Inquiry Blog Post #3:Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: On-going Professional Development

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 reason, I would like to pass on a survey among my colleagues as to know where they are with technologies in their classroom.

Once the responses are compiled, I will be in a better position to respond to the needs of my school community and provide an effective and useful in-service, at least as a starting point. 

I googled tech survey and came across the following ones:

Teacher Technology Survey

Teacher Technology Use Questionnaire

Quick Teacher Technology Survey

Here is the one I created for my school staff. Click here to view it.    

A survey will help me to identify and prioritize the school needs and by the same token, it will give me the information needed to plan a “custom-made” day or half-day of professional development workshop.  In terms of technical skills, no one is exactly at the same level. Some teachers are very proactive in the field and others completely obsolete. It is important to respect the level of each and evolve accordingly. For example, creating 3 learning groups such as the District Database Group, the WebTool Group, and the Social Platform Group could match the needs of the school’s profile.

This goes along the lines of something I remember reading from the book New on the Job by Weisburg and Toor: “If you give teachers what they want, they will only come back for more.” (Weisburg, p. 205). In other words, if teachers feel that the learnings fit their needs, it will motivate them to move forward with the concept.

                                                                             Teacher Tech Talk: 

I would personally like to organize Teacher Tech Talk over lunch. Once a month, teacher participants would gather in the LC to learn about novelties, talk about specific technologies (new apps, assistive tech tools, management programs, etc.), solve troubleshooting problems, and share positive experiences. I believe this meeting would be very beneficial and a source of motivation towards more tech integration to further enhance teaching practices. As Richardson once said: “ if adults in the classroom are to develop learners who can make sense of the whole library, we must already be able to do that ourselves. In other words, the adults in the room need to be learners first and teachers second”. Coming together and learn from each other build up a stronger school community.

image from Hilda K. Weisburg's Blog Post, March 2016

Collaboration:  

Within the classroom environment, teachers encourage students to engage with each other, to share ideas, discuss, collaborate, and learn from each other. Educators should embrace the same practice and take advantage of the resources and service of the Teacher-Librarian. As the school TL, I often reach out to my colleagues and try to find a way to ease their work and/or add technology novelties into their teachings. I already created a school library website for teachers where many resources are suggested. Among those, a collection of great databases and web tools are suggested to enhance their lessons and to support their students in their learnings. However, I am very aware that it takes more than one introduction to persuade teachers to use them and that is why collaborative work is by far the best way to make things happen.

Working in collaboration is not only fun and easier but it also makes every learning experience richer for everyone involved. I agree with Lisa Huff, an English Teacher at Batesville High School, who says that working in collaboration is a very good way to help bring teachers up to speed on new technologies, expanding to tech-integrated and project-learning lesson planning. “If we collaborate with different teachers each year within a few years everyone on staff would have gone through this coaching.” And that is the goal.

For each collaborative project I work on, I always refer to the school website and find a way to encourage a technological component to the project. Whether it is to facilitating the search of information or suggesting a new way to present or share new knowledge, technology always has its place. The experience is always positive and becomes promotional for other colleagues.

The idea behind the collaboration is also helping each other out and avoid holding in all the great things we do but instead sharing them with others so that everybody can gain from them.

The next step will be to create a real collaborative network (Twitter, Blog, Office 365, etc.) designed to further facilitate and encourage collaborative teaching practices.  

I just saw this great BCTLA Infographic on my Twitter account: What can collaboration with a Teacher-Librarian look like? So many possibilities!

I also found this great video on technology integration, SAMR: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition.

I see this modal as an approach to thrive for, a progression of steps to accomplish. One at a time or more!

Sources:

Bernard, S. (2008, December 03). Collaborative Crusader: Creating a Twenty-First-Century Learning Community for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/collaboration-age-technology-lisa-huff

Www.ala.org/aasl/slr School Librarians as Technology ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol15/SLR_School_Librarians_as_Technology_Integration_Leaders_V15.pdf

Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. K. (2015). New on the job: A school librarians guide to success. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.