The 21st Century school librarian is no longer just the caretaker of the book collection. Technology is transforming the education system and the way children are taught. This
paper discusses the many roles and issues that the teacher-librarian plays in creating a flexible 21st Century learning environment.
21ST Century School Library Media Specialist
The roles discussed in the articles written by school librarians Mashriqi (2011), Ballard (2008), and Marcoux (2010) were similar in strategies needed for running an effective media center today. The common theme was the importance in being able to evaluate what will help the school meet the needs of todays learners and to connect the curriculum with “hands-on” learning experiences. By demonstrating knowledge and current technological skills the media specialist connects the library with teachers, students, administration and parents with information and resources to promote literacy. Technology integration is accomplished by using resources that reflect content standards. To focus on the relationship between education technology and student learning engaging games is one way to achieve the goals with positive results.
Digital Tools
Todays’ school library media specialist applies trends related to the use of technology in education to support integration throughout the curriculum. Being literate in the 21st Century involves teaching both “traditional” literacy and how to read and produce the kinds of texts typical of the emerging information and multimedia age. Benthem (2010) points out that to have an effective school library program it needs to be an ongoing work in progress. Literacy development does impact student learning through the use of digital technologies, includ...
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With an emphasis on STEM education, I am able to implement many forms of technology and new literacies into everyday lessons. Defining New literacies as “the skills, strategies, and insights necessary to successfully exploit the rapidly changing information and communication technologies that continually emerge in our world” (Reutzle & Cooter, 2015, p.21),lends to many of the programs I offer being highly effective in exposing students to such literacies. The use of computers is a way in which I connect students to 21st century technologies. Using software to create and play video games just seems like fun to students, when really they are learning about literacy and technology while engaging in fun
The modification of literary engagement is quickly happening in the 21st century because of the entry of various technologies that can transfer literacy (Birkerts (1994). Lockyer & Patterson (2007) have also recognized the significance of pre-school teachers integrating technologies in their placements to support learning surrounding multi-literacies. The introduction of various technologies into the classroom is a strategy that might be used to adjust the available new multimodal forms of literacy (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). By using new technology formats, for example, social media, discussion forums, blogs, video games and wiki groups, literacy could be conveyed interpersonally, allowing students to understand from each other (Cattafi & Metzner, 2007; Gee, 2007 and Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).
... to the shift in contemporary communication and learning contexts. Walsh presents data taken from 16 teachers across 9 primary school classrooms on developing new ways of incorporating technology for literacy learning with evidence presenting that teachers can combine both print-based and digital communications technology across numerous curriculum areas to inform and support literacy development. This article is useful for my topic as it examines and explains the need and relevance to combining print and digital text into literacy learning and how this can improve children’s engagement and literary understandings. This article is implemented within my research paper as it provides meaning as to why educators need to rethink their pedagogies to inform the literacy that is needed in contemporary times for reading, writing, viewing and responding to multimodal texts.
Mullen, R., & Wedwick, L. (2008). Avoiding the digital abyss: Getting started in the classroom
Semali, L. (2000). Literacy in multimedia America: Integrating media education across the curriculum. New York: Falmer Press.
The Media 21 project began in 2009, as Buffy Hamilton the librarian at Creekwood High School in Georgia, wanted to provide students an opportunity to create their own learning. Having studied connectivism, inquiry based learning, and participatory literacy; Hamilton envisioned putting the theories and methods into practice with high school students in a collaborative environment where she could be embedded as a co-teacher. She saw students using digital tools to make their own connections and collaborating with others. Major influences in Hamilton’s formation of this Media 21 project such as Michael Wesch and Harold Rheingold forced her to think about what she wanted to see in her own students. Wesch is the Digital Ethnography professor at Kansas State Univ...
Today the role of libraries, archives and professional librarians is changing worldwide. Public libraries play the most important role worldwide in helping to bridge the information gap by providing free access to information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet and creating the intention of providing free public access to reading material, with the goal of educational enlightenment and the better welfare of the people.
