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.