Rounding off ETL401 – my evolving views of the TL role

In my first blog (Thomas, 2011, November 22) I referred to my surprise at the extent to which Australian TLs are required to support the curriculum and teach students Information Technology (IT).  This surprise has given way to amazement at the number of ways that IT can be incorporated into the learning environment.  Authors like O’Connell & Groom (2010a, p.57) opened my eyes to the use of blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, RSS and many other Web 2.0 applications that I will have at my disposal.  O’Connell & Groom  (2010b, p. 16) even informed me that virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft could be credible learning resources; not an idea I had previously entertained.  I was happy to discover that the Australian Government, via Education Services Australia (2011), has funded a Teacher Online Toolkit project (see http://www.esa.edu.au/projects/ict-everyday-learning-teacher-online-toolkit ) which will assist teachers like myself to incorporate IT into teaching and learning as we implement the new Australian Curriculum; a welcomed initiative for many teachers I can imagine.

Another great advantage I can now see to this new world of IT is the opportunities it presents for collaboration amongst staff; the ability to share information and resources quickly and efficiently through intranet, wikis and so on.   I have come to realise the importance of collaboration in so many areas of the TL role.  My study of Information Literacy (IL) models through authors such as Eisenberg (2008) and Herring (2011) have highlighted the need for the whole staff to be involved in integrating changes to the curriculum, for maximum learning benefits to occur.  The issue of collaboration inspired a whole blog post (Thomas, 2012, January 23), including advice from Johnson (2002) to have a goal to work with four additional teachers each year in the knowledge that collaborating with all staff will only occur with initiative and persistence. 

I began this course with the belief that part of a TL’s role is to encourage and inspire children to read for pleasure. I disagreed with Crotty’s forum post that instilling a love of reading is a ‘motherhood comment’ (Crotty, 2011) and maintain that many reputable authors (such as Braxton,2008 and Lamb & Johnson, 2008) still  refer to the TL’s ability to help students develop a passion for reading.  However, I do acknowledge that I now appreciate the much wider role that a TL possesses and that it is important to emphasise that wider role to the community, to ensure TLs receive credibility, respect and understanding of their extensive role.   The ASLA  standards of professional excellence  (2004)  express the point more succinctly in that we must ‘foster an environment where learners are encouraged and empowered to read, view, listen and respond for understanding and enjoyment.’ As Wall & Ryan point out (2010, p.15) this could be through a paper book, an e-book or an audio cassette.  

The complexity of the TL role struck me at the beginning of this subject and continues to do so.  I was pleased to see that Topic 6 of ETL401 addressed the important issue of time management as I can already foresee it being an area I would need to develop from the beginning in a new TL position.  It was comforting to read in the forum that even more experienced teachers and TLs found it difficult to prioritise their tasks but that they chose certain tasks to focus on and made small, achievable goals to work towards.  I came to the conclusion that one of my first goals as a TL would be to make the physical learning environment as comfortable, inviting and inspiring as possible.  I took on board the advice of La Marca (2010,p.15) that there should be a number of spaces in a library serving different purposes and different people.  I discovered the importance of providing ‘private spaces and nooks for seclusion and contemplation’ as well as areas for collaboration where students can sit and discuss or research assignments and have access to computers or other technologies, depending on their needs.  

With so many aspects of the role of the TL that could potentially be discussed, it is very hard to focus on just a few issues but I should make mention of the greater insight I have gained into the large part that a TL can play in the integration of Information Literacy (IL) into the whole school curriculum.  Also, the TL’s ability to encourage an increased use of guided inquiry for deeper learning.  These are two areas I have not read about extensively before but have been inspired to pursue in the future. 

I hereby end my final blog for the subject ETL401 but will continue my learning journey through this blog as I further explore the role of the TL in my future studies. 

Reference List

Australian School Library Association (2004)  Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm on 01-11-11

Braxton, B. (2008) The teacher-librarian as literacy leader. Teacher Librarian, 35(3)

Crotty, R. (2011, November 29) RE: [Topic 2 - Jacinta Wheeler] Re: Principal's role comments [Online forum comment] Retrieved from: http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub4_forum&task=frameset

Education Services Australia (2011) Teacher Online Toolkit: ICT in everyday learning.

