Author Archives: brilm

07/4/13

What is information literacy?

 

Just what is information literacy? It is difficult to define without first looking at both words. The word information comes from the root of the process of informing. It comes from an action, not a solid object as we tend to think of information. It may be ever changing and reshaping, like the ocean, but the solid body still remains. It is difficult to engage in the process of informing without another soul. It may be a process of informing oneself, but that information came from someone else, somewhere. Information undergoes a give and a take, transferring from an individual or group to others.

My tendency is to look at literacy similar to the manner described by the Canadian Council on Learning, namely that it “includes the ability to analyse things, understand general ideas or terms, use symbols in complex ways, apply theories, and perform other necessary life skills―including the ability to engage in the social and economic life of the community.” A very interesting keyword there is social. Even more interestingly, it is included under the umbrella of necessary life skills.

Information literacy comes together in a form of social disposition. Information is transferred from person to person, under a burden of care. This process is at the very heart of what we do as teachers. It is increasingly important that we guide students in becoming part of this process. Our students live in a dynamic world with a seemingly unending amount of information available. This information can be accessed at their fingertips, yet as Will Richardson states, much of it likely “isn’t worth the bits it’s recorded on” (Richardson, 2012, p. 152).

As teachers, it is our duty and responsibility to prepare students as best we can to access all avenues of information. I fully support students having the skills that will be necessarily in their futures, even if perhaps for some the skills are used more on a personal/social level. I value my skill in being able to quickly find a recipe from a source that I trust, that is peer reviewed and rated. I don’t Google chocolate chip cookie recipe and then attempt to bake the first result. As pointed out in Vaughn and Dammann’s 2001 article, “Science and Sanity in Special Education,” there is a time savings in using research as opposed to developing a craft by oneself (p. 27). We owe it to our students to transfer the power, give them the social disposition, to increase their success in any way we can.

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07/3/13

Why School?

Will Richardson’s Why School? seemed to reach out strongly to readers as evidenced by our in class discussion today. In it, Richardson posits that a new educational model is needed, one that moves away from traditional methods and the focus on testing. He states that “institutional change is everywhere,” and the institution of school is not immune (Richardson, 2012, p. 108).

Over the course of our discussion, we hit on many shared opinions. We agreed that many of the practices that Richardson recommends are already used by teachers, or perhaps more specifically, the effective teachers that we have encountered in our careers. An example of this is inquiry-based learning, something several of us do in our schools. While we agreed that ideas such as inquiry are incredibly important, we struggled with the extreme that Richardson seemed to endorse. We shared his view that there are skills that all students need, ideas that need to be learned, but felt that teacher direction and modelling have a stronger place than what seemed to be indicated (Richardson, p. 283). A group member brought up that perhaps this model was more suited for some subject areas than others, such as Social Studies, and worried about needing sequence such as in Math.

There are rival schools of thought when it comes to what students need in the future. A web search reveals an incredibly interesting article on CNN entitled Classical Schools put Plato over iPad. The article explains that there are schools in the United States taking a different approach to what they feel will be needed, namely an appreciation of “truth, goodness, and beauty” (Duin, 2013). Where the classical approach seems to differ is the belief that “you can’t reflect on something if it’s not in your brain in the first place (Duin, 2013).

I personally found it both interesting and difficult coming from a self-directed high school where I both graduated and taught. Since the opening of the school, the self-directed program has been scaled back year after year, with more constraints and controls put into place. When I attended, I think the school was the best combination of Richardson’s ideal and the reality of a public school with detailed IRPs and PLOs. However, the community struggled with students taking more time to complete work (yet with the highest GPA and exam scores in the district, and high levels of success in university), with students not necessarily being taught what they were familiar with, in the format that they were familiar with, and with the idea that students did not always need to be under direct instruction from a teacher.

In discussion, we came to the conclusion that any change needed both support and time to have a chance at success. A change such as Richardson’s would be difficult within a single classroom or single school, without the support of the larger community, which would include the school district, the public, and the Ministry of Education.

Duin, J. (2013, 06 21). Classical Schools put Plato over iPad. Retrieved from http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/
06/21/classical-schools-put-plato-over-ipad/

Richardson, Will. (2012). Why Schools?.

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07/2/13

First Day, First Post

1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?

