And so the social media journey begins...

So the social media newbie is about to start her social media journey.  Lurking in the back of my head it the thought that social media is going to have to prove its worth to me before I become a user.  At the moment I see no reason to be using social media and it seems like just another thing to add to my already blown-out To Do List. 

However at one point I felt the same about iPhones.  Until my brother gave me his old one for free and I got it connected to my WiFi at home and work.  Now I love it. And I can see that social media is the method of communication for an ever-increasing group. And anyone intending to work in either education or in libraries had better get thier head around it.

Hence the reason for deliberately choosing INFO506 as one of my optional subjects.  It will force me to use tool that I had never considered and maybe I'll find uses that I never knew existed.

It's the day before INFO506 officially opens and I already have 3 new social media accounts - Facebook, Flickr and delicious.  I have no idea what delicious is but its a requirement for the subject so now I have an account. Already have a Twitter account thanx to Vanessa at school (but can I remember how to get to it?  Hmm, unlikely).  Got a bit worried when Facebook asked for the password to my email account so it could access all my contacts.  Not likely thought I!  I don't want you snooping around in my private list of account thank you very much Facebook!  So on the advice of people at work I created a brand new gmail account that Facebook is now connected to. 

Alright then, social media get ready, here I come!

My Animoto Video

My Animoto Video

ETL503 Assignment 1 reflections

Resourcing a curriculum area

Wot was it?

Identify an aspect of the curriculum (e.g. a unit of work or topic, or part of a unit of work or topic) in a school with which you are familiar that is not adequately resourced by the school library, but where the situation can be appropriately addressed by the addition of ten new resources (this situation should be factual, if possible, but can be hypothetical).

This assessment task gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of collection building, needs assessment, selection and acquisition (subject objectives 1-3 and part of 4). by applying the knowledge you have acquired through your studies to a pertinent practical situation The task requires you to reflect upon the importance of these steps in effectively resourcing a curriculum area

My reflection

I never even considered there would be things such as lists of books for librarians to go to.  And not just random lists but lists by curriculum area, reviewed, with all sorts of filters you can put on. I mean, why not, it makes perfect sense and logically if i was king librarian i would have deemed the creation of such lists too.  Hmm.

Found it hard to slip out of teacher mode and into librarian mode.  Kept thinking of all the good resources I’d used as a teacher and wanting to recommend them, simply because I knew them.  Never thought that there would be a wider and maybe better range to choose from. Hmm.  I suppose this means I have the advantage of being able to understand a teacher’s perspective.  However thinking like a teacher is probably going to narrow my ability and perception as a TL.  Better be conscious of this.  

The importance of being in touch with the learning community also came home to me.  If you’re not, the stuff you recommend or even purchase may be completely inappropriate, or not fit, and could lay gathering dust or wasting money for ages. 

Also the importance of having a resources collection and management policy hit home.  There is none at my school.  Consequently there is a jumble of resources in the library, some repeated, some holes, there are no procedures for purchasing resources or weeding them.  This rails against my desire for organisation and established procedure.

The details of wot it was

o      Provide a clear, pertinent overview of the chosen aspect of the curriculum, and clearly and analytically overview the nature of the resources needed to meet the goals, support the content, and achieve the desired outcomes of the selected aspect of the curriculum.

o      Clearly and analytically identify any other information/resource needs created by the characteristics of the school, the students who study this aspect of the curriculum and the teachers who teach it.

o      Provide a clear, pertinent overview of resources already available through or within the school library that are relevant to this aspect of the curriculum. Clearly and analytically identify how these resources do not adequately meet the needs of the chosen aspect of the curriculum and/or the needs created by the characteristics of the school, the student body and the teachers. Drawing upon your studies for this subject, determine, apply, describe and justify the selection and (potential) acquisition processes employed to select and make accessible ten resources to appropriately resource the selected aspect of the curriculum within the context given in part A.

o      These processes should clearly reflect the considered use of appropriate professional literature and a range of professional tools. Your selection processes should clearly identify and describe the use of any lists of resources, bibliographies, or collections of online resources drawn upon in selecting and acquiring the ten resources that was provided with, or already created for, the selected aspect of the curriculum. (15 marks)

o      Clearly identify the ten resources by giving a bibliographic description of each item using the APA style you are using for referencing

o      At least six of the resources should be available for use online.  They may, for example, be digital learning objects, digital collections, e-books or e-journals as well as websites.

o      Clearly identify the sources where these resources can be currently accessed or acquired from and why these sources would be used. Clearly specify how these resources (individually or as a group) will adequately complete the resourcing of the selected aspect of the curriculum within the context given in part A. (10 marks)

Uncomfortable lessons

So the feedback on my last assignment has brought home some uncomfortable truths.

1. Sometimes I try to cut corners with my references.  I skim thru looking for only what I want, then put them in as a quote, when in fact if I read the whole article, it may not be what the author was going on about at all!
2. I have to watch how I insert a reference into my writing.  Sometimes the way I do it can imply that the author has read my assignment and lent their support, when in fact all I'm using is their idea.  It's an easy fix - instead of say "blah blah blah author's idea (author 2009)", I need to do something like:"Author (2009) says blah blah blah"
3. Apparently I end my sentences with prepositions a lot.  Admittedly I then had to go onto Google and find out what a preposition was.  Love to know how i got thru 2 degrees and a diploma without that being picked up before!
4. Same with split infinitives.  "To boldly go" is apparently wrong.  "To go boldy" is apparently correct.  Whatever.  I still want to boldy go. 