Beaufort County School District (BCSD) is committed to providing an effective literacy program so that all students become literate across all content areas. The foundational literacy skills including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension form a literacy foundation. However, technology advances are changing the way people communicate and work in organizations (Tapscott & Williams, 2006). Therefore, in addition to foundational literacy skills, students must be digitally literate. As noted by Weare and Lin (2000), the Internet has had a profound influence on life in the 21st Century. Students should be able to effectively navigate the Internet and leverage its power. However, literacy in the 21st Century goes beyond Internet searches and retrieval of information. Our students must be able to safely, ethically, and effectively use technology to be fully literate in the 21st Century. In addition, students should be literate and able to read, write, listen, speak and use language across and within content areas. For example, students must be literate in the arts and design concepts (Pink, 2006).
The Director of the Children Digital Media Center, Patricia Greenfield concluded, “Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades.” Because of technology, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have decreased, while the visual skills we withhold have improved. Through technology there is no need for us to read with a bo...
Education is one of the largest researched and new idea driven businesses. Each year hundreds of thousands of school district implement plans that will help increase their student achievement. Pressure from both state and federal government as well as community members have forced school districts to constantly be striving for the best. Many different plans have been implemented by school districts, each one focusing on one aspect or another to increase overall student achievement. There is one plan however, that is one of the most sought out ideas by school districts: the implementation of 21st century technology. There is a growing need for understanding of 21st technology not just in the classroom but in the work place as well. Unfortunately, even with the push to get these ideas and technology into the classroom many school district, department, and teachers fail to implement these ideas correctly.
Within technology comes the gateway to almost everything that is out in the internet, it opens a whole new world to the students and the teachers that use them. The outcome of the uses, if they happen to be good or bad, come from the restrictions and the management of usage of said technology inside a classroom. Educators see firsthand how the used in their daily lives influence how a student learns. Thanks to technology not only has students and teachers changed the ways they learn and teach, learning itself has changed as well. It is not only crucial to have the technological tools needed in a classroom, but also an educator that can mend and mold the technology to their rightful use. The use of technology in a classroom not only expands the tools and gadgets, not to mention adds much needed knowledge that will help students later on in life, but also brings a whole new and better way to teach and learn.
An interview with Karen Cator, director of the Office of Educational Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Education, is presented. When asked about a good example of the use of technology in education, Cator discusses Mooresville Graded School District in Mooresville, North Carolina, which use laptops and interactive whiteboards in education. Cator also addresses the importance of student engagement in education, online courses, and the use of digital media devices in classrooms.
S. Department of Education (2010), teachers must provide engaging, powerful and meaningful learning experiences through the use of instructional technology to all students. Technology helps teachers to take advantage of interactivity that will help struggling readers. However, struggling readers still lack basic word reading and fluency skills that are necessary to comprehend grade level material (Neddenriep, Fritz, & Carrier, 2011; Manset-Williamson, Dunn, Hinshaw, & Nelson, 2008). When technology is incorporated into the classroom remedial readers will have access to materials to improve their deficient reading skills and close the gap in their comprehension skills (Fang, & Schieppegrell, 2010). Furthermore, when technology is used to accommodate skill deficits, it allows the individual more independence than a traditional method of reading or listening (Calhoon et al.,
Often times, these learners will participate more freely in instruction because there is less fear of failure or judgement when independently working with technology. Helt (2003) states without the “face-to-face contact,” students often feel less inhibited and are more willing to participate in the learning activity. However, the process of including technology in literacy instruction in all content areas is faced with many barriers such as support, training, and teacher attitudes, beliefs and skills. Once again, throughout the research a recurring theme for increasing content and technology literacy involves ongoing and supportive professional development for teachers (Zoch
The Library Commons at Olathe Northwest is a natural extension of the secondary library’s traditional mission in a digital world. My library offers a wide range of elements to foster student learning in new and creative ways. My goal is that this space fits the need of every student. Students who need to complete an assigned task that calls for collaboration can meet in the library and plan, discuss and complete their assignment. At the same time other students can be searching for a great book or looking online for sports scores or prom dresses. The forty computers in the library offer access for any student who walks in the door. And just in case more computers are needed, a wireless laptop can be called into service.