With all responses, I’m going to be speaking in past tense.  As of Friday, my district no longer has middle schools, and having worked in a middle school, it is no more.  At  this point, I don’t know where I’ll be in September.

There has been both an increase and decrease in ICT in our school district.  While more workshops are being offered, district Pro-D days have had a tech focus, teachers are being encouraged to use technology more than ever, yet one of our district tech positions was cut, the person who worked directly with teachers.  We still have a district principal of technology, although much of what he does is a mystery to the average teacher.

There really aren’t many policies that govern our use.  From time to time an issue has cropped up, and an email is sent out to the district to enlighten us on how to deal with a problem.  Also at the district level are occasional emails offering workshops, often in relation to Apple products.  Our  district is firmly pushing Apple in all areas.  At the school level, we would sometimes get schoolwide emails that asked us not to use something (Safari) and to use something else (Firefox).  As mentioned in class, we had an incident with a student recording a teacher and publishing it on YouTube, yet we still did not firmly establish any guidelines or policies, and the event remained a mystery to most staff.

2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?

We previously had access to two computer labs, both Macs.  There was a possibility of requesting something to be added to the computers (an app), although this wouldn’t necessarily happen.  Our school librarian ran the school website, which contained subject area links, along with links to teacher/class websites.  One of those labs contained a projector for use in display, while in both Remote Desktop no longer worked for sharing screens.  The plan had been to replace one of the labs with a cart of iPads.

Outside of the lab, most classrooms had one or two former library computers, which were little good beyond basic web surfing and word processing.  Every classroom had a projector and document camera.  Most teachers had a school laptop that could be connected to the projector.  With that, we had reasonable access to a range of sites, with some blocked (Facebook, Lego?????).  It did make it problematic at times to access some resources.  Thankfully Twitter was not  blocked.  Smart Boards were in three classrooms.

Through the library, teachers and students could access iPads, digital cameras, and iPods.

We had schoolwide wifi available for all.

3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

I struggled with this question.  Adoption of digital technologies has been somewhat slow in our area.  Within our school, teacher age is significantly older, with many nearing retirement and not necessarily willing to try out new technologies.  One class this year was a pilot program using technology, but the closure meant that we didn’t learn much of their experiences.

At another school, I learned much from a fellow teacher who really awoke me to the use of iPads.  He kept copies of assignments on his iPad, student videos, bookmarked useful links, used it to run slideshows for the kids, do attendance and instantly send a copy of student attendance home, and much more.  Much of what I do is based on his practices.  I try and keep my iPad like his magical treasure box, always full, always ready.

4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

The most problematic use in my experience was a lack of use.  An example would be Chris Hadfield, on Twitter.  During that time I hadn’t taken a contract and was TOCing.  Within our school, not a single class that I visited had been following Chris’ tweets.  Most students didn’t know who he was.  It was such a loss of an educational opportunity.

Related to this would be using it, but not really teaching students how to use it.  An example would be a slideshow we watched on the last day.  A student created it, and it was lovely.  However, it was clear that the student didn’t really know how to use the program.  She knew how to drag in pictures, how to drag in music, but nothing beyond that.  The pictures kept starting and ending in strange places (it used the Ken Burns effect), which detracted from what it tried to do.  She knew the very basics of the program, but didn’t really know how to use it.

5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).

My first computer was a Commodore 64.  I started using the internet as soon as it was available to us in our high school, and created my own website using books for reference (!!!!).  I’ve always been interested and willing to learn.  I’ve done some professional development, such as the CUEBC conference, but much is self taught through trial and error and research.  I’m also open to what I can learn from my peers, and what I can learn from students.

6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency -> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?

8-9?  I’m willing to try new things, which usually leads to learning.  I help and teach others, which also helps reinforce my skills.  I’m active on Facebook and Twitter, publish my own videos to YouTube, am considering trying out podcasting, am constantly trying out new ways of using iPads in the classroom, have my own blogs, and use the internet as a main method of communication with peers and friends around the world.  However, with how much technology expands day to day, it’s nigh on impossible to keep up!

7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?

I’d like to learn more on how to incorporate ICT into a library, and support classroom teachers on the use of ICT.  I believe our schools have lacked any drive in doing so, and the library is a great place to move that forward.

 

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