Vision of the Future: Artifact

My collaborative artifact

According to the document "Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada" a virtual learning commons is just as important to maintain as the physical one. Currently our virtual space is limited to the software Destiny Discover. 

Even though I enjoy using the feature of this software. I find that there are limitations with being able to collaborate with colleagues. According to the document "Leading Learning" a virtual learning commons "is an organized but collaborative space for learning". This is why I thought about creating a "Padlet" which would facilitate collaboration and invite teacher participation. I wanted something that could contain information that can easily be shared and accessed by teachers.

My Process

Since working at this school, I have realized that I never had an orientation nor was I ever explained any procedures. Since accepting the position for Teacher Librarian (TL) I wanted this to be different for new and existing teachers. I realized that there is a lot of information to pass on to staff and students. In the past, this information would only be communicated directly from the TL’s mouth. I wanted a place where teachers can access as much as possible without taking their precious time to ask me. Ideally, I want a source that provides information that they could access themselves and utilize at their own discretion without going through me first. I will position the most important and most used information at the top of the Padlet (Buerkett, R., 2014). 

My Learning

Right now there is nothing available to teachers nor students. It’s all in a Microsoft Teams folder shared with me from the retired TL. I wanted to make public what I thought would be valuable for teachers, thus helping them achieve teaching their students more effectively (Toor and Weisburg, 2015). I want the Padlet to provide teachers with professional development opportunities and resources (International Federation of Library Association, 2015). My goal is to create a “flexible, dynamic, and collaborative inquiry based school library program” (BC Teacher-Librarian Association, 2007). 

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My Challenges

At first it was difficult to find the right application for this project. There is no one size fits all application that I could provide teachers. I want to simplify how teachers access resources and not complicate the matter by giving them more to do and remember how to access. Hopefully, my strategies to introduce the application will make it simple. Another challenge was that I used so many apps to get the info, set up tutorial and have sources to back up my findings. I didn't want to flood the site with information. I wanted to be diligent about the kind of information I put on. The trick is to resist putting too much information or it will be hard for teachers and students to find what they need (Buerkett, R., 2014). 

Teachers' time is also a challenge. I don't want to add to what they have to do. Maria Kampen states that “time is not a commodity that you cannot avoid using - but you can spend it wisely… it means maximizing the time you have”. This is why as Kampen suggests to embed Professional Development opportunities into the teaching day. For example, hosting a lunch and learn event or a drop in so that teachers can learn about the Padlet application. 

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How I plan on sharing my artifact

I intend to share it with others by sending them the link to the Padlet and having a short video explaining how they can use the application (Leading Learning, 2014). In addition, I will create stickers or magnets that teachers can use in case they forget the web address.  I will share it at the first staff meeting of the year by reaching out to the admin and asking to be on the agenda for the first staff meeting. I plan on adding to it by assessing the functionality through creating a questionnaire for staff. I will provide incentives to return surveys. In the surveys I plan on asking the following questions: how they use the site, what they don’t like, what they find useful and if they have any recommendations. Ideally, I would like to get to know the staff and have them know me to create a strong relationship where they can seek my help when needed. 

My vision for the future is that teachers and students can access this for help and direction. As mentioned, I did not have the benefit of an orientation when I started.  My hope is that with my digital artifact, I can help provide a strong tool and resource to support both new and long term staff as we work together to support our students. I hope that teachers can comment and create a dialogue around interest areas. As more information is added I also hope to have useful sources for parents around fostering reading at home. 

 

Bibliography 

Kampen, Maria. (2019, April 24) 5 Ways to Make Teacher Professional Development Effective [With Examples].  Prodigy Game.  Retrieved from: www.prodigygame.com/blog/teacher-professional-development

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2015). IFLA School Library Guidelines. 2nd revised edition, pg. 27-29.

Toor, R., and Weisburg, H.K. (2015). “Your Philosophy”. New on the job: A School Librarian’s Guide to Success. 2nd Edition. Chicago: American Library Association.

BC Teacher-Librarians' Association. (2017). From School Library to Learning Commons: A Pro-Active Model for Educational Change.

Buerkett, R. (2014). Where to Start? Creating Virtual Library Spaces. Knowledge Quest, 42(4), E24–E27.

Drop Everything and Read, 2018. https://youtu.be/eAfI5LzkWHw

Elementary Literacy Tips: ABCs of Literacy for Parents. Edmonton Public Schools, August 2015. https://epsb.ca/media/epsb/ourdistrict/topicsofinterest/literacy/elementary/tipsheet_ABCs.pdf

Pollock, V. (2021, August). Library Learning Commons. Microsoft Teams. https://teams.microsoft.com/_?culture=en-ca&country=CA&lm=deeplink&lmsrc=homePageWeb&cmpid=WebSignIn#/school/files/Library%20Learning%20Commons?threadId=19:c5fbe1cb787a403099260565d3379073@thread.tacv2&ctx=channel

Benedictine University Library. Last updated: Jan. 19th, 2021. https://researchguides.ben.edu/source-evaluation

Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. 2014. https://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/appendix-6-building-a-virtual-learning-commons/

Reading Review Assignment Part B: Teaching Digital Literacy to 21st Century Learners

Inquiry, Critical Reading, and Digital literacy are crucial skills for students in the digital era. It is therefore instrumental in the success of students as they progress through the school age thus carrying their skills and building on what they know. 

