My Vision for Learning in the 21st Century Rationale

Developing Research Skills for the 21st Century

My Digital Resource

I have started to create my digital resource that will help students develop research skills required for the 21st century. By providing students with tools they can use to learn information literacy skills and to help them with the research process, my hope is that students will no longer view research papers and inquiry-based projects as a daunting task. While there are some great resources already available for students to use such as the Purdue Online Writing Lab, a resource I refer to all the time, directing a student to a website as comprehensive as this one can be overwhelming. By breaking down information literacy skills into its components, students can learn and practice these skills in smaller chunks and will have the ability to view and review the components at any point throughout the research process. In order to organize these components I have decided to use LiveBinders as a way to curate the resources and tools necessary to teacher the research process.

My Rationale

The following video by Seminole State Library (2014) explains the importance of developing information literacy skills and outlines the five components that students need to learn for their academic course work, but also for real world scenarios. It is important that students understand how the skills we teach them in school can be transferable and applicable to their life outside of school. Information literacy skills are necessary for completing research papers and inquiry-based projects, but they are also essential for when a person is wanting to find more information on a product before they purchase something expensive like a car or a house.

(5 components of information literacy, 2014)

My hope for this digital resource is that students will become so familiar with the research process by the time they leave high school, that these information literacy skills will become embedded in them so that they don't even need to think about the process, they just use it. Like with any skill, the more it is practiced, the easier it becomes.

Although I am not currently a Teacher-Librarian, what I would like to see happen at my school is an agreed upon research process that is shared across the curriculum. Students need some consistency when it comes to learning information literacy skills, at least in the beginning stages. Students aren't always able to see the connections or the similarities between writing a literary essay for an English class, a historical essay for Socials, or a lab report for Science. All of these assignments require the student to formulate a hypothesis/thesis and show support for it by providing evidence. These assignments also require information literacy skills; and it would be much easier to teach these skills, and for students to learn them, if the teachers were to all agree on a particular research process and style. This is where the Teacher-Librarian can act as the facilitator between the subject areas by teaching the students how these information literacy skills can be applied to different subject areas.

My Target Audience

(Prose Media)

Since I haven't had much experience sharing my work with a broad audience, I would like to share my digital resources in stages. I would like to start by sharing my resource with my students. I can see whether my resource is easy to use and effective in teaching the resource project and then work out any kinks before sharing it with my colleagues. Once I have tested my resource, I would like to start by sharing the resource with teachers at my school who teach the research process - especially with teachers who teach different subject so that I can ensure that I have created a cross-curricular resource that all teachers can use. I would like for them to peruse my resource or even try it out with their students. When I receive feedback from them, I would then like to share my resource with other educators online. One of my key takeaways from Richardson's (2012) book Why School? is how important it is to share resources among educators. I haven't decided yet where I will post this resource for other educators to access, but there are plenty of online sites that educators access for lesson plans and ideas.

(Campbell)

Students

Like the students in the cartoon, many students are not engaged in the research process and don't put much effort in finding a topic or conducting research on it. If students had a resource to help improve their research skills that they could access at home and school, students may be willing to put more time and effort into their assignment. By incorporating different digital tools, students will hopefully become more engaged in the research process.

Teachers

(Bacall)

 Many high school teachers, including myself, are guilty of assigning an inquiry project or research paper to students with the assumption that they already have some information literacy skills because they grew up in the digital age and we don't have time in the curriculum to teach it. However, most students have not developed these skills or their skills are quite limited. While we want students to be critical thinkers, the research process can be daunting and overwhelming, which can limit a person's creativity. By providing a resource for teachers that they can use with their students in any subject area in regards to the research process, teachers are able to take the time to help foster the students' creativity and critical thinking skills rather than focusing on the basic skills they assume students should already have.

References

Bacall, A. (n. d.). Critical thinking. Cartoon Stock. Retrieved 18 November 2015, https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/c/critical_thinking.asp

Campbell, M. (n. d.). Homework project. Cartoon Stock. Retrieved 18 November 2015, from https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/h/homework_project.asp

Critical thinkers. (n. d.). Retrieved 18 November 2015, from

Prose Media. (n. d.). 5 tips to find your target market. Retrieved 19 November 2015, from http://blog.prosemedia.com/5-tips-to-find-your-target-audience/

Richardson, W. (2012). Why school?: How education must change when learning and information are everywhere. Ted Conferences. 

Seminole State Library. (2014). 5 components of information literacy. Retrieved 19 November 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ronp6Iue9w.

Phase 2 Reflections

Reflections on Digital Learning and Teaching

My Development as a Teacher and Teacher-Librarian

Learning and Experimenting with Digital Tools

Over the past couple of months I've been reintroduced to digital tools such as blogs and webinars and given the opportunity to try out some new tools such as Digg and Symbaloo.



