The Whole Enchilada: Visioning, Planning, and Implementing Media Programs for Learning and Teaching

We are bombarded with talk about the information age and the importance of information and information technology in education. But, there’s a gap between recognition of need and having vibrant, essential media programs that meet the needs of students and teachers. In this keynote, Mike Eisenberg challenges media specialists to be true innovators and agents of change with the “A-B-C” approach: Articulate a vision, Be strategic, Communicate! (This presentation is based on a seminal article that appeared in the September 2002 issue of School Library Journal.)

Here are my notes from this session:

The next president will be the Google president – government information, world news and events – so much will be available online in this information age.  We need to equip students to navigate this environment.

Students – need to gain essential information knowledge & skills

Will we ever adopt the Teacher-Librarian label used in Canada?  This places an emphasis on the teaching role we preform everyday.

The A-B-C approach

Articulate a vision and agenda – “to ensure that students…are effective users of ideas and information”

Teach information skills, Advocate reading, Manage information resources and services.  What is the percentage of your total work time that is devoted to each of these areas?

Be strategic – Attitude is everything.  What if North Carolina created a core collection and provided it to every school in the state?  Wouldn’t this free up the Teacher Librarian to do things other than collection development and selection? Teacher-Librarian’s can give a context to all the technology tools.  What does a wiki do?  How does these tech tools connect to educational goals? Don’t be isolated! Look for the “Big Juicies” – the major projects that each teacher really is concerned about doing.

Communicate continuously – progress reports to administrators (10 week memo).

In summary – Embrace the vision & strategy, deliver an active engage program, be systematic, communicate, meet with all stakeholders, set up advisory committee.

I missed the slide handout – it should be available here soon and includes useful forms, documents, templates, and resources. Now the hard work – embracing these ideas and completing the planning documents!

• Continue to expand and depend on my Professional Learning Network (PLN). My PLN extends beyond the confines of my school and includes people from many different educational settings and geographic locations. This is an idea that David Warlick has discussed and will be addressing in upcoming webinars. Presently my PLN includes teachers in my building, Twitter, a couple of Nings, conferences and seminars, Blogs, and list servs.
• Reflective Practice – many of my resolutions will be interconnected and support one another. I want to make a concerted effort to think about my teaching. Action research projects will be one way to foster this practice. Reflection will demand that I set aside time each week to read professional publications, connect with my PLN about issues, and redesign projects that are not working.
• Read more YA. My summer gig at the public library of Wake County showed me that I am way behind on reading Young Adult fiction. I’ve not read the Stephanie Meyer books yet…
• More exploration of Constructivist Inquiry-Based education. The book In Search of Understanding has been my guide so far. I also will work this year to integrate the new Standards for the 21st Century Learner into my teaching practice. I am more and more convinced that real learning must begin with the individual student and where they are as a person at the moment they arrive in your classroom.
• Defeat the physical inbox - I am terrible at the paperwork end of things. Unfortunately, the wonderful administrative staff in our school have expanded by inbox capacity thus allowing me to further ignore it. I will stem the paper tide this year!
• Clean off your desk Mr. Cox – last year a student caught a glimpse of my desk (I thought I had closed the door). They said that they would never be allowed to have a mess like that in their locker. Good point. We encourage (and often demand) organizational performance from our students. I will clean my desk (and office). The time I will save looking for things could support all of the above resolutions.

There probably are more resolutions that will arise as the year progresses but this seems like a good place to start.

School Library Learning 2.0 is a program of the California School Library Association. This “self-discovery” program is open to non-members and is an interesting way to explore web 2.0 for libraries. Why be concerned about web 2.0? According to the CSLA site:

Why Do This? Web 2.0 is a phrase that was coined in 2004. It refers to the fact that the Internet is now an interactive medium rather than a ‘place’ to go to get information. Since it is the young who are flocking to these Web 2.0 sites, it is important that those of us who work in school libraries should be up-to-date with the latest trends in education and technology and learn how they can be utilized in or with our school libraries.

One of the “things” you will do is create your own avatar. How did mine turn out?