Retrieved from: http://www.esa.edu.au/projects/ict-everyday-learning-teacher-online-toolkit

Eisenberg, M. (2008) Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age, DESIDOC  Journal

of  Library & Information Technology, 28(2), 39-47

Herring, J. (2011) Improving students' web use and information literacy: A guide for teachers and teacher librarians. London: Facet Publishing

La Marca, S. (2010) Designing the learning environment: Learning in a changing world. Victoria: ACER

Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2008) School library media specialist 2.0: a dynamic collaborator, teacher and technologist. Teacher Librarian, 36(2)

O’Connell, J. & Groom, D. (2010a) Virtual worlds: Learning in a changing world. Victoria: ACER

O’Connell, J. & Groom, D. (2010b) Connect, communicate, collaborate: Learning in a changing world.  Victoria: ACER

Thomas, S. (2011, November 22 ) Splash! [Blog post] Retrieved from: http://learningjourneyofatlintraining.blogspot.com/2011/11/splash.html

Thomas, S. (2012, January 23) The ‘c’ word [Blog post] Retrieved from: http://learningjourneyofatlintraining.blogspot.com/2012/01/c-word.html

Wall, J. & Ryan, S. (2010) Resourcing for curriculum innovation: Learning in a changing world. Victoria: ACER

The 'c' word

You may have guessed it.. COLLABORATION... In all areas of my readings this semester it seems always to come back to this c word. It's not a word that daunts me. I do my best work when bouncing ideas off others and sharing knowledge to come to the best possible solutions. I love it when others inspire me to keep learning and to do better and I hope I do the same in return sometimes. I am well aware,however, that not everyone enjoys this process and that some teachers will purposely avoid collaboration at all costs. It is a shame but their experiences and personality have shaped their views which are pretty hard to change I can imagine. Therein lies the first barrier I can see to a TL aiming to boost collaboration.  The barrier of time also comes to mind but as Lyn Hay states in the Assignment 2 Forum (Weds 18th Jan 2012)this argument becomes more of a set of excuses for a TL not proactively engaging with the school community in their capacity as an information and teaching specialist.  As we do not wish to be labelled whingers or excuse-makers, the importance of collaborative practice must be balanced with the time allocated to it.

I quite like how Johnson (2002) words his opinions on the matter: Too many teacher-librarians create lovely programs that have very little to do with what transpires in the rest of the school. He goes on to state that we need to work with every teacher on staff and that this will only happen with 'initiative and persistence'.  He suggests working one-on-one with 4 additional teachers each year which seems a wise and achievable goal to work towards whole school collaboration.  Strangely, I'd thought about the possibility of students with challenging behavior but it hadn't really registered before starting this course how much of a challenge it might be to get teachers involved in changes or innovations to the learning environment.

I have been quite inspired this week by the excerpt from Boss and Krauss' 2007 book, Reinventing Project-Based Learning in our recommended reading list.  They claim that collaboration can range from professional learning communities...to more informal conversations.  They suggest ways to open the door for dialogue, virtually and in person. I might just have to purchase this book to find out more..

Well as usual, I have scratched the surface of the topic and perhaps maintain a fairly superficial understanding of the issue but will return to my readings and hope for further enlightenment to inspire future blog posts!  
 

Guided inquiry

Once again, it's been 'a while between drinks' but Christmas, New Year and Assignment one in ETL401 seemed to overtake the last couple of weeks, not mentioning morning (all day) sickness but that's a different story all together!

This little musing will be on a topic which I hadn't planned to incorporate into my 1st assignment but it sneaked in and then seemed to be more important than I'd originally envisaged. It came out of one of the aspects from Herring's 2007 and Purcell's 2010 articles which I found important which was the minimal reference to T in TL - yes the Teacher part of the Teacher Librarian role. It seemed to me from my exposure to schools and TLs so far, that the literature encourages the TL to take on many roles from leadership to administrator and everything in between whereas in reality, the TL is busy TEACHING classes for most of their working hours at the school.  

Research into this subject took me to the increasingly popular way of teaching; guided inquiry or inquiry learning - I just read a great piece about it from this link: http://cissl.rutgers.edu/guided_inquiry/introduction.html by Kuhlthau (the guru!)et al which clarifies what it is all about, in essence, learning through "an integrated unit of inquiry planned and guided by an instructional team of
a school librarian and teachers, together allowing students to gain deeper understandings of
subject area curriculum content and information literacy concepts".  As I said in my assignment, this process of inquiry is clearly beneficial to student learning and the way forward for schools everywhere. However the process is also a time consuming one in which teachers and TLs need to allocate sufficient time to, aside from administrative and other tasks. This is daunting for me as a potential TL but hopefully achievable, I will see what current TLs have to say about it on the forums.

