LIBE 477B Final Future Vision Blog Post

Image courtesy of: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-i-m-nearly-finished/

So here it is...after hours of linking, searching, posting, asking, wondering, trying (failing) and adding new browser windows into the double-digits... my Future Vision Project!

The Digital Citizenship Database!!

As mentioned in my other blog posts, this wiki is designed to be a "one stop shop" of resources for teaching students various aspects of digital citizenship. As I look back at my first Reading Review blog post, I am overwhelmed by the amount and scope of resources and information that I have discovered is out there on my topic... My Delicious account continues to grow all the time. I was happy to note that I stayed on course for my original goal, although of course there are still many more questions than answers when it comes to the "how", "what" and "when" of reaching and engaging our students. However, this was one of my goals in creating the wiki... so that it is never complete and always changing to reflect what's new and better. Somewhat like our own practices as teacher-librarians, perhaps?    

Deciding how to organize the wiki took the most amount of time... for example, how many pages should I have? Where should I categorize this lesson? What kind of tags do I need? I also wanted to make the content within the pages as organized and streamlined as possible, so I used page breaks and different font sizes to help with this. I tried to put myself in the shoes of a TL hoping to find something quickly and easily... I hope I achieved this! I had a few technical issues with adding photos that kept going in upside down, and adding a widget for a couple of Prezis but nothing showing up! I am still trying to figure this at press time, so in the meantime I have just added links... but visuals are so much better! On that note, I still found that the wiki format is decidedly list-like... I prefer a blog format so that posts can be organized better by date and categories... However, with the discussion forum and the ability to tag now available in wikis, I am happy with my choice of format so that people can actually join the wiki and upload their resources. I've already sent out an email to all Surrey TLs with the link and have been getting feedback already, so I'm excited for the direction this will hopefully take!

This course has been one of the most challenging but also one of the most valuable in my TL diploma. The open inquiry prompts really got my research gears going and allowed me to truly "be" a student again.. in that way I can see what works and what doesn't when I'm teaching my students how to do the same thing. It was also my first real experience with blogging (and thus sharing my thoughts with an even wider audience than just the class discussion forums.) I found the sharing and feedback to be extremely valuable, and it has definitely motivated me to continue to expand my PLN. I think that the rich discussion between colleagues was a key motivator for creating an open and share-able Future Vision... teaching in isolation is NO fun! I feel much more inspired to share my own resources and document my TL practice to a wider online audience (although I do really need to cultivate my Twitter habit, which is one thing I kept forgetting to do more of in this course. Just set up "If This, Then That" to automatically tweet when I post to my blog so hopefully that helps; however, I still would like to share more of my daily adventures in the library and continue to connect with the new colleagues I've me here! A New Year's Resolution perhaps...) 

Thank you to everyone for their valuable and encouraging feedback throughout all of our discussions. I truly enjoyed reading everyone's posts and have learned so much. I hope to continue our networking and collaboration in future! Thank you to Aaron for being an excellent guide throughout the course! 

Is it too early to say Merry Christmas?

Image courtesy of: http://www.greenmoxie.com/15-alternative-recycled-and-upcycled-christmas-trees/ 

Best of luck to everyone in their TL journeys!

LLED 462 Final Learning Curation

The learning curation project has been a very enlightening journey for me. As I look back on my first post and tentative questions, I can see the dual value in being both flexible in your outlook but also keeping grounded in your original goals when it comes to the inquiry process. I also found that taking LIBE 477B at the same time enabled me to delve even further into my essential questions through my own research as well as through the rich discussion provided by two course worth's of wonderful colleagues!

