
Do you think this project meets the criteria for this final project? Or any idea on how I could make this project fit the criteria?
Idea 2: Create a "course" for DL teachers in our school.
> I've blogged about this numerous times now but this idea has stemmed from my discovery of the 23Things courses created as "...a self-discovery program which encourages staff to take control of their own learning and to utilize their lifelong learning skills through exploration and PLAY. There will be no classes or workshops offered to support this program. Instead, staff are encouraged to work together and share with each other their discoveries, techniques, and "how to's" both in person and through their blogs."
> For this project, I would brainstorm with colleagues and administration about the main 23 things to learn about that would be the best technologies to aid in our job as DL teachers and I would develop a "course" for working through these 23 "things". I could incorporate new technologies that I have learned from this class in with ones that we need to know for our job.
-- I think this would work best as a blog?
> audience: DL teachers that I work with
Is this too narrow?
Idea 3: Develop a PD workshop to teach colleagues about the main ideas from Will Richardson's Why School?.
This is an idea that encompasses what I have learned from this course plus embodies my vision for learning in the 21st century plus, teaching a workshop scares me. That seems to be part of this final project... ;) I would teach this workshop either in one of our online staff meetings or during our January staff conference. But how do I present it as a digital artifact? Would it be a video? A PowerPoint? What are your thoughts?
Also, my first reaction to this proposed idea is that I'm definitely not an expert in this area. I've literally never tried most of the things that Richardson suggests for "new school" learners because I'm not currently teaching in a classroom. Is this worth my time to create a presentation around this topic when Will Richardson has created videos/TedTalks about this topic and presents it much better? I suppose I would bring my own DL spin on it.
Hmm...thinking aloud. It's most helpful when someone is around to respond! :) Thanks in advance for your opinions.
Friday, 6 November 2015
Reflections on Phase 2: it's ALL take away!
Today, I took the time to go back and read each of my Inquiry blog posts. Taking the time to think about some of these topics and really explore how and what we can do to improve in each one has been such a practical process. I've taken something away from almost each topic.
FOSTERING A READING CULTURE:
Take away: Even though I'm not in the home with my students, I still can have an impact on the development of a reading culture in homeschooling. Reading this list of things that I currently do and have done in the past, it made me realize that I should continue providing experiences like Author of the Month studies and getting kids together to talk about books. And I have a farther reach than just my own 25 students - what about the 500+ students in our school? After reading some other LIBE477 students' blogs, I have more ideas for ways that I could help foster whole school reading challenges and activities.
New avenue for development: I plan to spend some quality time on connecting my students over Symbaloo and VoiceThread. I think it would be so amazing to have all the 100 Books to Read in Kindergarten as picture icons on a Symbaloo for my kindergarteners to record their favourite parts of books. How great would an Author of the Month unit be if all the author's books were posted as icons on Symbaloo where my students could click on the latest Mo Willems book they'd read and hear other homeschool students talking about it? This is a major goal for my summer pro-d!
From my peers: I really appreciated all the tangible ideas that I read in my cohorts' blog posts on this topic. Christopher Hunt was generous to share his Reading Extravaganza Challenges and I loved these! As I mentioned above, I'd love to implement some whole school reading challenges and I plan to create something similar to and inspired by Christopher's challenges.
DEVELOPING YOUR OWN ICT SKILLS & PEDAGOGY:
Take away: Essentially, I have done very little to develop my own ICT skills and pedagogy. This class has been eye-opening to all the things that I have been overlooking and chalking up to being "too much work". Jen McLean literally inspired my re-thinking of PLCs from her blog post on this topic and I immediately went out and emailed our assistant VP to get a PLC started again. This has been set up and begins this month! A true take-away from this class, for sure!