I was also interested in Kuhlthau's  'zone of intervention', described at http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/information_search_process.htm , 
part of her ISP (Information Search Process) - the area of Information Literacy teaching models is not one which I have extensively read up on in the past so I am learning a lot. This paragraph stood out to me as key:

The zone of intervention is that area in which an information user can do with advice and assistance what he or she cannot do alone or can do only with difficulty. Intervention within this zone enables individuals to progress in the accomplishment of their task.  Intervention outside this zone is inefficient and unnecessary, experienced by users as intrusive on the one hand and overwhelming on the other.

This intervention by TLs is clearly vital as is its need to be timely - proving my point (I hope) that TLs need to be flexible and available to students for much of their time in order to achieve the best results through guided inquiry learning. This needs to be their priority for the majority of their time and not the shelving of books (for example).  Prioritisation needs to occur and help needs to be received from the executive through time allocation and funding, as well as volunteer parent or student help with delegatable tasks.

So barriers to great guided inquiry do exist (time has been discussed, I haven't even delved into the issue of insufficient ICTs available...) but I hope to use the experience of others and my own initiatives to overcome these as a TL in the future..

Mind buzzing

Preparing for my first assignment in the ETL401 subject, my mind is buzzing from all the ideas, opinions, facts and interest.

I will not proceed to summarise all these findings, however I do want to mention one book that I have read nearly cover to cover, which has given me a lot of insight into the role and realities of Teacher Librarianship in Australia today. I wasn't previously aware that the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment had undertaken an inquiry into 'School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia', for which CSU and our esteemed lecturers, including Lyn Hay, were major contributors (published March 2011). It was very eye-opening and interesting to hear from the many TL contributors around the country and expressed the challenges they faced in their roles. 


The main challenges facing the TL role seem to be lack of Principal support and lack of funding for the role (including administrative assistance) meaning that TLs are not fulfilling their teaching or leadership roles to the extent that they would like.   I'm beginning to realise that how fulfilling and enjoyable the job is, will depend to a (large?) extent on the support of the school principal and the funding that is made available to me.  This is reality but I find it a sad state of affairs.  Hopefully this inquiry goes some way to making 'the powers that be' more aware of the importance of the TL role and giving better support to TLs across the country.

The journey continues (somewhat belatedly)

Two weeks between posts.. I can see the challenge of this blogging lark might just be to have a regular presence! After my readings, I will have to consider updating my blog as a new priority, otherwise it will get left behind.  I was skimming through a book on blogging at the library this week and I was pleased to see there are two schools of thought on the subject; I think I hang somewhere between the two. That blogging can be a useful, reflective tool and.. it is just more (often uninspiring or incorrect)information filling up the WWW. At this point I will not assume that anyone else would have the time or interest to read my blog and will consider it a purely personal  reflection on my studies, that will be less daunting.

Therefore,in that vein, I will attempt to summarise my recent thoughts on my readings. I found Herring's 2007 chapter quite heavy going, so dense with facts and jargon. Regarding the role of the TL, I found the distinctions between Curriculum leader, Information specialist and Information Services Manager somewhat fuzzy. I can imagine these roles overlap much more in reality and are not so cut and dry. Having said this, the article was a good overview for someone without TL experience and it showed the complexities and diversity of the TL role, with timely reminders to always keep the needs of learners in mind.

Purcell's 2010 article was quite different and difficult to compare to Herring's but the key statement to me was "If school library media specialists are doing their job well, they are making a difference in the ways teachers teach and in the ways students learn." Inspiring stuff.  I also appreciated Purcell's admission of all the responsibilities and challenges TLs face meaning that role clarification is needed.  I understand this as the basis of the subject ETL401, to clarify our knowledge and understandings of the TL's role. 

Purcell uses different 'labels' to describe the functions of the TL and I find them to be closer to my understanding and beliefs than those of Herring.  I liked how she has 'Teacher' as a category in itself as ultimately that is what I assume a majority of time will be spent doing as a TL.  It is all very well being a leader in the school and in curriculum development but if you are then not proficient at delivering your lessons and your messages then some of that respect in your leadership is bound to be lost.

Purcell's article also emphasised to me how much collaboration is involved in the TL role.  There is constant reference to working alongside teachers, other staff, students, parents and other stakeholders, confirming to me the social nature of the role - perfect for someone who enjoys communicating, co-operation, compromising and maybe a little coercion along the way. This is definitely not a job for someone who just wants to sit alone in their office all day!

I will now return to my latest purchase, ASLA's 'Learning in a changing world' series for more insights and hopefully input for my assignment which is looming ominously.  If only that could be written in blog style too!