Inquiry Project # 4 - The World Needs Libraries

The World Needs Libraries: Looking at Libraries in Developing Countries and the Use of Mobile Devices in Classrooms



 "The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library." - Albert Einstein

How are libraries in developing countries supporting their patrons? What types of resources could be best utilized in these environments? Do mobile devices play a role in these libraries? How can they assist their patrons in accessing more up to date information? Do libraries only need books? Should libraries in developing nations rely on donations and weeded books from developed nations?

These are some tough questions because each developing country is different in regards to libraries, technology, access and usage. For instance, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a girl uses her mobile phone to send a message to her teacher. After sending, she receives messages from her teacher in response, which she uses to practice her writing skills. She does this from the safety of her home due to the insecurity of the region in which she lives (Winthrop & Smith). In Peru, laptops sit in a corner of a classroom covered with dust. The laptops were intended to improve students’ ICT skills, but without the proper support for teacher training in how the laptops are used, no repair and maintenance available, and with outdated software, the laptops have become useless (Winthrop & Smith).

So, what are the answers? Libraries in developing countries do more than just provide books for students. For example, libraries in developing countries help farmers to connect to new markets, help entrepreneurs find capital to start businesses, and help health workers access research to provide up to date care to patients (Hamilton).

From my research I have found several organizations that help support libraries and their patron's needs in developing countries. In particular, I was drawn to the Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) website that supports the access of technology information in developing countries. EIFL believes that everyone should have access to knowledge and information. They focus on building libraries' ICT skills through training of librarians and developing tools and resources.


Librarians are teaching farmers new skills in Bwera Information Centre and Community Library in Kasese District in Western Uganda.

 

Furthermore, EIFL introduced tablets into libraries to help with student's education. They teamed up with eLimu, which creates digital content for schools in fun formats like animations, video and quizzes. eLimu pre-loaded the tablets with educational material, and taught the librarians how to integrate the tablets and the content into a learning program, and how to teach the children to use the tablets (EIFL, http://www.eifl.net/programme/public-library-innovation-programme/public-libraries-contributing-education).

 

School students use tablets pre-loaded with educational content in fun formats in Kibera Public Library.

 

It is uplifting to know that developing countries are gaining in information literacy and have at least some access to 21st Century Learning. However, there is always more that can be done, especially in more rural areas of the world. The following is a list of Library Projects that are helping developing countries gain even more access to information. 



 

Library Projects in Developing Nations:

• Electronic Information for Libraries
• Room to Read

• Books for Africa
• International Book Project
• Seeds of Learning
• Camel Book Drive
• Books for the Barrios
• African Library Project

Final Thoughts: All libraries should have access to the most up to date information possible. Thus, should libraries in developing countries rely on donations and weeded books from developed nations? Not all the time. Libraries in developing countries deserve to have books that provide current information. By relying on weeded books, these libraries become limited in current content. However with limited budgets, it is always nice to get donations. Therefore, libraries in developing countries should not completely rely on donations and weeded books alone, but also have access to online information and newer content books as well.

References:

Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). (2015, October 28) [Retrieved from: http://www.eifl.net/]

Hamilton, Stuart. (2013, March 12). Stamping out poverty as well as books? How libraries can support development. Guardian News and Media. [Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/mar/12/libraries-power-global-development].

Photo: Librarians are teaching farmers new skills in Bwera Information Centre and Community Library in Kasese District in Western Uganda. [Retrieved from:

http://www.eifl.net/programme/public-library-innovation-programme/we-advocate-libraries-advance-development]

Photo: School students use tablets pre-loaded with educational content in fun formats in Kibera Public Library. Photo credit Elaisha Stokes [Retrieved from: http://www.eifl.net/programme/public-library-innovation-programme/public-libraries-contributing-education]

Room to Read. (2013, April 30). Room to Read | Our Work. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpyeZ6BcslA
Winthrop, Rebecca, & Smith, Marshall S. (January 2012). A New Face of Education: Bringing technology into the classroom in the Developing World. Brooke Shearer Working Paper.

 

Inquiry Project # 3 - Teacher-Librarians as Professional Educators

Teacher-Librarians as Professional Educators: Supporting Teacher's ICT Development

“To be a librarian is not to be neutral, or passive, or waiting for a question. It is to be a radical positive change agent within your community.” ― R. David Lankes

Just like the quote states, we as Teacher-Librarians need to be active in our roles. We need to seek out new information, collaborate, teach, share, inspire and continually develop our knowledge and skills. We need to be valued as an irreplaceable source. We need to advocate to our school community the valuable skills and roles that we can provide.