New avenue for development: I actually set myself 3 goals in this post and it's good to have this opportunity to go back and reflect on those goals again! I met the PLC goal and definitely started to increase my tweets but have not been doing this weekly. This is something that I think I would get a lot out of in the future after this class is over so I have now set it as something on my calendar as a Sunday pop up to remind me to spend some time on Twitter, reading articles, and searching relevant hashtags. My 3rd goal was to spend time exploring this article and spend time "brewing my own PD". The question is when? I have been thinking a lot of PD for our staff and how I can begin to improve that as my final project. I can see that this would be a great place to start.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS' ICT SKILLS & PEDAGOGY:
Take away: I think the biggest take away from this post (and really from this whole class in general) is that I started this TL Diploma with a really naive view of the role of a teacher librarian and what I started to realize through this post (and really, all the previous posts) is that despite a whole shift in thinking, I am STILL interested in being a TL; even developing a greater passion for this future role. Bronagh Rogan brought up a great point when she said that the position of being a TL can be isolating and that you have to work to ensure that you "promote your willingness to share, collaborate, and learn together". This was impactful to me because my current job of being a DL teacher is isolating! I have taken Bronagh's comment to heart because, even though I'm not yet a TL, I can begin developing the willingness to share and collaborate now!
New avenue for development: When you're taking a course, you're constantly learning new things, getting excited about new things, and wanting to try new things. How do we carry this on AFTER a course is done? I spent a lot of time thinking about the possibilities for developing a 23Things-type "course" for our DL teachers to inspire them to continue developing their ICT skills. I have plans to discuss this more with our VP and figure out if this could be a relevant use of my final project.
DEVELOPING WORLD LIBRARIES/MOBILE DEVICES
Take away: This was a hard post for me to write and it took me hours to research and write it yet it was my poorest blog post yet. Blerg. Can one still take something away from a rough assignment? YES! I realized that I don't spend much time thinking about this topic because I don't feel like there is much I can do. What a terrible attitude. ;) Armee's enthusiasm for this topic was so off the charts which I really appreciated. Sometimes, I question the stats that we read here about far off places like Uganda or South Africa - what does it really look like in the field? I facebooked some friends of mine who have lived in Uganda for about 5 - 6 years and asked them if there are any library initiatives around where they are. I didn't hear back from them in time to post my last post but they sent me some links of initiatives that they've heard off locally - both are book based. I asked if they thought the money that's been put into book-based initiatives would be put to better use by developing better internet. Jeff said that even the poorest people have cell phones but only about 5% would be smartphones but there are lots of cheap smartphone options and data is cheap as well so this will continue to be a growing area. A great point that he made is that no one is going to travel into the city to access a library so internet improvement is "not a better option. It's the only option." Hearing about these things first-hand and hearing how they support the stats that I (and many of you) found, really helps me get behind researching and helping organizations who are seeking to make such improvements.
New avenue for development: I asked Jeff and Shannon if they had heard of WorldReader and the schools listed on the Uganda page of the website. If they thought this program would be one worth backing, I'd love to find a way to help and fundraise.
Just one?
If I could pick just one topic from Phase 2 that resonated with me, it would be the development of PD opportunities that are directly useful to the current position that I am in. I don't think there are enough opportunities for PD that are really specific to my unique job and I'd love to get my colleagues excited about the media and technology out there that could really get them thinking about connecting their students with each other and make other real world connections. We need to stop feeling isolated ourselves before we can begin to help homeschooling families feel less isolated as well!
Websites linked in this post:
http://voicethread.com/
https://www.symbaloo.com
http://exlibrismrhunt.blogspot.ca/2015/10/trial-2_4.html
http://learnteachreach.blogspot.ca/2015/10/libe-477b-inquiry-blog-2-plns-anytime.html
https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix
https://blogs.ubc.ca/bronaghslibeblog/2015/10/23/sharing-is-caring/
http://msmlibrarycommons.weebly.com/ms-ms-library-blog/blog-post-4-literacy-libraries-and-tech-around-the-world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Things
http://jeffshan.blogspot.ca/p/living-in-uganda.html
http://www.worldreader.org/
FOSTERING A READING CULTURE:
Take away: Even though I'm not in the home with my students, I still can have an impact on the development of a reading culture in homeschooling. Reading this list of things that I currently do and have done in the past, it made me realize that I should continue providing experiences like Author of the Month studies and getting kids together to talk about books. And I have a farther reach than just my own 25 students - what about the 500+ students in our school? After reading some other LIBE477 students' blogs, I have more ideas for ways that I could help foster whole school reading challenges and activities.
