Final Thoughts On My Learning Journey

Well I must admit that once again I am humbled as I have been throughout my learning journey in the TL diploma. As I complete the last course in this diploma program I realize that I feel like I felt at the beginning of this program. The more I learn, the more I realize I have to learn. I am overwhelmed by the enormity of the job that a TL has. When I began this program three years ago I knew nothing about the role of the TL. As a student of the district I have always taught in, I have never had the opportunity to experience a big school library and a real strong library and library program. With the changing and expanded role of the TL in our technologically advancing world, through this course and others, I see how important and complex the job is.
In this course, I have enjoyed the diversity of my fellow students from inexperienced to experienced Teacher Librarians, from rural to urban schools, from libraries that need further development to those who are functioning well. This course has provided me the opportunity to explore a range of topics that were unfamiliar to me. It has given me a focus for further development in many areas. The area of technology is one that I really need a lot of development in. My experience as a kindergarten teacher has limited the opportunities I’ve had to teach students research skills. I look forward to the opportunity in the future to work with older students in this area and know it will be a learning experience for all of us.
One area that I’ve learnt about specifically from this course has been in the area of research models. I had learnt a little bit about models in other courses but it is valuable to hear from TL’s particularly elementary ones about what has been successful for their students. Actual feedback from real teachers who had tried different things in teaching research skills is meaningful to me as I am inexperienced in this area. I found the opportunity to analyze the reference section in my own library as I hadn’t looked closely at it before.
I found Assignment 2 particularly valuable as it really made me analyze what could improve services at our school. I think that I have been easily swayed by the beauty and richness of new resources and have thought that if we had these books or these resources the situation in our library would improve. Really thinking about what is happening at our school after talking to the teachers made me realize that improving reference services for our students is not about spending money on things. It is much deeper and bigger and more difficult than this. It is about changing attitudes, educating teachers and administrators and working towards a goal that everyone sees as important.
I was amazed by the geographical resources that are available and look forward to the opportunity to explore them further. I now see the value of current geographical resources as I thought a brand new atlas in print form would do the job. The on line resources are so much more than glossy maps. On line encyclopaedias, traditional and non traditional like Wikipedia, offer so many learning opportunities for students. I tended to think of just World Book when I thought about encyclopaedias in the past. What a great and varied selection there now is.
I hadn’t really considered student access to databases as an important research tool. I recall my own frustrations with finding print articles 20 years ago in the UBC library late at night. I thought of researching journals and databases as more the practice of University students. I am amazed that High School students have access to databases in their school libraries. My own frustrations of searching the UBC database fresh in my mind I realize how much support students would need learning to navigate databases effectively. I was also reminded that despite the best of resources available to them and despite that today’s students appear so technologically savvy they really need to be taught carefully and systematically how to research effectively so they are building skills and knowledge.
As I end my learning journey in this course I know I am not really ending my learning journey—I am really just at the beginning!!! Full speed ahead!!

Wik-i-what??

Okay, the truth is I really didn’t know very much about what Wikipedia was when I began this course. Maybe I had heard the word but I didn’t know what it was. I now know more about what it is and why it is somewhat controversial in nature. I have read the articles and discussion postings about it. I see by its popularity with users that it is a major source of information for many students. The discussion postings have described different and changing TL attitudes about this tool. Some people who were at first opposed have changed their stance while those totally supportive of it have become more aware of some of its pitfalls. Misty Smith on November 22/08 wrote about her thoughts about Wikipedia. She described an article she read where Katz’s criteria was used to evaluate it. Wallace and Fleet in their article The Democratization of Information? wrote that Wikipedia did not fit Katz’s criteria particularly in the area of authority. Misty Smith concluded though, that even though Wikipedia did not meet the criteria for being a valid resource it still “is a source of information, and it is interesting to see what a segment of our society (that is, those who contribute to Wikipedia in a meaningful way) deems to be true at a given time, and what shared knowledge can provide.” I agree with Misty that there definitely is value in this resource despite its imperfections. An article by Jack Baur called A Call For Sense (American Libraries August 2009, Vol. 9 Issue 7, p.4) gave some good advice to Teachers and Teacher Librarians about attitudes towards Wikipedia. He describes the negative approach towards Wikipedia which has some librarians warning patrons not to use it and others considering blocking access to this resource. He describes this mentality as “shooting ourselves in the foot”. He sees irony in the fact that the popular perception is that librarians are fossils. We validate this perception by acting like fossils condemning this resource. “We try to convince the world how technologically hip we are while at the same time we openly bash one of the biggest stories of the Web 2.0 movement.” Baur writes that Wikipedia does have “many uses and practical applications.” It provides a decent introduction to the subject and provides links to other information sources. By telling people not to use this resource we are missing out on “great opportunities to teach source evaluation and research methods” and are “failing at our most basic responsibilities.” I think Baur makes some excellent points in this article. Even if we don’t love everything about Wikipedia, the reality is it is has widespread popularity, is user friendly and is a major part of students research repertoire. We can and should value this resource and its imperfections and embrace the opportunities it provides to further teach students about evaluating sources.