How can Teacher-Librarians support Teachers?

 

The first thing we as teacher-librarians need to do is develop a positive working relationship with teachers. We need teachers to feel comfortable working and collaborating with us and we need to feel comfortable working with them.

 

Next, we need to be able to collaborate with teachers. Collaborating on a unit or lesson is a great way to support teachers. Dambruoso states in her blog titled 10 things classroom teachers need to know about modern school librarians that librarians "love collaboration" and that "we can even build new lesson plans with teachers." Again, if you have a positive working relationship with teachers, you can approach them and suggest collaborating on a unit or lesson. Also, suggest ways to help with a project the class may be working on. Make yourself available to help teachers wherever you can. After all, the more the teacher-librarian is seen actively engaged in collaboration with teachers, the more other teachers in the school will want to have the same kind of support (Cooper & Bray, 49).

Ideas / Solutions / Suggestions for meeting the ICT development needs of teachers at my school:

1. Offer brief workshops after school or during the lunch hour on new web tools that can be beneficial and enhance student work.
2. With support from principal, during staff meetings introduce a new resource to teachers.
3. Email teachers links to new resources. Offer to help with the new resource in their classroom.
4. COLLABORATE using a new resource.
5. Integrate a new web resource into a unit or lesson.
6. Continually research and find new ideas and resources.
7. Share ideas and resources.
8. Create a PLN among teachers and students.
9. Create a Library Blog with access to resources for teachers, students and parents.
10. Use Symbaloo to bookmark valuable resources for teachers. Create a tile for different units, grades, or teachers.

 

 

References:
 

Cooper, O.P., & Bray, M. (2011). School Library Media Specialist-Teacher Collaboration: Characteristics, Challenges, Opportunities. TechTrends, 55(4), 45-55.

Dambruoso, A. (2014, July 18). 10 things classroom teachers need to know about modern school librarians. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://libraryallegra.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/10-things-classroom-teachers-need-to-know-about-modern-school-librarians/

Teacher, Computer Ms. (2013, April 9). Using Symbaloo (a bookmarking service) in Education. [youtube video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbp2CSS7cnk


Inquiry Project # 2 - Developing My Own ICT Skills and Pedagogy

 Developing my own ICT Skills and Pedagogy

Where to Start?

How can I continue to develop my own skills, pedagogy and professional development? What strategies, tools and resources can I implement to further develop my knowledge, experience and skills?



My Learning word cloud -  worditout.com

Since the beginning of this course, I have learned an enormous amount about technology. I didn't even really know what Twitter was. Nor did I know how easy it was to set up and post a blog. Now, I am learning about PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) and using feedly to connect with classmates. What an amazing learning community! I did not know that all these fabulous ways of connecting with others was so easy to access and really easy to learn. Of course, I still have a lot more to learn and that is part of my professional development plan. I plan to continue using PLNs, such as Twitter and feedly to continually get new ideas, collaborate, share, explore and learn.  

 

It is amazing the amount of information and sharing that can be found on the web. As others have said, "don't re-invent the wheel." The wheel has already been invented it is just a matter of finding it and using it properly. The fire hydrant image below is how I feel when I am searching for information, ideas, tools or resources. It can be mind-blowing!
 



How can I get past all the information and weed through to the good stuff? Well, I just learned about a fantastic bookmarking tool called Symbaloo. This great tool allows you to have one place for all your favourite websites and it allows you to see what other people are bookmarking, so that you can follow their bookmarks too. What a great way to organize your learning networks.

Using Symbaloo will definitely help me to stay connected to my personal learning networks and to continue building my ICT skills, tools and resources.

A particular learning network that I came across is The Global Teacher Librarian Network. This network has many helpful links for teacher-librarians, including things like library routines to school library journal articles. This site will be added to my bookmarking tool so that I can access it more easily and regularly.

Overall, I have learned that educators and professionals are connecting and sharing their learning through Twitter. By simply, following such educators and professionals, I will be able to maintain my connections and networks, to further develop my knowledge, experience and skills. Also, I plan to set up a Symbaloo homepage to help me collect and organize valuable resources that I gather from educators and professionals on Twitter. Furthermore, my own professional development plan is to start a blog for my school library, where I can use it to connect with teachers, students and parents. Afterall, "blogs can be great tools for students to engage in book reviews, keep lists of favourite books and share thoughts with others" (Clarke, 48). I will continue to develop my ITC skills, pedagogy and professional learning because I am a life long learner who loves to challenge myself to continually learn new things.

