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