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Wake up, for real--The laptops have hit the fan
December 3, 2008
I've been
thinking about change for quite some time now. I knew, when I helped write the proposal more than three years ago, that our state's
CFF program was going to permanently change the way the way our students learn, the way our teachers teach, and the way I do business.
Heck, that ball was already rolling and rolling fast.
This week it seems like the laptops finally hit the fan.
Both the state library listserve and the CFF listserve are abuzz. It started when one librarian expressed surprise and dismay that the school's CFF (technology integration) coach was unaware of our beloved
Access PA POWER Library. Some of the librarians on the list noted that
their coaches were aware of and promoted those resources. Others reported that their coaches either were unaware of them or ignored them.
Those posts clearly revealed a high level of librarian anxiety. Among the big issues . . .
With laptops now in all English, science, math, and social studies classrooms:
- Will teachers opt not to visit the library to use their own laptops?
- Will our books and other materials go unused?
- Will our instructional talents be ignored and wasted?
- Will the highly-trained technology coach usurp the tech skills teaching turf once owned by the librarian?
- And what about information fluency? Who will ensure those skills are delivered?
For a while, the list's argument seemed a bit
farmers and ranchers. Fortunately, a number of folks live on both listserves. Fortunately, a number of librarian/coach teams really do talk to each other.
The argument is itself a wake up call.
Fact: Librarians are information and communications technology specialists. Our
Standards for the 21st-Century Learner demand this of us.
We are not allowed to pass on new strategies for gathering, evaluating, organizing, understanding, and communicating information.
Whining about Google vs. databases and books makes us look old and small.
We are also all about RSS feeds and information portals and wikis and Nings and blogs and personal information portals and social networking.
In fact, we should be
leading in the use of new tools. We should lead the charge advocating for their use as
an intellectual freedom issue. We should also be helping our CFF coaches and teachers integrate the tools we know and love so well, as well as the skills we commonly value.
To be fair, the CFF coaches in our state were treated to grant-funded bootcamps and online training. The teacher-librarians were not, though we were invited to collaborative sessions prior to our own state conference.
Brenda Boyer, who is one of several coaches who is also a librarian, weighed in and gave me permission to share her response:
To all of you despairing over the encroachment of territory, or of simply feeling ignored by your teachers, I must say stop complaining and start doing something about it! Don't just sit back and watch the world pass you! It is your responsibility as a librarian to keep up with technology, educational trends, and the best research methods. It is also your responsibility to market your library AND yourself as the key to research success. If your teachers don't know about Power Library, then seize the opportunity to teach them! Push - pull -drag... whatever it takes! Be creative.
If you teach the best research methods, your students (and teachers) will soon discover that information comes in many different formats. You must place yourself in the position of being the research expert! You probably already ARE that person in your building... and if not, well, you should be! And yes, this includes keeping up with technology.
Yes, the CFF coaches should know that the librarian is a key to their success. But we must be ready to play that role. Please do not expect people to come to you - you must go to them! Show them how you can make the integration of technology more effective by offering subject specific tools, databases, websites, and yes, even books!
Many of you are still in the "honeymoon" stage of your laptop programs. Being in our 5th year as a one-to-one laptop school where every student has his own computer 24/7, let me reassure you that, if properly integrated, your library usage should not go down, but up! You must change perceptions from what a library was to what is is now. We are achieving more research than before, because inquiry is now a routine part of lessons. Remember, your library isn't just a physical room; it's also all of the online tools (like Power Library) that you can now offer all of the time. So, go and teach research skills in the Science room, or the art room, or wherever research is happening. You need to be there! Learn the software on the laptops as well as web 2.0 tools that will take projects to new heights. You must prove to your school that this fully-integrated model is possible. We all face different roadblocks; success is about learning to work around them. Our jobs have changed; so must we!
I know a few things clearly.
I must teach in and outside the library--through my website, my pathfinders, my wikis and my online lessons. Sometimes I must leave the library and teach where the laptops live. Sometimes the laptops will
walk back to our library learning space for our resources, our environment, and for me.
I must partner with our coach,
Ken Rodoff. For me that's a joy. We've always worked well together. We've always learned from each other and share.
Of course, the elephant in many of our rooms is
personality.
What happens when you throw two people, who don't necessarily love each other or respect each other's skills, together in a school? What happens when the librarian (or the library) is misperceived or perceived as a technology dinosaur? As merely a room rather than as laboratory, production, presentation space? What happens when that perception is close to truth? Clinging to databases as your superpower is not going to cut it.
Librarians cannot wait for the killer free seminar to hit their counties. We must train ourselves, not only in specific apps, but in embracing new strategies that engage and promote learning. We must also smile and laugh and play a little and not be afraid to make mistakes. We must see opportunities instead of roadblocks. No more
yeah buts.
Shift happened. Our response is not optional.
Posted by Joyce Valenza Ph.D on December 3, 2008 | Comments (8)
