A Teacher Librarian’s (TL) role is to support staff and students within the school. Teachers need to understand the world that students engage in and help them to develop skill to safety interact within it. By developing pedagogy and curriculum along with meaningful resources, teachers can use the internet to better engage and include young people in a safe environment.
Teachers need to use internet experiences such as blogs and social networking sites in their curriculum. TLs need to be familiar with these internet applications. So that they can steer teachers towards applications that best suit the learning experience. By doing so, teachers can engage students in a familiar environment (James et al, 2008). Not only will TLs be able to help teachers in this manner, they will also be there to show teachers how to use the application.
TLs can endorse and support change with the school is by examining resources provided. Making judgements on what is worth keeping or procuring for the library will enable quality materials to be selected (Dezuanni, 2010b). TLs should work with teachers to ensure relevant and popular texts are examined. Exploring what videos are popular on YouTube would be a worthwhile start as these are not the generic texts that teachers would think of using. By using the internet to find quality resources, a greater understanding of the world that young people use to gain experience will develop. By using resources from the internet students will be better able to understand and engage with the curriculum.
Teachers need to understand that the way they used to participate in society and explore who they were is not the same way that young people do it today. Times have changed and so have the methods that youth represent themselves (Dezuanni, 2010c). Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have taken over other methods used. Belonging to a group is no longer about wearing certain types of clothes and acting in a certain way rather it is about what quiz is taken and what the result is (Boyd, 2008). It is the responsibility of the TL to ensure that teachers understand how students express themselves and how to incorporate this into their introductory lessons. The first lesson that students and their teacher meet. By using the Learning Place, students can experience the familiar environment within Education Queensland’s boundaries and teachers can use a different method of communication. TLs need to endorse and support this to ensure its successful integration into pedagogy.
Ensuring that students are digitally literate is not just the responsibility of the computing teacher. To help students to become digitally literate, the TL can offer lessons out of class whereby students use programs to help them participate in the digital world and learn how to become writers of this medium (Dezuanni, 2010e). For instance, TLs can educate students on YouTube. To do this, students will be offered lessons to learn how to use Windows Movie Maker as well as either a webcam or a camera. Students will then make a video and remix it to make the message that trying to send more obvious. Using YouTube will demonstrate how there are consequences for items placed on a public site (Dezuanni, 2010a). Issues such as control and surveillance can be examined and understood when a practical example is used. Ensuring students understand that there are consequences with some forms of media will help them to appreciate and take precautions when participating in the global society.
Teaching teachers and students about researching is a traditional TLs role. New methods such as using a social networking site to gather information should be explored. Teachers and principals need to also understand that Facebook can provide ways to retrieve information. Companies such as the Children’s Book Council of Australia have a Facebook page. This provides young people a unique opportunity to gather information from the company without needing to use old fashion methods such as writing letters. By keeping up with the times, teachers can engage students in the research process by allowing them to use methods that are familiar to them.
TLs have a massive job in front of them to ensure that the internet as a medium is utilised by teachers. By using this medium teachers can engage students in curriculum process that would otherwise be boring. TLs need to ensure that they are a link between the teacher and the student’s world. The best method is to change curriculum and pedagogy and demonstrate and teach teachers how to use the medium. Keeping up to date with the current methods will ensure that more students participate in pedagogy utilising methods they know and ensure that success is more frequently found by young people. TLs must ensure they keep up to date with the current online applications to ensure that they can work with teachers to explore new methods that will better engage young people.
References
Boyd, D. (2008). Why Youth Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. Youth, Identity, and Digital Media, 119-142. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.119
Dezuanni, M. (2010a). CLN647 Youth, Popular Culture and Texts: Week 9 [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved September 25, 2010 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D
Dezuanni, M. (2010b). CLN647 Youth, Popular Culture and Texts: Week 4 [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved August 13, 2010 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D
Dezuanni, M. (2010c). CLN647 Youth, Popular Culture and Texts: Week 2 [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D
Dezuanni, M. (2010d). CLN647 Youth, Popular Culture and Texts: Week 3 [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved August 2, 2010 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D
Dezuanni, M. (2010e). CLN647 Youth, Popular Culture and Texts: Week 1 [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved July 22, 2010 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_64558_1%26url%3D
James, C., Davis, K., Flores, A., Francis, J.M., Pettingill, L., Rundle, M., & Gardner, H. (2008). Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media: A Synthesis from the Good Play Project. GoodWork Project Report Series, 54, 1-62. Retrieved August 5, 2010, from
http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?attachment=true&navItem=content&content_id=_3235259_1&displayName=Reading+4+-+Young+People%2C+Ethics+and+the+New+Digital+Media&course_id=_64558_1&href=/%40%40/2705D7B1EBCA39391F7AA5DE241D750D/courses/1/CLN647_10se2/content/_3235259_1/GoodWorkPaper54.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment