Section 1.8 of the readings discusses the fact that as teacher librarians we need to balance what we do. We have important roles supporting teachers and students, teaching information literacy, and cooperative planning; the organisation of our resources, and effective cataloguing are important to make these things as effective as possible and to save time whilst doing them, but we need to make sure that we are saving time overall - so spending more time cataloguing than we are saving elsewhere is not sensible use of time. It is better to not have a perfect library with perfectly catalogued resources, as long as it is still an effective one and the important roles of the teacher librarian can be carried out effectively as well.
This resonates heavily with the perfectionist within me, and I suspect that I will need to remind myself of this important detail in the future.
Showing posts with label information literacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label information literacy. Show all posts
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Transliteracy
Quite the new buzz word. Or is it? The impression I got from the readings is that it has the potential to become one. It is a new word, for what seems to be an old concept. A concept that has taken place for years, but perhaps has not been put in a box like the term transliteracy tries to do. It is something that we do without realising, to different extremes, and is now coming to the fore because of the myriads of new platforms that we are using as a society, and thus the vast range of things we apply our literacy skills to.
Thomas et al describe transliteracy as:
“the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks”
So as you can see, only recently has 'transliteracy' become so widely relevant, and perhaps this has made it worth pulling apart and creating a word to describe it.
It is relevant to teacher librarians because it is something that we can support with our knowledge, resources and skills. Meredith Farkas writes of fears that it will become a buzz word that is only associated with teacher librarians, when in fact it needs to be applied school wide so that students are gaining transliteracy skills for life. I can see her logic, and feel that as teacher librarians we must make sure we are promoting these things (the important concepts we learn about, information literacy being a prime example, as well as transliteracy) as school wide endeavors where we are there to support everyone, but are the leader of a school wide team, rather than the only instigator.
It does seem a lot to think about, but then really transliteracy involves things we already do (or plan to do in my case) - ensuring that students have access to a range of literacies as listed in the description above, and supporting them in gaining the skills to tranfer their understandings between these different platforms.
References:
Farkas, M. (2010). Transliteracy from the perspective of an information literacy advocate. In Information wants to be free blog.
Thomas, S., Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., and Pullinger, K. (2007). Transliteracy: Crossing Divides. First Monday, 12 (12)
Thomas et al describe transliteracy as:
“the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks”
So as you can see, only recently has 'transliteracy' become so widely relevant, and perhaps this has made it worth pulling apart and creating a word to describe it.
It is relevant to teacher librarians because it is something that we can support with our knowledge, resources and skills. Meredith Farkas writes of fears that it will become a buzz word that is only associated with teacher librarians, when in fact it needs to be applied school wide so that students are gaining transliteracy skills for life. I can see her logic, and feel that as teacher librarians we must make sure we are promoting these things (the important concepts we learn about, information literacy being a prime example, as well as transliteracy) as school wide endeavors where we are there to support everyone, but are the leader of a school wide team, rather than the only instigator.
It does seem a lot to think about, but then really transliteracy involves things we already do (or plan to do in my case) - ensuring that students have access to a range of literacies as listed in the description above, and supporting them in gaining the skills to tranfer their understandings between these different platforms.
References:
Farkas, M. (2010). Transliteracy from the perspective of an information literacy advocate. In Information wants to be free blog.
Thomas, S., Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., and Pullinger, K. (2007). Transliteracy: Crossing Divides. First Monday, 12 (12)
Sunday, April 18, 2010
What I learned from ETL401 Assignment 1
This assignment put on a nice front, asking for 1000 words less than the ETL503 one. The first 500 words though took a very long time. I actually felt like I had to drag the words out of me when talking about an 'information literate school community' and I am not convinced that the words I dragged out were very good ones.
I feel like the rest of the assignment flowed better, but as usual I am not confident in how I went (this does not mean I will not be disappointed if/when I get a mark that is below average).
In the assignment I discussed the importance of the teacher librarian in the creation of an information literate school community - I can definitely see the role that a TL can play, the potential that role has to make a difference. I can also see though that there are many obstacles in the way of TLs, particularly the one which I looked at in my paper - that of classroom teachers not realising the aforementioned potential of the TL. Perhaps classroom teachers do not realise the importance of information literacy (perhaps I should have mentioned that in my assignment....), but in the school I was looking at they definitely do not collaborate with the TL for resources, and for the units their students are working on. The students are not given library time to acquire resources for the unit they are working on either.
