After class today, Lisa and I worked on our Inquiry project: TLs helping teachers with Inquiry. Because of the nature of Inquiry, we felt it would be appropriate to ‘collaborate’ using one of the online tools we have been learning about in class.
We reviewed Storify (great to gather info but hard to organize), Mind Meister (collaborative, but visually limited), Pearltrees (collaborative, but can become ‘busy’ with the many links), and Popplet (nice clean look, but limited ability to include data). I will continue to add links to my Mindmeister map for now, but I may rethink this over the next few days…
Lisa and I then shared our progress on upcoming assignments. We compared notes on book selection, email and online tools. We got to know each other a little better and brainstormed about the need for a collaborative Teacher Librarian online space. I remembered a space I had used earlier in the year, Yammer, and showed Lisa my own district TL space. Lisa showed me her (First Class?) space which looked great, but her district’s website is undergoing a change and it may no longer be available. I advocated for Yammer as being a safe, intuitive way to collaborate professionally in a fairly organized space, and suggested we invite her to my group. But first, Lisa searched for her district, and presto – she found a couple members, her district Tech team! She then signed up for her district’s group. This may be a provincial wide network, but it is so new, that Lisa is only the third member of her district to join! Since Lisa and I operate in different areas of the province, we thought it would be really ‘smart’ to find/create an open space for all BCTLs so we created a general Teacher Librarian group: BCTLs. I wonder if Yammer is used province wide, and if other members of this class have created TL groups for their district?
Connection to today’s class discussion:
Interesting to note, it was our engagement with our environment (working on tasks), modifications to the environment (technological pathways to seek a better fit), and communication (collaborating with each other) that allowed us to progress through the task and come to a higher level of understanding of our task.
Doni I really appreciated how this post illustrated the obstacles, but potential in collaboration, especially through ICT. My group was exploring our inquiry and world libraries, and an issue that we noted is the instability of platforms, and thus the loss of stable, sustainable connection and growth.
I too have lost First Class and all of the conferences, contacts and work/collaboration within it. The transitioning to new platforms and transference of all possible work is a massive undertaking. As you mentioned Yammer, and Lisa joining as you two collaborated, I decided to check it out. And yes, lo and behold, I apparently have district access and was able to sign-up and create some connections. I think that school-wide initiatives are so imperative, but so too are far-reaching collaborative structures throughout the district and (far, far) beyond. Collaboration is so essential for T-Ls, perhaps more so because they are often a department of one, and so without the support of those throughout the district and through ICT collaborative platforms, it would be the learners who lose out.
Thank you for your clear inquiry in action post, and for introducing me to Yammer 🙂
Hi Doni,
I was curious to see what you had blogged this week. It was great for me to see what you envision for your library. You have a strong sense of what you are doing and where you would like to go. I strongly believe that this is the key to schools making change is that the people who lead keep moving and shaping their programs progressively.
I am struggling with the decision of where to begin but I am inspired by your clarity. I have always been clear where I want to go in my music program and believe it why it is so successful. I think I need to use the KISS rule. Keep it simple stupid! Small steps and success lead to bigger steps?! I would love to hear how your work in inquiry develops.
It is so great to see your course learning activities translating into real-life actions! The Yammer connection is very interesting. How widespread is it? Is it a district-wide adoption? A provincial adoption? If teachers really start to collaborate online, to share their learning journeys and encourage each other to continue to grow and innovate, that will give us a very lively education system. The fact is that using ICT demands an innovative teaching staff. ICT is not static, it is sometimes not even stable! But it is changing the ways we conduct our human social interactivity and connectivity. The continuous technological change and adaptation is the price we pay to have these highly sophisticated technologies at our fingertips.