First Steps:

My initial question was "How can we ensure our students are 21st century learners?" with a focus on the learning commons transformation as my school is in the beginning phases. Since I also chose to focus on digital citizenship for LIBE 477B, I found that many of the resources and articles I found on that topic addressed my essential questions. After all, since much of what we teach our students when it comes to 21st century learning involves digital technology then of course digital citizenship skills must be included. I therefore started collecting all of my resources in one place with my existing Delicious account, which has proved very useful for not only keeping track of my resources but also giving me practice in tagging and categorizing and acting as a springboard to other social bookmarking tools that were introduced in both courses and used in amazing ways by my colleagues. It was through this researching that I started to think about my question in terms of not necessarily "teaching" our students to be modern learners but guiding our students in their experimenting and reflecting of their learning. In essence, we as educators must also be 21st century learners and give up the desire to be experts on everything.

Experimenting with Web 2.0 

It was in this mindset that I chose my next few learning curations to incorporate tools that I had never used before in order to more fully see their value in the classroom and in my own professional learning. For example, I had always stuck with Delicious as my go-to bookmarking tool (as I used for the Module 3 prompt), but after creating a Symbaloo of different web 2.0 tools, I could certainly see the benefits of using such a visual tool both with students and with my colleagues (students can keep track of their own links while researching, or I could make a collection of helpful sites for a teacher's upcoming unit on mammals, for example.) It's easily shared and simple to create as well! Once I began playing around with some different tools, I began to make real-world connections between them and the teachers at my own schools. For example, "I wonder if Mrs. V. would like to use ______ with her animal project?" In that sense, I started to realize even more that the way to create a true learning commons is to have all staff on board as a united front to improve student learning. 

Reaching Out to Staff 

For the library to be the learning hub of the school, and for teachers to see the benefits of collaboration on digital learning projects, I realized that I need to advertise it as such! There has been one quote by Terri Hayes (2014) from Module 2 that has stuck with me throughout the entire course: "It is great staff, not great stuff, which is the hallmark of a thriving school library learning commons."  Since my current school is limited in terms of getting more "stuff," as outlined more in Assignment 2, working together and pooling our resources seems like the next best alternative. (For example, I was looking at the iPad signout sheet last week and saw that Ms. S has the iPads booked out at the same time I was hoping to use them... this seemed like a good opportunity to find out what her class was working on and ask if she would like to work with me in my collaboration time instead!) For two of the prompts, I decided to make advocacy tools that outline what a learning commons actually is and my own vision for how we could work together on some amazing projects. In addition to being able to use these at future staff meetings, I also got some more practice on using some digital tools that I could suggest to teachers: Powtoon and Padlet. I (and apparently several of my colleagues in both courses, as discussed in the forums) also ended up doing a bit of soul-searching as part of the process of seeing ourselves as educational leaders, which does play a pivotal role in the development of a learning commons. Many of us who are relatively new teacher-librarians are hesitant to share our resources or be that person who stands up at staff meetings to present on a new tool or recruit teachers to jump on the collaboration and RBL bandwagon. However, after using my blog extensively in both courses, getting very supportive feedback from colleagues, and having the opportunity to provide support in return, I realized that I shouldn't be so nervous to share or be in the spotlight. We do that all day with our students, so why not with teachers? In the end, we are ALL learners. 

The Heart of the Learning Commons 

Stemming from my inquiry on how to get staff involved, my final submission on social justice issues in the library really got my focus back who is at the heart of my essential question: the students! As I wrote in my first submission, "one of the main reasons why I chose to become a teacher-librarian was my passion for helping students find what they need to succeed. Nothing would give me more satisfaction than showing a stressed-out student how to find that “golden nugget” that would help them in their research project, whether it was a website, a book or a presentation tool. As a result, teaching students to be media literate is one of the essential components of my library program..." Watching the video about "Why Libraries Matter" reminded me of many similar situations I have encountered over the years in school libraries in which students consider the library a safe haven, and desperately need the resources it provides. Indeed, even the title reminded me of the advocacy that we must all do when defending our positions, especially against those infuriating comments like "We won't need libraries in a few years, everything is on the computer." I think that the young people in the video would vehemently disagree with that statement. Even as my own personal learning curation has shown, libraries and teacher-librarians matter more than ever in our increasingly digital world; whereas before there were simply just books to find, now we have a plethora of media through which to guide our patrons, all with their own intricacies, skill sets and even dangers. Whether it's continuing to foster a reading culture, teaching students how to find quality information, or creating richer, more authentic learning experiences with teachers, I think that teacher-librarians are vital in ensuring our students are not only prepared for a complicated post-school world, but ready and excited to take part in it, challenge it, and change it for the better.

