digital tools – Connect the dots

Prior Knowledge and Pigeons: My Preliminary Understanding of Digital Literature

July 9, 2023 Amanda Wilson Comments 4 comments

Within the introductory module of ETL533 Literature in Digital Environments, my preconceptions of digital literature have already been challenged. Prior to the commencement of this unit, I would have classed eBooks or PDF books as a part of digital literature, but as explained by Giovanna Di Rosario in her TEDx Talk, Pixelated Words: Literature Facing the Digital World (TEDx Talks, 2018), it pertains to literary works that are created for and on digital devices. From the examples shown within the video, it is clear that digital literature is not just replacing paper for a screen. It involves a level of interactivity and manipulation from the user.

The starter list of various digital narratives was all very new to me. However, there was one stand out that I have used extensively during my time as a classroom teacher. Don’t let the Pigeon Run this App! (Disney, 2017) was a staple in my teacher toolkit. Mo Willem’s had already perfected the art of creating physical books where readers could interact with the main protagonist, the persistent Pigeon, as he tries to persuade the reader that they should let him do un-pigeon-like things, such as drive a bus, stay up late, or get a puppy. Don’t let the Pigeon Run this App! (2017) takes it to the next level, allowing children (and adults, alike!) to create their own Pigeon story using the same story structure as the series of books. It always had a magical ability to engage the whole class, with students eager to create their own version of the Pigeon stories and share them with their classmates. Students would challenge themselves to come up with funny responses to the prompts given by the Bus Driver to make their classmates laugh.

Dont Let The Pigeon Run This App! (Disney, 2017) — The pigeon is told “NO!”, he cannot have what he is asking for. From the app: *Don’t Let The Pigeon Run This App!* (Disney, 2017)

I have had other experiences with combining digital technology and literature, but at this early stage of my learning I am unsure if this would be classed as digital literature. As a junior primary teacher for my whole career, apps such as Reading Eggs (3P Learning, n.d.) have been an integral part of the reading programs of both schools that I been a part of. I have also utilised the coding app Scratch Jr (DevTech Research Group & Scratch Foundation, n.d.) for students to create their own mini stories. I will reassess where these apps fit within the digital literature landscape once I have developed a better understanding of what digital literature is.

Reflecting upon my limited experience of digital literature, I can see how it could be a powerful tool to engage students in the reading process; particularly those who are reluctant, find reading difficult due to a disability, or English not being their first language. I am really keen to learn more about this aspect of teacher librarianship and how I can adapt my future library to take advantage of the vast array of digital literacy platforms.

References:

3P Learning. (n.d.). Reading Eggs. https://readingeggs.com.au/

Disney. (2017). Don’t Let The Pigeon Run This App!. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dont-let-pigeon-run-this-app/id459749670

DevTech Research Group & Scratch Foundation. (n.d.) Scratch Jr. https://www.scratchjr.org/

TEDx Talks. (2018, July). Are pixels the future of literature ? | Giovanna Di Rosario | TEDxUCLouvain [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CAaoWcknvM

Time Management and Negotiation

May 23, 2021 Amanda Wilson Comments 0 Comment

In my professional and personal life, I have always been excellent at time management and prioritising what needs to be done. Being in a demanding profession such as teaching has honed my time management skills even further. On the other hand, negotiation is an area that I need to further develop if I want to become an effective teacher librarian.

When I think about teachers who I have worked with in the past that possessed influential qualities, my mind goes one executive teacher. Their influence and impact in my formative years of teaching was so great that I continue to this day to think that is the teacher that I want to be. She was not only influential to her team, but also the students with whom she connected with. When my teaching team watched this executive teacher model quality teaching practices to us, we would always note how mesmerised the students (and us) were when she taught. Her calm demeanour made it easy to approach her whenever you needed support. She was also able to see potential within me that I could not see in myself and always encouraged me to develop my pedagogy across different areas of teaching.

When identifying the advanced skills in time management and negotiation that this executive teacher possessed, one major concept influenced both areas: the students. Being in an executive role is demanding, but it was clear that this executive teacher managed their time by prioritising anything related to student learning. When it came to negotiating with her team or with other executive staff, she remained solutions focused and was always equipped with reasons and evidence to back up what she was trying to negotiate for. If others put up defences, she would respectfully question their reasons and draw everything back to how it would impact student learning.

I believe I can achieve more productivity as a teacher librarian by utilising digital tools and becoming more fluent with them. I touched on this briefly in a previous blog post entitled Using Digital Tools to Collect Evidence, where I discussed how digital tools can help a teacher librarian work more efficiently as once established, many applications can run automatically. Using online calendars to manage my time, particularly when it comes to the collaboration aspect of teacher librarianship, will enable me to clearly envision what is ahead of me and help me to prioritise tasks.

I need to build up my confidence in the art of negotiation. I believe confidence and experience play a factor in the development of negotiation skills. Thinking back to that influential executive teacher, I need to remember that everything I negotiate for has a direct impact on student learning. If I can keep this in the forefront of my mind and provide evidence to back up my case, slowly but surely, I should be able to build my negotiation skills.