References:

Clarke, Lane W. (2014). Reader Response 2.0 Using Technology to Support Literacy Growth. The NERA Journal, 50(1), 44-50.

Edublogs Teacher Challenges: Free professional learning for educators from educators. (2015). http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/
 

Fire hydrant image from: http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/step-6-using-curation-tools/

Symbaloo: Your bookmarks and favourites in the cloud. (2015). https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcLj6h4

Word Cloud Image - created using worditout.com


Inquiry Project # 1 - Promoting Reading in Schools

Promoting Reading in Schools

 

How do I promote reading in my school?

As a part-time teacher-librarian in an elementary school, here is what I do to help foster a reading culture:

• provide a welcoming space to read, select, discover, explore and enjoy books.
• display new and recommended books / authors.
• participate in Battle of the Books - students read a set list of novels and in the spring they battle against other schools in our district by answering questions about the books read.
• author visits (coming up on Friday, October 16th - Canadian author Eric Wilson will be presenting to our intermediate grades)
• participate in Drop Everything and Read (October 26,2015)
• host 2-3 Book Fairs each school year (one in the fall, one in the spring and we usually host the Scholastic 50% off warehouse sale for the Interior)
• local Western Hockey League players visit and read to students
• buddy reading - intermediate students are teamed up with primary students and they read together once a week.
• at home reading awards - each month students who complete their at home reading for the month can enter for a chance to win a $10 Chapters gift card (one price for each grade).

What tools, strategies and resources can be implemented to encourage and support a school-wide reading program?

 

There are a number of things that I do at my school to promote reading, however there are always more things that myself and others at my school can do. The following are some tools, strategies and resources that I would like to try to implement at my school:

1. Start a graphic novel book club. By using graphic novels for a book club, I am hoping to encourage readers who normally wouldn't join to come out and try something new. In an article by William H. Teale, Jung Kim and William Boerman-Cornell called High Quality Graphic Novels can make Positive Literacy Contributions to the Lives of Elementary-School students, they talk about how "reading graphic novels may be a 'way in' for helping children who are difficult to reach through traditional print text." I hope that I can engage such students by introducing graphic novels as a step towards "traditional print text." Also, it helps to know what graphic novels are appropriate for each grade. The best graphic novels for children is a great place to start to gather recommended graphic novels for grades K-8. Furthermore, I would like to ensure that teachers and admin are on board with starting a graphic novel book club. To do this, I have found a video that I hope would convince them of such:

 

2. Have students use technology to write and present a book review for their peers. In particular, I liked how one school used podcasts to promote their favourite books: School Races to Promote Reading Through Podcasts by Cara Bafile. I especially liked how Bafile talks about using older students to teach younger students how to use the tools needed to create a podcast. This is a great way to get everyone at school involved.

Another way for students to use technology to review books, as suggested by Lane W. Clarke, is to use a community site like Goodreads, in which a class profile could be set up and "after students read a book they can evaluate the book by writing a review and assigning it a rating" (48). Also, I could have students recommend books on a school library blog (something that I hope to start in the future).

Other Thoughts?

This is just the beginning...I love to read all kinds of books and I hope that just my passion for books and reading will be a start for fostering a reading culture in my school. I wish for all students to become as passionate a reader as I am one day. Therefore, I plan to continue researching and adding to my tools and strategies to make my library the best it can be for all learners.

 

References:

 

Bafile, Cara. (2012). School Races to Promote Reading Through Podcasts. Education World, http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech252.shtml

 

Clarke, Lane W. (2014). Reader Response 2.0 Using Technology to Support Literacy Growth. The NERA Journal, 50(1), 44-50.

McKnight, Katie. (2014). Katie McKnight Podcast Series #8: Reaching & Teaching Reluctant Readers. TeachHub.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkU30NZ6qT4

Teale, William H., Kim, Jung, and Boerman-Cornell, William. (2008) High Quality Graphic Novels can make Positive Literacy Contributions to the Lives of Elementary-School students. Book Links, 17(5), http://www.ala.org/offices/resources/its_elementary_graphic_novels

Images:

Battle of the Books image from: http://teleread.com/publishing/battle-books-really/

Graphic Novels Book Club image from: http://www.larchmontlibrary.org/programs/graphic-novel-book-group/

Reading Review # 3

Research Synopsis

 

This is the final part of the reading review assignment, in which I will share my understandings and insight of the resources I collected pertaining to my topic of using technology to collaborate with teachers and getting students hooked on reading.

