This is quote from David Putman, Academy Award-winning film producer of movies such as Midnight Express, Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields and The Mission, who is now now a member of the British House of Lords and advocate for educational change.
In an interview on ABC's Latline on Monday November 15th, 2010, David Putman said, "The most important thing I think teachers can do for young people is to make them inquiring, is to ensure that they know how to gather information, that they check information and they take their information from a multiplicity of sources.
If you can get a child to do that and then become interested in the whole process of information gathering, you're halfway towards becoming a learner. And once you're a learner, you're a learner for life. That's certainly been my experience."
What a great description of the nature and effect of information literacy.
He went on to say, "I think that children are getting better and better at gathering information. The problem is that for people of my age and indeed a good deal younger, we get kind of disturbed by the way in which children gather information. And I think it's us, it's my generation and teachers of my generation or in their 40s, 50s, 60s who have got to in a way close that gap with kids, because if kids begin to think - young people begin to think that education has nothing to do with the way their lives are and the way in which they live their lives, they will blame education; they won't blame themselves; they'll blame education.
And my greatest single fear for education is there's a kind of gap that's growing between the way that young people see themselves and the way in which they kind of learn and the way that teachers would like to teach.
Teachers have got to find a way of closing that gap and of meeting young people halfway in terms of using the tools that they use and using the language indeed that they use. We can't, I don't think, sit in some ivory tower and expect young people to come to us. That's just not gonna happen. We must find a way of meeting them halfway."
Read the complete transcript or watch the video at: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s3067187.htm
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
ETL 501 Assignment 2 Feedback
Here is a summary of the marker's comments and some observations from me about Assignment 2. I achieved what I would describe as a respectable pass. I did better with Assignment 1, for those interested. This was marked by James Herring, so it may prove a good guide. I have no quibble with James' comments or marks and I am not seeking to justify my work (however it might seem), but to both reflect on the feedback and provide assistance for others who are yet to undertake this course and assignment.
Before I relate some specific shortcomings, it appears that I made two major mistakes.
In the Pathfinder itself, my annotations had too much information ABOUT the resource and not enough information about how to use them. I don't know that I recall that being clearly explained as the role of the annotations. It may well have been in a podcast or a reading that I missed (there were one or two that I couldn't get to via CSU library) but I felt that my annotations followed the prescriptions given by Lamb and Johnson. The annotations should have included IL directions. I included these in the front page of the Pathfinder as part of a scaffold based on an IL model.
In the critical analysis of what was learned from the process of constructing the pathfinder, I failed to analyse my learning and research process. I thought that the Pathfinder was the evidence of my learning and research and (as you can't refer to yourself) referred to aspects of the Pathfinder and analysed them as examples of my learning.
So the lesson is, from the first time you start experimenting with the search engine, keep a record of what you do, good and bad, and include an analysis of this in the assignment. For me, searching for websites is an automatic skill that I have been developing for some time. I had selected the resources and put the Pathfinder together well before I began the analysis and found it hard to recall the detail of the process apart from one or two highlights.
The difficulty was containing the resources to the specified 15. I think that I'm pretty good at that but I also know that it takes a long time – even longer now that the course has introduced me to so many new search engines. I have learnt some new things such as how to have quick access to most of these search engines through the search box in my web browser toolbar. Should I have included that?
Anyway, some specifics.
1. I didn't reference the class for which I designed the Pathfinder. I named it by NSW Stage and described the make-up of the class. I'm not sure what it means to reference the class. It would be worth finding out.
2. I failed to establish the learning needs. I didn't refer to outcomes but I did specify the topic, type of task and assessment and needs such as "choice" and "access to primary sources".
3. I didn't compare the search engines. In fact I did include some detailed observations about the strengths and weaknesses of the search engines and them took them out to keep under the word limit.
4. I thought that the aim was to evaluate the websites for their usefulness for the students, but I should have evaluated my search strategy and use of the web evaluation criteria from Assignment 1. (It makes so much sense when I write it now). Except that James says, less on source evaluation and more about my search strategy.
5. One of the times that I did discuss something new that I had learned doing this task, I talked about using Advanced Google to locate copy-right free images (they're referred to as reusable images). I explained what I had learned about the importance of eye candy for teenagers. James said that this was discussing the pathfinder, not my learning.
6. I included a quote from Johnson and Lamb about what annotations should do. It didn't include IL. James thought that I should have included this. Once again, I shared what I had learned from Johnson and Lamb but this wasn't seen as my learning.
7. James said that I needed to include references on searching and search engines.
Finally, as always, a reference list that might prove useful.
References
Australian Schools Library Association. (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm
Schools Library Association of South Australia. (2008). http://www.slasa.asn.au/Advocacy/rolestatement.html
Brown, C.A. (2008). Building Rubrics: A step-by-step process. In Library media connection. Limworth Publishing Inc., January, 16-18
Focus on inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning. (2004). PDF version retrieved from the Alberta Learning Web site: http://www.learning.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/focusoninquiry.pdfEdmonton, Alberta: Alberta Learning. Learning and Teaching Resources Branch.
Gross, M., Sleap, B. and Pretorius, M. (1999). Gifted students in secondary schools: Differentiating the curriculum. University of New South Wales, Sydney: Gerric
Hague, C. and Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/digital-participation
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). Evaluating internet resources. In Teacher tap: Professional development resources for educators and librarians. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2006-2010). Pathfinders. In Electronic materials for children and young adults. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/earth/informational/path3.html
Kuhlthau, C. (1993). Seeking Meaning: A process approach to library skills instruction. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
Kuntz, K. (2003). Pathfinders: Helping student find paths to information, In Multimedia Schools, 10(3). Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may03/kuntz.shtml
McKenzie, J. (1997). Deep thinking and deep reading in an age of info-glut, info-garbage, info-glitz and info-glimmer. In From now on: The educational technology journal, 6(6), March.
McNicholas, C. and Todd Ross J. (1996). New kids on the block: is it worth the investment? Scan, 15(4), November, 40-42.
Nielsen, J. (2005). Usability of websites for teenagers. On Alertbox, January 31. Retrieved from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html
Nielsen, J. (2010). Scrolling and Attention. On Alertbox, March 22. Retrieved from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/scrolling-attention.html
Sizer, T. Essential Questions. Retrieved from http://www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/apenglish/ces_essential_questions.
Valenza, J. (2008). Top ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki. Retrieved from: http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com/Ten+reasons+why+your+next+pathfinder+should+be+a+wiki
Before I relate some specific shortcomings, it appears that I made two major mistakes.
In the Pathfinder itself, my annotations had too much information ABOUT the resource and not enough information about how to use them. I don't know that I recall that being clearly explained as the role of the annotations. It may well have been in a podcast or a reading that I missed (there were one or two that I couldn't get to via CSU library) but I felt that my annotations followed the prescriptions given by Lamb and Johnson. The annotations should have included IL directions. I included these in the front page of the Pathfinder as part of a scaffold based on an IL model.
In the critical analysis of what was learned from the process of constructing the pathfinder, I failed to analyse my learning and research process. I thought that the Pathfinder was the evidence of my learning and research and (as you can't refer to yourself) referred to aspects of the Pathfinder and analysed them as examples of my learning.
So the lesson is, from the first time you start experimenting with the search engine, keep a record of what you do, good and bad, and include an analysis of this in the assignment. For me, searching for websites is an automatic skill that I have been developing for some time. I had selected the resources and put the Pathfinder together well before I began the analysis and found it hard to recall the detail of the process apart from one or two highlights.
The difficulty was containing the resources to the specified 15. I think that I'm pretty good at that but I also know that it takes a long time – even longer now that the course has introduced me to so many new search engines. I have learnt some new things such as how to have quick access to most of these search engines through the search box in my web browser toolbar. Should I have included that?
Anyway, some specifics.
1. I didn't reference the class for which I designed the Pathfinder. I named it by NSW Stage and described the make-up of the class. I'm not sure what it means to reference the class. It would be worth finding out.
2. I failed to establish the learning needs. I didn't refer to outcomes but I did specify the topic, type of task and assessment and needs such as "choice" and "access to primary sources".
3. I didn't compare the search engines. In fact I did include some detailed observations about the strengths and weaknesses of the search engines and them took them out to keep under the word limit.
4. I thought that the aim was to evaluate the websites for their usefulness for the students, but I should have evaluated my search strategy and use of the web evaluation criteria from Assignment 1. (It makes so much sense when I write it now). Except that James says, less on source evaluation and more about my search strategy.
5. One of the times that I did discuss something new that I had learned doing this task, I talked about using Advanced Google to locate copy-right free images (they're referred to as reusable images). I explained what I had learned about the importance of eye candy for teenagers. James said that this was discussing the pathfinder, not my learning.
6. I included a quote from Johnson and Lamb about what annotations should do. It didn't include IL. James thought that I should have included this. Once again, I shared what I had learned from Johnson and Lamb but this wasn't seen as my learning.
7. James said that I needed to include references on searching and search engines.
Finally, as always, a reference list that might prove useful.
References
Australian Schools Library Association. (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm
Schools Library Association of South Australia. (2008). http://www.slasa.asn.au/Advocacy/rolestatement.html
Brown, C.A. (2008). Building Rubrics: A step-by-step process. In Library media connection. Limworth Publishing Inc., January, 16-18
Focus on inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning. (2004). PDF version retrieved from the Alberta Learning Web site: http://www.learning.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/focusoninquiry.pdfEdmonton, Alberta: Alberta Learning. Learning and Teaching Resources Branch.
Gross, M., Sleap, B. and Pretorius, M. (1999). Gifted students in secondary schools: Differentiating the curriculum. University of New South Wales, Sydney: Gerric
Hague, C. and Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/digital-participation
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). Evaluating internet resources. In Teacher tap: Professional development resources for educators and librarians. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2006-2010). Pathfinders. In Electronic materials for children and young adults. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/earth/informational/path3.html
Kuhlthau, C. (1993). Seeking Meaning: A process approach to library skills instruction. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
Kuntz, K. (2003). Pathfinders: Helping student find paths to information, In Multimedia Schools, 10(3). Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may03/kuntz.shtml
McKenzie, J. (1997). Deep thinking and deep reading in an age of info-glut, info-garbage, info-glitz and info-glimmer. In From now on: The educational technology journal, 6(6), March.
McNicholas, C. and Todd Ross J. (1996). New kids on the block: is it worth the investment? Scan, 15(4), November, 40-42.
Nielsen, J. (2005). Usability of websites for teenagers. On Alertbox, January 31. Retrieved from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html
Nielsen, J. (2010). Scrolling and Attention. On Alertbox, March 22. Retrieved from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/scrolling-attention.html
Sizer, T. Essential Questions. Retrieved from http://www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/apenglish/ces_essential_questions.
Valenza, J. (2008). Top ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki. Retrieved from: http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com/Ten+reasons+why+your+next+pathfinder+should+be+a+wiki
ETL 501 Assignment 1 Feedback
It seems, dear readers, that some people have been uncovering my credentials. Let me assure whomever it may concern that any previous academic experience means little when it comes to the MTL course. It is a level playing field, if ever there was. Here is a belated report on ETL 501 Assignment 1.
1. Don't forget to include the two website criteria in your bibliography. (Obvious isn't it). I chose WWW Cyberguide rating for content evaluation by McLachlan and Criteria for website evaluation by Johnson and Lamb.
2. In your critical examination, include some rank or comment about which criteria are the more important.
3. I only discussed some of the criteria (word limit) that I thought needed further work. I needed to mention and comment briefly on the other criteria and the evaluation tool/model as a whole. Do they cover all the areas that are important to cover? Why is or isn't each tool a valid set of criteria for a TL to use.
4. Because I thought that there were inadequacies in The Cyberguide, I added a couple of criteria. My understanding of the assignment was that this was acceptable and that this set [revised] of criteria should be used in part 2. However, I was criticised for using these extra criteria.Perhaps that's a bit strong. The comment was, "If you are going beyond the designated set of criteria you need to state that you are doing so and why you feel that it is important to do so.
5. I ran out of words or word limit and didn't address all four websites in equal depth and specific references to the criteria.
6. It's important to refer to the needs of your chosen student group and the usefulness of the website for them. You should also refer to the usefulness of the tools for the TL is making that judgement.
Finally, here is my reference list (minus the McLachlan Cyberguide).
