LIBE 477 Final Vision Blog Post 3: Reflection and Artifact

 

LIBE 477 Final Vision Blog Post 3: Reflection and Artifact

My learning journey throughout this course and to complete my final artifact has been a series of ups and downs. Building on the minimal technology knowledge base I had when I started and using inquiry to further develop this base has been an enriching and eye-opening experience. I’ll be honest, I was intimidated at the start as my tech know-how was basic, but I’ve really enjoyed the collaborative aspects involved with the weekly zoom meetings, and discussion with my fellow students. I feel I’ve gained confidence as well as knowledge, and the skills to find answers that I still need.

Course reflection

Some of my key learnings in this course, not surprisingly, have centred on developing my knowledge in ICT. In our modules 6 and 7 we explored how to develop our ICT skills, and then how to support the staff in our schools to develop their ICT skills. I was concerned that if I wasn’t an expert then how could I possibly help others? One of my biggest challenges in this course, besides experiencing the process of inquiry-based learning, was to overcome my fear of something new and take some risks. I’m sure many students have felt the same way I did, which deepens my empathy towards their learning process.

Since my school division uses Google G suite for education, I felt that should be my first priority. Through a little bit of digging, however, I found there was a lot of online support for learning about this system, including blogs from google like Introducing G Suite for Education, and many YouTube tutorials, such as the following:

Once I began my foray into exploring ICT, I began to gain confidence and started looking into other digital tools, apps, and platforms. I found it inspiring to see how many teachers out there blog and share this information freely, as well as learning from my fellow students in this class. For example, one fellow student taught me about Book Creator, which I was then inspired to use for the artifact that I will include at the end of this blog, (thanks Kate!). But there were also good websites to check out such as the Tech Edvocate, where I read about some useful apps for the elementary level like TeachMe:Kindergarten for language arts and math, and Sushi Monster for math.

Once I had some new ideas under my belt, I started to consider how to support other staff in their ICT development as the teacher librarian and enable them to meet curricular goals while promoting digital literacy with their students. As Miller and Bass mention, the “continuous shift in knowledge creates an opportunity for librarians to be digital age mentors”, (pg. 15) but trying something new can be intimidating.

This brought home for me my second key learning about how important collaboration is for teachers and for student progress. Studies show that “test scores increase as school librarians spend more time collaborating with and providing training to teachers”, (ERIC Digest, 2004).  I reflected on how important building relationships and trust is in order for staff to be willing to try something new. The Concerns Based Adoption Model, (CBAM, 2013), outlines different stages of concern about adopting new technology and strategies to guide change. This insight is useful when considering how I can approach staff with new technology and change.

Another key learning that had a significant personal impact was with module 8, developing world libraries. Exploring how libraries function in poorer countries and the amount of technology they do or don’t have really opened my eyes to the responsibility we have as teacher librarians, as gatekeepers of information. Not only to at-risk students here at home but being proactive about trying to help others globally and getting involved in efforts to this end already underway, with agencies such as CODE, (Canadian organization for development through education), IFLA, (international federation of library associations). I was previously unaware of these organizations and their work to raise awareness and promote development of print and digital resources for libraries in other countries in need. In the future I’d like to explore how I can be active in agencies like this and make a difference.

Final Vision Project

To begin with, I wanted to explore information literacy. There was some overlap in this subject with topics like digital literacy and reading literacy skills, so I decided to narrow this down to categories of research and critical thinking skills, recall and precision issues, and effective use of search engines and online databases. If this sounds like a lot to cover, it was. The more I researched databases, search engines and useful digital apps, the more interested I got in technological tools. So, once again I narrowed my focus to this area of information.

Then I thought about who this information could be most useful for....and I do have a special place in my heart for kindergarten, having taught it myself previously. There is a lot of information online about digital tools, apps, and useful websites for teachers, but it has been my experience that not much of it focused on the kindergarten grade level. Some of the data I came up with was from online searching, but at least half of it came from other kindergarten teachers within my school division who were more than willing to share their favorites. One of the challenges with this topic choice relates to the digital tool I am using to present and share my findings. I took a risk and tried out a new app I know nothing about and started learning more with the help of YouTube tutorials, online articles, and information from my fellow student, Kate.

For my final vision of a modern digitally supported kindergarten classroom, I wanted to curate a collection of resources to provide relevant curricular support with integrating technology. I wanted to do this to promote student engagement, provide another way to accommodate ESL students, and hopefully make lives easier for teachers with some of these tools and resources. Kindergarten is very busy, with children who can’t read to start off with and short attention spans. Through my interactions and conversations with some kindergarten teachers in my division, technological resources and ideas are basically shared through word of mouth or if a teacher has time to do some extra research for digital tools, apps, and websites that would be useful and meet learning objectives at the kindergarten level. For this reason, I intend to share this collection with the network of kindergarten teachers in my division that I know and ask them to share with others who may find this artifact of use. I have also had some interest from grade 1 teachers I’ve worked with so I will share this with them as well, and they can share with others too. I have also included my contact information so this can become a living document that can be added to as new developments and ideas arise.

One of the challenges with integrating technology in kindergarten for teachers besides the lack of spare time to research digital tools, is that students at this age don’t use computer labs or laptops from the computer cart like older students in the school do. So, the technology available to this grade needs to be useful on a smartboard with the whole class, useful on a couple of iPads as part of a tech centre, or a teacher resource that would support technology use in lesson planning. After a lot of digging and exploring, I think I’ve created an artifact that contains digital resources that will be useful for early education teachers, be they kindergarten or grade 1. This is a digital book I made on book creator called "Digital Tools and Resources for Kindergarten". Click the link to read.

https://read.bookcreator.com/9cJ350DvLyMMybDrf5zS2aNWrP72/ZU0gly2uS7GMLu3A1fYwZA

My wish for the future is that this document can support my fellow teachers in early years teaching like kindergarten or grade 1, and that maybe my fellow students in LIBE 477 might even find something useful to take away as well.

  

Works Cited

Rochelle, Jonathon. (2016). Introducing G suite for Education. Retrieved from https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/introducing-g-suite-education/

YouTube by Horner, Peter. (2021). Google Workspace for Education Overview. Retrieved from https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=Awr9J.qXgTtiO20AZljrFAx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=tutorial+google+g+suite+for+education&fr2=piv-web&type=E210CA885G91650&fr=mcafee#action=view&id=4&vid=2ef45eabbddeb2a988fada0bef222df3

Lynch, Matthew. (2022). The Tech Edvocate- 8 Must-Have Elementary School Apps and Tools. Retrieved from https://www.thetechedvocate.org/8-must-elementary-school-apps-tools/

Miller, S., & Bass, W. (2019).  Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age. International Society for Technology in Education.

Russell, Shayne- ERIC Digest. (2001). Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships. Retrieved from https://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/librarians.html

SEDL. (2013). Concern-Based Adoption Model: CBAM. Retrieved from https://www.air.org/resource/stages-concern-concerns-based-adoption-model

CODE. (2022). Retrieved from https://code.org/

International Federation of Library Association. (2022). https://origin-www.ifla.org/