I feel that as an educator I can get carried away by the fancy gadgets and activities available for students. I enjoy watching children discover and explore a variety of software and applications. On the other hand, I think that teaching digital literacy should be a priority. 

In my initial investigations on these topics, I have come across several resources to inform my research: 

Hodson, J. (2020, Sep 14). Teaching children digital literacy skills helps them navigate and respond to misinformation.

In this article Hodson states , "Teaching children digital literacy skills helps them navigate and respond to misinformation.”  “Most public schools now teach students how to code, but we are not teaching students how to identify their own key triggers for misinformation or the organizational incentives for misinformation spread. As a result of these missing information literacy skills, our children may grow into adults who are not prepared to participate democratically in what is certain to be an even more complex information environment.” 

Hodson states that “It is also important to teach children that platforms such as Google, YouTube, Twitter or Facebook are not neutral. Rather, they are designed to maximize engagement, which short-circuits our brain's natural defences and leads us to share misinformation with others. Students need to develop both critical thinking and reflexivity — critical thinking to be able to assess content and sources, and reflexivity to understand the role their own unconscious biases, social connections and emotions play when processing information.”

Ciampaglia, Giovanni Luca and Menczer, Filippo, June 20, 2018. Updated January 10, 2019.

https://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148

In this article, Ciamaglia and Filippo state that misinformation on “Social media are among the primary sources of news in the U.S. and across the world. Yet users are exposed to content of questionable accuracy, including conspiracy theories, clickbait, hyperpartisan content, pseudo science and even fabricated “fake news” reports. It’s not surprising that there’s so much disinformation published: Spam and online fraud are lucrative for criminals, and government and political propaganda yield both partisan and financial benefits. But the fact that low-credibility content spreads so quickly and easily suggests that people and the algorithms behind social media platforms are vulnerable to manipulation. Our research has identified three types of bias that make the social media ecosystem vulnerable to both intentional and accidental misinformation.” The good news is that we can educate students to filter through the misinformation and reach the correct ones.

Silvestro, Steve. “Teaching Internet Safety to Kids & Teens.” YouTube, Sept. 2018.

In the video by Steve Silvestro “Teaching Internet Safety to Kids & Teen” one can learn how to teach internet safety to children and teens. As a Teacher Librarian I believe that it is important to teach students about the validity and reliability of resources online. Students will use the Google engine to search their interest. Doing this can put students at risk of encountering the wrong information and meeting the wrong people. Therefore, it is my responsibility to inform and direct the school community towards resources with accuracy, validity, content, etc. 

Barbour, Benjamin. Teaching Students How to Use Wikipedia Wisely. 5 July 2019.

Berinstein, Paula, and Consultant, Berinstein Research. “Wikipedia and Britannica The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man).” Information Today, Inc., Mar. 2006, 

Another popular resource that a Google search will lead to is the citizen built encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Teaching students how to use Wikipedia wisely is crucial since they will undoubtedly use this search resource to collect their findings. Teaching students about evaluating websites, checking for accuracy and reminding them to also look for other sources to compare and extend their knowledge on a given topic is critical. Students have to be taught to determine where the information originated from by reading footnotes, looking at the webpage’s references and then investigating the source of the material. 

Caulfield, Mike. 2019, June 19. SIFT (The Four Moves) 

Mike Caulfield has come up with a tool educators can review and utilize “a short list of things to do when looking at a source, and hook each of those things to one or two highly effective web techniques. We call the “things to do” moves and there are four of them:”

Fig. 1 Below is an example of a tool students can use when searching online. 

   

In closing, educators need to consider several components when teaching digital literacy while highlighting online safety. It is important to direct students to resources with excellent accuracy and validity. As well as teach students to be skeptical about the resources they come across and look further to confirm their findings by cross referencing their sources.

References

Silvestro, Steve. “Teaching Internet Safety to Kids & Teens.” YouTube, Sept. 2018, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKhl4unYsdY

Barbour, Benjamin. Teaching Students How to Use Wikipedia Wisely. 5 July 2019, https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-students-how-use-wikipedia-wisely

Berinstein, Paula, and Consultant, Berinstein Research. “Wikipedia and Britannica The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man).” Information Today, Inc., Mar. 2006, https://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar06/berinstein.shtml

Hodson, J. (2020, Sep 14). Teaching children digital literacy skills helps them navigate and respond to misinformation,

https://theconversation.com/teaching-children-digital-literacy-skills-helps-them-navigate-and-respond-to-misinformation-145988

Ciampaglia, Giovanni Luca and Menczer, Filippo, June 20, 2018. Updated January 10, 2019,

https://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148

Caulfield, Mike. 2019, June 19. SIFT (The Four Moves), https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/