Category: Assignment 2

This week I am feeling much more like I have a sense of direction.  Starting the inquiry process helped me to focus, and not feel overwhelmed by the volume of information.  I am feeling like I have a vision of where I am going next week, although I still have plenty to do before my final project is done.

My plan is to create something to help primary teachers integrate technology in their classrooms.  From what I have seen at my school, ICT is used more in the intermediate classes than in primary.  Since I have taught all grades from K-3, and have a fairly good understanding of technology, I feel like I have a foot in each world and can help teachers to bridge the gap.  I am thinking of presenting a workshop at our district Pro-D day in November, but also having some sort of blog/wiki/idea board where teachers can get and share ideas of good ICT integration.

We have really focused on starting with the “why” this week.  Like I mentioned last week I expected to come into this course and hear about a bunch of cool apps, web services, and programs that I could use.  And we have been hearing about some great things during the 10 minutes of fame presentations.  But, I have learned that the “why” (What goal do we have for our students?) informs, and is much more important than, the “what” (Which app should we use?).

So now my goal is to get primary teachers in my district thinking the same way I am thinking, but I don’t quite know how to do that.  Considering the range of attitudes, abilities, and access to ICT of colleagues in this course, I know I will see a similar (if not even greater) range in primary teachers in my district.  How do I get them all to understand in a two hour workshop what has taken us two weeks of discussion, research, and idea-wrestling?  I don’t know, but I’m hoping next week will make it clearer.

I’m all about lists so here is my think-aloud of what I need to do:

• finish research (need to investigate screen time and digital citizenship a bit more)
• organize big ideas (read through highlighting)
• find examples of meaningful ICT integration (teachers love examples)
• see what tech workshops were offered in the district last year (don’t want to overlap, and may find possible collaborators)
• find/develop a framework for planning (check BCTLA points of inquiry for ideas)
• determine how to plan a workshop (never given one before – eek!!)
• decide on a digital platform for sharing ideas (easy for me to maintain and colleagues to contribute)
• figure out how to get teachers on board to start with “why” instead of “what” (maybe analogies to older technology)

This seems like a very ambitious list, but considering how I was feeling last week, and how far I’ve come, I am NOT going to feel overwhelmed.

Instead of “world libraries” I’d like to think of them as digital libraries, since the content is digital.  The amazing thing about digital content is that it can be shared around the world much more easily than a physical book, photograph, or document.

My group for the discussions this afternoon was the elementary school librarians.  We talked about the importance of local community libraries with physical books, how it gives people a place to connect and to have the sensory experience of holding and reading books.  We also talked about how popular internet access is at many libraries we have seen, so there is the potential to blend physical libraries with digital libraries.  We also talked about the importance of having online access in libraries for those students who don’t have online access at home.  One advantage of digital content over physical books, is the ability to show information in a multitude of ways.  Digital libraries could include text, images, scans of primary source documents, videos, audio recordings, etc.  I also argued the point that a digital library could increase access for some people.  Petra brought up the example of how popular the large print books are with seniors in the Qualicum Public Library.  I pointed out that if they had e-readers (which I know many seniors do not) they could have access to more books, because they could increase the font of any e-book.

I found an article written by Connie Champlin and David Loertscher entitled “Creating a Digital Age School Library” which had several of the topics we touched on in our inquiry group discussion.  The authors argue that a digital library needs to have access to electronic databases, because this information has been edited and verified, unlike so much of what is on the internet.  We talked a bit about the struggles of finding articles at the appropriate reading level with databases, and how information books often have to help fill in the gaps. Champlin and Loertscher also say a digital library should have links to good sites on topics classes are learning about.  We talked about the struggle of finding reliable information at an appropriate level for students, and how to organize that information when we do find it.  The article also explained the role of library media specialist as information coach, and we talked quite a bit about how it is our job to teach students to evaluate the information they find online.

One point the authors made that I am still wondering about is “Access to the print and multimedia collection of the LMC catalog from the classroom or the home.”  Does that mean all books should be scanned and a copy stored online?  Does that mean the catalogue is accessible from anywhere so students can source what they want and come find it in the library later?  If they mean the former, I’m thinking there would be a lot of cost involved in having both a physical copy of a book and the digital copy.  Is it really the best use of our financial resources to duplicate what we have?  Wouldn’t it be a better use of money to buy some things in hard copy, and others in digital?

Today I got to experience structural coupling (the process through which people connect) first hand.  My structural coupling included all three forms Jenny spoke about, cognitive, cultural, and technological dimensions.

I was inspired by Janet’s 10 minutes of fame presentation today.  I had no idea that her school has a fine arts focus just like mine (cultural connection).  Their Global Learner projects are impressive, I especially like their structure for collaboration and willingness to integrate art and technology with the curriculum.  I chatted with Janet after class to find out more about her school, and my mind started spinning with ideas (cognitive connection).  The focused art workshops which children can choose to attend, the lunch-and-learn sessions offered by and for teachers on art topics, the use of technology alongside art and curricular projects all were very inspiring.  I think the way their projects are structured allows teachers to play to their strengths about what they are teaching and gives students a sense of ownership about choosing what they would like to learn.