(Brown)

While I've created blogs before, I had never done anything more than insert a few pictures or links. Over the past few months I have learned how to embed videos and resize them using HTML coding. I learned how to tag and the importance of labeling blog posts in order to make them more searchable. While I don't think I would ever have the time to keep up with a blog, it is great that I now have more knowledge about how blogs work so that I can help my students should they choose to use a blog to demonstrate their learning.



(NSH, 2015)

In the past I have attended a couple of webinars, but during this course I discovered that you can actually save the webinars to watch at a later date. While you can't participate in the discussion that follows a live webinar, it is still a valuable tool for professional development. I already have a couple of webinars saved that I would like to watch during my next pro-d day.



(Rahul, 2013)

I have never used any type of bookmarking or RSS feed program before and, while I haven't spent too much time playing around with this particular tool, it has been an effective way of accessing the blogs of fellow classmates and commenting on each others' ideas. I would love to introduce this idea to students so that they are able to follow teacher websites and access them all in one place. I find it frustrating to continually update my class website when only a handful of students actually check it on a regular basis. By introducing this tool to my students, it will hopefully make my website more accessible to my students.

(Symbaloo Mobile App)

I have also never used digital curation tools in the past; mostly because I didn't know they even existed. I am currently in the midst of experimenting with Symbaloo and Pearltrees to house websites, documents, and tools. I also like that the webmixes that I create can be easily shared with colleagues, because that is one of my goals that I would like to work towards.

Moving Forward as a Teacher and Teacher-Librarian

Over the past month I have enjoyed viewing my classmates' blogs and having other people view my posts and comment on them. I think as a teacher and teacher-librarian it is easy to isolate ourselves in these jobs because we don't always work in the same space with our co-workers. It is also difficult to find time outside of the work day to meet with other teachers at the same school, let alone teachers at other schools within the school district. As a teacher-librarian, it is important to encourage collaboration between teachers within the school and within the district. I would like to start reaching out to other teachers in order to share ideas and lesson plans. As I said in an earlier blog post, I find myself "borrowing" material from other teachers online, but I never return the favour. While I would like to start small by expanding my Personal Learning Network to include my school district, I would like to eventually start sharing my ideas with a broader audience, perhaps even online.

(Via, 2010)

Sharing Lessons and Ideas by Expanding My Personal Learning Network

Over the last 7 years of teaching I have created numerous lessons, assignments, and projects that I am proud of, and feel as thought it is important that I share these resources with other teachers. While I do share with other teachers in my department, and sometimes with other departments at my school, I feel like it is my duty to start sharing my resources with a broader audience. Using digital tools such as blogs, Twitter, or other social media sites could be one way to reach a wider audience of teachers. I also feel as though I am at the point where I would feel comfortable presenting some of my ideas at a professional development seminar. While I would definitely be stepping outside of my comfort zone by posting my work online or presenting in front of a group of my peers, this is the next step in becoming a leader in teaching and learning. 

(Kincaid, 2015)

Fostering a Positive Reading Culture

The topic that resonated with me the most is fostering a positive reading culture in my classroom and in the school. After reading the blogs of my fellow classmates, I compiled a list of ideas I would like to try out. The first one is having our staff create reading doors, or as another classmate suggested, a "Caught Reading" display, where teachers in every department would share the books they have read and enjoyed. While our library already has a "Staff Picks" section, having reading doors or displays around the school will receive attention from all students, not just those that use the library.

Another idea I gleaned from a fellow classmate is to look into virtual author presentation or webinars. While our school library already organizes at least one author visit a year, not all students are invited to attend because the library only has so many seats available. If the author visit was virtual, students could access the author presentation from their devices. Also, author visits are usually quite costly, so attending a virtual author presentations will keep costs down. After doing a bit of research into this topic, I discovered that Random House offers virtual author visits through Skype or other methods of video-conferencing (view the brochure here). As well, after visiting the Scholastic Book's website, I found information on Kate Messner, an author who advocates virtual author visits. Her website Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs provides a list of authors for students of all ages who will video conference with students for free. I haven't had a chance to browse through the authors, but have passed this list on to our current Teacher-Librarian to see if she is interested in organizing a virtual author visit.

References

Brown, P. (n.d). Blog Icon. Retrieved 31 October 2015 from http://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAMQjxxqFQoTCKSn0bTK7cgCFUPfYwodv_QGNQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpaulabrown.net%2Fblog-icon-png&bvm=bv.106379543,d.cGc&psig=AFQjCNF1 tvcFBEI7VQ9HoclLpazIw2jicA&ust=1446410815417832


Kincaid, B. (2015). 4 Tips for Creating a Personal Learning Network. Retrieved 31 October 2015 from http://mad-learn.com/4-tips-for-creating-your-very-own-personal-learning-network/


National Society for Histotechnology. (2015). Get Connected: Live Webinar Series. Retrieved 31 October 2015 from http://www.histoconvention.org/index.cfm.