Teaching Research Skills-Practice and Unity

Practice Makes Perfect (or at Least We Hope So) The Book Report. September/October 2001. P. 26
By Ann Sciba
This article by Ann Sciba describes the approach to teaching research skills that has been adopted by a Texas High School. Sciba saw that students needed specific instruction in how to research and that these skills were best taught “in the context of a project” to ensure retention of skills. Hands on experience with a variety of resources helped students explore information in the library and on line. This High School had some unique features that enabled the teaching of research skills to be so thorough. The library is part of the English department so this enabled collaboration between the library staff and the English teachers. These teachers made a plan with library staff to teach Grade 8’s about the resources in the collection and about the internet. They were given the opportunity to choose a topic and select 2 on line resources and one print resource on a topic of their choice. This activity is an example of how systematically research skills are taught. At each grade level projects are given that range in depth that has students conducting research. There is a strong emphasis on teaching students to evaluate their resources by the use of web evaluation criteria. The teachers at this school have worked together to implement this structured approach because they concluded it was necessary to use structured lesson scope and sequence to “ensure students practice research skills across the curriculum each year.” The amazing thing about this school is that teachers in other subject areas know what the expectations are and can they use them in their subject. This creates a connectedness that is important. This whole school has committed to “sending their students into the world with as many skills for finding information as possible.” This thorough organized unified approach to teaching research skills and the staff that are insightful enough to understand the value of these skills is an inspiration. I think that this is an amazing approach and wonder how unusual it is. I have no high school experience but I doubt this is the norm. Many factors would inhibit this type of model from being adopted. Some High School libraries are being run by clerks. Teachers are disconnected from each other. Finally, there is a lack of a vision that this is a critical skill that students need to be systematically taught.

How students use electronic encyclopaedias

Observing Student Searches In An Electronic Encyclopedia by Marjorie Pappas and Gayle Geitgey. Book Report: March/April94, Vol. 12 Issue 5, P13



Pappas and Geitgey set out to determine how students use electronic encyclopaedias to gather information, what the role of the teacher in the research process is, and what the role of the library media specialist is in the process. The authors observed high school students of different ages and in different subject areas. The teachers also varied in their involvement in the process and in their knowledge of this research tool. After observing many student and teachers they categorized them in different levels of functioning. The teachers were the “no help” teacher, the basic level-help and then the fully trained, read–to-help teacher. The fully trained teachers were able to make suggestions and encourage students to take different roles in the research gathering which made them less dependent on her. The students also varied in their use of the on- line encyclopaedia from simple browsing to complex analysis of information. The browse approach was similar to how students used the traditional print encyclopaedia. They focused on one answer questions. This approach did lead to the discovery approach as students chose words from a word list and opened articles that appealed to them. The cross-reference feature of the encyclopaedia facilitated connecting related articles. Students in the browsing stage had a “hit and run” approach to information gathering. They were looking for quick information. Sometimes this was because of time constraints, limited workstation availability or simply the nature of the specific task. These “hit and runners” did not use any of the research features of the encyclopaedia; they took no notes, and didn’t use the copy and paste feature. They printed a hard copy and highlighted on it the answers they needed. They may not have had the skills to take notes online. Students with more experience were able to use the features of the encyclopaedia to help them as using different Boolean operators to help broaden or narrow their scope. They were able to look for connections and patterns within their topic. They were helped by using the index or word list in the browse mode. Students who became comfortable with the encyclopaedia were willing to teach peers. Students did not use the tool to its fullest potential and missed things like the on screen prompts of using the notepad to add notes and quotes. Also most students did not use any strategies that helped them filter information which demonstrated that students lacked this research skill. The authors of this study concluded that students were interested and confident in exploring the encyclopaedia and were able to teach themselves to use this tool. A significant point they made was that even though the students like this tool and are not afraid of it they will remain in the “browse” level without being given the knowledge and skills about how to research effectively. Training teachers so they can teach students is really key in helping students use this tool and other reference tools effectively.
This article reinforces how critical it is to teach students research skill and also how important it is to have teachers comfortable with this technology. As I am working on helping a teacher develop in her use of teaching research skills I find this article relevant. Changing a teacher will pay dividends to students. This article is not a recent publication and does not refer to free encyclopaedias like Wikipedia. Observing students’ use of this compared to how they use a traditional on line encyclopaedia would be informative also. The use of the resources like Wikipedia that have the potential to have some incorrect information, reinforce the need for students to have the skills to analyse, synthesize and question information.

