Why School? by Will Richardson (Why School?, Will Richardson. Kindle, 2012.) A thoughtful, profound look at why the 150 year old education system needs to change.
Digging deeper into ICT and my Connected Self:
From Richardson’s blog, www.willrichardson.com (under the Ask Me Anything tab) a Digital Educator is “an educator who is networked, uses technology seamlessly to connect, and adopts technologies into the classroom when relevant and appropriate.” I aim to be a better Digital Educator each year; our students come more preloaded with skills, and society offers more innovative ways to access and use technology to ‘do stuff better’. But Face to Face connections with kids are also important. When I ask students to teach me things, not only do I learn something, but I believe it makes them feel valued, which strengthens their social skills, and our connection becomes stronger. Example: A few months ago, I really appreciated the gentle, direct way that Soheil showed me how to use the magnifying glass to correct text on my iPhone!
The first time I noticed Why School was in the The Culture of Yes blog, written and maintained by West Vancouver School District superintendent, Chris Kennedy. Like Richardson, (whom Chris has been following for the past decade), Kennedy writes about the changing face of education, and the relationship between technology and learning. I have been following Chris (my own superintendent) for the past couple of years because I often find his writing inspirational and empowering. One post, 25 BC Influencers http://cultureofyes.ca/2011/03/13/twenty-fivebc-influencers/ resonates with me as I take stock of Educational Reform supporters. Both John Abbott and Sir Ken Robinson have been brought to our district and have inspired my teaching by giving me hope for a new direction. I have been a teacher in the West Vancouver School District for the past 20 years, and appreciate the vision Chris has of change (innovation, collaboration, and inquiry), and TLs as learning leaders in this change.
I believe teachers, especially teacher librarians, need to lead the change in educational reform. Not only is it our profession, for many of us, it is our passion. There are many influential advocates (Moira Ekdahl, Gordon Powell) out there, and we need to continue to tap into our areas of expertise through our various networks and share with each other. Not only advocating for ourselves in the changing state of education, but seeking out opportunities to create/co-author that change.
It is interesting to notice when educators posit the use of technology as an either/or: either we are connecting through digital technologies or we are connecting face to face, and then weighing the relative values of each. We don’t need to sacrifice face to face time to incorporate technologies. We can, however, enrich, enable and enhance learning through our uses of digital technologies. I do think teacher-librarians could have a pivotal role in bringing new practice into education because they are uniquely positioned to serve the entire school, their influence crosses grade levels and subject areas. Supporting teachers’ ICT development could be a huge change event.
What I like about this LIBE course (compared to the online ones I have taken so far) is that there is both F2F and digital communication. Sometimes I like to process slowly with text or online; other times I need the endorphins from body language and facial recognition to help me make sense of a concept. This course offers both, so I am learning and retaining more!