ETL 501 Topic 2

Topic 2:

·         I was told by our retiring TL that the Reference books were those not to be borrowed. After weeding (which included 10 sets of world book encylopedias all pre 1990’s) I’m left with around 300 print books that the students and teachers just don’t use. They include books on birds, animals, machines…. Unless I’m missing something, these should be in the NF section.  – I’m leaning towards the “no reference” section side. Why have books that can’t be borrowed.

·         Wikipedia – As a primary school teacher Wiki is set out in an easily read format for 8 – 12year olds. We use it to initially find information – however children know they must then find another source that backs Wiki up before using it.

·         Specialised dictionaries – interestingly enough Wiki provided the best definition of these.

·         Print based dictionaries –our school still has class sets primarily because there aren’t “class sets” of computers available. An older teacher once told me that kids still need to learn the skill of looking up a word in a dictionary – I question if this is the same as saying they still need to learn how to feed paper into a type-writer, or how to use a slide rule.

·         Online atlas: Atlas of living Australia  http://www.ala.org.au/ this was a great one for primary school kids. Tested it with Year 4 -  they loved picking an area of Australia and zooming into until it changed to an arial photo of the streets. Easy to navigate around.

·         VERSO looked great – easy to navigate and find what you are after – a shame it is password protected, I found some books that I would have liked to have a closer look at!

Semester 2 2012

Topic 1

·         ..web based technology opens doors by providing equal access to information. (Wetzel, 2005 in Herring, 2011)

Very relevant to my situation- PSP (Priority School Program – low socio-economic clientele) where over 60% of students do not have web access at home.

·         Collaboration - sharing of knowledge, much more effective than cooperation - providing resources for CT to use. (Herring, 2011)

Can be difficult to foster collaboration between TL and CT when “history” of TL role is that of resource provider. I found that by choosing 1 stage to work with (I chose Stage 2 as I had worked with these teachers for 4 years before moving into the TL role) word of mouth spread what we were doing, now I have CTs from other stages chasing me instead of me chasing them.

·         … students learn neither from teachers nor computers, but rather from thinking in meaningful ways. Thinking is engaged by activities, which can be fostered by computers or teachers. (Jonassen in Johnson et al, 2008)

An argument for Information Literacy – gone are the days when parents/Principals were impressed to see students working on computers. Now they want to know what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they are learning it. Sitting a class of 10yr olds in front of a computer and saying “research” it is just not good teaching practice – and yet we see it so often!

Activity:

 Bloom’s Taxonomy fits so comfortably with QT: moving the teaching focus from a behaviourist approach to a more constructivist approach where individual learning styles are more easily catered for. (Check out Pirozzo if you haven’t already heard of him. He blends Blooms with Multiple Intelligences – a great way to ensure Higher Order thinking and different ways of learning are incorporated when planning a unit of work.)

Activity

1^st – she will need to know what learning outcomes she is addressing in the unit (Syllabus: print copy or online – online is easier for beginning teachers to program with due to copy/paste)

2^nd – she will need to know what resources are available through the library – hard copy and e-resources ( TL to show her how to search the schools catalogue for both hard copy and e-resources – also where they can be physically found in library)

3^rd – she will need to know what the students already know about the subject (KWL chart – either on board, smartboard or online)

References

Herring, J. (2011) Improving students' web use and information literacy: A guide for teachers and teacher librarians. London: Facet Publishing.

Johnson, J.,  Musial, D., Johnson, A.,  Cooper, R. &  Lockard, J. (2008). Introduction to Teaching : Helping Students Learn. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Retrieved July 14, 2012, from Ebook Library.