The Incredibly True Blog of a Part-Time Librarian

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Future Vision Project 2.0 - Learner Considerations LIBE477B

I've been giving a lot of thought to this vision project, and feel that I need to change tracks. Inspired by our exploration of digital libraries in developing nations and by a thoughtful blogpost at Let's Taco 'Bout Books on developing libraries in remote Indigenous Canadian reserves , I became interested in examining how socio-economic inequalities in Canada may be impacting the early literacy and digital literacy skills of Indigenous learners. I had initially thought to research and share information on easy-to-use digital library apps such as RAZKids that could be used to bolster early literacy skills and digital skills for Indigenous communities who may lack access to print materials. However, I've realized that as a high-school teacher, I'm feeling a little out of my depth in addressing early literacy. Furthermore, I've since become aware that our district has a literacy specialist who is currently working toward improving the early literacy skills of

Future Vision Project - Design Considerations LIBE 477B

vi·sion /ˈviZHən/ noun 1. the faculty or state of being able to see . "she had defective vision" synonyms: eyesight, sight, power of sight, faculty of sight, ability to see, power of seeing, powers of observation, observation, perception, visual perception; More 2. the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. "the organization had lost its vision and direction" synonyms: imagination, creativity, creative power, inventiveness, innovation, inspiration, intuition, perceptiveness, perception, breadth of view, foresight, insight, far-sightedness, prescience, discernment, awareness, penetration, shrewdness, sharpness, cleverness "his conference speech was a little lacking in vision" http://thebluediamondgallery.com/tablet-dictionary/v/vision.html Vision: "The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom." Planning for the future with wisdom seems an impossible task, as I feel ne

I Knew It All Along... Didn't I?- LIBE 477B Reflection on Past Teacher-Librarian Topics

A partner was cheating. A comeback to win the last period in a hockey game. Trump shockingly wins the presidency. Each situation may be unique, but we have often heard ourselves say, "I knew it all along." The tendency to feel like we knew it all along, though we actually didn't, is what psychologists refer to as hindsight bias. http://neologisms.blogs.wm.edu/2016/04/18/hindsight-bias/ As an educator, I've experienced hindsight bias in believing that I was always aware of important issues in education. "Of course, I've alway know it's important to incorporate more technology and help students develop necessary digital skills." "Obviously, blogging encourages deeper reflection and allows for an authentic audience for writing." "Naturally, I know how to design effective and engaging professional development opportunities." I could say that I was aware of these issues all along as they seem so obvious now, but they weren't

Rethinking cell phones in education - LIBE 477B Reflection on mobile devices and libraries

http://ajjuliani.com/can-honest-conversation-phones-classroom/ No Cell Phones Allowed! As educators, we've all internally (or maybe even externally) rolled our eyes at how addicted students seem to be with their phones. Perhaps we need to be more open-minded about smart devices in schools. While smartphones can often be a distraction, they can also be used effectively in the classroom. I've begun to allow and even encourage the use of personal smart devices in my classes. I am very clear with students that I do allow them to use their phones, but only for educational purposes. Personal smart devices have become more frequently used in my classroom for several reasons, the most essential being that educators have to encourage students to develop 21st century digital literacies, and this is difficult without the digital part. While I would love to teach in a 1-1 environment (meaning each student has a laptop or tablet issued by the school), this wasn't realistic f

The final frontier: Engaging and useful professional development - LIBE477 Reflection on meeting the ICT needs of teachers

To boldly go where no educator has gone before. Image from Know Your Meme Teacher-librarians have always been the vanguard of teaching Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, helping colleagues to integrate new technologies into classrooms and guiding our students toward becoming digitally literate citizens. The wonderful teacher-librarians I've worked with (shout out to Joanne and Katherine!) were always so generous with their time and effort to help those of us lacking a technological skillset. Because I lacked confidence with my technological prowess, when I became interested in using infographics as a way to demonstrate students' knowledge rather than the traditional research paper or poster presentation, they helped me to create lessons on the skills needed to create infographics, including researching, citing, summarizing and using infographic websites that allows one to design an original infographic. Working with my school's teacher-librari

Blog love- LIBE 477B Reflection on supporting my professional learning

The assignments and discussions in this course have already been an invaluable resource for me; I've gained some valuable technology skills that I can use in my classroom/library, and I've gained some valuable insight reading the discussion posts and blog posts of my co-learners in this class. Fellow educators in this class have made important points in blogposts and discussion board comments that I didn't previously consider regarding technology and digital literacy, including concerns about student privacy and the dangers of being "too connected." Image from https://ncccelearning.com/learning-modules/using-blogs-to-support-your-instruction/ Thanks to the tutorial on using Feedly , I'll be able to continue to follow education blogs of interest. When I first began reading education blogs, I used Google Reader; when that service was discontinued I began to use Flipboard to keep up with favourite news sites and blogs. While l really like Flipboar