Week 4

Selecting a research topic for the next assignment - creating an annotated bibliography

  

There are some tough choices here as I have so many areas of interest.  One thing that I find irritating is the lack of virtual libraries and information literacy instruction within the virtual schools at the K12 level and I think I’d like to explore the topic in depth.  Texas at least has acknowledged the necessity of school librarians and since 2003 has required all new school librarians to have not only a teaching certificate, 3 years of classroom experience but also a Masters in Library Science.  So, if the state education board  understands the need for teacher librarians in schools, why do we not have the same requirements for our virtual students?

There are a few reasons.

1.     Many students who attend online classes also attend full time school.  The selection of an online course is simply an adjunct to a full school day.  Students choose courses that would not ordinarily be available in their district, or because it does not fit into their schedule and if taken on campus might necessitate dropping another desired /required course.  I guess it is simply assumed that these students also receive library support in their home school.  This may or may not be the case.

2.  There are several types of virtual school in TX.  Some simply provide the courses to districts but do not enroll the students.  (Texas Virtual School is part of Region 4 and does not have students.  Instead it makes access to a wide variety of approved courses available to the various districts throughout TX, ) There are also full time charter  virtual schools, attended often by homeschoolers or those who simply do not want to attend traditional schools.  These are operated at no cost to the student (same as the public schools) but cost is always an issue at some level.

 It would be interesting to see why the full time schools have chosen not to employ full time librarians.  Is it because there is a shortage of K12 distance librarians?  Is it possibly the additional costs involved?  Is it simply because there are too few K12 distance librarians to advocate for the necessity of the introduction of  information and other literacy skills?  Is it a lack of training on the part of the administration, many of whom may not fully realize the necessity of incorporating these skills or an administration who simply assume that teachers will automatically teach these skill?   This is one of the reasons that many adminstrators give in the face to face context.   I did talk with one (f2f)  principal who said that although she understood the necessity for a librarian, she never really grasped it until she worked with a great librarian and saw the difference that it made in the school.  Maybe it will take a few great librarians at the K12 level to push the issue forward. 

  This is a timely topic given this weeks readings.

 How can we design courses that include the development of information literacy skills.  As I’m reading, I’m finding more and more information about transliteracy  or metaliteracy.  I’m not sure there’s really a difference between the two as they seem to be two different terms for pretty much the same thing.  However, I do believe that while there is a need to teach students not only how to find textual information in print and digitally, there is also a need to teach them how to find and interpret visual presentations of information  (visual literacy) as well as what is termed digital literacy, which seems to be the ability to find, locate and evaluate digitally shared information that may never have been in print.  This could incorporate multi media as well as text so may overlap with visual literacy – but that’s just one more thing for me to add to my list of reading.  I have also been reading about technology literacy.. Is this the same thing as digital literacy?  It seems like almost everyone has their own literacy to promote and they all see relevant to the 21st century. 

.  After all, if you cannot use a computer, you cannot access the digital information, nor will you be able to share /create information. 

 Although we have the “digital divide” which commonly refers to those who have access to computers and those who don’t, the digital divide is also about those who know how to use them to access information and those who don’t.  After all, it’s no use having a computer if you don’t know what to do with it.  

I was able to find some interesting websites that clarified what I’m thinking about. 

http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/exploring-transliteracy-the-new-literacies-and-libraries/

Questions to consider as I begin research?

What will /should be the role of the library in the K12 online classroom in the 21^st century?  If the traditional school librarian is acknowledged as the collaborator who ensures that students are information literate and that information literacy instruction is incorporated into the classroom, then how do we also  achieve information literate students in the virtual classroom.  Although there are many students who do one or two classes online while still attending full time school, there is also a growing number of students who choose to complete their education entirely online.    Information literacy skills are simply too important to leave for students to learn at college, especially given the fact that not everyone will go on to higher education right out of high school

Research question:  Do we need to have virtual /distance ed. Librarians in the K12 virtual schools?  What learning theories or other research  indicate the need for Information literacy skills?   How can the acquisition of information and even transliteracy skills be best addressed in the virtual K12 schools?  Is it better to have a virtual librarian that collaborates with content teachers and curriculum designers or should there be a separate,  research specific and technology specific classes or even a complete virtual library and access for the students to the librarian?    What best practices are currently recommended that would support any of the above solutions?

Keywords for searching

Librar*, K12, “information literacy”   transliteracy, metaliteracy, e-learning,  DE,

So how does this fit into what we read this week?   Well, how we design the curriculum is just as important as how we teach the content.   Incorporating collaboration is vital for understanding so having IL and other literacy skills incorporated seems to make sense to me as a teacher, a designer and a student.  If we’re learning at college how to learn all of these new technologies to  find and share information, shouldn’t we be doing the same thing with our students at the K12 level?   After all, not every high school student will go on to higher education and these skills are too important to simply leave for Higher Education Institutions to address. 

I hope that with my paper I can come up with some literature that will allow me to show the necessity for a library program at the virtual K12 schools.   If administrators are going to listen, then they will need some solid research backed information to show that incorporating transliteracy skills into the classroom at all levels not only helps our students be more prepared as citizens entering the 21st century world of work, but also will help to raise test scores as a result of improved education..


NOTE  added 13August  This entry was written several weeks ago.
 I'm finished my paper but it's interesting that the last report that we just read indicated that there really has not been much research done into K12 online education, which confirmed my findings.  ...   

Week 3 - AHA moments

Interesting week of reading - and a lot of new material to grasp.  The concept of multiple intelligences has always intrigued me, and of course, the concept of learning styles made sense - and I accepted it without much thinking. Of course, we should present the material in a way that makes it easy for the student to grasp.  After all, our goal is for them to learn the material.    So, when presented with an alternative way of looking at this I needed time to reflect. Mayes' concept that it is more important to ensure the fit of the material with what the student already knows and then giving frequent feedback that is conducive to learning,  I do know that scaffolding is vital in the ESL class where the student may very well understand the concept but not have the language to share what he knows.  I also knew that in the language classroom at least, we should push the student to learn by giving them information that is just beyond what they already know so that they have to struggle a little, but not too much. Krashen's theories of i +1 make intuitive sense.  When I read a student's comments on the discussion board that her learning style varied - it suddenly clicked.  Her learning style wasn't varying - her need for additional feedback in the form of discussion and being shown the information multiple times was a manifestation of her lack of pre-existing knowledge. And then, what Mayes and Gabriel were saying made so much more sense.  A brilliantly designed lesson plan with multi media clips and engaging activities about calculus just won't make any sense to a 3rd grader struggling to grasp the concept of multiplication.   So how a student learns is less relevant than the level at which the material is presented to the student.  Mismatching - or using a style that is not specifically comfortable to the student might not be desirable all the time - but it might force the student to have to think about the material in a way that ensures his grasping the concept.

So- the big question in my mind as we leave this week (and this module) is how to incorporate an assessment of the K12 student's existing knowledge into the online classroom prior to the start of the class.  If the teacher is designing the lesson plan, that may be relatively easy.  If a team is designing a module that will be subsequently used over a period of years by multiple instructors, that may not be quite as easy.

Some suggestions that I'll be thinking about

KWL chart - Have the student share what they know, what they want to know and then, at the end what they learned.  (I'd also use Buzzeo's (2002) additional column on this.  Where I learned the information.  This would force the student to keep track of websites/books/page numbers etc - and allow the instructor to also assess research skills.  This exercise would allow the teacher to see where each student is starting from, but also give global learners a framework of reference for the whole semester.

Buzzeo, T. (2002) Collaborating to Meet Standards:  Teacher/Librarian partnerships for 7-12.  Linworth OH.   

Discussion Questions:  A well written discussion question could potentially allow students to share what they already know about the topic, allowing the teacher to guide/add/supplement as needed before going into the predesigned learning modules. This would encourage the building of a community of inquiry.

Journal:  Having the students fill out a weekly, private journal allows students to reflect on what they are learning and gives the instructor the opportunity to share.  This allows both assessment on the part of the teacher and the opportunity for feedback as well as reflective opportunities for those students who need this.

Mind Map:  Using bubbl.us or some other free concept mapping software, have the student create a mind map to show what they know and the connections or understanding.

Have the student create the outline for a website instead of a KWL chart.   The website could then be rounded out as the semester went by, with the final product being part of an ongoing digital portfolio.

The most difficult thing about assessment within a pre-designed online module is how to adapt when necessary.  High school students often come to a classroom with widely differing capabilities and understanding of the topic at hand so the well trained online instructor would have to be able to use the tools offered by the classroom and still have the flexibility to change up as necessary for advanced students or for those that require more pre-instruction or tutoring.

That then brings up the question of student support.  If tutoring is necessary - how will that be provided?  Who will decide when student tutoring is necessary - and how will the instructor and the tutor work together to assess the student's progress?  Or will they be one and the same person?   If scaffolding to existing knowledge is vital, then so is support for the student who is struggling..   Yet one more area to explore in the coming weeks.

End of week 2

As is usual in any class, there's been a lot of reading and wrapping my brain around new ideas as well as dusting off some old knowledge.

Teaching and Learning Online. 

Since I am in the middle of  a 5 week introduction to online teaching class for new, about to be, online teachers, this is a great time to be reflecting on the established educational philosophies and re-vamping my own personal philosophy towards online education as opposed to the regular classroom.  In addition to teaching a course that was designed by someone else, I'm  also playing the role of student, thinking about best practices for designing an online class.   At the same time, I'm  designing the German curriculum for the virtual high school, realizing that it truly is an opportunity to make a difference for the students.  My goal for that course is to create an atmosphere that is conducive and motivating to learning for all students. 

Reviewing educational philosophies.  Behavioral, Cognitive, Constructivist.  I was familiar with these three theories, but the Connectivist theory was new to me, although it made perfect sense when I began reading about it.  One of my goals during this course is to explore this theory more.   

Guiding question:  What is the point of a theory/philosophy in any teaching situation?

Answers:  As a teacher, I believe that it's important to be aware that we all learn differently, depending on learning styles and experience.  An awareness of how students learn can,and should dictate, at least to a certain extent, how the classroom experience is planned.  It is also important to understand that all teachers bring their own learning styles and preferences into the classroom.  Their philosophy of learning, whether clearly understood by the teacher or not, tends to dominate the lesson planning.   A good teacher in any circumstances should be able to reach all students.

AHA moment:  Learner centered is not learning centred  (Anderson)Oh how true.  We cannot keep everybody happy and people have to take a certain amount of responsibility for their own learning, no matter what we do.  Ensuring that the courses is set up in such a way that learning can take place is not the same as ensuring that everyone learns the same thing.  We all come with different backgrounds, different learning styles and different needs.