I guess learning can't be comfortable all the time.

Searching with style. Well, better than I was!

My search skills have certainly improved.  I'm rewriting the Wiki for EER500 and i need to find some new research based articles for the use of  wiki in education.  Well, back in January this task would have needed quite an investment of time and energy, but tonight - about an hour to basically find what I need, read it, summarise the relevant bits, and put what I need into a draft from for the next part of my research assignment.
Cool.
I found a neat trick.  Sometimes you find articles that are not quite what you need.  However, if you go to their reference section, sometimes you can find a closer match.. Use Google Scholar or onto the CSU library database and odds on it's there! 

Another step along the journey

So here I am again, blogging as well as posting to a Wiki after creating and managing my own.  For a girl who didn't know what a Wiki was before April I'm not doing too badly.

Just posted my first part of my assignment for EER500 - Research.  I sure am glad we did all that stuff learning how to search for articles way back in ETL 401.  It was soooo helpful.  But I still can't get the hang of keywords, although using a thesaurus did help a tad.  Actually what helped the most was asking another person - people are much better at thinking laterally when the thesaurus doesn't help.

Task C: Synthesis and reflection

When I told people I was doing a Masters to become a Teacher Librarian, the most common reaction was one of incredulity.  Why do you need a Masters to be a librarian? At the start of this course I also had a very stereotypical image of a teacher librarian.  Along with many in education (Zmuda & Harada 2008, Oberg 2006, Eisenberg 2006) I had no idea of the plethora of tasks involved, the responsibilities, the influence a teacher librarian had, and the incredible benefits he or she could bring to a school (Oberg 2002).  This image is being corrected, but there is still a way to go and at least one obvious hole in my developing knowledge.

My first attempted definition of a teacher librarian reflected my ignorance: “a Teacher who is also a qualified librarian” (Soon, all will call me Master! 24/02/11). I managed to recognise that curriculum knowledge and relationships are important and vaguely described collaboration on February 25^th (Relationships with staff) before I knew what collaboration was. However it was an extremely basic understanding.  I was still in the mindset that teacher librarians mostly just find resources for teachers, and this is why they need to meet with them.

Module 2 and assignment 1 – examining and defining the role of the Teacher librarian – certainly opened my eyes to how amazing and multifaceted this teacher librarian creature could be and how dynamic the field was. The list of spheres they influence is huge and just seems to increase the more reading I do. The field is dynamic.  It touches areas such as staff development, curriculum, teachers, resources, technological developments, media, storage, and behaviour (Purcell 2010, Eisenberg 2006, Herring 2005) but it is not tied down.  As I read more and more about how important a teacher librarian is (Martineau, 2010, Oberg, 2002) I was slightly stunned that “there is a ... dichotomy between how undefined the role is and yet how vital it seems to be. Everybody says how important and vital they are, yet no-one seems to be able to say exactly what they do”. (Amazed at how vital yet unknown, 16/03/11, para.1). 

A comprehensive definition still eludes me, and maybe it is part of the nature of the beast.  I agree with Purcell (2010) that the role description itself is constantly changing and the ability to learn new tasks and adapt the role to shifting paradigms is needed. “any attempted definitions of the role of a TL could possibly be like photographs in time: they may be very relevant for right now, but in time – a year, a few years, or a decade – they will not match the current needs and expectations.” (Topic 2 forum, 8/03/11, 10:03pm)

Researching for both assignments saw me drawn to authors such as Hassett (2007) and Warlick (2007) who challenge the ‘sacred cows’ of traditional libraries and ways of thinking.  One message I have received loud and clear is that there is a change with not just how ridiculously accessible information now is, but that the next generation see information differently, as raw material to transform or create with.  Libraries cannot be containers to hold information anymore and librarians are no longer gatekeepers.  People must be their own gatekeepers and be guided as how to do this ethically.  I never expected to be teaching ethics as part of the teacher librarians’ role, but I understand why this is necessary.

Module 5 (Collaboration) and parts of Module 1 (The Role of a Teacher Librarian, Principal Support) started the development of a recognition that many factors determine exactly what a teacher librarian can do within a school. A perfect school where the teacher librarian is valued and supported is rare. In reality, the exact role a teacher librarian will have within a school will probably be determined by “the school and its priorities”. (Topic 2 forum, 12/03/11, 4:43pm). As with teaching, one will still aim and strive for perfection but realise that one may have to settle for less.

The journey cannot be over there are still gaps.  I approach being a teacher librarian very much from the perspective of a teacher.  Much is said on my blogs and forum posts about how it is like teaching, or how to make the teacher’s job easier, or how teachers can be helped by teacher librarians.  Very little is said how the teacher librarian interacts with or influences students or other staff members – a gaping hole.  I now know that these are also the clients of the teacher librarian that need to be included in time and effort – especially students (Hassett, 2007).