References:

Hayes, T. (2014). Library to Learning Commons. Retrieved from http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/library-learning-commons

LLED 462 Learning Curation #5 Module 11: Social Justice and the Library

For this learning curation, I am responding to the prompt for the video "Why Libraries Matter" A Day in the Life of New York City's Public Libraries.

This video really struck a chord with me, as I can see many similarities between the needs of the patrons of these New York libraries and the students at my school and district. Even in a so-called "wealthy" area of Surrey at one of my schools, I found that there were many students who needed to use the library resources as late as possible since they did not have access to Internet or even a computer at home... I felt guilty for having to kick them out when I wanted to leave! Similarly, like the very beginning of the video, I would arrive at school at 7:45AM and there would still be kids lined up outside waiting to use the library. Because we are in a school setting, it is even more difficult for teacher-librarians to have extended hours like a public library. I would often tell my students to use the local public library, but what happens when it's too far away? Indeed, much like Isaiah in the video, many students simply want a warm, safe and welcoming place that they can hang out in, especially if home doesn't offer those comforts. They also might just want some adult guidance, whether it's homework help or simply having that reassuring grown-up presence. Students seem to have to grow up much faster than than when I was a child (say, twenty years ago); yet they need guidance more than ever, especially those who don't receive much outside of school.

So what to do? Aside from giving up our personal lives and living at our libraries (which I'm sure many of our students think we actually do!) I think that creating a virtual presence can really make a difference in helping students outside of school hours. While that still doesn't address the internet access issue, (a helpful website isn't helpful students can't access it), having that "24/7" presence is key aspect of creating a learning commons... the virtual space is just as important as the physical one.

When I worked at my first long term position at a secondary school, I made a school library website for the first time and and tried to make it simple enough for grade 8 students to access on their own but with enough helpful information to use for a variety of different things, whether it's writing a bibliography or trying to figure out which book is next in the Maze Runner series. Sadly I didn't get longer than one year to promote it, so I never got to see its real fruition; however, I am looking forward to creating a library website for my current elementary school and make it both parent and student friendly, with links to homework help, district resources and reading promotion.
The link to my original site is here.

Image courtesy of: http://quotesgram.com/grief-quotes-maya-angelou/

After watching the video, I started to wonder how else we could use the learning commons model to our advantage when it comes to providing access and opportunity to all of our students. Since our goal is for the library to be the hub of the school, I think that opening up the space for other programs (like homework help clubs, tutoring and after-school programs) would not only be a great way to "advertise" the library but also give students a chance to use the resources. Again, a welcoming, resource and technology-rich space is key, as well as a willingness by the teacher-librarian to give up some control of the space. Is everything going to be exactly as you left it when you headed home for the day? Probably not, but if a struggling student was able to get help from a peer and it involved taking some books off the shelves or moving some furniture, which is more important in the long run? As a perfectionist who hates visual clutter, this has definitely been difficult for me! However, establishing trust and rapport with your students can really help in getting them to think of the space as theirs, and to treat it with respect. At that same high school, I had several students who used the library to tutor, and sometimes I would have to leave before they were done... luckily I had an understanding VP who checked in on them every so often and locked up the library after they left  My current school has a large after-school program for our more vulnerable students, and I have offered the library space if required for certain activities.

