ETL501 Commentary #3

Website Evaluation
This week I examined The Cyberguide Ratings developed by Karen McLachlan (2002) and also Herring's reliabilty criteria. Additional readings also brought me in touch with Kathy Schrock's extensive work on website evaluation. So what does it all mean when I look at it together?
   Firstly McLachlan's checklist is quite comprehensive when considering content but in terms of technical aspects, it falls short. Some of the points are also quite subjective...Eg. ease of understanding, organisation of site... Surely these criteria require a graded scale.
   Herring deals well with reliability but perhaps any website links also need to be examined for credibility.
   I was really impressed with the scope of work  Karen Schrock has developed. I looked at the Secondary School Level, Critical Evaluation survey. I think her emphasis on Technical and visual aspects of the page is important, as these are instant turn offs if they are done poorly.

ETL 401 Blog Task #1

Principal Support and the Role of the Teacher Librarian

I was once interviewed for a teacher librarian (TL) job. The school principal was on the panel and he had a very simplistic view of the role of TLs. He referred to the position as one that teachers returning to work covet because it is a soft option, with little chance to build relationships with students. Having a limited understanding of the TL role myself, I had no rebuttal.

It is easy to be critical of principals who have no understanding of what TLs do, but research has shown that principals rarely learn about TLs or libraries within their administrative courses (McGhee, M. W. 2005). Unfortunately the stereotype of TLs as cranky women, lurking in dark corners shelving books is hard to shake. To do so, TLs need to be advocates for their profession.

TLs are teachers, collaborators and leaders. They are information specialists and program administrators (Purcell, 2010). They teach students and staff to become better self-directed learners, but in so doing, TLs become invisible. This makes it hard for principals to overcome the negative TL stereotypes and recognise a TL’s real worth (Oberg, D, 2006).

So how do TLs convince principals that TLs play a pivotal role within the school? Is it necessary to trick principals into attending regional library conferences as Tim Snyder (2004) describes or is there a better way?

Collecting hard and fast data is one way to educate administrators. Purcell (2011) suggests conducting a time study over the period of a week to record the actual tasks done and the roles these represent.

Schmidt (2007) also advocates data collection and a professional attitude when approaching the principal. She states, ‘I asked with a smile, with a positive attitude, with facts and figures from my own collection, with usage statistics, with library research studies quotes, and with an analysis on why the materials were needed and how they would affect student learning, which is a key component that should be included in any request.’

Williams (2011) supports this notion of stressing how students will benefit from library programs. TLs need to identify and advocate for student’s needs (Williams, 2011) rather than emphasise their own needs for support or funding. In doing so, they prove their own worth, that of a champion of school improvement for the benefit of students, a goal high on most principal’s priority lists (Harvey II, 2009).

It is important for TLs to work on the principal/TL relationship. Haycock (2004) states that three trends are clear in how principals perceive TLs. Firstly TLs who are active collaborators are appreciated because they make a difference to student outcomes. Also TLs who perform leadership roles within the school are better supported and held in higher regard than those who do not. Lastly, principals value the informal professional development that TLs can give to the staff.

It is clear that TLs need to be active in educating principals with regard to what librarians do. They need to be part of planning, management and curriculum committees to flex their leadership and program management muscles. TLs have the potential to drive new initiatives within the curriculum and can view the school from a wide perspective instead of having subject or faculty blinkers. In this respect they have a lot in common with principals.

REFERENCES

Harvey II, Carl A, ‘Principal Perspective, part 3: Advocacy and Shared Vision.’ School Library Media Activities Monthly/Volume XXV, Number 6/February 2009

Haycock, K. ‘Priority-setting: the Tough Work.’ Teacher Librarian, Apr2004, Vol.31 Issue 4, p6

McGhee, Maria W. ‘Helping Learners to Learn: Teaching Principals about School libraries.’ Teacher Librarian, Jun2005, Vol. 32 Issue 5, pp62-63

Oberg, Dianne. ‘Developing the Respect and Support of School Administrators.’ Teacher Librarian, Feb2006, Vol. 33 Issue 3, pp13-18

Purcell, M. ‘All Librarians do is Check out Books, Right? A Look at the Roles of a School Library Media Specialist.’ Library Media Connection, v29 n3 pp30-33 Nov-Dec2010 (EJ907292)

Schmidt, Cindy. ‘Whine or Woo-Which Describes You? (and be Honest with Yourself) Teacher Librarian, Oct2007, Vol.35 Issue, p73-74

Snyder, T. ‘Gaining the Hearts of Administrators.’ Teacher Librarian, Apr2004, Vol.31 Issue 4, p75

Williams, I. ‘Is it Time to Stop Advocating for Teacher Librarians?’ Access (10300155), Dec2011, Vol. 25 Issue 4, p3

ETL501 Commentary #2

Information Resources
Last week at school the computer network went 'kaput'. The whole network was fried and there was no wireless connection or any other type of internet access. In rare situations like this information is still accessible via traditional hardcopy resources.
   The library I work in has a lot of reference material in the non-fiction shelves as the librarian found that students didn't use these books when they were in the reference corner.
   As for online sources, I had a bit of a play and I like the look of One Look Dictionary. It has less ads than the Free Dictionary site and I think year 11 and 12 students could find the specialist dictionaries useful.
   I found the online atlas resources a bit of a mixed bag...have I missed something here?
   World Atlas was disappointing, too many ads, cluttered and a poor selection of countries. Atlapedia was OK for kids giving a straightforward comprehensive list of countries and matching fact files with cultural and geographic information. www.yourchildlearns has a nice easy-to-read map with clear labels but not much else. At this point I was getting 'bamboozled browsing brain' and really struggled with finding bibliographical guides and databases.
   What I really need to do with this course is spend a whole week mucking around with all these databases until it all sinks in. At the moment my saturation threshold is way too shallow.
   I read the VERSO article (Ballard, 2008) and wondered what would be the next 'new' thing. Technology is so fluid now that anything is possible.

ETL501 commentary #1

The first activity was thinking about resources that would slot into Bloom's taxonomy relating to the topic of ecosystems. I found this first task annoying because I've never thought about how these aspects can be broken down. I really had to slow down and think. The more complex the questions became, the more I started brainstorming for specific topics, ie dams, rivers, wetlands, desalination...
I really struggled to think of sources in the higher aspects, ie synthesis and evaluation.
I looked at some of the other students ideas which were really interesting...ie using skype for interviews for the evaluation component and DVDs and You tube videos for  the application components.
In the second task we had to help a geography teacher resource a topic: rainforests

Kauri forest, NZ (source: B. Montgomery)

I chose :
a book on the daintree
a government website on the way rainforests are managed AND
an article on rainforest destruction.
Even though I found these tasks a bit challenging, I am warming to them. They are expanding my research feelers. I get the feeling though that I am only skimming the surface here. There is a lot more to be discovered.

Searching

I used to think I was good at research. Not any more. I've been reading through J. Herring's Improving Students' Web Use and Information literacy (2011) and playing around with databases the last couple of days until my mind has turned to mush. There is so much to learn and tinker with so if I don't post a blog for another week you'll know what I've been up to...