New avenue for development: I plan to spend some quality time on connecting my students over Symbaloo and VoiceThread. I think it would be so amazing to have all the 100 Books to Read in Kindergarten as picture icons on a Symbaloo for my kindergarteners to record their favourite parts of books. How great would an Author of the Month unit be if all the author's books were posted as icons on Symbaloo where my students could click on the latest Mo Willems book they'd read and hear other homeschool students talking about it? This is a major goal for my summer pro-d!
From my peers: I really appreciated all the tangible ideas that I read in my cohorts' blog posts on this topic. Christopher Hunt was generous to share his Reading Extravaganza Challenges and I loved these! As I mentioned above, I'd love to implement some whole school reading challenges and I plan to create something similar to and inspired by Christopher's challenges.
DEVELOPING YOUR OWN ICT SKILLS & PEDAGOGY:
Take away: Essentially, I have done very little to develop my own ICT skills and pedagogy. This class has been eye-opening to all the things that I have been overlooking and chalking up to being "too much work". Jen McLean literally inspired my re-thinking of PLCs from her blog post on this topic and I immediately went out and emailed our assistant VP to get a PLC started again. This has been set up and begins this month! A true take-away from this class, for sure!
New avenue for development: I actually set myself 3 goals in this post and it's good to have this opportunity to go back and reflect on those goals again! I met the PLC goal and definitely started to increase my tweets but have not been doing this weekly. This is something that I think I would get a lot out of in the future after this class is over so I have now set it as something on my calendar as a Sunday pop up to remind me to spend some time on Twitter, reading articles, and searching relevant hashtags. My 3rd goal was to spend time exploring this article and spend time "brewing my own PD". The question is when? I have been thinking a lot of PD for our staff and how I can begin to improve that as my final project. I can see that this would be a great place to start.
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| Image from: https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix |
Take away: I think the biggest take away from this post (and really from this whole class in general) is that I started this TL Diploma with a really naive view of the role of a teacher librarian and what I started to realize through this post (and really, all the previous posts) is that despite a whole shift in thinking, I am STILL interested in being a TL; even developing a greater passion for this future role. Bronagh Rogan brought up a great point when she said that the position of being a TL can be isolating and that you have to work to ensure that you "promote your willingness to share, collaborate, and learn together". This was impactful to me because my current job of being a DL teacher is isolating! I have taken Bronagh's comment to heart because, even though I'm not yet a TL, I can begin developing the willingness to share and collaborate now!
New avenue for development: When you're taking a course, you're constantly learning new things, getting excited about new things, and wanting to try new things. How do we carry this on AFTER a course is done? I spent a lot of time thinking about the possibilities for developing a 23Things-type "course" for our DL teachers to inspire them to continue developing their ICT skills. I have plans to discuss this more with our VP and figure out if this could be a relevant use of my final project.
DEVELOPING WORLD LIBRARIES/MOBILE DEVICES
Take away: This was a hard post for me to write and it took me hours to research and write it yet it was my poorest blog post yet. Blerg. Can one still take something away from a rough assignment? YES! I realized that I don't spend much time thinking about this topic because I don't feel like there is much I can do. What a terrible attitude. ;) Armee's enthusiasm for this topic was so off the charts which I really appreciated. Sometimes, I question the stats that we read here about far off places like Uganda or South Africa - what does it really look like in the field? I facebooked some friends of mine who have lived in Uganda for about 5 - 6 years and asked them if there are any library initiatives around where they are. I didn't hear back from them in time to post my last post but they sent me some links of initiatives that they've heard off locally - both are book based. I asked if they thought the money that's been put into book-based initiatives would be put to better use by developing better internet. Jeff said that even the poorest people have cell phones but only about 5% would be smartphones but there are lots of cheap smartphone options and data is cheap as well so this will continue to be a growing area. A great point that he made is that no one is going to travel into the city to access a library so internet improvement is "not a better option. It's the only option." Hearing about these things first-hand and hearing how they support the stats that I (and many of you) found, really helps me get behind researching and helping organizations who are seeking to make such improvements.
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| Image from http://ink361.com/app/users/ig-221734493/worldreader/photos |
Just one?