When I got home after class I read Janet’s previous blog post, watched the video created by the Environment club at her school, and visited the school website (technological connection).  I also emailed my principal, with the hope that we can consider some of Mont Royal’s ideas for our school in the future.  I know that I might run into sociocultural homeostasis (“We already have a fine arts program. This sounds like a lot of work!”) but I am going to advocate that we give it a try.  We may not be able to do everything full throttle, but we can take those baby steps.  Maybe monthly lunch-and-learns instead of bi-weekly, maybe we try the workshop approach for a few weeks instead of the whole year.

Regardless, I would like to visit Mont Royal in the fall to see their global learning in action.  We get one professional growth day in Burnaby, and this is how I would like to use mine next year.  I’ve also started a list of questions, so I might have to take Janet out for a coffee and pick her brain more. (Cultural, cognitive, and fun!)

These concepts stood out for me today, because I have seen the phenomena, but didn’t have terms for them.  I would venture that doing something just because it’s always been done, and doing the same thing using a new technology has been done in every school in the province.  The status quo and familiar are easier than the new and unknown– but that doesn’t mean they are better.  As teacher-librarians we need to be advocates for change.

That said, it can be hard to affect change.  You come up against things like “We’ve been doing it this way for x number of years and it’s worked, why should we change?” or “I don’t have time to learn something new.” or “I already let my students play on the computer when they’re done their work.”  I know, that when you are in the classroom it is very hard to try new things.  The day to day grind is so exhausting, we turn to what is familiar and easy, even if it is not the best way to do something.  Sometimes “good enough” is all you can do.  But that doesn’t mean we should settle for “good enough” all the time.  We can’t change the face of education all at once, but we can make small steps.  I’m reminded of my kaleidoscope project, it had challenges and I wouldn’t want to do all art projects using technology, but it also provided the students with experience retrieving files from a shared drive, editing the document to record their information, using Flickr to find photos with a Creative Commons license, and using an online paint tool to manipulate their chosen image.  I want to share this story so other teachers see it is possible to use technology in new, meaningful ways.

I am worried about how the BC Education Plan will be implemented.  While there is solid research to support many of the ideas, I think there will be push back from teachers and unions, because it is perceived as being imposed upon us.  I think it’s going to take a lot of conversation and convincing for some teachers to “buy in” to it.  Although blindly throwing money at any problem is never a good solution, I think the government needs to make a financial commitment to prove they are behind this plan.  Here is my list of necessities:

• high-speed wifi in every school in the province, accessible anywhere in the school
• enough bandwidth for every student to have a device connected to the internet
• funding to purchase new technology and replace old technology, based on what the teachers in each school need

Maybe once those are in place teachers will be more willing to look at the Ed Plan as a positive change for our education system.

I just spent the last hour discussing Twitter clients (apps that you can use to access Twitter) and read-it-later services with my husband.  Are we geeks or what?  But honestly, I feel lucky to have a knowledgeable resource always accessible.  When I get stuck I know Justin will be able to help me out, or keep persisting until he can figure it out too.  I am still trying to decide how best to use Twitter, and was pleased to discover the feature of “lists”.  You can create lists of people you follow on Twitter, and sort your feed by those lists.  In case you couldn’t tell from my 10 minutes of fame, I like being organized!  I want to follow more “experts”, but I didn’t want to overwhelm my feed with tweets so that I would miss important things from my personal colleagues.  I created a list with people from this course, so now I can filter my feed to see just tweets from that group.  Once this post is done I am going to download the “Twitterific” app.  Justin uses “Tweetbot” and he wants me to be a guinea pig with this one so he can compare.

This morning’s class was very useful.  I appreciated the chance to reflect (again) on where I am, and where I’d like to go.  As we went around the circle sharing our ideas, I refined my own topic, and am quite excited about it.  I am going to look at the topic of technology in primary classrooms.  I taught Grade 1/2 this past year, and expect to teach Grade 2/3 next year.  Most of the primary teachers at my school do not use technology very much, so I am hoping this research can bring about some change at my school.

Right now my thoughts exist mostly as a series of questions, which will hopefully guide my research.  I have recorded most of them in my mind map in the previous post

• Is technology appropriate for primary students?
• What kind of technology is best for primary students?
• What are effective ways of using technology with primary students?
• What is an appropriate amount of screen time for students?
• Is screen time used for educational purposes different than screen time used playing games or watching videos?
• Which activities should we use technology for and which are better done the “traditional” way?
• What apps and web apps are developmentally appropriate for primary students to use?
• How much should students be connecting with others online?
• What does digital citizenship look like in primary?

I feel like this is a lot of questions, and I might need to focus in a bit, but I am looking forward to doing some research this week to find out more about these topics.

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