References
Bomar, S. (2010) The annotated bibliography: A schoolwide instructional framework for evaluating sources. In Knowledge Quest Volume 38 No. 3 January/February pp. 72-75 American Library Association. Retrieved from CSU Library.
Brown, J., Hickey, K., and Pozen, V. (2002 revision). Methods of evaluation. In An educators’ guide to credibility and web evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/credibility/
Gaffney, M. (2010). Enhancing teachers’ take-up of digital content: Factors and design principles in technology adoption. Education Services Australia.
Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Australian School Library Association. Retrieved from: www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm
Hague, C. and Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk
Herring, J.E. (2004). The internet. In The internet and information skills: a guide for teachers and school librarians. London: Facet
Hughes-Hassell, S. and Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: Responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions. Retrieved from CSU EBook library.
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). Evaluating internet resources. In Teacher tap: Professional development resources for educators and librarians. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Kennedy, J. (2005). A collection development policy for digital information resources. In The Australian Library Journal. April 2005. Retrieved from: http://alia.org.au/publishing/alj/54.3/full.text/kennedy.html
Kennedy, J. (2006). Collection management: A concise introduction. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University Centre for Information Studies
Latham, B., & Poe. J. (2008). Evaluation and selection of new format materials: electronic resources. In J.R. Kennedy, L Vardaman, & G.B. McCabe (Eds.), Our new public, a changing clientele: bewildering issues or new challenges for managing libraries (pp. 257-265). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
Naidu, S. (2005) Evaluating the Usability of Educational Websites for Children. In Usability News. Vol. 7(2) July. Retrieved from http://psychology.wichita.edu/newsurl/usabilitynews/72/children_internet.asp
Nielsen, J. (2005). Usability of websites for teenagers. January 31st. Retrieved from: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html
Osborne, H. (2000). In Other Words... Assessing Readability. . .Rules for Playing the Numbers Game. In Boston Globe's On Call Magazine, December Retrieved from: http://www.healthliteracy.com/article.asp?PageID=3806
Pfoeffer, P. (2002). Web usability and children: Current research and implications for information professionals. In Orana. July. pp. 11 to 13
Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=119869;res=AEIPT
Shrock, K. (2002). The ABCs of Web Site Evaluation. Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html
South Regional Educational Board: SREB (2010). Criteria for evaluating web sites. Retrieved from http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp
1. Don't forget to include the two website criteria in your bibliography. (Obvious isn't it). I chose WWW Cyberguide rating for content evaluation by McLachlan and Criteria for website evaluation by Johnson and Lamb.
2. In your critical examination, include some rank or comment about which criteria are the more important.
3. I only discussed some of the criteria (word limit) that I thought needed further work. I needed to mention and comment briefly on the other criteria and the evaluation tool/model as a whole. Do they cover all the areas that are important to cover? Why is or isn't each tool a valid set of criteria for a TL to use.
4. Because I thought that there were inadequacies in The Cyberguide, I added a couple of criteria. My understanding of the assignment was that this was acceptable and that this set [revised] of criteria should be used in part 2. However, I was criticised for using these extra criteria.Perhaps that's a bit strong. The comment was, "If you are going beyond the designated set of criteria you need to state that you are doing so and why you feel that it is important to do so.
5. I ran out of words or word limit and didn't address all four websites in equal depth and specific references to the criteria.
6. It's important to refer to the needs of your chosen student group and the usefulness of the website for them. You should also refer to the usefulness of the tools for the TL is making that judgement.
Finally, here is my reference list (minus the McLachlan Cyberguide).
References
Bomar, S. (2010) The annotated bibliography: A schoolwide instructional framework for evaluating sources. In Knowledge Quest Volume 38 No. 3 January/February pp. 72-75 American Library Association. Retrieved from CSU Library.
Brown, J., Hickey, K., and Pozen, V. (2002 revision). Methods of evaluation. In An educators’ guide to credibility and web evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/credibility/
Gaffney, M. (2010). Enhancing teachers’ take-up of digital content: Factors and design principles in technology adoption. Education Services Australia.
Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Australian School Library Association. Retrieved from: www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm
Hague, C. and Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk
Herring, J.E. (2004). The internet. In The internet and information skills: a guide for teachers and school librarians. London: Facet
Hughes-Hassell, S. and Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: Responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions. Retrieved from CSU EBook library.
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). Evaluating internet resources. In Teacher tap: Professional development resources for educators and librarians. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Kennedy, J. (2005). A collection development policy for digital information resources. In The Australian Library Journal. April 2005. Retrieved from: http://alia.org.au/publishing/alj/54.3/full.text/kennedy.html
Kennedy, J. (2006). Collection management: A concise introduction. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University Centre for Information Studies
Latham, B., & Poe. J. (2008). Evaluation and selection of new format materials: electronic resources. In J.R. Kennedy, L Vardaman, & G.B. McCabe (Eds.), Our new public, a changing clientele: bewildering issues or new challenges for managing libraries (pp. 257-265). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
Naidu, S. (2005) Evaluating the Usability of Educational Websites for Children. In Usability News. Vol. 7(2) July. Retrieved from http://psychology.wichita.edu/newsurl/usabilitynews/72/children_internet.asp
Nielsen, J. (2005). Usability of websites for teenagers. January 31st. Retrieved from: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html
Osborne, H. (2000). In Other Words... Assessing Readability. . .Rules for Playing the Numbers Game. In Boston Globe's On Call Magazine, December Retrieved from: http://www.healthliteracy.com/article.asp?PageID=3806
Pfoeffer, P. (2002). Web usability and children: Current research and implications for information professionals. In Orana. July. pp. 11 to 13
Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=119869;res=AEIPT
Shrock, K. (2002). The ABCs of Web Site Evaluation. Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html
South Regional Educational Board: SREB (2010). Criteria for evaluating web sites. Retrieved from http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Pathfinder
I'm way behind in posting feedback from Assignment 1. In the meantime,I've just submitted Assignment 2. If it is of interest, here's the URL for my Assignment 2 Pathfinder.
http://medievalpathfinder.wikispaces.com
http://medievalpathfinder.wikispaces.com
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Reference Interview
I thought that I'd share the three versions of my response to James Herring's challenge to define a reference interview in twenty words or less. Two and three are just modifications of the original.I like 1 and 3.
Number 1
Identify needs
Note specifics
Questions or keywords
Utilise Information Literacy
Instruct how to locate information
Range of information needs
Evaluate
Number 2
After Kluegel and Ross
After Kluegel and Ross and ORC
Invisible
Narrowing, clarifying
Questions or keywords
User-Librarian Collaboration
Interactive communication
Remote or in person
Evaluate and monitor
Invisible
Narrowing, clarifying
Questions or keywords
User-Librarian Collaboration
Interactive communication
Referal in person or online
Evaluate and monitor
Number 3
Number 1
Identify needs
Note specifics
Questions or keywords
Utilise Information Literacy
Instruct how to locate information
Range of information needs
Evaluate
Number 2
After Kluegel and Ross
After Kluegel and Ross and ORC
Invisible
Narrowing, clarifying
Questions or keywords
User-Librarian Collaboration
Interactive communication
Remote or in person
Evaluate and monitor
Invisible
Narrowing, clarifying
Questions or keywords
User-Librarian Collaboration
Interactive communication
Referal in person or online
Evaluate and monitor
Number 3
Saturday, August 21, 2010
ETL 503 Assignment 2 Useful Link for Policy Development
Here's a site with a pro forma for developing Collection Policy and other useful evaluation material.
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/library/domains/index.htm#teachers
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/library/domains/index.htm#teachers
ETL 501 Assignment 1
Some quick thoughts about the ETL 501 assignment 1. Firstly, you may not be aware that CSU have their own website evaluation criteria. It can be found doing a search in the library.
Secondly, I received some excellent advice about doing the critical evaluation. Pick the things that matter educationally and explain, from your reading or criteria, why those aspects are important.
•Easy to navigate? Yes/No? Why does this matter?
•Great graphics or interactivity? Why does this matter?
•Why could interactivity be a problem as well as a positive?
•Author's name easy to find? Why does this matter?
•Domain name .edu or .org Why is that helpful?
•Evidence of bias? Does this matter? Why or why not?
•Links work or they don't? What does this say about the site?
•What is the student's purpose for the site and what is my student audience?
•Will the site suit their purpose?
•Will it cater for all or just some of them?
Here are some references that may be of interest.
Bomar, S. (2010) The annotated bibliography: A schoolwide instructional framework for evaluating sources. In Knowledge Quest Volume 38 No. 3 January/February pp. 72-75 American Library Association. Retrieved from CSU Library.
Brown, J., Hickey, K., and Pozen, V. (2002 revision). Methods of evaluation. In An educators’ guide to credibility and web evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/credibility/
Gaffney, M. (2010). Enhancing teachers’ take-up of digital content: Factors and design principles in technology adoption. Education Services Australia.
Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Australian School Library Association. Retrieved from: www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm
Hague, C. and Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk
Herring, J.E. (2004). The internet. In The internet and information skills: a guide for teachers and school librarians. London: Facet
Hughes-Hassell, S. and Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: Responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions. Retrieved from CSU EBook library.
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). Evaluating internet resources. In Teacher tap: Professional development resources for educators and librarians. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Kennedy, J. (2005). A collection development policy for digital information resources. In The Australian Library Journal. April 2005. Retrieved from: http://alia.org.au/publishing/alj/54.3/full.text/kennedy.html
Kennedy, J. (2006). Collection management: A concise introduction. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University Centre for Information Studies
Latham, B., & Poe. J. (2008). Evaluation and selection of new format materials: electronic resources. In J.R. Kennedy, L Vardaman, & G.B. McCabe (Eds.), Our new public, a changing clientele: bewildering issues or new challenges for managing libraries (pp. 257-265). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
Naidu, S. (2005) Evaluating the Usability of Educational Websites for Children. In Usability News. Vol. 7(2) July. Retrieved from http://psychology.wichita.edu/newsurl/usabilitynews/72/children_internet.asp
Nielsen, J. (2005). Usability of websites for teenagers. January 31st. Retrieved from: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html
Osborne, H. (2000). In Other Words... Assessing Readability. . .Rules for Playing the Numbers Game. In Boston Globe's On Call Magazine, December Retrieved from: http://www.healthliteracy.com/article.asp?PageID=3806
Pfoeffer, P. (2002). Web usability and children: Current research and implications for information professionals. In Orana. July. pp. 11 to 13
Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=119869;res=AEIPT
Shrock, K. (2002). The ABCs of Web Site Evaluation. Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html
South Regional Educational Board: SREB (2010). Criteria for evaluating web sites. Retrieved from http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp
Secondly, I received some excellent advice about doing the critical evaluation. Pick the things that matter educationally and explain, from your reading or criteria, why those aspects are important.
•Easy to navigate? Yes/No? Why does this matter?
•Great graphics or interactivity? Why does this matter?
•Why could interactivity be a problem as well as a positive?
•Author's name easy to find? Why does this matter?
•Domain name .edu or .org Why is that helpful?
•Evidence of bias? Does this matter? Why or why not?
•Links work or they don't? What does this say about the site?
•What is the student's purpose for the site and what is my student audience?
•Will the site suit their purpose?
•Will it cater for all or just some of them?
Here are some references that may be of interest.
Bomar, S. (2010) The annotated bibliography: A schoolwide instructional framework for evaluating sources. In Knowledge Quest Volume 38 No. 3 January/February pp. 72-75 American Library Association. Retrieved from CSU Library.
Brown, J., Hickey, K., and Pozen, V. (2002 revision). Methods of evaluation. In An educators’ guide to credibility and web evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/credibility/
Gaffney, M. (2010). Enhancing teachers’ take-up of digital content: Factors and design principles in technology adoption. Education Services Australia.
Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Australian School Library Association. Retrieved from: www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm
Hague, C. and Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk
Herring, J.E. (2004). The internet. In The internet and information skills: a guide for teachers and school librarians. London: Facet
Hughes-Hassell, S. and Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: Responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions. Retrieved from CSU EBook library.
Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). Evaluating internet resources. In Teacher tap: Professional development resources for educators and librarians. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Kennedy, J. (2005). A collection development policy for digital information resources. In The Australian Library Journal. April 2005. Retrieved from: http://alia.org.au/publishing/alj/54.3/full.text/kennedy.html
Kennedy, J. (2006). Collection management: A concise introduction. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University Centre for Information Studies
Latham, B., & Poe. J. (2008). Evaluation and selection of new format materials: electronic resources. In J.R. Kennedy, L Vardaman, & G.B. McCabe (Eds.), Our new public, a changing clientele: bewildering issues or new challenges for managing libraries (pp. 257-265). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
Naidu, S. (2005) Evaluating the Usability of Educational Websites for Children. In Usability News. Vol. 7(2) July. Retrieved from http://psychology.wichita.edu/newsurl/usabilitynews/72/children_internet.asp
Nielsen, J. (2005). Usability of websites for teenagers. January 31st. Retrieved from: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html
Osborne, H. (2000). In Other Words... Assessing Readability. . .Rules for Playing the Numbers Game. In Boston Globe's On Call Magazine, December Retrieved from: http://www.healthliteracy.com/article.asp?PageID=3806
Pfoeffer, P. (2002). Web usability and children: Current research and implications for information professionals. In Orana. July. pp. 11 to 13
Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=119869;res=AEIPT
Shrock, K. (2002). The ABCs of Web Site Evaluation. Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html
South Regional Educational Board: SREB (2010). Criteria for evaluating web sites. Retrieved from http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp
Sunday, August 1, 2010
ETL401 Collaboration
Just in case there are links out there to those doing ETL 401, I'm providing this link for an article on Collaboration between teacher librarians and teachers. You will recognise many of the researchers cited.
http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/librarians.html
http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/librarians.html
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
ETL 401 Information Literacy
Those who subscribers to the OZTL_NET will already be aware of this site that links to podcasts about teaching Information Literacy in libraries. It might be of interest to ETL 401 students.
This is a great idea! Adventures in library instruction is a monthly hour long podcast (available in mp3) ”about teaching information literacy in libraries.”
http://adlibinstruction.blogspot.com/
and this one for both ETL 401 and ETL 501
http://www.rusq.org/2010/06/23/instructional-strategies-for-digital-reference-methods-to-facilitate-student-learning/
This is a great idea! Adventures in library instruction is a monthly hour long podcast (available in mp3) ”about teaching information literacy in libraries.”
http://adlibinstruction.blogspot.com/
and this one for both ETL 401 and ETL 501
http://www.rusq.org/2010/06/23/instructional-strategies-for-digital-reference-methods-to-facilitate-student-learning/
Friday, July 23, 2010
Reference, The Net and the Nature of Truth
In ETL 501 we have been considering the future of reference material. Of first interest is the multi-faceted nature of reference material. On one hand, it is the books that are not available for loan and can only be used in the library itself. The State Library of NSW is a reference library in keeping with this definition. In school and public libraries, the reference books tend to be the most expensive books or books of which there may be only one copy. Print encyclopaedias, some dictionaries, year books and so on are classified as reference books because they are unavailable for borrowing and can only be used within the library.
Somehow, this means that the term "reference" has also come to mean those books, such as encyclopaedias, that have been designed for easy reference to information, facts and images. It has also come to mean academic or authoritative texts to which one refers for reliable, verifiable facts and information.
However, post-modernism does not sit comfortably with the notion that there is such as thing as reliable, verifiable facts and information. According to post-modern thinking, the authority or reliability no longer lies necessarily with an academic researcher, expert author or even scientific paper. It lies with the individual reader and their experience and understanding. If it's true for them, then it's true.
There is a positive and negative aspect to this. One the positive side we have come to recognise and respect the authority and reliability of other traditions, such as the oral tradition of indigenous cultures as having equal standing with Western academic knowledge. We also acknowledge that not all knowledge and wisdom lies in the realm of academia or rational modernism.
On the negative side, there is no longer a consensus of what constitutes an objective, testable truth. The growing awareness that observations and records can consciously or unconsciously influenced by the observer or author themselves has led to mistrust of much that would have been taken for granted as fact in years gone by.Scientific measurement may suggest an objectivity but the purpose and design of the experiment or empirical observation or the use, projection and interpretation of the measured observations have left contemporary citizens less inclined to view the results as infallible.
While this situation perplexes neo-Darwinists such as Dawkins and Hitchin, science has itself to blame. Ordinary citizens see the result of the arrogant assurance of science in the arms race, the space race and the dehumanising effect of technology. They see the champions of scientific progress choosing between a sterile, anti-spiritualism and a fanatical and fervent religious belief in the ability of science as the saviour of humankind.
This post-modern view of knowledge is evident in a resource such as Wikipedia. Obviously, there is also a financial saving to having willing contributor share their knowledge for free but the key element is the democratic approach that honours the knowledge of each individual and the ability of the collected readership to approve or correct the knowledge being provided.
At one level it serves the original purpose of the world wide web, to allow researchers around the world to share their knowledge but the pool of knowledge and expertise has been expanded or democratised. Somehow the arbiter of truth or fact is now the collective mind of the world.
Where does that leave the internet and Wikipedia as a reference source? It is a product of the desire to make information instantly available to whoever wants it. It is also a victim of the scepticism that underscores post-modern society. If it taken with these characteristics in tension, then Wikipedia and similar online references deliver exactly what they were created to provide.If we can educate our students to use them with this understanding AND to seek information and verification from a number of sources then we are contributing to their development as successful users of online information.
If we can reinstate trust both through our relationships with them and through the quality and usefulness of information and resources to which we direct them, we will do them an even greater service.
Somehow, this means that the term "reference" has also come to mean those books, such as encyclopaedias, that have been designed for easy reference to information, facts and images. It has also come to mean academic or authoritative texts to which one refers for reliable, verifiable facts and information.
However, post-modernism does not sit comfortably with the notion that there is such as thing as reliable, verifiable facts and information. According to post-modern thinking, the authority or reliability no longer lies necessarily with an academic researcher, expert author or even scientific paper. It lies with the individual reader and their experience and understanding. If it's true for them, then it's true.
There is a positive and negative aspect to this. One the positive side we have come to recognise and respect the authority and reliability of other traditions, such as the oral tradition of indigenous cultures as having equal standing with Western academic knowledge. We also acknowledge that not all knowledge and wisdom lies in the realm of academia or rational modernism.
On the negative side, there is no longer a consensus of what constitutes an objective, testable truth. The growing awareness that observations and records can consciously or unconsciously influenced by the observer or author themselves has led to mistrust of much that would have been taken for granted as fact in years gone by.Scientific measurement may suggest an objectivity but the purpose and design of the experiment or empirical observation or the use, projection and interpretation of the measured observations have left contemporary citizens less inclined to view the results as infallible.
While this situation perplexes neo-Darwinists such as Dawkins and Hitchin, science has itself to blame. Ordinary citizens see the result of the arrogant assurance of science in the arms race, the space race and the dehumanising effect of technology. They see the champions of scientific progress choosing between a sterile, anti-spiritualism and a fanatical and fervent religious belief in the ability of science as the saviour of humankind.
This post-modern view of knowledge is evident in a resource such as Wikipedia. Obviously, there is also a financial saving to having willing contributor share their knowledge for free but the key element is the democratic approach that honours the knowledge of each individual and the ability of the collected readership to approve or correct the knowledge being provided.
At one level it serves the original purpose of the world wide web, to allow researchers around the world to share their knowledge but the pool of knowledge and expertise has been expanded or democratised. Somehow the arbiter of truth or fact is now the collective mind of the world.
Where does that leave the internet and Wikipedia as a reference source? It is a product of the desire to make information instantly available to whoever wants it. It is also a victim of the scepticism that underscores post-modern society. If it taken with these characteristics in tension, then Wikipedia and similar online references deliver exactly what they were created to provide.If we can educate our students to use them with this understanding AND to seek information and verification from a number of sources then we are contributing to their development as successful users of online information.
If we can reinstate trust both through our relationships with them and through the quality and usefulness of information and resources to which we direct them, we will do them an even greater service.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Bloom, Gardner and Pirozzo
In ETL 501, we're looking at the educational foundation for research. Bloom's Taxonomy has been suggested as a common starting point for learning, thinking and research. One of the forum posts referred to the combined Gardner/Blooms Matrix and the work of Ralph Pirozzo. I have attended two workshops with Ralph and I find his approach and his published material very useful. However, I always take the time to make the observation that combining Bloom and Gardner was originally set out in a book by Helen McGrath and Toni Noble, entitled Seven Ways at Once. The first of which was published in 1997. No doubt they will update these at some stage to include the eighth, Naturalist, intelligence. The McGrath and Noble books contain matrices of General Classroom Tasks and Starting Points. You can also find Blooms units and these Multiple Intelligence for a range of school stages and subjects (including Maths) in the TalentEd publication from the University of New England (UNE).
The point of these expanded grid is to remind us that, as James has said in the notes, that different students learn in different ways and that reference material is more than printed text. So the 42-grid reminds us that an image or an animation or even a site with sound is an important alternative for some learning styles.
By way of interest or maybe clarification here are three variations of the Blooms Taxonomy levels. I've used rows as there is no formatting available to make columns. The terms in the second row may help clarify the meaning of each level.
Bloom: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation
Mean: Remembering, Understanding, Using, Breaking Down, Creating, Judging
Pohl: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating, Creating
You will note that the third row, by Australian author Michael Pohl (who has written lots of useful Thinking Skills books), has the "top" two levels swapped around. An interesting variation that is worth pondering if and when you have time.
In some ways Bloom would have expected that students moved beyond an external reference for synthesis and evaluation to their own thinking and creative skills. However, as we have found, finding a reputable scholar or researcher who has published findings to support your thinking. So Google Scholar, or the Research Assistance section of AskScott or Newscan for the older students OR Study Search Australia for both Primary and Secondary Students would be useful for the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Here's a link to Study Search
http://www.studysearch.com.au/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
The Six Thinking Hats and the Thinking Caps (which I think are Pohl's variation but I could be wrong) overlap with Bloom in that they separate facts (White) from Evaluation (Positive and Negative, Yellow and Black) and Action (Green. Creativity). They also include the affective or emotional aspects (Feelings, Red) and metacognition (thinking about thinking, Blue).
The point of these expanded grid is to remind us that, as James has said in the notes, that different students learn in different ways and that reference material is more than printed text. So the 42-grid reminds us that an image or an animation or even a site with sound is an important alternative for some learning styles.
By way of interest or maybe clarification here are three variations of the Blooms Taxonomy levels. I've used rows as there is no formatting available to make columns. The terms in the second row may help clarify the meaning of each level.
Bloom: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation
Mean: Remembering, Understanding, Using, Breaking Down, Creating, Judging
Pohl: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating, Creating
You will note that the third row, by Australian author Michael Pohl (who has written lots of useful Thinking Skills books), has the "top" two levels swapped around. An interesting variation that is worth pondering if and when you have time.
In some ways Bloom would have expected that students moved beyond an external reference for synthesis and evaluation to their own thinking and creative skills. However, as we have found, finding a reputable scholar or researcher who has published findings to support your thinking. So Google Scholar, or the Research Assistance section of AskScott or Newscan for the older students OR Study Search Australia for both Primary and Secondary Students would be useful for the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Here's a link to Study Search
http://www.studysearch.com.au/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
The Six Thinking Hats and the Thinking Caps (which I think are Pohl's variation but I could be wrong) overlap with Bloom in that they separate facts (White) from Evaluation (Positive and Negative, Yellow and Black) and Action (Green. Creativity). They also include the affective or emotional aspects (Feelings, Red) and metacognition (thinking about thinking, Blue).
Saturday, June 19, 2010
ETL 401 Assessment 2 Reflection
As with many of those who have posted forum comments I'm happy with the result. I also agree that my marker's feedback was clear and helpful. There are two comments that I would make for the interest of those attempting this task in the future. The first is that two observations that I made about the practical use of the Information Literacy Models were questioned for not having a supporting reference. These were observations from my experience as a teacher. Obviously, I couldn't say, "From my experience ..." in such an assignment (it wouldn't be in the third person) but it appears that, even at this level, a scholarly paper must have more received wisdom than original thought and that critical analysis must carry the authority of published research rather than first-hand observation. I wonder if it would have been more acceptable if I had found the time to conduct my own research, following the advice of Ross Todd. One small postscript is that I used the term aspirational to describe the ASLA twelve standards, the later found an article in which the author of the standards used exactly the same term, so I added the reference. Does this make the observation any more valid?