If I could pick just one topic from Phase 2 that resonated with me, it would be the development of PD opportunities that are directly useful to the current position that I am in. I don't think there are enough opportunities for PD that are really specific to my unique job and I'd love to get my colleagues excited about the media and technology out there that could really get them thinking about connecting their students with each other and make other real world connections. We need to stop feeling isolated ourselves before we can begin to help homeschooling families feel less isolated as well!
Websites linked in this post:
http://voicethread.com/
https://www.symbaloo.com
http://exlibrismrhunt.blogspot.ca/2015/10/trial-2_4.html
http://learnteachreach.blogspot.ca/2015/10/libe-477b-inquiry-blog-2-plns-anytime.html
https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix
https://blogs.ubc.ca/bronaghslibeblog/2015/10/23/sharing-is-caring/
http://msmlibrarycommons.weebly.com/ms-ms-library-blog/blog-post-4-literacy-libraries-and-tech-around-the-world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Things
http://jeffshan.blogspot.ca/p/living-in-uganda.html
http://www.worldreader.org/
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Developing World Libraries / Mobile devices: how accessible IS the world wide web?
How can mobile devices help libraries in developed nations?
Still thinking about my interest into "23Things" which I talked about in my last post, I discovered this site: 23Mobile Things: Exploring the potential of mobile tools for delivering library services. Sounds right up our alley, right? It looks as though it was developed in 2013. While some of the items sound so simple that we might laugh at it (like "take a photo with a mobile device"), each "thing" has some inquiry questions that really connect the thing to our library. For example, I was rolling my eyes about the suggestion that I explore my phone, take a photograph, then locate it in my camera roll. BUT as I scrolled on through this "thing #2", they asked excellent questions such as, "How easy is it for clients to contribute digital photographs to your library collection (eg. local history)." ...I stopped laughing. Lots of great content on this site to get us thinking about how we're using our mobile devices for the library.
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| Image found at http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/ |
As we have been researching over the last many weeks, it seems that the general shift in libraries is an understanding that we need to embrace the technology and use it to our advantage. I've read about ways that WE, LIBE477, are incorporating technology into our libraries. I can't help but be drawn to the second section of today's assignment...
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| Image from article at: http://www.digitalpromise.org/blog/entry/teacher-librarians-chart-a-new-course-in-vancouver-public-schools |
How can mobile devices help libraries in developing nations?
Mobile devices are on the rise everywhere - not just in the US/Canada. However, according to this study...
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| Image from: http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/04/15/cell-phones-in-africa-communication-lifeline/africa-phones-5/ |
Not only are smartphones uncommon, but access to internet seems to be the biggest hindrance to using computers/tablets/smartphones to access resources.
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| Internet users in 2012 as a percentage of the country's population Image found: http://ow.ly/UjDzP |
The first question seems to be, "How do we get internet to more people?" Check out one of Google's solutions:
As asked for this assignment, however, what is a specific library project happening right now?
I've read about many on your LIBE477 blog posts and found great ones such as "Little Free Libraries" in Uganda and the millions of dollars being spent through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase access to computers in libraries around the world.
But after recognizing the lack of accessible wifi, I discovered an amazing digital library program developed by a company called WorldReader. This company is providing e-readers to individuals, schools, and libraries and they have developed a mobile app as well so that people with smartphones can read from the digital library as well. They actively curate books by African and Indian authors making it culturally relevant and they distribute books in 43 languages.
Because these mobile devices are e-readers and not connecting their users to "unfiltered, uncensored information", are they still bringing positive change to a developing nation? You cannot watch the above video and say no. Veronica Adhiambo is going to be a teacher one day and go to "the college of teachers"! This program is working with the current challenges of the geography and making a difference in lives by teaching people to read, love learning, and develop even more ambition. When Google's balloons eventually bring everyone wifi (;)), "everyone" will be ready to read the information it gives them!
Until then, get involved in a program like WorldReader's Blue Box!
