Reading Review #2

Connectivism, ICT and the Role of the Library Learning Commons

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When I began searching for resources to help better understand the topics and issues I addressed in my first post, I realized very quickly that I needed to narrow down my topic. I found myself getting lost in articles that were interesting, but I was not really finding anything helpful. I decided to focus on how the the Library Learning Commons (LLC) as a physical and virtual space can better help students learn. This I know is still very broad but there are three areas that I wanted to focus on:

1. Connectivism

2. Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

3. How can the Library Learning Commons best support 21st century

   learners?

I believe that these three areas are interrelated. The theory of connectivism helps me to understand and justify the importance and role of information and communications technology in education. This in turn helps inform the decisions I make and the role that the LLC plays in my school, and hopefully the impact it will have on our learning community.

Connectivism is a theory that I have been interested in because I know the importance of technology in learning, but I did not have a good grasp on the rationale for its role in education. George Siemens’ article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age” and his TEDxNYED video were very useful in helping me to understand why ICT is important and the role it plays in learning. This gave me confidence to make decisions, influence policy, and advocate for change when collaborating with other TLs and teachers so that our LLC can support our 21st century learners. These are the principles of connectivism that are outlined in Siemens’ article:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision. (Siemens pg. 1)

I have found that with this knowledge and understanding I have more confidence and can therefore better advocate for ICT in classrooms and our school. This could range from collaborating with other teachers, TLs or students to helping develop school wide and district policies. This image represents the practical possibilities that connected learning can have on learning.

Image courtesy of: https://jrichard64.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/connectedlearninginfo.jpeg  

With a better grasp on the rationale for ICT and its importance on learning I felt that I needed to gain a better grasp on how to go about doing this for my school community. I have to admit that I could have spent days looking at articles, and I had to force myself to stop. I tried thinking of my current situation and what articles might help me to effectively meet the needs of school community. Here are the ICT articles that I wanted to focus on, and I have included a brief summary of them and why I included them.

Can You Hear Me Now? Student voice: High school & middle school students’ perceptions of teachers, ICT and learning.

This article is a case study that looks at student use of ICT in and out of school, and includes their perceptions of ICT, learning and how teachers are using ICT in classrooms. The case study is very interesting because it includes the student voice that is very honest and frank. The frustrated comments that are made about teachers in particular resonate with me because they are comments that I hear from students, and address the issue I briefly touch on in my last post of teachers using technology but still stuck in traditional practice. This article includes the case studies findings, discussions and student suggestions. This article is powerful because the student voice is loud and clear, and as a result it is difficult to ignore.

The Online Digital Library: A Constructivist Tool Today’s ICT Classrooms

Although this article is promoting a specific digital library, the benefits of using online digital libraries is addressed. It compares classrooms that strictly use books like textbooks to those that use digital resources. Using a constructivist method of teaching together with digital resources that are “living, growing, and maturing” allows students to take their learning and apply it to other aspects of their lives. This article is a little dated, but it addresses some of the battles that I come up against regarding traditional teaching, and it demonstrates the benefits of implementing ICT into student learning.

Rap Universal: Using Multimodal Media Production to Develop ICT

Literacies

This article is a study that used a multimodal media production (MMP) course to teach ICT in an academically low and poor community. This innovative media production course gives a glimpse into innovative ways to teach and learn ICT literacies. I found this article inspiring as it demonstrates that when we meet students where they are at with their ICT literacies, engagement goes up and the transferability of these literacies can be far-reaching.   

These three articles have challenged me and have given me ideas on how best to meet the need of my school community through our Library Learning Commons. Collaboration is key both with students and staff. It is through these relationships that I can not only provide the rationale for incorporating ICT into teaching, but also provide the innovative strategies, resources and support so that students develop into citizens who are excited and passionate about learning.

There are two more resources that I have found to be helpful and inspiring. Even though they are geared toward public libraries and are more general and overarching, they help me to keep striving for change. The first is “What to expect from libraries in the 21st century: Pam Sandlian Smith at TEDxMileHigh”

For the Library Learning Commons at my school I also want to support creativity, community innovation and entrepreneurialism as passionately as Pam Sandlian. Even though I have watched this video many times it still motivates me.The other resource is “Inspiring Libraries, Connecting Communities: a vision for public library service in B.C.”. This resource helps me to remember the big picture goals of our school LLC which are to “bridge the physical and digital worlds, connecting people not only with a world of information but with each other” as well as supporting and contributing to lifelong learning by providing safe, open spaces for people of all ages and backgrounds (B.C. Ministry of Education pg. 5).

The three questions that I was pondering in my first blog were:

• How can I continue to support collaboration within my school?
• How can inquiry be used effectively to help teachers and students learn?
• How can technology be used innovatively to support inquiry and increase student engagement with learning?