Rahul, R. (2013). Digg Reader App. Retrieved 31 October 2015 from http://www.techtree.com/content/news/4033/digg-reader-launching-week.html

Random House. (2011). How to Host a Virtual Author Visit. Retrieved 01 November 2015 from http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/HowToVirtualVisit_Brochure _WEB1.pdf

Symbaloo Mobile App. (n.d.). Retrieved 31 October 2015 from http://mobile.symbaloo.com/press/

Via, S. (2010). Personal learning networks for educators. Retrieved 03 November 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WVEFE-oZA

Teacher Librarians as Promoters and Implementors of ICT Professional Development

Winning the Technology Battle

Teachers around the world are being asked to implement technology in the classrooms, but aren't always given the time, the tools, or the training necessary to do so effectively. Teachers' views of technology can be quite negative because they feel as though it is being imposed upon them and they see it as an uphill battle. Once they finally learn how to use one device or tool, a new one has already been developed.

Walker, D. (2007). You vs. Technology. Retrieved from www.weblogcartoons.com.

With the shift from the traditional library, to a Library Learning Commons, the Teacher-Librarian is in a position where he/she can offer support by not only locating resources, but also by sharing their expertise in digital learning and teaching. According to Project Tomorrow (2011), "With the increased variety and depth of the digital resources available for classroom use, the librarian is emerging as a critical player in enabling the use of these tools in the classroom, taking on the twin roles of cheerleader and exploration sherpa" (p. 13). It is important that the Teacher-Librarian helps teachers navigate the mountain of digital tools available and encourages and supports teachers in using them. In a study conducted by Project Tomorrow (2011), as shown in Figure 1 below, the Teacher-Librarian has several roles they need to play.

Figure 1: Project Tomorrow. (2011). The New 3 E's of Education: Enables, Engaged, Empowered. Retrieved from http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU10_3EofEducation_Educators.pdf.

How can Teacher-Librarians SHARE their Expertise in Digital Learning and Teaching with the Educational Community?

Start a Digital Curation

Creighton, P. (2013). Digital Curation.
Retrieved from http://creightonblog.typepad.com/
addison-media-center/2013/11/digital-resource-curation.html

Through the school library website, Teacher-Librarians can collect and share digital tools and resources to the educational community including educators, students, parents, and fellow Teacher-Librarians. While the process of collecting and sorting digital tools might be time consuming, a digital tool curation will be a valuable resource for the entire educational community. One tool for digital curation I would like to try is Symbaloo, which can be easily published and shared with others.

Host an EdCamp

By hosting an EdCamp or EdCafe, a Teacher-Librarian is able to discover what topics the educational community is interested in discussing or learning about. This is also a good way for Teacher-Librarians who feel as though they may not be an expert in digital learning and teaching to learn from others in the community. At my school we hosted an EdCafe for one of our Professional Development days and invited members from the educational community including students, parents, educators, support staff, administration, and school district employees. We focused the sessions around 21st Century learning and skills and much of the conversations were focused around digital resources and tools. Here is a video that explains what an EdCamp or EdCafe is:

Lee, S. (2014). EdCamp 101. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7DwCI7j0Bg.

Attend department meetings

By attending department meetings, Teacher-Librarians can focus on sharing tools that are subject specific with a smaller group of people. At our school we have six Collaboration sessions throughout the school year. During these sessions, the Teacher-Librarian can rotate between the departments and give them some practical digital tools they can start using in their teaching.

Request time at staff meetings to introduce a new tool

Ripp, P. (2013). Staff Meeting. Retrieved from www.someecards.com.

While staff meetings are never fun, teachers will appreciate taking away something practical from the meeting. Request time at a staff meeting to share one digital tool that you think is user-friendly and would be most useful to the staff as a whole.Of course, make sure to keep the presentation short and sweet. Offer to help any teachers interested in using the digital tool in their classroom.

Enlist as the Professional Development Rep. for your staff

The Keep Calm-O-Matic. (2009). Keep Calm I'm Your
Professional Development Council Representative.
Retrieved from http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

As the Professional Development Representative for a school, a Teacher-Librarian would be able to plan and facilitate professional development sessions for the school and/or district in regards to digital teaching and learning. This is a good way for the Teacher-Librarian to correspond with other Teacher-Librarians in the district and create Personal Learning Networks. As well, it would give the Teacher-Librarian the opportunity to discuss with their colleagues any ideas they would be interested in learning about at the next professional development day so that the Teacher-Librarian can organize sessions that will be practical for the staff. Hopefully the mug comes with the position since it is completely voluntary!