Bibliography
Barwick, Kathryn. (2013) 23 Mobile Things. Retrieved from: http://23mobilethings.net/wpress/
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (n.d.) Chile's Library Network Receives $1 Million From Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Expand Access to the Internet. Retrieved from: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2004/08/Chiles-Library-Network-Receives-Grant
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (n.d.) Chile's Library Network Receives $1 Million From Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Expand Access to the Internet. Retrieved from: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2004/08/Chiles-Library-Network-Receives-Grant
Peace Corps Uganda. (2014) Education Volunteers Bring "Free Little Libraries" to Uganda. Retrieved from: http://uganda.peacecorps.gov/education-volunteers-bring-%E2%80%9Clittle-free-libraries%E2%80%9D-uganda
WorldReader. (2015) General Information. Retrieved from: http://www.worldreader.org/
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: How can I be part of my colleagues' ongoing PD?
This idea of Teacher-Librarians as technology leaders is not my first thought when picturing a school librarian. In fact, none of the schools in which I have worked have employed a librarian that was considered a technology leader. While I haven't seen this concept in action (except for our esteemed leader, Aaron Mueller!), I love this new, changing face of the teacher-librarian.
What does a TL do?
BUT, What are the ICT needs of the communities in my own school? As a community of DL teachers, I think the specialized ICT needs are (but not limited to) the following: (1) tech to keep us in touch with our students/help us assess/document learning etc., (2) innovative ideas for connecting students to one another, (3) keeping students safe online, and (4) finding the best resources for students to use in their learning. Working with a community of parents who school at home, their needs are quite similar to those that I listed for DL teachers.
What does a TL do?
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| Image courtesy of: https://anethicalisland.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/27-things-your-teacher-librarian-does/ |
As asked in our assignment, "How can we, as educators and Teacher-Librarians share what we’ve learned with our wider communities of practices?"
Firstly, I have plans to keep up with my blog even after this class is done (or perhaps starting a new one but continue the act of blogging). I think it is a great way to expand on articles that we find linked on Twitter or begin conversations about topics of interest. If we're meeting regularly with a Personal Learning Community, we can work with this group to choose topics to research and each write about. I think that blogging is a great place to begin sharing what we've learned with a wider community.BUT, What are the ICT needs of the communities in my own school? As a community of DL teachers, I think the specialized ICT needs are (but not limited to) the following: (1) tech to keep us in touch with our students/help us assess/document learning etc., (2) innovative ideas for connecting students to one another, (3) keeping students safe online, and (4) finding the best resources for students to use in their learning. Working with a community of parents who school at home, their needs are quite similar to those that I listed for DL teachers.
Our current solution for meeting the ICT needs of our DL teachers is that we have people on staff who create "how to" videos for all the programs that we use and these are posted in our Moodle Staff Room. In the summer, admin provides a weekly online workshop called "Tech Tuesday" about a specific tool that we should/could be incorporating into our practice. Twice per year, we have two-day conferences in which we have the opportunity to learn more about various topics. These are usually whole-group sessions.(we have about 25 teachers in my department)
The current solution for meeting the ICT needs of our parents is minimal. All I can think of is that there is a column in the monthly newsletter about new technology.
The question here is "What can I do differently, or new, this year that better supports the development of our department's ICT needs?"
(1) Tech to keep us in touch with our students/help us assess/document learning etc.
I think the biggest challenge that I face in sharing what I'm learning with my DL teacher community (or that they have in sharing with me) is the overwhelming feeling that one cannot master one. more. technological. tool. We are constantly inundated with awesome suggestions from colleagues about what they are using and sometimes I think, "I just can't learn one more thing right now." I don't think I attended any Tech Tuesday online workshops this past summer because of this feeling. How do we overcome this?
One idea is letting teachers choose their interests for these 2-day conferences that we attend. Those of us interested in leading a workshop could share our workshop idea with admin. Then they could create a list of workshop possibilities. Teachers could vote on workshops that they would be interested in and then these would be offered at our conferences. Here's a great article that I found about how to design a good workshop.
My other main idea that relates to this topic is described below #4. **Getting bored by reading about my very specific audience that doesn't relate to you? Skip down to that section! ;)
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| Image courtesy of © iStockphoto MichaelJay |
(2) Innovative ideas for connecting students to one another
This is probably more of my personal idea and not necessarily my colleagues as it stems from Why School? by Will Richardson. I would definitely like to lead a workshop summarizing Why School for staff in order to start discussions about how to implement Richardson's concepts for "new school" into our DL programs. I found this great list of the best student collaboration tools and the number one tool is VoiceThread which I have just started using (and loving) this year. Especially as we begin to plan 2015/16 using BC's new curriculum, this would be a great time to begin this conversation about "doing real work for real audiences".