Evaluating the Reference Section- Commonalities and Differences

Evaluating the reference section was a very interesting and informative exercise. I wasn’t really surprised how our library rated as below standard in many areas. I know we have a lot of work (understatement of the year) to do bringing our library up to standards. As addressed in Assignment 2 simply pouring money into new resources is not the answer in our school district. Having new resources would be futile without the trained people to teach how to use them, to promote them and to work with other teachers in why and how they should be used. I was very interested in the evaluations of other libraries by the other students in this course. I was happily surprised to see libraries that have areas that were acceptable and exemplary. I wasn’t really expecting this and this is a reassuring thing that we do have many very good libraries in our schools. Interesting though even those who collections that are much better than others still have issues to deal with. Sandra Creightney evaluated her print/computer soft ware section as exemplary while another area “non-print” resources were below standard. Another library evaluated by Susan Nishi faced other challenges. Because this school was only 8 years old the money had gone into building up the areas of the library first. While other areas were good the reference section at this time was below standards. Another school faced the opposite problem of our school which was there were too many students and not enough space. The opening of another school would alleviate this problem. The school Lisa Kurio and her colleagues wrote about is exemplary and doesn’t appear in need of any major improvement. How fortunate for these students to have access to this kind of reference section. Yet another library written about by Shauna Horning had another problem that I hadn’t really considered. At her library the print collection including the print reference section is weak because there is such an emphasis on on-line resources. She wrote that “There is an underlying attitude that technology is the key to everything, and so teacher-librarians are pushed to move away from books, and towards the on-line world. In many other areas, however, the only realistic option for teachers or students is to do all work online because our library lacks the resources to support the curriculum.” I was struck by how different libraries have unique issues that are impacteing the strength of their reference section.

"Collaboration: The Motown Method" ???

The article "Collaboration : The Motown Method" by Leslie Preddy published in School Library Media Activities Monthly (Volume XXV, Number 3/November 2008) intrigued me by its title. I wondered what motown music and teacher librarian/ teacher collaboration could possibly have in common. Leslie Preddy raises some interesting points with this analogy. This article is aimed towards the teacher who is reluctant to try collaboration because it is unfamiliar and intimidating. In the Motown method of collaboration "somebody always gets to be Diana Ross and others get to be the Supremes". Preddy suggests that the library media specialist take the lead as Diana Ross which means keeping the group organized and prepared. All members participate with there being a lead teacher and a back up teacher. In action this would look like the lead teacher instructing and the back-up teacher working the room helping individuals stay focused and assisting with problems. The teachers, by playing off each other and the students, model team work. The motown method involves taking turns, co-planning, co-teaching, co-evaluating. The author concludes that collaboration is the answer to meeting the challenges of finding balance beween standardized tests, standards and best practices. It is also the best way of teaching information literacy skills. By using the analogy of colloboration and motown music teachers who are scared of the idea of team teaching, lack confidence, or are not sure of its value, are able to understand how they could be part of this in a non threatening way. Knowing that they can be supported where they need it and knowing they can lead in their area of strength is assuring to them. Working together, the TL and CT can make beautiful music together creating rich learning experiences for their students. This article would be a good introduction to a staff that are unsure of the value and process of collaboration. I would use this article as a TL with a reluctant staff. It is an easy read, is humourous and light but makes some significant points about why teaching in this way is something that teachers should try as a powerful way to teach information literacy skills to students.

Access is Key!

While reading Reidling a statement from page 22 just jumped out at me because it is so obvious in its simplicity. "Of primary importance is ease of access to reference materials by the school library media specialist and the student population." What a simple statement but what a powerful one. This makes me think about the students at my school. Do they easy access to reference materials? Sadly, I really don't think they do. Tied to the issue of access are the informational skills which allow them to know first what they need to access, what kind of questions to ask and what kind of materials to look for. If they are taught these skills then they are ready to proceed. Or are they? Is there ease? Any one who has done research has experienced frustration and then joy as they find something of value to their search. Any search has obstacles however some school library resource centers have more than the usual regular obstacles. Accessiblity to using the library before, after, or during school hours is a barrier to students at my school. Also access to assistance is another barrier as there is only a small window of time that the library is staffed. Coordinating student needs and the TL's schedule would take some major juggling. Possible but not "easy". Another access issue is the one regarding access to the internet. The 2 computers in the library do not have internet access and the lab is only available to students during their specific blocks of time during class time. The final access issue is availability of resources. Few district site licenses, no centralized district catalogue system for sharing resources, outdated and small print reference section limit access. Additionally no access to newspapers, limited access to periodicals, and few non-print resources such as DVD's or CD roms make access to material somewhat difficult. Access is key however not so simple to really acheive unfortunately!