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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.