(3) Keeping students safe online
As we begin to think about connecting students to "real audiences" as I wrote about above, it's important to find the best ways to proactively teach parents to teach their children to protect themselves online and learn about digital citizenship. Some my top finds in this topic are all on www.CommonSenseMedia.org. Here's an example of the awesome resources that I have already found on this site. My idea on how to incorporate this into ongoing PD is described below #4.
(4) Finding the best resources for students to use in their learning
It would be great to begin creating something that connects our DL teachers and homeschooling parents with the specific resources that we have in our school's resource library. Parents and teachers can only see what we have in library through title alone in our current search engine. It would be so helpful to host mini-workshops or even create workshop-style videos in which one talks about a variety of our library resources relating to one topic. For example, if you were wanting to learn about rivers and oceans, what resources are in stock? What do they look like? How would you incorporate them into a integrated unit at home with multi-aged children? This would be an excellent way to share
An idea that incorporates all of the above (and starts me thinking about my final project):
Essentially, there are not a lot of professional development opportunities directly relating to Distributed Learning teachers (or DL-TLs!).
"...a self-discovery program which encourages staff to take control of their own learning and to utilize their lifelong learning skills through exploration and PLAY. There will be no classes or workshops offered to support this program. Instead, staff are encouraged to work together and share with each other their discoveries, techniques, and "how to's" both in person and through their blogs."What if our school developed a DL-specific "23 Things" type course that would walk a DL teacher through an introduction to some of the best technology out there that relates to the list of ICT needs that I have explored here (and many others!). Because it's self-discovery, only teachers who are interested would participate but if it was described as only an hour a week, what teacher would not want to participate? Also, perhaps there could be some incentives for completing, blogging, and tweeting about the topics.
Lots of ideas here for me to build on and develop this year as well as some to develop into possible final projects. I've shared this blog post with my vice principal in hopes of actually putting some of these ideas into practice this year and/or coming years.
Bibliography:
"23 Things". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Building Student Success: BC's New Curriculum. BC Ministry of Education. n.p. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015
Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media. n.p. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015
Common Sense Graphite (2015) "Best Student Collaboration Tools". Common Sense Media. Retrieved from https://www.graphite.org/top-picks/best-student-collaboration-tools . 28 Oct. 2015
"23 Learning 2.0 Things". Learning 2.0. PLCMC. Aug. 2006. Web. 28 Oct. 2015
Mindtools Editorial Team (2015) "Planning a Workshop: Organizing and running a successful event". Mindtools.com. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/PlanningAWorkshop.htm . 28 Oct. 2015.
Shulba, Rebecca (2015). "Reading Review Blog Post #3: Let's Narrow It Down". MrsShulbaGoestoSchool.com. Retrieved from http://www.mrsshulbagoestoschool.blogspot.ca/2015/10/reading-review-blog-post-3-lets-narrow.html . 28 Oct. 2015
"23 Things". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Building Student Success: BC's New Curriculum. BC Ministry of Education. n.p. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015
Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media. n.p. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015
Common Sense Graphite (2015) "Best Student Collaboration Tools". Common Sense Media. Retrieved from https://www.graphite.org/top-picks/best-student-collaboration-tools . 28 Oct. 2015
"23 Learning 2.0 Things". Learning 2.0. PLCMC. Aug. 2006. Web. 28 Oct. 2015
Mindtools Editorial Team (2015) "Planning a Workshop: Organizing and running a successful event". Mindtools.com. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/PlanningAWorkshop.htm . 28 Oct. 2015.
Shulba, Rebecca (2015). "Reading Review Blog Post #3: Let's Narrow It Down". MrsShulbaGoestoSchool.com. Retrieved from http://www.mrsshulbagoestoschool.blogspot.ca/2015/10/reading-review-blog-post-3-lets-narrow.html . 28 Oct. 2015
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