I would, therefore suggest, that students select three Information Literacy models for which they can find published critical analysis. Obviously the ones that spring to mind are the Big6, Kulthau's Model and the Herring PLUS model. The Alberta model is another that falls into this category and is one of three that I chose. I obviously needed to make more of the studies of this and the Big6 (another of my choices) and less of my own critical analysis.
The second piece of feedback is that it's important to include specific curriculum-related observations in the analysis of the ASLA twelve standards. If these aren't apparent from the readings, then use the SCAN periodical which makes practical suggestions about teacher librarians and curriculum in just about every issue. In hindsight I would have said more about the collaboration of teacher librarian and class teacher in design, implementation and assessment of curriculum programming.
As always, I hope these reflections may assist others.
I would, therefore suggest, that students select three Information Literacy models for which they can find published critical analysis. Obviously the ones that spring to mind are the Big6, Kulthau's Model and the Herring PLUS model. The Alberta model is another that falls into this category and is one of three that I chose. I obviously needed to make more of the studies of this and the Big6 (another of my choices) and less of my own critical analysis.
The second piece of feedback is that it's important to include specific curriculum-related observations in the analysis of the ASLA twelve standards. If these aren't apparent from the readings, then use the SCAN periodical which makes practical suggestions about teacher librarians and curriculum in just about every issue. In hindsight I would have said more about the collaboration of teacher librarian and class teacher in design, implementation and assessment of curriculum programming.
As always, I hope these reflections may assist others.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Reflections on ETL 503 Assignment 2
I expect that you, like me, may well be receiving back your second assignment soon. I thought that I'd reflect on the marker's comments as they may be of use to those attempting this task in the future. There is no gripe here, just things that I could have done better that may assist others, especially as it is not always easy to interpret the guidelines in the assessment task itself.Firstly, although I used two measures of collection analysis I should have included other methods, or possible methods, that could be used to measure the usefulness of the collection in the learning/teaching process. There are a number of these given in the readings, for example the Bishop reading.
The needs of the curriculum are paramount in shaping the curriculum and I did not identify these well enough in the opening. I also failed to refer to enough sources, even if they may have said the same thing. I can see that me knowing that is not readily apparent to the marker unless I include the reference for a similar point. I also omitted to refer to Debowski with relation to budgeting in Part A. (Well I had and then I moved it to keep within the word limit. In fact, the same could be said of the extra measures of collection, which I included in the reflection in Part C). I certainly referred to Debowski specifically in Part B and Part C.
I also got into trouble for using an old edition of Learning for the Future. I know that a 2001 edition exists and our library catalogue says that we have it but it couldn't be found. I suppose it shows I'm limited in how far I will search out resources.
The suggestions about the Policy itself are helpful. As many others indicated on the forum, it was very hard to fit in with the word limit. Interestingly, under Ashley's advice I dropped all the specific school standards and vision statements. The marker wanted these included in my policy, even though they were in the Appendix A and I commented more than once on their effectiveness.
I did not include enough aids to selection (I had heaps more from Ashley's study guide and left them off due to the word limit) and I ignored the School Library Bill of Rights, although I knew that others were including this. Once again, all of its statements appeared in some form or another in the original library policy (Appendix A) and I left them out in this form due to space.
I failed to include collaboration in the policy, specifically collaborative development and review,even though I did nominate teachers and head teachers as part of the selection team for resources (as is the case with the present school policy). The policy needed to specify the collaboration taking place in the decision-making process and the benefits of this for ownership of the collection development by all staff. I know that I did use this almost exact phrase somewhere in my four assignments – I think ETL 401 Assignment 1. It's useful to make the cross overs.
The final omission was not to include a policy review date (as, of course, we have on every other school policy document) and reference to the approval by Principal or school Board. I did discuss the need to review in Part C. It is worth noting that, in the Board of Studies inspection, every policy except the Library policy had to be submitted for detailed scrutiny.
As I said this has been for the purpose of helping others with their future assignments. The rest of the detailed comments will help me to go back now and polish up my own library policy – without the pressure of a word limit!
The needs of the curriculum are paramount in shaping the curriculum and I did not identify these well enough in the opening. I also failed to refer to enough sources, even if they may have said the same thing. I can see that me knowing that is not readily apparent to the marker unless I include the reference for a similar point. I also omitted to refer to Debowski with relation to budgeting in Part A. (Well I had and then I moved it to keep within the word limit. In fact, the same could be said of the extra measures of collection, which I included in the reflection in Part C). I certainly referred to Debowski specifically in Part B and Part C.
I also got into trouble for using an old edition of Learning for the Future. I know that a 2001 edition exists and our library catalogue says that we have it but it couldn't be found. I suppose it shows I'm limited in how far I will search out resources.
The suggestions about the Policy itself are helpful. As many others indicated on the forum, it was very hard to fit in with the word limit. Interestingly, under Ashley's advice I dropped all the specific school standards and vision statements. The marker wanted these included in my policy, even though they were in the Appendix A and I commented more than once on their effectiveness.
I did not include enough aids to selection (I had heaps more from Ashley's study guide and left them off due to the word limit) and I ignored the School Library Bill of Rights, although I knew that others were including this. Once again, all of its statements appeared in some form or another in the original library policy (Appendix A) and I left them out in this form due to space.
I failed to include collaboration in the policy, specifically collaborative development and review,even though I did nominate teachers and head teachers as part of the selection team for resources (as is the case with the present school policy). The policy needed to specify the collaboration taking place in the decision-making process and the benefits of this for ownership of the collection development by all staff. I know that I did use this almost exact phrase somewhere in my four assignments – I think ETL 401 Assignment 1. It's useful to make the cross overs.
The final omission was not to include a policy review date (as, of course, we have on every other school policy document) and reference to the approval by Principal or school Board. I did discuss the need to review in Part C. It is worth noting that, in the Board of Studies inspection, every policy except the Library policy had to be submitted for detailed scrutiny.
As I said this has been for the purpose of helping others with their future assignments. The rest of the detailed comments will help me to go back now and polish up my own library policy – without the pressure of a word limit!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Critical Synthesis
I don’t think that I have ever subscribed to the librarian stereotype featured in the item about the Gillard enquiry into school libraries on the 9th April 2010 edition of Channel 10’s The 7pm Project. I think that I have long had a view of the librarian as a resource person to whom one went as a class teacher for assistance with locating, acquiring and organising resources for class assignments. More recently, I have appreciated the key partnership and leadership of the librarian in introducing and supporting online resources and digital literacy (Cooney 2010).
There are three aspects of the role of the teacher librarian that this course has brought into clear focus. The first is the pedagogical foundation for the teaching strategies and resources that my teacher librarian has helped me adopt in my teaching. These are Inquiry or Resource-based Learning and Information Literacy. By understanding these learning strategies and models more completely, I am able to better appreciate the teaching role and collaboration of the teacher librarian as well as more effectively employ them in my own teaching (Cooney, March 13th, 2010).
The second aspect is the importance of research-based reporting. Here’s my forum posting about this from March 7th:
"Having read the extended list and description of excellence in teacher-librarianship from the ASLA site, I was somewhat concerned about the suggestion that TLs [teacher librarians] should be involved in evidence-based research to justify the effectiveness of their role" (Cooney 2010).
Fellow student, Graham Bebington’s, response put my naïveté into sharp perspective.
"I tend to agree with you that it is strange that we have to justify and try and prove that we are effectively doing a job that for us we can see the tremendous benefits on student achievement and learning outcomes. However in this day and age there is a massive demand and an expectation of accountability and proof that we are facilitating and having a direct link to student academic growth" (Bebington 2010).
While working on assignment two I have come across a similar reference to research in Elements 6 and 7 of the NSW Institute of Teachers Professional Teaching Standards (NSW Institute of Teachers). However, I still think that the type of research described for teacher-librarians is different from that prescribed for teachers in general. The use of the same word may be misleading. When a graduate teacher explores “educational ideas and issues through research” or a professionally competent teacher explores “educational ideas, issues and research”, I suspect that this means locating, reading and evaluating professional literature and reports, whereas the ASLA standard – if the work of Ross Todd (2003, 2007) is to be the exemplary model – involves empirical research. I found the Delaware Case Study provided a compelling argument (Todd, 2009).
This is related to the third aspect that participating in this course has made clear: the precarious budgetary situation and the uncertain future for school libraries and teacher librarians. Whether the sobering budgeting guidelines of Debowski (2001), the case against invisibility set out by Oberg (2006) or the many stories set out by subscribers to the Australian Teacher Librarian Network (OZTL_NET) and the daily newspapers such as the Courier-Mail (2010) and The Age (2010), this has been a revelation. It has led to illuminating discussions with our own teacher librarian about the state of our school library collection and the effect that tighter budgeting has had upon it. These were certainly different from the views I expressed in an earlier blog from March 13th (Cooney, 2010). Having had to fight for many years for funds to resource my own subject area, I am no stranger to this situation but seeing the library as a central hub of the teaching and learning mission of the school, I had little or no awareness of the overall impact that this was having. I’m pleased that I kept note of the suggestions from Dianne McKenzie (McKenzie, 2009, 2010) in my blog entry from April 2nd (Cooney 2010).
I think that this is an issue that has genuine consequences for current teacher librarians and those of us who aspire to this profession. Without action to raise awareness and recognition of their role and effectiveness within the school, teacher librarians will be under threat (Cooney, May 9th, 2010). Those of us training for this role need to also be aware of the situation and ensure that our training and professional practice (including on-going training) enables us to lead in the making and monitoring of effective change and a positive difference in the learning and lives of our students.
References
Bebington, Graham. (2010, March 10th) Message posted to ETL 401 Sub-forum 2
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 7th) Message posted to ETL 401 Sub-forum 2
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 13th) Past and Future of School Libraries. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 13th) Guided Enquiry Learning. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 13th) Topic 2 Teacher Librarian Rules and Standards. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, April 2nd) ETL 401 Readings. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010. April 8th) Assignment Reflection 2. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, May 9th). Future of Teacher Librarians. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Debowski, S. (2001). Collection program funding management. In K. Dillon, J. Henri, & J. McGregor (Eds.), Providing more with less: collection management for school libraries (2nd ed.) (pp. 299-326). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Libraries at Risk. (2010, March 30). The Courier-Mail, p. 40-41.
Mckenzie, Dianne. (2009, June 27th). Importance of creating an annual report. Message posted to http://librarygrits.blogspot.com
MPs to hear school library concern (2010, April 27). The Age. Retrieved from:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/mps-to-hear-school-library-concerns-20100426-tnci.html
Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of school administrators. In Teacher librarian. 33, 3. 13-18.
Todd, R. (2003). How to prove you boost student achievement. In School Library Journal, 4/1/2003 retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA287119&publication=slj
Todd, R.J. (2007) Evidence-based practice and school libraries. In S. Hughes-Hassall & V.H. Harada (Eds.). School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-58). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited
Todd. R. J. (2009). School libraries and continuous improvement: a case study. In Scan. 28(2). May. 26-31.
There are three aspects of the role of the teacher librarian that this course has brought into clear focus. The first is the pedagogical foundation for the teaching strategies and resources that my teacher librarian has helped me adopt in my teaching. These are Inquiry or Resource-based Learning and Information Literacy. By understanding these learning strategies and models more completely, I am able to better appreciate the teaching role and collaboration of the teacher librarian as well as more effectively employ them in my own teaching (Cooney, March 13th, 2010).
The second aspect is the importance of research-based reporting. Here’s my forum posting about this from March 7th:
"Having read the extended list and description of excellence in teacher-librarianship from the ASLA site, I was somewhat concerned about the suggestion that TLs [teacher librarians] should be involved in evidence-based research to justify the effectiveness of their role" (Cooney 2010).
Fellow student, Graham Bebington’s, response put my naïveté into sharp perspective.
"I tend to agree with you that it is strange that we have to justify and try and prove that we are effectively doing a job that for us we can see the tremendous benefits on student achievement and learning outcomes. However in this day and age there is a massive demand and an expectation of accountability and proof that we are facilitating and having a direct link to student academic growth" (Bebington 2010).
While working on assignment two I have come across a similar reference to research in Elements 6 and 7 of the NSW Institute of Teachers Professional Teaching Standards (NSW Institute of Teachers). However, I still think that the type of research described for teacher-librarians is different from that prescribed for teachers in general. The use of the same word may be misleading. When a graduate teacher explores “educational ideas and issues through research” or a professionally competent teacher explores “educational ideas, issues and research”, I suspect that this means locating, reading and evaluating professional literature and reports, whereas the ASLA standard – if the work of Ross Todd (2003, 2007) is to be the exemplary model – involves empirical research. I found the Delaware Case Study provided a compelling argument (Todd, 2009).