I looked at some solutions for this, including the TL approaching a small number of staff members and getting them to collaborate and use the library more effectively, with the idea that this would catch on with other teachers over the years. I wonder if this would work. I wonder if this would lead to the importance of hte library being raised in people opinions, and therefore more time and money being put into it in the long run - would this lead to a better library over all? I think many teacher librarians are in a situation where they feel overwhelmed by all the obstacles in their way to creating a better library environment and being the TL they have been trained to be and wish to be - but perhaps if as TLs we choose one obstacle to focus on and see where that leads us. Perhaps if we focus on the right things, the library could eventually become the heart of the school, as I believe it should be.
One of the interesting things I got out of this assignment, was understanding the implications of RFF a bit better, and thinking about how much blame can be laid on the RFF itself. Initially the TL I spoke to suggested the fact that she was an RFF teacher as being an obstacle. The more I discussed this (Roy was extremely helpful) and thought about it however, the more I realised that RFF was not necessarily the problem, but people's attitudes towards it. Every teacher has planning time, and at those times another teacher takes his or her class. Just because they are relieving the teacher does not mean they cannot play an important teaching role. Teachers should respect that role, and the TL herself should know inwardly and outwardly that she is playing an important part in the school community and the students' learning. Also, it does not prevent the TL from making some kind of difference to the information literacy of the students - it is still possible to collaborate with teachers, and for students to use at least some of their 'library time' working on their current unit, as I stated in my paper.
Hopefully this assignment will help me to remember in the future that I can play an important role as a TL, and that information literacy is an important goal for a school. Hopefully it will help me if I am ever in a situation where I am not respected for my knowledge and abilities as a teacher librarian, but am looked at primarily as an RFF teacher, to see myself as the former, and to slowly work on getting others to do the same.
We can make a difference.
I feel like the rest of the assignment flowed better, but as usual I am not confident in how I went (this does not mean I will not be disappointed if/when I get a mark that is below average).
In the assignment I discussed the importance of the teacher librarian in the creation of an information literate school community - I can definitely see the role that a TL can play, the potential that role has to make a difference. I can also see though that there are many obstacles in the way of TLs, particularly the one which I looked at in my paper - that of classroom teachers not realising the aforementioned potential of the TL. Perhaps classroom teachers do not realise the importance of information literacy (perhaps I should have mentioned that in my assignment....), but in the school I was looking at they definitely do not collaborate with the TL for resources, and for the units their students are working on. The students are not given library time to acquire resources for the unit they are working on either.
I looked at some solutions for this, including the TL approaching a small number of staff members and getting them to collaborate and use the library more effectively, with the idea that this would catch on with other teachers over the years. I wonder if this would work. I wonder if this would lead to the importance of hte library being raised in people opinions, and therefore more time and money being put into it in the long run - would this lead to a better library over all? I think many teacher librarians are in a situation where they feel overwhelmed by all the obstacles in their way to creating a better library environment and being the TL they have been trained to be and wish to be - but perhaps if as TLs we choose one obstacle to focus on and see where that leads us. Perhaps if we focus on the right things, the library could eventually become the heart of the school, as I believe it should be.
One of the interesting things I got out of this assignment, was understanding the implications of RFF a bit better, and thinking about how much blame can be laid on the RFF itself. Initially the TL I spoke to suggested the fact that she was an RFF teacher as being an obstacle. The more I discussed this (Roy was extremely helpful) and thought about it however, the more I realised that RFF was not necessarily the problem, but people's attitudes towards it. Every teacher has planning time, and at those times another teacher takes his or her class. Just because they are relieving the teacher does not mean they cannot play an important teaching role. Teachers should respect that role, and the TL herself should know inwardly and outwardly that she is playing an important part in the school community and the students' learning. Also, it does not prevent the TL from making some kind of difference to the information literacy of the students - it is still possible to collaborate with teachers, and for students to use at least some of their 'library time' working on their current unit, as I stated in my paper.
Hopefully this assignment will help me to remember in the future that I can play an important role as a TL, and that information literacy is an important goal for a school. Hopefully it will help me if I am ever in a situation where I am not respected for my knowledge and abilities as a teacher librarian, but am looked at primarily as an RFF teacher, to see myself as the former, and to slowly work on getting others to do the same.
We can make a difference.
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