LIBE 477

“We have to stop thinking of an education as something that is delivered to us and instead see it as something we create for ourselves.”   - Steven Downes OUf! This has been a real learning experience and a time for adjustments in my professional life. All readings, tweets, websites, and blog posts I have read really helped me to see my educational vision from a different perspective. At the beginning of this course, I wanted to pursue the idea of a more inclusive learning environment by researching and gathering reading resources that would better suit the needs of all students. I thought of e-books/audiobooks and resources for special needs such as tactile/sensory books. This is still part of my vision focus and will remain important in all future resource acquisitions. However, I really feel the need to sit down with my resource-teacher colleagues to learn about the profile of students with special needs in the school community.   Since it was not possible a...

“So, if your doctor is working from a 2007 knowledge base, you’ve got a one-in-two shot ay getting the right treatment. Not good odds. Why should this be any different for educators? Even if we increase the spread and say that half our knowledge about brains, learning, children, technology, and pedagogy changes every 10 years (and this, I’m certain, is conservative), wouldn’t we want teachers (and students, for that matter) to just get “better” at what they’ve been doing all along?” (Richardson, 2012) Before going into the details of my project, it seems important to remind you that last year, I created a website for school teachers with the aim of facilitating the accessibility to many resources and digital tools. Here are below some of the website title pages I originally presented:   My choice of selected resources was originally based on what I wanted to promote such as collaboration and web tools plus what I assumed to be useful information and links for diffe...

I started working as a Teacher-Librarian at the same time as I started the Librarianship diploma and I must say that despite all the work, I consider myself lucky to be able to learn and integrate new learnings almost simultaneously.   I first physically changed the entire library space to provide opportunities for multi-purpose learning spaces. Then I created a library website FOR the teachers where information and resources are centralized and easily accessible. I created a Library Blog to keep the whole school community informed about the library activities, novelties, and events. I also encouraged collaborative work using the Inquiry-based methodology and pushed for technology integration to further meet the 21st century learning skills.   Even if I know that all these changes are positive and are great additions to the SLC’s program, I realize that changing teachers’ habits is not always easily done and that it takes time for things to happen. As Weisburg said i...

I find it impossible to pick only one topic as I see them as a whole. The Inquiry Blog Posts experience has been extremely enriching for my Teacher-Librarian practice. First of all, I recognize more than ever how beneficial it is to share knowledge with others. I really enjoyed reading messages from the members of my group and learning from their personal experiences and recent discoveries. It helps me to see where I stand and makes me reflect on different future possibilities.   The Blog Posts and Tweets make me think of traveling. When we travel we see other landscapes, we discover other cultures and we evolve through all that. Sharing information, ideas, and professional experiences with others gives me the same satisfaction and allows me to progress in my professional environment. The four themes that we discussed, Fostering Reading Culture, Developing ICT Skills, Supporting Teachers, and Developing World Libraries, made me want to create a multi-faceted literary ...

Throughout my readings this week, I realized that efforts to make literary accessible are not new. To start the post on an interesting note, I discovered that in the 1930s some librarians were delivering books to isolated American communities on horseback .  And almost 90 years later, book deliveries are still occurring in some isolated communities such as in Burkina Faso . However, books are no longer delivered on horseback but on motorcycles.  Of course, it is always profitable if any profits from it. However, we are entering the technology era and mobile devices seem to be THE access tool for worldwide information.  Where there is broadband coverage, mobile devices can really make a huge difference to general and technical education by creating so many learning opportunities. For example, a simple phone can develop creativity through games, improve literacy skills through various applications, allow acquisition of all kind of new knowledge throug...

It is said in many school library reviews that the highly technological environment of the 21st century redefined the role of the Teacher-Librarians as being leaders in technology integration. Now, it is not only a question of knowing how to use technologies but also understand how to apply the tools in learning and how to create and communicate new knowledge.   It is also said that opportunities for a leadership role and responsibilities, a sense of obligation to get involved, and collaborative teachers are some of the key enablers for TLs’ enacting leadership role in technology integration. To make a choice among several, I decided to focus on the following three ideas for meeting the ICT professional needs of my school: Survey and Professional Development: Two things I have noticed since I am working in the school LC is the lack of time to do everything I want to do and the lack of information I have about the technologies used by my colleague teachers. For this reas...

Since the beginning of my d iploma , I feel much more informed about the needs of the 21st-century students and more in touch with the whole technical aspect of the school program . I became aware of what exists out there in terms of web tools, I understand their benefits and I fully believe that their integration into the curricular contents is essential . Currently, I read a lot of blogs, tweets, websites , and articles written by educational professionals, educators , and teacher-librarians who share ideologies, opinions, survey results, pedagogical trends, etc. which forces me to reflect and improve my ways of teaching and supporting students. The big problem that I anticipate in the future is to find THE time to stay on the cutting edge of all this information. Our time is often very limited so that we must be strategic and choose carefully our sources of information. For now, I choose to focus on  the following ones : District/Program TLs (PLN) : Bei...