Blog Post 4

Blog Post 4: Technology Leadership Role of School Librarians

The importance of technology in today’s education should be undeniable. The 21^st century students that show up daily in classrooms across America have grown up with instant access to information and expect to be engaged through interactivity. The role of teaching, facilitating, and integrating technology into the curriculum often falls on the school librarians. Reflecting on the role of school librarians in education, Audrey Church (2011) suggests that today’s librarian is not only a teacher, but an instructional partner, an information specialist, a literacy advocate, a technology specialist and a school leader. As the technology specialist on campus, librarians should model the (National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers) NETS-T (ISTE, 2008). These technology standards describe best teaching practices and how they relate to engaging today’s students and improving instruction.

There are many different ways librarians can enhance the teaching and learning process, either by direct student instruction or by providing assistance to teachers. While a classroom teacher focuses primarily on the curriculum for their students, the school librarian is expected to integrate literacy and technology across all curricular content for all grade levels. The librarian may be as involved as the primary educator for a library literacy lesson, a co-teacher for a specific lesson, or may be used as an informational resource to faculty and staff. The school librarian should also be able to provide effective technology integration techniques and ideas. In the article Taking the Lead with Technology Integration (Johnston, 2013), the author provides a very real look at how school librarians fulfill their role in the school’s dynamic to not only enhance the curriculum, but to actually teach as well. There are two very different roles in the position of the school librarian. One part is teaching the students, while the second part is teaching and collaborating with teachers. The school librarian has the distinct perspective of working with every grade level and every content area while also working with every student in the school.

Today’s school librarian should be a teacher first. Gaining experience as a teacher and learning how to teach will fortify the knowledge and understanding that a school librarian needs in order to run an efficient and successful library program. Although the digital divide continues to lessen (Smaldino, Lowther, Mims, & Russell, 2015, p.4), librarians and teachers who strive to implement a technology rich curriculum, must be aware of the variations of student access to technology at home. With the use of smart devices and constant connectivity, students are accustomed to all of their information being delivered on demand. It is the school librarian’s role to fulfill that place in the school setting and to maintain a school library program that maximizes student achievement. Teaching information literacy to every student in the school, the school librarian must be the resident expert in not only copyright and digital citizenship, but know how to teach students how to find information and resources, evaluate it for usefulness, and apply their new knowledge in the creation of projects.

All librarians should be knowledgeable in the AASL (American Association of School Librarians, 2007) Standards for the 21^st-Century Learner. In the process of teaching information literacy, school librarians need to enhance students’ communication skills by teaching them how to organize their ideas, research, ask questions, express opinions, and construct their own stories. The AASL Standards assist librarians and teachers with this process. The standards are broken down into four main categories of learning. Each category has learning indicators separated by “Skills, Dispositions in Action, Responsibilities, and Self-Assessment Strategies” (AASL, 2007). The Standards for the 21^st-Century Learner help all educational staff improve instruction to help prepare students to succeed in the future.  

References:

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21^st-century learner. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

Church, Audrey, P. (2011). School librarians as teacher leaders, Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 77(3), 10-12.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers

Johnston, M. P. (2013). Taking the lead with technology integration. School Library Monthly, 29(4), 33-35. 

Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., Mims, C., & Russell, J. (2015). Instructional technology and media for learning. (11^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post 3

Blog Post 3: Technology Implementation Strategies

In the article, Implementing Technology and Gaming Lessons in a School Library (Mashriqi, 2011), the author describes how she uses technology and a gaming atmosphere in her elementary school library to both introduce and reinforce lessons. Khalida Mashriqi offers many ideas and examples of how differentiating instruction through technology enables teacher-librarians to reach all students for maximum learning benefits.

One key point of the article was how the author uses interactive white boards for lessons and games. The author describes how she creates games utilizing the interactive white board to reinforce lessons and skills. It is important for the school librarian to keep up with current trends in literacy technologies and to teach students how to use technology properly. One of the ways the author accomplishes this is to create fun and exciting interactive lessons to be used on the interactive whiteboard. These activities could be used as a whole class lesson, or as a game format with student teams. Activities could include such lessons as library orientation, search engine usage, classifying books and the Dewey Decimal System, or library Jeopardy.  

Another key point of the article is how the author differentiates instruction in the library. Teaching students with varied learning needs, the teacher-librarian needs to be adept in designing and delivering instruction to meet the individualized needs of each student. Library lessons may offer specific or general accommodations or lessons that incorporate multiple learning styles. For example, visual learners will benefit from colorful anchor charts and presentations while hands-on activities would be of greater value to the tactile/kinesthetic learners. The author also suggests using tiered activities for whole group instruction.

Another key point the article made was how students use laptops and computers to utilize educational websites for learning extension and to locate books in the library. Promoting the love of reading and learning, school librarians must also reinforce reading skills and in some cases, pre-reading skills in the library. Using the library computers to access educational websites such as starfall.com, younger students may spend part of their library time reinforcing phonics or pre-reading skills. And as information literacy advocates for their building, librarians must teach students to locate, evaluate, and use online information properly.

           While the overall theme of this professional article relates to gaming lessons in the library, the author details other ways to integrate technology into the library curriculum. After reading this article, I have many ideas as to how to further integrate technology in the elementary library setting. The school library should be a fun and exciting place to extend classroom learning.

One piece of equipment I intend on utilizing in the library is the interactive whiteboard. The library should be a place of active learning and hands-on activities. The interactive whiteboard offers this and the additional benefit of interactivity to stimulate the students’ learning experiences. Increasing student interactions should directly correspond to increasing student retention of information.

            I am also excited to implement a movie making component to the library. Promoting creativity and a deeper understanding of core concepts, students will work individually or in groups to create short videos to be viewed in and around the school library. Project based learning allows the students to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts and produce an organized expression of their ideas. Students will be guided through the basics of movie production including creating storyboards for planning, script creation, filming, and editing. Students will then be able to record and share their videos such as: book reviews, introduction to the library, and digital citizenship.

            School libraries are so much more than merely a place to read and check out books. Today’s libraries should be the hub of current events and information for the school and the community. Teacher-librarians are challenged with keeping students up to date with the constant changes in technology and information.

References:

Mashriqi, K. (2011). Implementing technology and gaming lessons in a school library.

Knowledge Quest, 40(1), 24-28.