Blog Post 4: Technology Leadership Role of School Librarians

Technology in education has vast benefits for students. The school librarian’s role for implementing technology in schools is crucial since school librarians have one of the best positions in the school to affect students’ learning (Green, L. l., & Jones, S. s., 2014). In the ALA's “Standards for the 21st Century Learner”, technology is heavily supported as a necessary educational element for today’s students. According to these standards, reading is imperative and foundational for all other skills to be built upon. A students ability to read and analyze material lays the foundation for academic and future career success. Information literacy leads students to asking more questions and inquiring about the environment around them. School librarians are responsible for teaching students how to use information they gather from materials, print of digital, in an ethical way ("Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", ALA). Technology skills are so important for students because they can determine a student’s success in the future as a contributing member of society. Work environments are becoming more digitized and technology literacy is a vital part of their success. Even though all students may not have the same financial and technological advantages, all students have access to a computer at school. All students deserve the same access to print and digital materials. The resources offered in the school library are very meaningful in student development. The school library is a safe environment where students should feel comfortable to expand their technological skills with the help of school librarians and practice the skills they've acquired. School librarians can make sure students meet these ALA standards by following this process: Plan, Prepare, Present, and Perfect (Green, L. l., & Jones, S. s., 2014). School librarians must plan the procedures they want to implement in teaching students about technology in the library. The procedures must be age appropriate, rely upon previous knowledge, figure out how much time it will take, and thoroughly understand each task they are asking students to complete. Next, they must prepare the content by choosing the most beneficial resources for students. This requires a lot of editing from school librarians to make sure they are including the most appropriate information they can. Their presentation of these technological skills will determine how students react to them. They must display these skills in different ways so different learners can benefit from various presentations: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. School librarians should be ready to give students considerate feedback in how to improve their skills as well. The final step is perfecting this process. Technology is constantly changing and school librarians must read academic articles, be involved in the librarianship community and organizations to stay up to date. School librarians must also constantly reassess their process of implementing technology to validate its success and if students are meeting learning outcomes. If not, they must change parts of the process to better suite students and adequately prepare them for learning in the 21st century. References: Green, L. l., & Jones, S. s. (2014). Instructional Partners in Digital Library Learning Spaces. Knowledge Quest, 42(4), E11-E17. Houston, C. (2012). Digital Natives, 21st Century School Libraries, and 21st Century Preparation Programs: An Informal Affirmation of Branch and deGroot. School Libraries Worldwide, 18(1), 138-143. "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", American Library Association, November 8, 2006. http://www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/standards (Accessed April 19, 2015) Document ID: ec710ea2-99a2-27d4-b987-e042c9f4bf3f

Blog Post 3: Technology Implementation Strategies

Timothy Horan is a school librarian and is currently the director of the School Library Writing Center at Hauppauge High School in New York. He writes about technology’s incorporation into the writing center of school libraries in Technology and Your School Library Writing Center. Technology plays a crucial role in the education system and the three main points Horan makes are: 1. The technology itself is not the goal. The goal should be for technology to aid with teaching and writing. 2. Writing and research go hand in hand. Technology helps facilitate the cycle of locating, evaluating, and using information. 3. School library cards help students access more academic information through databases. To expand on Horan’s first point, many educators are caught up in technology itself and that can cause technology to replace human-made authentic work or ideas. However, if technology is regarded for what it is, an extremely useful tool, it can help in the production, creation, and support of teaching and writing. Technology facilitates writing center tutorials, for example. His second key point is that good writing cannot be done without research. A good writer is informed and educated on the topic of their writing. Technology in the library writing center allows for students to dive deeper into researching by helping them evaluate the vast array of sources on the internet. Horan considers the writing center to be fundamental place for students to learn how to best locate, evaluate, and then use information. He suggests that school librarians in charge of the writing center include the “Big6”, which is a model that breaks the research process into six intelligible steps: Task Definition, Information Seeking Strategies, Location and Access, Use of Information, Synthesis, and Evaluation (“Big6 Skills Overview” 2014). Horan’s last key point is that students who use their library cards and the library writing center’s technology have better access to information because of database bundles school districts purchase. This gives students access to tons of awesome resources, tools, articles, and knowledge. The school librarians in the writing center can also show students how to best search, go through their research options, and find which tools best fit their research needs. I am not currently a teacher or school librarian, but two new tools I learned from this article that I think would help improve instructional strategies are the “Big6” and the combination of the writing center and research with the help of technology. Those are two strategies I can implement in my own academic learning. References: “Big6 Skills Overview.” Big6. January 1, 2014. http://big6.com/pages/about/big6-skills-overview.php (accessed March 29, 2015). Horan, T. (2015). Technology and Your School Library Writing Center. School Library Monthly, 31(6), 5-7.