I feel that these resources have helped me to gain an understanding of why we need a connectivist approach to teaching and how that might look in a school setting. This inquiry has resulted in the narrowing of my inquiry focus to How can I help support innovative implementation of ICT through the Library Learning Commons?

Works Cited

Nat Turner, K. C. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy: "Rap Universal": Using Multimodal Media Production to Develop ICT Literacies. 54 Vol. The Association, 05/01/2011. Web. 23 Sep. 2017.

Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2004--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications (pp. 2341-2344). Lugano, Switzerland: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved September 23, 2017 from https://www-learntechlib-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/p/12351/

Siemens, George. “ Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.” Elearnspace, 12 Dec. 2004, www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Stefl-Mabry, J., Radlick, M. & Doane, W. (2010). Can You Hear Me Now? Student voice: High school & middle school students’ perceptions of teachers, ICT and learning. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 6(4), 64-82. Open Campus, The University of the West Indies, West Indies. Retrieved September 23, 2017 from https://www-learntechlib-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/p/42263/.

Reading Review Part A

How can Collaboration, Inquiry and Innovation Impact the Learning of our School Community?

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I feel very fortunate to be in the situation I am in. I am a teacher librarian at a middle school (grades 7-9) where teachers and the administration are working together to better meet the learning needs of the whole school community: students, staff and parents. Our administrators have given us collaboration time, funds and technology to help support this. As a TL this is very exciting, but I find myself wondering how best can I meet the needs of my school community.

I have come up with 3 questions I am pondering:

1. How can I continue to support collaboration within my school?
2. How can inquiry be used effectively to help teachers and students learn?
3. How can technology be used innovatively to support inquiry and increase student engagement with learning?

This environment of working together to make positive changes has not always existed at my school. When I started at my school 7 years ago along with 3 other teachers and a new administrator, we entered a school that was very traditional. The staff and administrator had been together for a very long time, they had a way of teaching that had not changed in years. Us “newbies” heard the phrase “that’s not the way we do things at this school” a lot. The library at the time was a ghost town. The librarian was very traditional and teachers and students had very limited access to the space, let alone to the books and resources. Most students were afraid to sign out books. The new administrator was very patient and had a motto that he used over and over to combat the traditional way things were done: “We will do what is best for our students”. This ruffled the feathers of many on staff and slowly those that were opposed to change began to leave. It was during this time I was asked if I was interested in transforming our library to a learning commons. I was ecstatic! I am now beginning my third year as a TL.

When I first started out as TL we had a small team of teachers, myself and the administrators who worked really hard to figure out how we could better meet the learning needs of our students and teachers. We wanted to work on collaboration, inquiry and increasing student engagement with learning. We are now going into our third year with these same goals and we have already seen the positive impact on our students and staff, although we still have a long way to go. With the new teaching positions opening up at our school this year our administrators hired teachers who wanted to be a part of this change.

As a result we have so many new and enthusiastic teachers wanting to work together towards these goals. I already have had so many requests to collaborate with teachers making this a very exciting time for me, but it is also a little daunting. I just want to be sure I can contribute effectively so that the positive changes will be evident to our school community. Many are asking for help with changing from a traditional teacher-centered way of teaching to a student-centered approach using inquiry. Many teachers are not sure where to start and are nervous about the process. I am hoping the through the co-planning process and the co-teaching process we can learn from each other and work toward changing the way we learn in our school.  Using resources like the Points of Inquiry, constructivist theory, connectivism theory, and ideas from bloggers like John Spencer I hope that I can help provide the support and resources so that our school can transform the way we teach and learn in our school.

Technology can be very effective in supporting inquiry based learning and developing 21st century skills. I feel that this is an area that will need some work. Many teachers are using technology in their classrooms but in ways that support traditional teacher centered methods of teaching. There is a false sense that some teachers have that because they are using innovative technology that they believe they must therefore have innovative teaching methods. Larry Cuban addresses this issue in his blog “As Teacher Use of New Technologies Has Spread, Have Most Teachers Changed How They Teach?” We have access to some amazing technology like GAFE, virtual reality glasses thanks to Sesqui, virtual field trips, online databases and so much more, but we need to change how we teach first and use innovative technology to support innovative learning. This is definitely an area that I need to further explore.

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As you can probably tell from this post I have many ideas swirling in my head. This image represents my early brainstorming.

I am really excited to further explore the questions I introduced at the beginning of my post. I can’t wait to do further research to narrow down my focus. Inquiry in action is pretty exciting!

Works Cited

Cuban, Larry. “As Teacher Use of New Technologies Has Spread, Have Most Teachers Changed How They Teach?” Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice, 20 Sept. 2012, larrycuban.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/as-teacher-use-of-new-technologies-has-spread-have-most-teachers-changed-how-they-teach/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2017.