edition 17 - Der glumph

So .... as i was undergoing the collection phase of Kuhlthau's ISP for assignment 2, part A (Feeling a clearer sense of direction and confidence where my Thoughts were: defining, extending, and supporting the focus and my Actions were: selecting information relevant to the focused perspective of the topic and making detailed notes) I began to read the NSW DET, Information skills in the school book and i wish i had had the sense to look at it for the previous assignment – it even outlines the ways the executive, grade and faculty groups, individual teachers, parents and community not to mention the TL and library can integrate the teaching of information skills across the school – they’re talking about an ILSC (without naming it as such) and the ways to achieve it!!!.

"Where the teacher librarian plays an active role in the integration of information skills into the curriculum, library skills lessons or programs become obsolete, and the full range of information skills are taught in context instead" (NSW DET, 2007, p.16).

Here is the link if you’d like to read it

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/isp/docs/infoskills.pdf

Kuhlthau, C. (2009) Information Search Process in Bates, M and Maack, M (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Availabe at: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/docs/ELIS%203E.pdf

NSW Department of Education and Training (2007) Information Skills in the school: The information Process (ISP) available at http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/index.html

edition 13 - blogging, ILSC and TL literature

just a quickie as have to pick up girl 1 from school in 10 mins!
Have been looking at assignment 2 - don't think the marking sheets are as helpful for this one.
Also think that maybe i haven't quite been blogging the learning journey they were expecting - not enough about the course material and too much about my responses to being a student. Perhaps this is one critical reflection for my blog section!
I guess my approach to blogging is quite informal, though i know that some students blogs are quite rigorous and follow the module and forum blogs closely, it just doesn't sit right with the way I'm inclined to write. This is not to say that i haven't been reflecting on my journey, I keep internally referring to some of the reading's I've done and there are a few terms, questions and ideas that recur - has information fluency become the acceptable term now for information literacy? How many principals have heard of an ILSC, why didn't i have a better understanding of the scope of the TL and where/how should that understanding have been communicated to me, and would i still be unaware if i hadn't started this course (very probably) and part of this keeps coming back to modelling of other teachers (after all that's who us beginning teachers look to), the school's pedagogical approaches, philosophies and expectations, teacher training, induction and the cross-over in literature. My subject areas are history, geography, social studies and science (yes it is a funny combination!) but in all the literature i read about teaching in general and subject specific, I don't recall a single article that was either written by a TL or referred to how the library/TL may be utilised in terms of planning or resources. Perhaps the real revolution needs to start at the teacher training level. Though as many of you (and me) have pointed out the potential success of the TL in cases does come down to personality.

anyway, back to the assignment.

edition 12 - so far ....

I had just almost finished this post but stupidly closed the browser after searching for something else and lost it arghhhhh.. Here's take 2.

after a week of more emphasis on pleasure reading than uni reading, I am now back into the swing of things. Have looked to the next assignment requirements and, as part of it is taken from blog posts and forum discussions, I thought i might just review some thoughts ...

I think my view of the TL before starting this course was probably one typical of many Ts - the head teacher gives unit outlines and time frames, there's a little bit of sharing of ideas and resources but on the whole you go out to teach as an individual in control of the class. The TL was there to assist with resources and for assignments etc but you source a large proportion of the materials yourself. No induction or teacher training lead me to consider the TL in the way the literature i have now read suggests. Thank goodness i know better now.

IN terms of RBL, i think i have utilised this approach under the guise of inquiry learning. This approach is conducive to encouraging TL-T collaboration and technology, particularly computers in classrooms, have altered the potential for utilising RBL. Though it certainly does raise the idea that IF needs to be taught in context and I'm pretty sure i would be a better teacher of these ideas now than 6 weeks ago. Could you use it all the time? Not sure, although the students are engaged, it takes longer and there is still an awful lot of stuff to get through and not much time.

Pondering on the business of TLs, i feel overwhelmed sometimes: curriculum development and implementation, collaborative planning, policy writing, advocacy, leadership, evaluation and research all while maintaining resources and their intellectual and physical access is no small task. But i do believe that students and Ts are enriched through collaboration with TLs and that the library has much more to offer.

I have also wondered how far the literature is removed from practice. I have yet to see an ILSC in action or a TL that has the support (or a principal the knowledge/drive) to create one. It has made me consider again how important the overarching principles of a school are, particularly in terms of their pedagogical approach and their understanding and approaches to learning. Having said that i do think that principals would be wise to expect TL- T collaboration in planning units and from the research can see how students in schools could be missing resources and knowledge when the TL is excluded from curriculum issues. But i do also recognise that for this to occur adequate staffing and the perennial problem of scheduling needs to be addressed. And perhaps the biggest hindrance of all is the outmoded approach to schooling we have!!

Below you can find some great links on this issue from the inspiring Ken Robinson to 24 hour learning at Paramatta and some interesting videos on information for the future and what students at university are really like.

I hope you enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://blip.tv/file/88216
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
http://fusionfinds.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/we-are-living-in-exponential-times/
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/how-we-learn/

confession 9 and the ILSC

I am taking 5 mins out of the serious business of assignment writing for a quick update - I have finally finished my draft and true to my usual standard it is 3000 words over the word limit. I know concise writing is a skill, but ....
I think I could probably quite easily go to 10,000 on this one - oh for another 1000 words.

Nevertheless, I have 3 days to cut back, cut down, reword and trim quotes. I am actually quite happy - i may not have to do very late nights for days on end after all!! And best of all I actually have my references all done!!! thanks goodness - don't you find that just when you think you're finished the references somehow mysteriously add on extra time.

I really enjoyed pulling together some of the reading for this assignment, I started by looking at what is IL and then moving onto the ILSC, some of the material that didn't make it was pretty insightful and its would be quite good to do a reflection on the school as a learning organisation and how this would impact on the development of an ILSC.
I also enjoyed the differences in opinion about the best way forward - Todd's arguments for evidence based research are quite strident, though i think that this is a big ask on top of the other TL roles, but having said that, i can see how a combination of approaches including (it goes without saying) getting the principals support, and attending to the 'first tier' core business of the TL as well as research would promote library services and help create an ILSC.

Anyway, enough musing ... Good luck fellow ETL401ers out there

Todd, R. (2001). A sustainable future for teacher-librarians: Inquiry learning, actions and evidence. Orana 37(3) 10-20.

doi:10.1177/019263659908360512

Todd, R. (2007). Evidenced-based practice and school libraries: from advocacy to action. In S. Hughes-Hassell & V. H. Harada, (Eds.). School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-78). Westport, CY: Libraries Unlimited.

edition 8 - TLs?? ILSC??

So this week i have achieved a little - not the lot i was hoping for but, I have had some very interesting discussions with the library staff and managed to get at least 1/4 of my assignment finished and some sporadic drafty note type things for about 1/2 of the remainder - though am way behind in my readings if you go by the schedule. I have decided that the main problem for the TL is the rest of the teachers and i can't help thinking that this in part could/should be addressed in teacher training.
In fact I am struck by a couple of things - mainly how little i knew about the role and scope of the TL before embarking on this and the fact that so far none of the teachers i have spoken to have heard of the ILSC - I think this indicates that those readings that suggest that TL literature and research need to go beyond the TL profession to reach the broader teaching community are right. It is an uphill battle for any TL if no-one in the wider teaching community is aware of the vision and research that supports the ILSC. Apart from integration into T training courses i think that perhaps the TL community should be publishing in mainstream teaching journals.