Collaboration?

In defining collaboration and what it is not, a good article is:Gibson-Langford, L (2007) Collaboration: Force or Forced, Scan, 26(4): 19-30.  There is a lot to think about here but the following will serve.  Gibson-Langford is here talking about a history of problems with teacher librarian attempts at collaboration with others in schools. 

In our zeal to engage more actively in teaching partnerships, did we really fully grasp this practice called collaboration?  Did we understand the complexities of human relationships that underpin collaboration?  Did we realistically establish its possibilities?  Did we invest time preparing the social environment in which to begin a collaborative process with our classroom teachers before we set out on such a significant professional agenda?  Did we ever weigh up the notion that collaboration may be something not possible in human relationships due to the complexity of human behaviour? Is it possible that collaboration is a concept that is misused, misunderstood and misguided, under the belief that teachers working in close proximity are enabled to be collaborative in their approach to learning and teaching?

These are not the only problems, there is a plethora of others, but one thing that I would highlight here is that teaching experience shows that group teaching and learning strategies, such as team teaching and group work, often do not work with all teachers and students.  Hence, it is unlikely that collaboration would work with all teacher librarians, teachers and students.

It is important to note that, in my opinion, the above does not mean that collaboration is impossible or not something that educators and learners should use to more effectively educate and learn.  On the contrary, it suggests that as with other group strategies this strategy (and it is just one teaching and learning strategy) needs to be taken more seriously. 

Vision? Mission? Goals?

The best guide to creating a statement of vision for a school library that I have seen is New York City School Library System Handbook – Section 1 10/10/08


http://schools.nycenet.edu/offices/teachlearn/sls/Handbook_Section1_VisionMissionGoalsExpectations.pdf

With this guide there is also useful resources such as a proforma for rating the school library.

The ASLA standards of professional Experience?

Effective searching?

A really good and practical article on effective searching is: Wall, J. (2009) Teaching Power Searching. Scan, 28(1), 12-16.  Available at: http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/assets/pdf/wallpowsearch.pdf

I particularly like the stages that Wall uses for teaching search strategies.

 1. Use Wikipedia to understand the basics of the topic – question the accuracy or authority of the information.  2. Check resources for more in-depth information – books, online databases, etc. 3. Use the advanced search function in  Google or in other preferred search engines.

I also like the list of useful functions such as * and ~

Finally, I like the arguement about having a knowledge of search engines and ones that are more applicable to specific needs.

The Ward library - Stories from the Placement

On the Thursday afternoon, Raman (the Mt Druitt TAFE placement) and I went to the UWS Ward library at UWS Penrith.  There, we got an overview of the "engine room".  The downstairs section of the library or "backroom".  The Ward library is where the centralised activities of the UWS library's occur.  This includes acquistions, sending of items out to the various libraries, bibliographic and cataloguing activities.  I was very glad that we got to see this because it allowed for us to get an overview of the range of activities that a library would be engaged in.  The main activity of the UWS Blacktown library was customer service and liason librarianship.  From a teacher librarianship standpoint it was definitely a better idea to do the placement at the Blacktown campus because it has more of a teacher focus than a library focus.  Most of the activities that I was involved in involved teaching and showing library users how to better access library resources.  Sometimes I think that I gave the students too much support.  As I often heard during my placement, the teacher in me kept coming out.  I kept wanting to do more for the students.  To an extent this compromised their need (which can be painful) for independennce.

Office gadgets casting a pall of 'time pollution'

Technology News    

Office gadgets casting a pall of 'time pollution'

Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 20, 2011 3:13pm

This story is very interesting because in contrast to the hype that we continually get in the media about how wonderful gadgets are, we have yet another underreported downside to 'gadgetting' (my term).  As well, as the fact that they can contribute to superficial and shallow thinking (through flitting from here to there and not concentrating on one thing at a time), and lead to losses in productivity (I can't remember the term for this but the idea is that when you have prepared to work on something and suddenly, you have to drop it and do something else, the preparation time is lost and must once more be built up when you come back to the original task being undertaken), they can also promote mechanical rather than reflective approaches (putting out 'brush fires' or 'muddling through'). 

In a critical sense, there is no denying the need for change.  Digital technologies (and it is important to remember sociologically that there are other technologies besides gadgets).  However, TLs and educators should not simply embrace them but should try to practically do something like a needs analysis.  What specific needs will these gadgets address.  The gadgets should then be targetted towards those needs.  Thus for example, instead of just giving students laptops that they can take home the library should lend out laptops for use during lessons or projects.  Accordingly, this would support the connection between educational needs and the gadgets.  Definitely a problem with the DET rollout of computers is that the need the DET seemed to have in mind was just a need for gadgets.  The laptops have not driven home to students the connection between education and gadgets.  Accordingly, the ability for educators to teach students to use their gadgets in a way that allows them to concentrate and complete tasks is largely non existent.

QR codes: stories from the placement

I am glad that all my hard work last night and today experimenting with QR codes payed off.  I gave a presentation at the library staff meeting and everyone was very enthusiastic about the potential of QR codes.  I think it would be a good idea to get in touch with ultimo TAFE to find out more.  I have to say that Monday was hard because it was the first day and I wasn't really given anything to do.  Today was definitely better.  I wish I could stay for the training tomorrow but I have to go.