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Blog Post 2: iPads in the Classroom

Using an iPad in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms to Introduce STEM Concepts is, as the title suggests, about preschool students using iPads in the classroom for learning activities. Through different applications, such as Monkey Math, preschool students are introduced to the concepts of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The article brings up the point that technology in our day to day lives, even for young children, is increasing and that technological increase should occur in educational spheres as well. Some examples of this include touch screen check outs at stores, video games, computers, et cetera. Incorporating STEM concepts through technology is extremely important for student success in those fields from an extremely early age, such as preschool, because it instills interest, motivation, and curiosity in those subjects. These results are shown by research findings in the article. STEM concepts introduced in preschool also encourage understanding of visible cause and effect, different outcomes, and interaction between other students.

Technology is meant to make information more accessible and make things more efficient, whether used at the grocery store, a classroom, or in a library. There are a variety of options for iPads in regard to library use. iPads could be stationed in self-service areas to help users search for materials and inform them about which areas those materials are located in. They could also be available in the children’s section of the library and be set up next to certain book displays if those books have an educational game developed around them. There is a huge amount of literacy and learning apps related to books, such as apps correlating to Dr. Seuss. Even if the apps do not correlate to a book, they could still correlate to a subject like math or writing. Another idea, for a smart TV or large screen, rather than an iPad, would be to set up a slideshow of events going on in that library and have it be visible to the public as they enter the library, so users have visual ideas of all the fun community events and group learning. iPads could also be set up for rent in a teen or college student section of the library. Those iPads could have helpful study apps installed, such as electronic note cards/flash cards and apps such as Smartr. In the teen or adult section, there could also be cozy “study break areas” where iPads or tablets are connected to Netflix and a user can watch a TV episode while taking a break from studying, then reconvene. The options for iPad use within a classroom or a library are vast, and should be taken advantage of by institutions that have those resources. This is still an emerging field of interest and I'm sure much more research will be done to find which apps, devices, and technology, are the most beneficial in those settings. 

References:

Aronin, S., & Floyd, K. K. (2013). Using an iPad in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms to Introduce STEM Concepts. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(4), 34-39.

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Blog Post 1: Technology Strengths and Weakness

As a millennial, I grew up using technology at home, as well as at school, to enhance experiences. This use of technology from a young age is a strength in my opinion, since technology does not seem like a foreign or uncomfortable realm to explore. Technology helps depict ideas and concepts in more creative and innovative ways, which help students stay interested in the content they are learning. Another technology strength would be that I do not always go about the same process as others, and with technology, there is not just one right way to do something. There are many different avenues that one can go to get to the same destination, whether that is through different applications or programs. One my technology weaknesses would have to be on-going professional learning, rather than academic learning. I do not have technology-related professional learning experience with computers, other than brief internships and have not had many opportunities to dedicate time to practice and share ideas professionally (ISTE: Essential Conditions, 2015). To overcome this weakness, I need to become more involved in professional growth and practice. The Standards: Teachers list on the ISTE website suggests "participating in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning" (ISTE: Standards: Teachers, 2015).
I am currently not an educator within a school setting. I am a yoga instructor, and therefore teach adults and children through movement and language, rather than technology. If I were an educator, I would plan to use my technology strengths to demonstrate to students how useful and interesting technology is. I would like to showcase how technology can be used effectively to benefit their daily lives, academically and recreationally. The benefits of technology are vast and showing them different avenues for technology, they may not have thought of, would be a fun process to teach. I still have much to learn about technology to improve my instructional strategies. I would like to learn which learning strategies are best for each student's needs, to help personalize their technological experiences. Not surprisingly, I currently am most familiar with my needs, and therefore would be not the best equipped to help a student easily discover which digital tools and resources are best for them. I could do it, but I think it would be a more lengthy trial and error process. To improve that, I would study more of the digital tools and resources available so I could better assist others.

ISTE: Essential Conditions. (2015). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.iste.org

ISTE: Standards: Teachers. (2015). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.iste.org