This is related to the third aspect that participating in this course has made clear: the precarious budgetary situation and the uncertain future for school libraries and teacher librarians. Whether the sobering budgeting guidelines of Debowski (2001), the case against invisibility set out by Oberg (2006) or the many stories set out by subscribers to the Australian Teacher Librarian Network (OZTL_NET) and the daily newspapers such as the Courier-Mail (2010) and The Age (2010), this has been a revelation. It has led to illuminating discussions with our own teacher librarian about the state of our school library collection and the effect that tighter budgeting has had upon it. These were certainly different from the views I expressed in an earlier blog from March 13th (Cooney, 2010). Having had to fight for many years for funds to resource my own subject area, I am no stranger to this situation but seeing the library as a central hub of the teaching and learning mission of the school, I had little or no awareness of the overall impact that this was having. I’m pleased that I kept note of the suggestions from Dianne McKenzie (McKenzie, 2009, 2010) in my blog entry from April 2nd (Cooney 2010).
I think that this is an issue that has genuine consequences for current teacher librarians and those of us who aspire to this profession. Without action to raise awareness and recognition of their role and effectiveness within the school, teacher librarians will be under threat (Cooney, May 9th, 2010). Those of us training for this role need to also be aware of the situation and ensure that our training and professional practice (including on-going training) enables us to lead in the making and monitoring of effective change and a positive difference in the learning and lives of our students.
References
Bebington, Graham. (2010, March 10th) Message posted to ETL 401 Sub-forum 2
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 7th) Message posted to ETL 401 Sub-forum 2
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 13th) Past and Future of School Libraries. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 13th) Guided Enquiry Learning. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, March 13th) Topic 2 Teacher Librarian Rules and Standards. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, April 2nd) ETL 401 Readings. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010. April 8th) Assignment Reflection 2. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Cooney, Philip. (2010, May 9th). Future of Teacher Librarians. Message posted to http://valleyofwaters.blogspot.com
Debowski, S. (2001). Collection program funding management. In K. Dillon, J. Henri, & J. McGregor (Eds.), Providing more with less: collection management for school libraries (2nd ed.) (pp. 299-326). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.
Libraries at Risk. (2010, March 30). The Courier-Mail, p. 40-41.
Mckenzie, Dianne. (2009, June 27th). Importance of creating an annual report. Message posted to http://librarygrits.blogspot.com
MPs to hear school library concern (2010, April 27). The Age. Retrieved from:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/mps-to-hear-school-library-concerns-20100426-tnci.html
Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of school administrators. In Teacher librarian. 33, 3. 13-18.
Todd, R. (2003). How to prove you boost student achievement. In School Library Journal, 4/1/2003 retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA287119&publication=slj
Todd, R.J. (2007) Evidence-based practice and school libraries. In S. Hughes-Hassall & V.H. Harada (Eds.). School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-58). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited
Todd. R. J. (2009). School libraries and continuous improvement: a case study. In Scan. 28(2). May. 26-31.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Professional Practice
Whether or not my evaluation of the ASLA Standards is found to be satisfactory, one personal note is that I find them describing much of what I aspire to do in my own teaching, both with my students but also as a collaborator and leader of innovative educational practice with my colleagues. While there are still aspects of the teacher librarian role that I find daunting, the opportunity to promote lifelong learning and engage in professional discussion and collaboration about our profession is something that I enjoy. If only there were more time for such things. This is one reason why I take the opportunity to contribute articles to various publications. I hope that this will allow an exchange of ideas in a manner that is convenient for others to engage with in their own time.
More on ETL 401 Assessment Task 2
Unlike the previous assignment, I held back submitting this one until almost the deadline. This has been helpful because I have learnt more about the expectations and other aspects from Roy's responses to the forum posting by myself and others. In fact I have re-written some of Part B before submitting today, based on Roy's comments about professional practice being more than just teaching. In doing so, I have abandoned some more specific observations that I made about the standards, which I'm including here.
There are two aspects upon which the two sets of standards differ. The first is the skills that are required to create and maintain “a safe and challenging learning environment” (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2005, pp. 10-11). For the NSW Institute this includes discipline, managing student behaviour and ensuring student safety (pp. 10-11). The ASLA standards appear to emphasise the management of systems and information rather than students. This is probably not the intention but it has the potential to infer that teacher librarians do not require the same management skills as class teachers, which is not the case.
The second example is the reference to the implementation of the school’s mission in 2.3 of the ASLA standard. In this instance the ASLA standards have demonstrated a better acknowledgement of the role of schools as not just knowledge communities, but rather learning communities, which seek to address a variety of developmental needs in their students within a particular social, ethnic, religious or geographic context. The reference to knowledge of library and information management in ASLA 1.4 may seem to be unique to the teacher librarian but it has a parallel with the teacher “continually improving their professional knowledge and practice”.
The other aspect of the assessment task is this blog. Looking at the marking criteria, I am concerned at how much more I may have been expected to log here. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the expectation of writing this blog and forum posting and actually doing the reading, research and reflection required by the course has been a big ask. I also reflected earlier that I had used Word documents to make my own notes and (as I discovered while reviewing material for Part A and Part B) I had copied and pasted and referenced the Forum comments of others in those Word documents rather than this blog. Right or wrong procedure? I suppose that I will soon find out.
There are two aspects upon which the two sets of standards differ. The first is the skills that are required to create and maintain “a safe and challenging learning environment” (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2005, pp. 10-11). For the NSW Institute this includes discipline, managing student behaviour and ensuring student safety (pp. 10-11). The ASLA standards appear to emphasise the management of systems and information rather than students. This is probably not the intention but it has the potential to infer that teacher librarians do not require the same management skills as class teachers, which is not the case.
The second example is the reference to the implementation of the school’s mission in 2.3 of the ASLA standard. In this instance the ASLA standards have demonstrated a better acknowledgement of the role of schools as not just knowledge communities, but rather learning communities, which seek to address a variety of developmental needs in their students within a particular social, ethnic, religious or geographic context. The reference to knowledge of library and information management in ASLA 1.4 may seem to be unique to the teacher librarian but it has a parallel with the teacher “continually improving their professional knowledge and practice”.
The other aspect of the assessment task is this blog. Looking at the marking criteria, I am concerned at how much more I may have been expected to log here. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the expectation of writing this blog and forum posting and actually doing the reading, research and reflection required by the course has been a big ask. I also reflected earlier that I had used Word documents to make my own notes and (as I discovered while reviewing material for Part A and Part B) I had copied and pasted and referenced the Forum comments of others in those Word documents rather than this blog. Right or wrong procedure? I suppose that I will soon find out.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Future of Teacher Librarians
Before I post my assignment review of the role of teacher librarians, I thought that I would post part of my submission to the Gillard Enquiry.
There will be many more experienced and learned people making submissions to this enquiry. I am a teacher of over thirty years experience who has just begun to study for qualification as a teacher librarian. I do feel that this allows me to see the continuing significance of the school library and the central role of the school librarian from more than one vantage point.
The Federal government's focus upon literacy and numeracy, while in itself worthy of some commendation, has continued a narrow focus on the definition and assessment of these two skills. In twenty-first century classrooms much more emphasis should be being placed on inquiry, critical review and the applied use of information for solving problems.
This is not just literacy, even in the expanded form of reading, comprehension and writing. It is about the larger domain of information literacy. To be a successful reader today means to question the source of what you are reading, it means being able to locate the information you need from amongst the ever-expanding amount of information available. It means being able to process information in the form of text, images and sound. It means understanding how to decode, evaluate and use that information for your own purposes and to ethically use that information to persuade others or to solve problems. There is a further ethical imperative to teach students how to be discerning in their own selection of information and information sources.
The role of the library as the information media centre of a school has not changed. While computer access is now more widespread, the teacher librarian remains the school staff member best placed to know the information needs of students, to demonstrate effective and wise practice when it comes to information literacy and to evaluate the development of information literacy skills across the whole curriculum. It is this flexibility or transportability of skills from one context to another that will be required of our work force in this century.
However, the development of these information literacy skills should not be seen merely as an economic tool. They are important to the maturing of responsible citizens, able to make informed decisions. This is important, whether those citizens are consumers or, as is increasingly the case, creators and manipulators of information themselves.
It makes sense to commit this crucial role of literacy learning to people who are trained, dedicated and engaged in the business of information in the school. It also makes sense to ensure that they are adequately funded for this task. This includes the need to fund access to recognised, authoritative sources of relevant information, both in printed and digital form. This becomes all the more imperative as teachers grapple with the task of implementing a new national curriculum. The need for resources together with the need to develop the full range of literacy skills, including digital literacy, make the role of the teacher librarian even more necessary than before if we are to truly nurture the citizens of the twenty-first century.
There will be many more experienced and learned people making submissions to this enquiry. I am a teacher of over thirty years experience who has just begun to study for qualification as a teacher librarian. I do feel that this allows me to see the continuing significance of the school library and the central role of the school librarian from more than one vantage point.
The Federal government's focus upon literacy and numeracy, while in itself worthy of some commendation, has continued a narrow focus on the definition and assessment of these two skills. In twenty-first century classrooms much more emphasis should be being placed on inquiry, critical review and the applied use of information for solving problems.
This is not just literacy, even in the expanded form of reading, comprehension and writing. It is about the larger domain of information literacy. To be a successful reader today means to question the source of what you are reading, it means being able to locate the information you need from amongst the ever-expanding amount of information available. It means being able to process information in the form of text, images and sound. It means understanding how to decode, evaluate and use that information for your own purposes and to ethically use that information to persuade others or to solve problems. There is a further ethical imperative to teach students how to be discerning in their own selection of information and information sources.
The role of the library as the information media centre of a school has not changed. While computer access is now more widespread, the teacher librarian remains the school staff member best placed to know the information needs of students, to demonstrate effective and wise practice when it comes to information literacy and to evaluate the development of information literacy skills across the whole curriculum. It is this flexibility or transportability of skills from one context to another that will be required of our work force in this century.
However, the development of these information literacy skills should not be seen merely as an economic tool. They are important to the maturing of responsible citizens, able to make informed decisions. This is important, whether those citizens are consumers or, as is increasingly the case, creators and manipulators of information themselves.
It makes sense to commit this crucial role of literacy learning to people who are trained, dedicated and engaged in the business of information in the school. It also makes sense to ensure that they are adequately funded for this task. This includes the need to fund access to recognised, authoritative sources of relevant information, both in printed and digital form. This becomes all the more imperative as teachers grapple with the task of implementing a new national curriculum. The need for resources together with the need to develop the full range of literacy skills, including digital literacy, make the role of the teacher librarian even more necessary than before if we are to truly nurture the citizens of the twenty-first century.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
ETL 401 Assessment Task 2
I'm feeling a little more confident about this task. I'm only using the NSW Teachers Standards for comparison but I think that's enough. I hope that's enough. I certainly think that I have some worthwhile points of comparison and evaluation. I've also tracked down some Forum comments for Part C. I'm glad this have been left up. I've also downloaded the referencing sheet for blogs and forum, as well listening to the vidcasts. I feel that I am giving myself a good foundation for tackling this task. I have to go back and change a few terms (steps not stages) in Part A and I want to look at the use of terms and the comparison with the Information Process model from the Learning from the Future book. It seems to be closer to the Big Six than the two that I have preferred. I wonder what that says?
Reflections on ETL 401 Assignment
The assignment arrived back today. Pleasing result and very encouraging comments. The two key areas that I missed were my own description of the information literate school community. I used a summary from the text and didn't expand this sufficiently to describe what this would mean in practice for the teacher librarian, the students and the teacher. In the end, I think that word limits defeated me bit here but also lack of time to reflect on the material in my own mind and in my own school. It is clear from the marker's comments that this personal reflection is as welcome in this course as the Reflection sections are in the 501 courses.
I also failed to correctly reference a couple of readings. I actually noticed this when I went to use one of the same quotes in the ETL 501 assignment and I found the quote in my notes without an accompanying reference. Once again time. I don't say this as an excuse. It is very much a reality of the context in which this course and the assignments are being completed.