I was also struck by the segment about English language learners coming in with their children... At Bear Creek, the StrongStart (preschool) co-ordinator asked if her parents and toddlers could come in once per week to read a story and look at books with their guardians. It's been very rewarding to watch grandparents with limited English read storybooks with their grandchildren and learn alongside them!

While there is of course no one solution, and we are only one person with so much time in the day, I think it's important to not get overwhelmed when thinking about how many of our students might be struggling. I think that having a school community that works together to solve problems (students included) is a good way to address social justice and accessibility issues that are right in our own backyard. If students are able to empathize with their peers (perhaps like the group of teens near the end of the video), then they are much more likely to feel inspired to do something about it, whether it's helping in a homework club or simply being aware of socio-economic differences that exist within a school and questioning why they are there. In the end, I feel that a warm attitude, a smile and a genuine sense of caring can make all the difference in helping someone who is struggling feel inspired, valued and important.

LIBE 477B Future Vision Post #3: To Wiki or Not to Wiki, that is the Question

As discussed in my previous post, I had decided on a wiki as the platform to curate and share digital citizenship resources with fellow teaching colleagues. After creating the Wiki and naming it "Digital Citizenship Database" I realized how out of practice from wiki-ing I really was! It took me a bit of time to figure out how to create pages, organize the navigation pane, upload documents and make the pages look appealing... I am trying to make the pages well-organized and easy to read, although once I (and others, hopefully!) start adding more items, the pages will get longer and longer.

It was at this point that, as a notorious second-guesser, I started to wonder if a Wiki was the best choice after all. Would the pages start to look too long and crowded? I do love the layout of a blog and the embedding and ease of use when it comes to commenting; however, I still wanted a place where people can actually upload physical documents. I also looked a fellow LLED 462 colleague's Symbaloo on a similar topic and wondered if a more visual platform would be better, as opposed to the linear appearance of a wiki. However, there still arose the issue of uploading documents, in addition to being able to add more contributors... In the end, I realized that I really want this to be a living document and promote sharing and collaboration among colleagues. So, much like in a multiple choice test, I went with my initial instinct (When in doubt, pick W for Wiki?)

This has certainly been a learning experience in looking at the different benefits and drawbacks of a variety of different Web 2.0 tools. I think the key is to really think about your purpose and choose the one that will represent it best. I have been working on making the Wiki as user friendly as possible and learning more about how to give it more of a blog type of feel. I hadn't made a wiki in quite awhile and was pleased to notice some new features, like the discussion post option that you can choose to have in every page. I think this is an awesome addition, so that users can explain their contributions (and hopefully get notified when there are updates.... Another feature to look into as I continue working.) I also figured out how to create tags for different pages much like in Blogger, so hopefully that will make the wiki easier to navigate as well. 

In addition to technical aspects, I've also been having to make a lot of design and content decisions (and revisions) as I've begun going through my resources. For example, what aspects of digital citizenship do I want to include as page headings? Do I want to include grade levels as separate pages or just within them? Do I need to link to different parts of the pages, or just the one page? For example,  Media Smarts has a ton of different lesson plans- which ones to include separately?

Again, I need to look at the project through the lens of my projected users (including myself!) and what is going to make the most sense and be the most accessible when searching for a particular type of resource. To be continued!

LIBE 477B Future Vision #2: Rationale

Image courtesy of: http://quotesgram.com/citizenship-quotes/

As mentioned in my post last week, I am planning on creating a space for digital citizenship resources for teacher-librarians (or any educator, really!) to access, share and contribute to. My reasoning for this is that there is SO much out there and SO many aspects of digital citizenship to consider (information literacy, critical literacy, media literacy, etc etc etc) that it can be overwhelming to figure out an actual unit plan. In addition, there is no one way to "teach" these subjects either. Finally, as many of us have discussed in our blogs, the role of the teacher-librarian can be isolating as we are the only one of us in our schools, and often we are the only ones that are raising these important topics with our students when they come in to do projects because it fits perfectly in with the context of research and online technology. Speaking from experience, a well-organized space that contains resources from the Web as well as homegrown, teacher-librarian-created lessons would be extremely helpful to have in my toolkit.