References

Creighton, P. (2013). Digital Curation. Retrieved from http://creightonblog.typepad.com/.

The Keep Calm-O-Matic. (2009). Keep Calm I'm Your Professional Development Council Representative. Retrieved from http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

Lee, S. (2014). EdCamp 101. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7DwCI7j0Bg.

Project Tomorrow. (2011). The New 3 E's of Education: Enables, Engaged, Empowered. Retrieved from http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU10_3EofEducation_Educators.pdf.

Ripp, P. (2013). Staff Meeting. Retrieved from www.someecards.com.

Walker, D. (2007). You vs. Technology. Retrieved from www.weblogcartoons.com.

Maintaining and Developing Professional Learning

Happy Lifelong Learning Day!

According to the United States Senate, today (October 15th) is the day that lifelong learning will be celebrated across the United States and Road Scholar (2015) will release findings that reveal "that learning is an essential activity to a healthy and happy older age and makes life richer." While it might seem silly to celebrate something that should occur over a lifetime on one day a year, it is meant to bring awareness and encouragement to communities about the importance of learning and the impact it can have on one's life (Road Scholar, 2015).

Take the Road Scholar Lifelong Learner Quiz

After reading Will Richardson's (2012) book Why School?, the one idea that I would like to start implementing this year is to start sharing my ideas with others. I often share my work and ideas with colleagues at my school, but I have always been hesitant about putting my work on the Internet. Richardson (2012) explains that we can and should "raise the teaching profession by sharing what works, by taking the best of what we do and hanging it on the virtual wall" (loc. 387). While I feel I already have a decent Personal Learning Network, I need to step out of my comfort zone and find a broader network within the educational field. I quite often "borrow" lessons or ideas that other teachers have shared, but I have never returned the favor. My goal for the remainder of this school year is to broaden my Personal Learning Network using the following strategies, tools, and resources.

Creating Personal Learning Networks 

Twitter (#lifelonglearning)

Twitter is an excellent tool for teachers to use in order to connect with people all over the world. This digital tool allows a teacher to network with authors, educational organizations, and other educators in order to learn from them. I have a Twitter account, but I never use it. I haven't made time to actually follow anyone and I definitely haven't taken the time to post anything. This is one tool that I would like to start making more use of in my teaching and learning. 

Blogs

Blogging is a great way to share with others your thoughts on particular topics, and, the teaching profession, a place to share ideas with others in the education field. I have created a couple of blogs for classes, but I have never continued with them once the course has ended. I feel like in order for me to continue blogging, I would need to widen my audience and network with more people in order for it to be a worthwhile endeavor.

Webinars

 While I would prefer meeting up with colleagues at a winebar rather than watching a webinar, I have several colleagues that collect webinars to view during their professional development days and find it to be a great resource. While I often receive invitations to attend webinars related to education or my subject area, I have never attended one.  Webinars are not only a great resource for information, it can also be a way to create a network of teacher-librarians or classroom teachers.

District Collaboration

As much as the Internet can help connect people around the world, it is also important to correspond and collaborate with the schools and educators in one's own district. At my school the teacher-librarians collaborate about 1-2 times per year or in order to speak about what is happening in our school libraries across the district. I feel that rather than waiting for our meeting, there are quicker and more efficient ways of sharing information with one another. It is nice to have colleagues in the district to rely on for support, as usually there is only one teacher
 librarian at each school and it can be isolating.

References

Collaboration (Image). Retrieved from http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/creative-commons-collaboration.jpg?c4f255.

Couros, A. (2013). Using Twitter Effectively in Education. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqSCR3HU4eg.

O'Bauer, C. (2013). Webinar? (Eecard). Retrieved from http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/ MjAxMy0zYWQwOTIyYzUzZjM0Y2E.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere. TED Conferences.

Road Scholar. (2015). Road Scholar Launches Lifelong Learning Day On October 15th to Share Research and Educational Resources with Lifelong Learners. GlobeNewsWire. Retrieved from http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/10/13/775737/10152379/en/ROAD-SCHOLAR-LAUNCHES-LIFELONG-LEARNING-DAY-ON-OCTOBER-15TH-TO-SHARE-RESEARCH-AND-EDUCATIONAL-RESOURCES-WITH-LIFELONG-LEARNERS.html.

Road Scholar. (2015). Quiz: What Famous Lifelong Learner Are You? Road Scholar. Retrieved from http://www.roadscholar.org/lld/default.asp.

Tips to Make Effective Use of Blogger (Image). Retrieved from http://btechwire.com/tips-make-effective-use-blogger-post-editor/.