I also failed to correctly reference a couple of readings. I actually noticed this when I went to use one of the same quotes in the ETL 501 assignment and I found the quote in my notes without an accompanying reference. Once again time. I don't say this as an excuse. It is very much a reality of the context in which this course and the assignments are being completed.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Reflections on ETL 503 Assignment 1
The assignments do have useful practical application. I liken it to a student teacher preparing a unit of lessons for an assignment and then having a resource to draw upon in their practicum or their later teaching. But just as an experienced teacher will complete and demonstrate a lesson without necessarily holding a fully annotated program in their hand as they teach, so our teacher librarians do their jobs without referring to a research paper or textbook to support their actions. Doing this now, helps us to understand the why, while talking or working with our teacher librarians helps us to learn the how.
I think that sometimes the readings and even the Kennedy text can seem too theoretical or academic and not enough like a procedure manual. Yet the assignments ask us to bring these two things together: the practical and the theoretical. This also compounds the problem of referencing. How do I reference something that I do? I make notes on each reading and yet I've still struggled to demonstrate wide reading in the assignments because they seem to ask us to describe what we did and what we'd do better, rather than discussing the thoughts of the experts. How do we know what is a better way? From the readings, I think – as well as advice from the librarian. In Assignment 1, it was easy to look up recommended books on SCIS or on a site such as the NSW DET syllabus support sites. This is what librarians do all the time. However, because I wrote my own appraisal (based on the selection criteria in the readings), without referring to this source and other reviews of the two books I included, my work was not as strong as it might have been.
The assignment and text did say to use these type of resources in your selection, so I have no gripes with that appraisal. However, it is important to write out each part of the task and the assessment criteria, if you want to ensure that you have covered everything. The nine-point criteria from Ashley for the collection development policy is an example of this. When they're written in a long sentences in the task rather than points, it is easy to miss something.
I think that sometimes the readings and even the Kennedy text can seem too theoretical or academic and not enough like a procedure manual. Yet the assignments ask us to bring these two things together: the practical and the theoretical. This also compounds the problem of referencing. How do I reference something that I do? I make notes on each reading and yet I've still struggled to demonstrate wide reading in the assignments because they seem to ask us to describe what we did and what we'd do better, rather than discussing the thoughts of the experts. How do we know what is a better way? From the readings, I think – as well as advice from the librarian. In Assignment 1, it was easy to look up recommended books on SCIS or on a site such as the NSW DET syllabus support sites. This is what librarians do all the time. However, because I wrote my own appraisal (based on the selection criteria in the readings), without referring to this source and other reviews of the two books I included, my work was not as strong as it might have been.
The assignment and text did say to use these type of resources in your selection, so I have no gripes with that appraisal. However, it is important to write out each part of the task and the assessment criteria, if you want to ensure that you have covered everything. The nine-point criteria from Ashley for the collection development policy is an example of this. When they're written in a long sentences in the task rather than points, it is easy to miss something.
ETL 401 Assessment Task 2
I have just spent a whole weekend just doing Part A of this assignment, relating to the Information Literacy models. This was very much harder than I expected. I had no trouble selecting three. They were very similar in many ways: The Big Six, the DET ISP and the Alberta model. However, I wrote 750 words just comparing and contrasting the first stage in each model. In reducing the comparison of the whole model to that same length, I am now unsure whether I have achieved the depth that the task requires. It is very hard to know how much personal opinion to include and how much to cite material from the readings. Perhaps I should have included the deleted material in the blog.
I didn't do a word count of my forum positing on the information literacy models, but it wouldn't surprise me if I wrote over five hundred words there, in about thirty minutes. Make this weekend's struggle seem even more frustrating.
I didn't do a word count of my forum positing on the information literacy models, but it wouldn't surprise me if I wrote over five hundred words there, in about thirty minutes. Make this weekend's struggle seem even more frustrating.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Collaboration
I have been most inspired by the readings on collaboration and the collaborative school. This is not the first time that I have come across this model but whereas my past readings have focused on the collaborative classroom rather than collaboration between staff. This model uses language and concepts that resonate with the Christian understanding of community and I will (when I have finished my assignments) enjoy writing a reflection on this connection.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Teacher Librarian Course
Soon I must spend time sharing what I have learnt in this course so far. Before then, I am going to reflect briefly on the course itself. I am doing both subjects ETL 401 and ETL 503.
I have been very excited at much that I have learnt. Whether it's the topic of information literacy and their accompanying models or the way to evaluate a collection or write a library policy, I have learnt a lot that I am now able to apply. I am able to recognise the connections between the assignments, the reading material and the daily role of the teacher librarian.
However, I am still overwhelmed by the amount of work this course has required. This is the fourth time that I have done a university course by distance education. It it the third Masters degree or Masters degree subjects that I have undertaken. It is not the amount of reading that has to be done, or the difficulty or size of the tasks, it is the online expectations that seem to have increased the workload.
I have found the forums helpful and I have enjoyed the opportunity to help others but making those contributions has taken time. This blog has been one aspect that has not received the attention that I expect was anticipated by the University staff. The other online activity is the OZTL_NET. This has had both positive and negative aspects. There are around twenty emails per day that need to be read and either deleted, saved for future reference or replied to.
This is three online activities that have to be undertaken, in addition to the online presentation of the course material. I support the use of electronic communication. I welcome the advantage that it can bring. However, all such electronic communication adds to the time and financial burden on everyday life. I am already bearing the burden that email and the internet bring with their intrusion into domestic life.
I have taken small steps into the world of Web 2.0 in the past but I now restrict these to the needs of work and study, rather than have them take over even more of my time. I think that being aware of the various online options is important. However, I would like to reserve the right of age and wisdom to only use those forms that genuinely make life easier, not that just fill it up more.
I have been very excited at much that I have learnt. Whether it's the topic of information literacy and their accompanying models or the way to evaluate a collection or write a library policy, I have learnt a lot that I am now able to apply. I am able to recognise the connections between the assignments, the reading material and the daily role of the teacher librarian.
However, I am still overwhelmed by the amount of work this course has required. This is the fourth time that I have done a university course by distance education. It it the third Masters degree or Masters degree subjects that I have undertaken. It is not the amount of reading that has to be done, or the difficulty or size of the tasks, it is the online expectations that seem to have increased the workload.
I have found the forums helpful and I have enjoyed the opportunity to help others but making those contributions has taken time. This blog has been one aspect that has not received the attention that I expect was anticipated by the University staff. The other online activity is the OZTL_NET. This has had both positive and negative aspects. There are around twenty emails per day that need to be read and either deleted, saved for future reference or replied to.
This is three online activities that have to be undertaken, in addition to the online presentation of the course material. I support the use of electronic communication. I welcome the advantage that it can bring. However, all such electronic communication adds to the time and financial burden on everyday life. I am already bearing the burden that email and the internet bring with their intrusion into domestic life.
I have taken small steps into the world of Web 2.0 in the past but I now restrict these to the needs of work and study, rather than have them take over even more of my time. I think that being aware of the various online options is important. However, I would like to reserve the right of age and wisdom to only use those forms that genuinely make life easier, not that just fill it up more.
ETL 503 Assignment 2
It's hard to know whether the number of confused postings on the Forum are the result of the way the task is set out or the difficulty of the task itself, or the failure of we students to make the necessary connections. It's obvious that this is a great task to have under your belt, in the same way that pre-service teachers create lesson units. A collection policy is an excellent thing to have. Understanding how to write one or revise one is valuable skill.
The problem is that the actual writing of a policy seems an enormous task, if the one that I am revising is anything to go by. Even revising it seems a big task, when you have to support your decisions based on the readings. This is only because the readings seem vast and what I think that you need to do is to pinpoint only the readings that address the sections that you think require revision (selection, acquisition, funding, evaluation)
The problem is that the actual writing of a policy seems an enormous task, if the one that I am revising is anything to go by. Even revising it seems a big task, when you have to support your decisions based on the readings. This is only because the readings seem vast and what I think that you need to do is to pinpoint only the readings that address the sections that you think require revision (selection, acquisition, funding, evaluation)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Assignment Reflection 2
Roy Crotty has suggested that we record the "aha" moment for the assignment. Some of this I have already recorded, such as my struggle to grasp the nature of the obstacle in the ETL 401 assignment. The other key thing has been recognising the reason for the literacy skills posters of various types around the library, but more importantly realising that I can assist with the students acquiring these skills even more by designing my tasks with the steps explicitly identified, in other words using a Information Literacy model. As others have noted we often tend to follow these steps intuitively but it doesn't follow that our students will do this. Even designing the task, I include steps such as brainstorming, even if the question or questions are set but I don't ask the students to reflect on that session and record their understanding and their next step.
I'm also beginning to wonder if I should have copied some of my forum posts into my blog. If I have time and they're still up I might go back and check on these. For example, I recently talked about the role of the model as a diagnostic and supportive tool.
Of course, I'm speaking as a class teacher. What this course is teaching me is more about the role that our teacher librarian plays. We work closely together and our library is a valued place. So much of the obstacles and lack of principal support and funding that I read about don't apply. However, we have had some wonderful conversations in the course of both assignments. It was Lyn's observation that teachers don't know what the library has to offer that prompted my choice of obstacle in the assignment. She also noted that information literacy is not taught in pre-service training and so teachers aren't aware of this need or of her role in meeting this need. They continue to see a disjunct between the classroom and the library; wanting their children to come, especially at assignment time but not always sure what support is available. They then discover this wonderful person able to open up the Aladdin's cave of information and support. But unless this is documented and placed in the Year program, the constant changing of staff means that this important information is lost.
Cue readings on collaboration and the professional learning community.
I'm also beginning to wonder if I should have copied some of my forum posts into my blog. If I have time and they're still up I might go back and check on these. For example, I recently talked about the role of the model as a diagnostic and supportive tool.
Of course, I'm speaking as a class teacher. What this course is teaching me is more about the role that our teacher librarian plays. We work closely together and our library is a valued place. So much of the obstacles and lack of principal support and funding that I read about don't apply. However, we have had some wonderful conversations in the course of both assignments. It was Lyn's observation that teachers don't know what the library has to offer that prompted my choice of obstacle in the assignment. She also noted that information literacy is not taught in pre-service training and so teachers aren't aware of this need or of her role in meeting this need. They continue to see a disjunct between the classroom and the library; wanting their children to come, especially at assignment time but not always sure what support is available. They then discover this wonderful person able to open up the Aladdin's cave of information and support. But unless this is documented and placed in the Year program, the constant changing of staff means that this important information is lost.
Cue readings on collaboration and the professional learning community.
More on Assignments
Roy Crotty has kindly reminded us that there are a number of items about presentation that we, or at least I, have overlooked. Fortunately, both he and Ashley have been generous and understanding. With the on-line environment, it's so easy to read something and then lose track of where you read it or not make a note of it to remember. I suppose that this blog is one place to keep those records. For example, I read the CSU email about a title page some time ago but then totally forgot about it in my desire to submit the assignment. I've downloaded it now and I shall paste it into the start of each new assignment. The other problems with spacing and referencing I've discussed earlier.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Assignments
I suppose that I should deal with the assignments for each subject separately. However, the difficulties that I had really applied to both of them. The first was with layout, which I've talked about elsewhere. The second is the addressing of each element of the assignment. With the ETL 503 assignment, I submitted it four times, not just because I could but once to correct the layout spacing, the the third time because I realised that I had not adequately addressed the element of acquisition. I don't know that I have still done this, and I didn't put it as a separate item with its own subheading, but I did include more information and a reading reference. Then I realised that this had put me over the limit, so I then had to edit the assignment again and then re-submit at 4pm on the due date, after first submitting it almost a week earlier.
With the ETL 401 assignment, I think that mu choice of obstacle and solution will be questioned. I chose not to go with the obvious obstacles of principal or funding. Instead I chose lack of recognition of the role that the teacher librarian plays in an information literate school community. I also provided a two=pronged solution. I don't know what the markers will make of that. I suspect that they would prefer an obvious obstacle and clear solution, supplied by the readings. We'll see.
Finally, despite knowing that the markers are looking for evidence of wide reading, in the ETL 503 assignment I only used three sources. The problem was that the task focused on selection and acquisition and this really only required a set of criteria, possible resources and justification of those selected. I did make up for this with the ETL 401 assignment but it doesn't quite work like that.
By the way, I did work with the marking guidelines in front of me. They are useful. Time would be even more helpful.
With the ETL 401 assignment, I think that mu choice of obstacle and solution will be questioned. I chose not to go with the obvious obstacles of principal or funding. Instead I chose lack of recognition of the role that the teacher librarian plays in an information literate school community. I also provided a two=pronged solution. I don't know what the markers will make of that. I suspect that they would prefer an obvious obstacle and clear solution, supplied by the readings. We'll see.
Finally, despite knowing that the markers are looking for evidence of wide reading, in the ETL 503 assignment I only used three sources. The problem was that the task focused on selection and acquisition and this really only required a set of criteria, possible resources and justification of those selected. I did make up for this with the ETL 401 assignment but it doesn't quite work like that.
By the way, I did work with the marking guidelines in front of me. They are useful. Time would be even more helpful.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Layout of Assignments
I've just discovered a question and response from Roy Crotty regarding the setting out of assignments. It says double space everything.Somebody else posted a similar question (as yet unanswered on the 503 forum for Ashley Freeman.
I followed the subject outline and referred to the presentation website when I wanted to know about spacing. There was no information there so I posted an email question to the help line. The message came back that there was no CSU standard (unlike the old days when we received a book that had this information) and the respondee, Stewart McKinney from the Askus help line said that 1.5 would be acceptable. I use this for the body of the assignment but not the synopsis, nor the references. I suppose that I have a day or two to make use of the EASTS multiple submission facility.
I followed the subject outline and referred to the presentation website when I wanted to know about spacing. There was no information there so I posted an email question to the help line. The message came back that there was no CSU standard (unlike the old days when we received a book that had this information) and the respondee, Stewart McKinney from the Askus help line said that 1.5 would be acceptable. I use this for the body of the assignment but not the synopsis, nor the references. I suppose that I have a day or two to make use of the EASTS multiple submission facility.
Friday, April 2, 2010
ETL 401 Readings
I thought that might reference list might be useful in identifying helpful reading. I think most are the essential readings anyway.
References
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) Statement on teacher librarian qualifications retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/teacher.librarian.qualifications.htm
Campbell, L., Flageolle, P., Griffith, S. & Wojcik, C. (2002). Resource-based learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Resource-based_Learning
Hay, L. and Todd, R. (2010). School libraries 21C: the conversation begins. In Scan 29(1). February. 30-42
Haycock, C-A. (1991). Resource-baed learning: A shift in the roles of teacher, learner
Haycock, K. (1999). Fostering collaboration, leadership and information literacy: Common behaviours of uncommon principals and faculties. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 82-87.
Hazell, A. (1990). School library and information services in Australia. In M. Nimon & A. Hazell (AEds.), Promoting learning: challenges in teacher librarianship (pp. 17-22). Adelaide: Auslib Press
Henri, J. (2005). Understanding the information literate school community. In The information literate school community 2, J. Henri and M. Asselin (eds.) Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia, 135-145.
Herring, J. (2006). A critical investigation of students’ and teachers’ views of the use of information literacy skills in school assignments. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmcontents/volume9/informatioliteracy.cfm
Jamieson, A. Library books fall by two million a year amid warnings of cuts and closures in The Telegraph, 14-02-2009, Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4622812/Library-books-fall-by-two-million-a-year-amid-warnings-of-cuts-and-closures.html
Accessed 31-3-2010
Kuhlthau, C. (2004). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. 2nd edition, Westport Conn:Libraries Unlimited
Langford, L. (1998). Information literacy: a clarification. In From now on: The educational technology journal retrieved from http://www.fno.org/sept/98/clarify.html
McLean, I. (2009). Kindergarten weaves a wiki: the learners tell their stories. In Scan 28 (1). February, 30–37.
McKenzie, J. (2010). Teacher librarians: leading, connecting and innovating. In Scan 29(1). February. 6-9.
Stripling, B. (2007). Assessing information fluency: gathering evidence of student learning. School library media activities monthly, 23(8), 25-29.
Todd, R. (2003). How to prove you boost student achievement
In School Library Journal, 4/1/2003 retrieved from
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA287119&publication=slj
Todd, R.J. (2007) Evidence-based practice and school libraries. In S. Hughes-Hassall & V.H. Harada (Eds.), School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-58). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited
Voertscher, D. with Todd, R. (2003). We Boost Achievement: Evidence-based practice for school library media specialists Salt Lake City: Hi Willow Research & Publishing
As well, if you are wanting to identify the school principal as anobstacle the readings by Gary Hartzell "Why should principals support school librarians?" and Anne Oberg "Developing the respect and support of school administrators" would be useful.
In addition you might have been following the conversations on the OZTL_NET. Here's one response to a plea from a Teacher Librarians who had her budget cut. The advice and references, including blogs, from Dianne Mackenzie would be good for this particular obstacle.
You need to go beyond just the budget - there is a lot of ground work to do
> before anything involving money will change. Have a look at my blog and the
> strategies I have created that have resulted in consequences far beyond my
> wildest expectations.
> http://librarygrits.blogspot.com
> *
> Some of my successful strategies include : *
>
> - Creating a budget before everyone else does with a "library
> improvement proposal" and specify what you need to improve the library
> program and why.
> - Create an annual report, making it as thorough as possible - see my
> example
> -
> http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2009/06/importance-of-creating-annual-report.html
> - Create and keep and activity log.
> - http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2010/03/tracking-my-activities.html
> - Be Proactive in the school - go looking for jobs that will make you
> indispensable
> - Read Doug Johnson's blog
> - Join twitter for great ideas
> - Read Gary Hartzells books
> - Get on committees esp leadership where you can
> - Blow your own trumpet all the time - constantly meet with your line
> manager and tell them what you have been doing, what you plan to do. I have
> scheduled meetings about once a month and it really helps when you need
> someone to go into bat for you.
> - Market yourself to other staff
> http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2010/01/marketing-possibilities.html
> - Create a yearly plan of what you want to achieve- show your line
> manager.
Further to what I wrote before about strategies for increasing your budget,
have a look at this article from Gary Hartzell ...
*
Why Should Principals Support School Libraries?
*http://www.libraryreference.com/school-libraries.html
There is a checklist of 11 characteristics of a school library that will
enhance student learning, make sure you are doing everything on that list
that you have control over, it is also a good list to give you an argument
about why you need more funding.
Gary Hartzell has a number of other articles here based on the school
library.
http://eduscapes.com/sms/overview/hartzell.html
He is coming form the perspective of a school Principal, rather than from a
school librarian and his articles are worth reading for that perspective
alone.
Advocacy is the key to getting a larger budget.
Cheers
Dianne McKenzie
Discovery College
Hong Kong
References
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) Statement on teacher librarian qualifications retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/teacher.librarian.qualifications.htm
Campbell, L., Flageolle, P., Griffith, S. & Wojcik, C. (2002). Resource-based learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Resource-based_Learning
Hay, L. and Todd, R. (2010). School libraries 21C: the conversation begins. In Scan 29(1). February. 30-42
Haycock, C-A. (1991). Resource-baed learning: A shift in the roles of teacher, learner
Haycock, K. (1999). Fostering collaboration, leadership and information literacy: Common behaviours of uncommon principals and faculties. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 82-87.
Hazell, A. (1990). School library and information services in Australia. In M. Nimon & A. Hazell (AEds.), Promoting learning: challenges in teacher librarianship (pp. 17-22). Adelaide: Auslib Press
Henri, J. (2005). Understanding the information literate school community. In The information literate school community 2, J. Henri and M. Asselin (eds.) Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia, 135-145.
Herring, J. (2006). A critical investigation of students’ and teachers’ views of the use of information literacy skills in school assignments. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmcontents/volume9/informatioliteracy.cfm
Jamieson, A. Library books fall by two million a year amid warnings of cuts and closures in The Telegraph, 14-02-2009, Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4622812/Library-books-fall-by-two-million-a-year-amid-warnings-of-cuts-and-closures.html
Accessed 31-3-2010
Kuhlthau, C. (2004). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. 2nd edition, Westport Conn:Libraries Unlimited
Langford, L. (1998). Information literacy: a clarification. In From now on: The educational technology journal retrieved from http://www.fno.org/sept/98/clarify.html
McLean, I. (2009). Kindergarten weaves a wiki: the learners tell their stories. In Scan 28 (1). February, 30–37.
McKenzie, J. (2010). Teacher librarians: leading, connecting and innovating. In Scan 29(1). February. 6-9.
Stripling, B. (2007). Assessing information fluency: gathering evidence of student learning. School library media activities monthly, 23(8), 25-29.
Todd, R. (2003). How to prove you boost student achievement
In School Library Journal, 4/1/2003 retrieved from
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA287119&publication=slj
Todd, R.J. (2007) Evidence-based practice and school libraries. In S. Hughes-Hassall & V.H. Harada (Eds.), School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-58). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited
Voertscher, D. with Todd, R. (2003). We Boost Achievement: Evidence-based practice for school library media specialists Salt Lake City: Hi Willow Research & Publishing
As well, if you are wanting to identify the school principal as anobstacle the readings by Gary Hartzell "Why should principals support school librarians?" and Anne Oberg "Developing the respect and support of school administrators" would be useful.
In addition you might have been following the conversations on the OZTL_NET. Here's one response to a plea from a Teacher Librarians who had her budget cut. The advice and references, including blogs, from Dianne Mackenzie would be good for this particular obstacle.
You need to go beyond just the budget - there is a lot of ground work to do
> before anything involving money will change. Have a look at my blog and the
> strategies I have created that have resulted in consequences far beyond my
> wildest expectations.
> http://librarygrits.blogspot.com
> *
> Some of my successful strategies include : *
>
> - Creating a budget before everyone else does with a "library
> improvement proposal" and specify what you need to improve the library
> program and why.
> - Create an annual report, making it as thorough as possible - see my
> example
> -
> http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2009/06/importance-of-creating-annual-report.html
> - Create and keep and activity log.
> - http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2010/03/tracking-my-activities.html
> - Be Proactive in the school - go looking for jobs that will make you
> indispensable
> - Read Doug Johnson's blog
> - Join twitter for great ideas
> - Read Gary Hartzells books
> - Get on committees esp leadership where you can
> - Blow your own trumpet all the time - constantly meet with your line
> manager and tell them what you have been doing, what you plan to do. I have
> scheduled meetings about once a month and it really helps when you need
> someone to go into bat for you.
> - Market yourself to other staff
> http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2010/01/marketing-possibilities.html
> - Create a yearly plan of what you want to achieve- show your line
> manager.
Further to what I wrote before about strategies for increasing your budget,
have a look at this article from Gary Hartzell ...
*
Why Should Principals Support School Libraries?
*http://www.libraryreference.com/school-libraries.html
There is a checklist of 11 characteristics of a school library that will
enhance student learning, make sure you are doing everything on that list
that you have control over, it is also a good list to give you an argument
about why you need more funding.
Gary Hartzell has a number of other articles here based on the school
library.
http://eduscapes.com/sms/overview/hartzell.html
He is coming form the perspective of a school Principal, rather than from a
school librarian and his articles are worth reading for that perspective
alone.
Advocacy is the key to getting a larger budget.
Cheers
Dianne McKenzie
Discovery College
Hong Kong
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Assignments
I sent of both of the first assignments for ETL 401 and ETL 501 today. After a lot of trial and error and discussion with our teacher librarian, Lyn (which I'll talk about in another post), I chose to use the lack of recognition of the importance of teacher librarians as my obstacle for the 401 assignment. I wanted to use one of the references to the threats to libraries and teacher librarians that have been talked about on the OZTL Net. Unfortunately, I had deleted these emails, as had Lyn. I would have liked to post a request on the OZTL service but I haven't had any success with my previous mass submissions (and I'm yet to work out why). I had to use an English reference instead. This evening I find, reading through the OZTL Net emails that the Brisbane Courier has had two articles on this very subject this week. Here are the links for the blogs of teacher librarians who have featured these articles.
http://hubinfo.wordpress.com
http://readingpower.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/libraries-at-risk-courier-mail-march-30-2010/
It seems that you can be too organised. Well, I wanted to submit the tasks from work, knowing that its internet link was slightly more reliable than mine at home. I also will need the Easter break to make a significant start on the next assignments, as exams and report season has already begun and runs through until after the next assignments are due. Still, it would have been a bonus to include such an up-to-date reference.
http://hubinfo.wordpress.com
http://readingpower.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/libraries-at-risk-courier-mail-march-30-2010/
It seems that you can be too organised. Well, I wanted to submit the tasks from work, knowing that its internet link was slightly more reliable than mine at home. I also will need the Easter break to make a significant start on the next assignments, as exams and report season has already begun and runs through until after the next assignments are due. Still, it would have been a bonus to include such an up-to-date reference.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Live Chat Room Forums
I thought, as this blog will be available to CSU staff and students, that I should say that the idea of a live session is a useful one. However, midweek I have to attend to my commitments to work and home, so that I can have time on the weekends to work on Uni studies.
ETL 503 Assignment 1
This assignment topic has been more straightforward. However, the central part of the topic has still been challenging. It is easy to see why Wikipedia is so successful. The breadth of topics, the uniformity of the layout, the inclusion of contents menus and search facilities make it easy for the students to find the information they require. I have chosen the Stage 4 HSIE topic Contact and Colonisation with the aim of providing resources for students to investigate the experience of Contact and Colonisation upon indigenous people throughout the world. This has proved more difficult than I anticipated as each website will present the information in different way, with different emphasis and sometimes with inadequate information on the survival of traditional life and culture,as if these had completely disappeared, which is not really the case.
ETL401 Assignment
When I first mentioned this assignment to Lyn, our librarian, she suggested Moodle. However, following email correspondence with Roy Crotty, I went back to discuss the topic again with Lyn. I have now decided to leave Moodle out of this assignment and concentrate on other aspects of Information Literacy.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
ETL401 Topic 2 Teacher Librarian Roles and Standards
I read through this material in plenty of time as I was allocated the role, along with others, of leading the forum discussion. The ASLA standards were exacting but I had no hesitation in tocking off each one as I thought of Lyn, our librarian and her role. I posted comments on the forum about the expectation that teacher librarians would monitor teaching practice. Ross Todd points out that such evidence-based research is becoming mandatory – an opinion echoed by other forum contributors. Lyn and I discussed this and agreed that this role must still remain with the Head Teachers and Deputy Principal but that teacher librarians are able to monitor in an informal way and support by suggesting and demonstrating different approaches and resources.
There is the suggestion that with technology, any room can become the resource centre for the school. However, Lyn Hay discovered that students, at least, still view the library as "a dynamic and unique place", compared to classrooms, computer labs and other specialist rooms.
There is the suggestion that with technology, any room can become the resource centre for the school. However, Lyn Hay discovered that students, at least, still view the library as "a dynamic and unique place", compared to classrooms, computer labs and other specialist rooms.
Guided Enquiry Learning
Lyn has kindly provided my with a book of short readings and summaries about Guided Enquiry Learning which should help me with Topic 3. She has also given me a set of case studies from a recent inservice into GEL. More comments once I've read through them.
e-books
One of the best readings in this course has been Latham and Poe's "Evaluation and selection of new format materials". I always like to find people who agree with what I think or have experienced. In this case it is the accessibility of on-line resources. The "three-click-rule" is a beauty, as is the rest of their criteria for assessing websites. I hate being made to feel unintelligent just because I can't successfully navigate around a website. After all, I'm reasonably literate and I use a range of digital technology. It's encouraging to find that their are standards by which websites can and should be judged and that those that fail are the fault of the designers and not the user.
So we come to the case of a reading set from an e-book, available through the CSU library, I believe. I have tried three times to open the book on-line and then to download it. None has worked. Fellow students have suggested that this is a Mac problem or a school firewall problem. Both can well apply in my case. My evaluation of the suitability of e-books as a resource is nil.
So we come to the case of a reading set from an e-book, available through the CSU library, I believe. I have tried three times to open the book on-line and then to download it. None has worked. Fellow students have suggested that this is a Mac problem or a school firewall problem. Both can well apply in my case. My evaluation of the suitability of e-books as a resource is nil.
The past and future of School Libraries ETL401 Topic 1
I am making detailed notes in Word as I work through each topic. I don't think that I should be just dumping all that information in here. Neither should these be a duplication of my forum contributions. So, I propose to use this blog for short personal reflections on the significant or the interesting thoughts that arise from each topic.
I was taken with the egalitarian nature of RBL. This quote in particular:
"We are in the post-industrial revolution where information exchange and communication are at the forefront of economic activity and economic competitiveness … We are going to rely more and more on our capacity to think; to deploy information in the making of innovative designs and in the finding of solutions … Beyond the economic imperative is the cultural/social imperative. Unless all citizens learn how to access information and subject it to critique , societal divisions will be increased in the information age. A well-functioning, cohesive democracy depends on the development of a well-informed, inquisitive and successfully-accessing society.” (Boomer, 1987, pp. 8-9)
The slightly disjointed approach of the Federal government to this situation comes to mind. The DER supports the central importance of digital information exchange and communication but the emphasis on national curriculum and NAPLAN testing suggests that basic regurgitation and formulaic responses are what is required.
I appreciate the commentary of John Ralston Saul on the effect of globalisation on the democratic process. I see in our students young people who have yet to acquire the inquiring nature to become well-informed by accessing information and developing discernment. Generation S accept The Simpsons at face value perhaps because, after twenty years, the premise upon which the satire is based has been lost or is so foreign that the satire has become the reality. On the other hand, they are quick to question the values and authority of their parents and teachers, while taking the "word"of current affairs shows, "celebrities" and the Internet as wholly reliable.
I also learnt a lot about Resources-Based Learning, which comes up again later in this course. Chiefly, I found encouragement and support for what I have been doing and help to fix the things that I haven't been doing so well. Most importantly, I found a useful label for a helpful learning strategy to which I was introduced by my local teacher-librarian.
I was taken with the egalitarian nature of RBL. This quote in particular:
"We are in the post-industrial revolution where information exchange and communication are at the forefront of economic activity and economic competitiveness … We are going to rely more and more on our capacity to think; to deploy information in the making of innovative designs and in the finding of solutions … Beyond the economic imperative is the cultural/social imperative. Unless all citizens learn how to access information and subject it to critique , societal divisions will be increased in the information age. A well-functioning, cohesive democracy depends on the development of a well-informed, inquisitive and successfully-accessing society.” (Boomer, 1987, pp. 8-9)
The slightly disjointed approach of the Federal government to this situation comes to mind. The DER supports the central importance of digital information exchange and communication but the emphasis on national curriculum and NAPLAN testing suggests that basic regurgitation and formulaic responses are what is required.
I appreciate the commentary of John Ralston Saul on the effect of globalisation on the democratic process. I see in our students young people who have yet to acquire the inquiring nature to become well-informed by accessing information and developing discernment. Generation S accept The Simpsons at face value perhaps because, after twenty years, the premise upon which the satire is based has been lost or is so foreign that the satire has become the reality. On the other hand, they are quick to question the values and authority of their parents and teachers, while taking the "word"of current affairs shows, "celebrities" and the Internet as wholly reliable.
I also learnt a lot about Resources-Based Learning, which comes up again later in this course. Chiefly, I found encouragement and support for what I have been doing and help to fix the things that I haven't been doing so well. Most importantly, I found a useful label for a helpful learning strategy to which I was introduced by my local teacher-librarian.
Scan Journal
This is the first of many grateful acknowledgements of the help of our school teacher-librarian. In the midst of my feelings of being overwhelmed by the expectations of the course, her enthusiasm and kind support are proving invaluable. The first thing that Lyn did was put me on the "posting" list for "Scan", the librarians' journal. This will be invaluable she said. Sure enough, in the first edition I received (Vol 29. No. 1 February 2010) there were two especially appropriate articles. The first is by Jane McKenzie, "Teacher librarians: leading, connecting and innovating"
McKenzie lists the key attributes of Teacher librarians. She says that they are experts in: their knowledge of curriculum, their understanding current teaching pedagogy such as Guided Inquiry, their ability to lead and develop collaborative teams, their ability to incorporate the use of cutting edge ICTs and work in a connected environment.
She suggests some helpful resources for teachers to explore: TaLe, The Learning Federation and Sites2See. She suggests the use of wikis in IBL (Inquiry-Based Learning). I'm pleased to say that I began to explore this possibility, setting up a wiki for a unit based on "The Cay".
The second article is on School Libraries in the 21 Century and it is by Lyn Hay and Ross Todd, both of whom feature prominently on our reading lists. It's a summary of the findings of a NSW DET report on School Libraries.
It introduces yet another piece of educational jargon, "pedagogical fusion". The authors explain it as being "where pedagogy underpins the decision-making behind a school's information architecture – where technology infrastructure and support services and provisions of access do not restrict innovative and flexible use of space, resources or expertise". (page 34)
The school library provides "a common place across the school for investigating and experimenting with information, examining multiple perspectives, in an environment where students are guided by professionals and given appropriate instruction to effectively utilise information and the most appropriate technology tools to support student achievement." (page 32)
"The school library becomes an important zone of intervention and socialization process for learning how to function effectively in the complex informational and technological world beyond school." (page 32)
I know that I should translate all of that into my own words. I'll do that if I need to in my assignments. In short, it says that the library remains at the heart of the provision of information resources and services and the teacher-librarian is a key contributor to the students development of skills and attitudes that will enable them to become information literate and lifelong learners.
McKenzie lists the key attributes of Teacher librarians. She says that they are experts in: their knowledge of curriculum, their understanding current teaching pedagogy such as Guided Inquiry, their ability to lead and develop collaborative teams, their ability to incorporate the use of cutting edge ICTs and work in a connected environment.
She suggests some helpful resources for teachers to explore: TaLe, The Learning Federation and Sites2See. She suggests the use of wikis in IBL (Inquiry-Based Learning). I'm pleased to say that I began to explore this possibility, setting up a wiki for a unit based on "The Cay".
The second article is on School Libraries in the 21 Century and it is by Lyn Hay and Ross Todd, both of whom feature prominently on our reading lists. It's a summary of the findings of a NSW DET report on School Libraries.
It introduces yet another piece of educational jargon, "pedagogical fusion". The authors explain it as being "where pedagogy underpins the decision-making behind a school's information architecture – where technology infrastructure and support services and provisions of access do not restrict innovative and flexible use of space, resources or expertise". (page 34)
The school library provides "a common place across the school for investigating and experimenting with information, examining multiple perspectives, in an environment where students are guided by professionals and given appropriate instruction to effectively utilise information and the most appropriate technology tools to support student achievement." (page 32)
"The school library becomes an important zone of intervention and socialization process for learning how to function effectively in the complex informational and technological world beyond school." (page 32)
I know that I should translate all of that into my own words. I'll do that if I need to in my assignments. In short, it says that the library remains at the heart of the provision of information resources and services and the teacher-librarian is a key contributor to the students development of skills and attitudes that will enable them to become information literate and lifelong learners.
Forum Posting
Perhaps the biggest change from my previous distance ed.study is the expectation that you will contribute to on-line forums. This is a significant addition to the time required and has meant further learning about the operation of the forums regarding replies. I have participated in on-line forums before but they did not use the check-box tag system for following up comments.
The other problem is that the two different courses had the forums set up slightly differently. One has the topic sub-forums on the subject home page as well as the forums listing page. The other relies on the students knowing how to find the forums page. It is a relief to find that others have also found navigating these hurdles a problem. Both the lecturers and other experienced and knowledgeable students have kindly provided directions.
The other problem is that the two different courses had the forums set up slightly differently. One has the topic sub-forums on the subject home page as well as the forums listing page. The other relies on the students knowing how to find the forums page. It is a relief to find that others have also found navigating these hurdles a problem. Both the lecturers and other experienced and knowledgeable students have kindly provided directions.
More on Using Blogger
I was grateful for the assistance of an experienced blogger user to check my set-up and to help me navigate my way around such MINOR points as, logging on, finding the url for my blog, remembering the password when I signed in AND remembering that this uses my gmail address and not my work email address. Just as well, because this time I forgot nearly everything and couldn't find the piece of paper I wrote all that information on. After trying three times to read the impossible string of letters they use to stop spam users I went back to the google page and used the gmail-linked login page. This, of course, was one of the reasons this bogsite was recommended. The gmail prompted me to remember to use my gmail address and my trusty Mac remembered the password, saving me further embarrassment.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Choosing a Blog Account
I've chosen www.blogger.com for my blog account because it can be attached to my gmail account. I'm hoping that the template I've chosen, with its effective use of colour, will make reading the entries easier for you.
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