 

First of all, research is difficult. There is so much information out there that it becomes overwhelming and frustrating trying to narrow down a topic of interest. I spent more than an hour and several evenings reading journal articles, books, blogs, and watching videos. Several times while researching, I ended up reading about something completely off topic because links lead me astray (although they were interesting sites, it was not what I needed to focus on right then). Therefore, teaching research skills to students is highly important so that they are not left feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with research. Teaching students about information literacy is just as important in order for them to be able to judge a website as having valid authentic information.

The first resource that I would like to elaborate on is the book written by Beverley E. Crane, titled "Using Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools in the K-12 Classroom." I haven't had the opportunity to read the entire book yet, but what I have read so far is closely related to my topic of using technology to collaborate with teachers and students. In particular Crane writes that the four goals of this book are:
1. To describe Web 2.0 and social networking tools to educators new to the technologies so they can discuss them intelligently with students and other colleagues,
2. To model Web 2.0 tools and social media through classroom examples,
3. To explain to beginning users how to get started with each tool and
4. To present practical unit and lesson plans illustrating the use of Web 2.0 and social networking in the K– 12 content-area curricula (Crane, p.xvii).
All four of these goals are exactly what I am looking for as a beginning user of such things as blogs. Crane has an entire chapter about blogging. She talks about why and how blogging works in the classroom and best of all, she defines blogging terms that I am still learning about. This resource will be very useful for me as I continue to become more comfortable with using technology, but also to help me collaborate with teachers using technology. I will definitely use this resource as a reference when talking with teachers and hope to implement some of these new practices for me.

The next resource that I would like to elaborate on is an article by Emy Nelson Decker and Monya D. Tomlinson, titled "Using Blogs in the Library to Reach Diverse and Non-Traditional Student Groups." This article talks about using blogs to keep students and readers informed about the library and encourages readers of the blog to leave comments and share with others. After reading this article, I am inspired to create a blog specifically for my school's library and encourage students to comment on the blog by adding a book review or recommendation. The current website I use for my school library is very difficult to navigate and add new content. With a blog, I would be able to easily add something new by posting and publishing. This article will be useful for me to highlight to my administrator the importance of starting a library blog.

The last resource that I would like to elaborate on is an article by Lane W. Clarke titled, "Reader Response 2.0: Using Technology to Support Literacy Growth." Clarke states that "by purposefully choosing technology tools in our literacy classrooms, we can enhance engagement, support literacy development, and develop meaningful digital literacy skills"(p.44). He also suggests that we should be integrating digital literacy into our reading and writing lessons (p.45). More specifically, Clarke uses Bloom's taxonomy to give examples of each level of thinking and matches these up with technology tools. For example, the first level of Bloom's taxonomy is remembering (p.46). Clarke pairs up this level of thinking with using the tool Wordle for students to highlight the most important words in a particular classroom text (p.46). Continually, Clarke gives examples of tools to use for each level of Bloom's taxonomy. He has examples for understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. All of Clarke's examples can be easily applied in the classroom. Even if I don't get a chance to use all the examples he has highlighted, Clarke has made sure to find technology "tools that are free, easy to use, and appropriate for the classroom" (p.46). I look forward to trying some of these tools with teachers and students at my school.

Overall, I have found many useful resources, but the three mentioned above will help me reach my goal of using technology to collaborate with teachers and engaging students. This is a great start for my research, but it is only the beginning. I will continually add to my resources and better my understanding and knowledge of using technology in the classroom.

References:

Clarke, Lane W. Reader Response 2.0: Using Technology to Support Literacy Growth. University of New England, Portland, ME: The NERA Journal. Volume 50, Issue 1, 2014. p.44-50

Crane, Beverley E. Using Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools in the K-12 Classroom. Chicago, IL, USA: American Library Association, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Copyright © 2012. American Library Association.

Decker, Emy Nelson and Tomlinson, Monya D. Using Blogs in the Library to Reach Diverse and Non-Traditional Student Groups. Atlanta University Center: Journal of Library Innovation, Volume 5, Issue 2, 2014. p.60-70.