After some deliberation over what platform would be best, I decided to go with a Wiki. Although a blog can be more conducive to discussion and linking, a Wiki is better for uploading actual documents since once someone is a member, then they can edit the Wiki easily, which is what I'm going for- readily available resources that can be used with Mrs. L's grade 6 class who just booked in at the last minute for collaboration time and you're wondering how best to use those 40 minutes to teach an intermediate class you rarely see about digital citizenship (if you hadn't guessed, this is actually happening to me this coming week...) I think that there is still lots of space for commenting and collaborating on a Wiki as well. I'm planning on doing a shout out to all of the TLs in my district once I have my pages organized to start the sharing ASAP.



Here is my wiki-in-the-making... Not very pretty yet and super sparse but you have to start somewhere! On that note, I decided to spend a bit of time reviewing how to make a wiki and, more importantly, a GOOD wiki.
Here are some articles I found helpful in case your future vision is taking you to Wiki-land as well!
What Makes a Good Wiki
A Good Wiki Tells a Story

And I'm sure we have all seen this before (hard to believe it was made in 2007!) but I actually found it helpful to watch again before I really got going:

Common Craft (29 May 2007) Wikis in Plain English [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY 

Good luck to everyone!

LLED 462 Learning Curation Module 8: Web 2.0 Tools

For my 6th learning curation prompt, I decided to use Symbaloo to collect resources for my Web 2.0 Toolkit as part of Module 8.

The link to my Symbaloo is here. I have set up 4 corners of the Symbaloo into 4 different categories, going clockwise: network, present, curate, create. As I'm starting to gather more tools as I hear about them, I'm seeing that some fit into more than one category (awesome!) I'm think that eventually I'll set up different webmixes for each category. As a visual person I definitely like using Symbaloo better than Delicious, which is what I have used to curate articles and webpages. Since there are so many web 2.0 tools out there, I love the idea of having them all in one spot as it can be easy to forget about them!

Experimenting!

After having used Padlet in Module 7 to curate thoughts and resources on networking with colleagues, I began to think about ways I could use this with students, especially the intermediate classes, and how I could relate it to my 21st century learner essential question. Of course, Padlet offers opportunities to share thoughts and digital content, giving students a chance to practice uploading pictures and videos, as well as articulate themselves effectively online. As a basic starter, I thought that I could create a page for the Surrey Book of the Year (or Picture Book of the Year for the grade 4s) and have students write short book reviews/discussions of each book.

I also love making book trailers, and have always just used iMovie, but I like the idea of using Powtoon as an alternative now that I've experimented with it in Module 2. However, the issue of creating student accounts and moderating them all is a bit of a deterrent, so I would like to investigate and see what other teachers have done to make that portion easier.

I have also used Wordle in the past in English classes for various assignments from character sketches to themes; what I have always wanted to do is use Wordle to teach the Dewey Decimal sections and getting students to think about what is included in each category and why.

Image courtesy of: https://readingtech.wikispaces.com/file/view/900sWordle.jpg/77179727/540x269/900sWordle.jpg


I am about to collaborate with a grade 2 teacher on an animal project (the new curriculum is including metamorphosis; for example, a baby frog looks nothing like an adult frog, whereas baby humans look like adult humans.) I have used Book Creator on the iPads for an animal project before, in which students wrote a book about their animal with facts and photos, but since we are discussing more about transformation now, I'm wondering if something like Storybird would be a interesting way for students to tell the "story" of how their animal develops, maybe including their thoughts and feelings at each stage. To be continued...

LLED 462 Learning Curation #4

Module 2: Recipe for a Learning Commons Powtoon

Module 7: Padlet about Teacher-Librarians as Educational Leaders

Created with Padlet

Module 8: Web 2.0 Tools Symbaloo