Libraries and Learning

Are you a Web 2.0 TL? What compelling argument caused you to become a TL? Many of us started in school libraries as we loved books – that is not enough nowadays. In an article from the Times Online, a university academic has stated that

“Technological change is now so fast that it is hard to predict what the next development will be but Broughton insists: “The professional who is trained in the principles of managing information will not be fazed by this change. The medium is not the message – you respond as the medium changes.

“Do not go into library work if you do not like IT. If you really prefer books, think about the book trade or publishing, not librarianship.”(Cilip.org.uk)

Teacher Librarians have aresponsibility to engage with digital tools even more so than librarians. We are primarily concerned with student learning and our students deserve and need learing at a variety of levels and witha  variety of digital media tools.

Do you consider you have the skills and curriculum ideas to work in a Web 2.0 environment? Have you developed online learning products or strategies to use for your students? Whether the school is small with a half day per week TL or a large school with more than 1 full time TL, consider how you can provide the right mix for your students?

Check these out and then keep an eye out for ASLA NSW’s new course online for TLs:

WebTools4u2use

Web 2.0 for Teacher Librarians

In a recent interview, Alan Moore of V for Vendetta fame stated:

“All too often education actually acts as a form of aversion therapy, that what we’re really teaching our children is to associate learning with work and to associate work with drudgery so that the remainder of their lives they will possibly never go near a book because they associate books with learning, learning with work and work with drudgery. Whereas after a hard day’s toil, instead of relaxing with a book they’ll be much more likely to sit down in front of an undemanding soap opera because this is obviously teaching them nothing, so it is not learning, so it is not work, it is not drudgery, so it must be pleasure. And I think that that is the kind of circuitry that we tend to have imprinted on us because of the education process.”

Is this what we do? If so, how can we turn this around? As teacher librarians, we often discuss how to engage kids in reading – perhaps we need to turn the circuitry off that Moore is talking about.

Consider graphic novels – Di Laycock and Carol Snowball have researched this and found one way of engaging kids with books, teaching strategies also exist. Or perhaps a re-organisation of our libraries to reflect a colour bias!