ETL401: A Reflection On Learning

May 21, 2021 Amanda Wilson Comments 1 comment

When I reflect upon how far my learning has come since the beginning of this subject, I have come to realise that the preconceived ideas that I had were from a different era of teacher librarianship (Wilson, 2021, March 8). In recent times the profession has undergone a renaissance, reinventing itself to meet the need for students to be information literate in the 21st century. Through regular blogging and online discussions, I can see just how far my understanding of information literacy, inquiry learning models and the teacher librarian’s role in inquiry learning has come.

My initial understanding of information literacy was simply the action of selecting, locating and evaluating resources. My new understanding acknowledges that information literacy is complex, broad and context dependent. With the information landscape continuing to evolve at a rapid rate, the definition of information literacy will evolve with it and in turn, change the skills and knowledge required of me as a teacher librarian (Wilson, 2021, May 5). To begin constructing my own understanding, I applied Annemaree Lloyd’s (2007, p. 5) sociocultural definition of information literacy to the context of student learning and identified that the development of transliteracy skills, student collaboration, engaging students using all their senses, and incorporating ICT were crucial in the teaching of information literacy (Wilson, 2021, April 26).

With my increased understanding of information literacy comes a greater understanding of the Australian Curriculum’s (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.) general capabilities and their place within teaching and learning. In module 4.1a and 4.1b, I reflected upon my personal experience as a classroom teacher trying to reconcile best practice with other competing demands (Wilson, 2021, April 16; Wilson, 2021, April 17). I resonated with what Lee FitzGerald (2018, p. 53) cited as an inhibitor for collaboration: “embarrassment”. I was embarrassed for not understanding how to incorporate the general capabilities within my teaching. Having now had practice in embedding the general capabilities within an inquiry unit and identifying how to assess these skills, I now feel more capable in incorporating these skills and processes into future guided inquiry units.

Through my learning of information literacy models I came to the conclusion that any challenges or disadvantages bought about by the implementation of a guided inquiry approach were outweighed by the advantages; the most notable being that “a guided inquiry approach to learning allows our students to construct their own meaning and subsequently create lifelong learning skills” (Wilson, 2021, May 1). Of the many information literacy models I analysed, the one that piqued my interests was Guided Inquiry Design (Kuhlthau et al, 2015, p. 53). As a lower primary teacher, I always believed that research tasks were reserved for older students. However, Guided Inquiry Design has shown me that by scaffolding their emerging research skills and harnessing their natural curiosity (Maniotes, 2018, p. 19), even the youngest of students can develop inquiry skills. Utilising digital tools allows teachers to collect qualitative data on the inquiry process (Wilson, 2021, April 14) and support younger students to record reflections on their learning orally, mitigating the need for well-developed writing skills.

I have come to learn that the role of a teacher librarian is teacher first, librarian second. This concept was reinforced when I examined the standards within the Evidence Guide for Teacher Librarians in The Proficient Career Stage (Australian School Library Association, 2014) (Wilson, 2021, April 19). I previously held the misconception that teacher librarians simply connected classroom teachers to relevant resources when planning units of inquiry. I now recognise that collaboration is the key to embedding information literacy and sits at the core of a teacher librarian’s role. However, creating a culture where collaboration is valued amongst classroom teachers is no easy feat, requiring a teacher librarian to think long-term and begin with “one interested teacher at a time” (Garrison & FitzGerald, 2019) (Wilson, 2021, April 23).

In module 4.3, I examined research that provided evidence of the impact a teacher librarian has on student reading results (Hughes, 2013, para. 1) and expressed the opinion:

If the mere presence of a teacher librarian (sometimes not even qualified with dual qualifications) in a school has the impact to improve reading results, then I imagine the active involvement from a dually-qualified teacher librarian in curriculum development would have an even greater impact on student learning and achievement across many other learning areas (Wilson, 2021, April 24).

Therefore, by expanding my own understanding of information literacy and inquiry learning through ETL401 and putting this new learning into action, I should be able to make a significant pedagogical impact on the teaching and learning within my school.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). General capabilities. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/

Australian School Library Association. (2014). Evidence Guide for Teacher Librarians in The Proficient Career Stage. ASLA. https://asla.org.au/evidence-guides-tls

FitzGerald, L. (2018). Guided inquiry goes global : Evidence-based practice in action. ABC-CLIO, LLC

Garrison, K. L. & FitzGerald, L. (2019, October 21-25). “One interested teacher at a time”: Australian Teacher Librarian Perspectives on Collaboration and Inquiry [conference paper]. 48th Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship and the 23rd International Forum on Research in School Librarianship, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Hughes, H. (2013). School libraries and teacher-librarians: evidence of their contribution to student literacy and learning. Curriculum and Leadership Journal, 11(12). http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/school_libraries_and_tls,36453.html?issueID=12777

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2015). Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century (2nd ed.). Libraries Unlimited.

Lloyd, A. (2007). Learning to put out the red stuff: Becoming information literate through discursive practice. Library Quarterly, 77(2), 181-198.

Maniotes, L. K. (2018). Guided Inquiry Design in Action: Elementary School. Libraries Unlimited.

Using digital tools to collect evidence

April 14, 2021 Amanda Wilson Comments 0 Comment

As mentioned in a previous blog post, teacher librarians will become an endangered species if they do not make visible what is invisible; that is, the pedagogical impact of their role on the teaching and learning within a school. Collecting evidence gives a teacher librarian the ability to make the pedagogical impact of their role obvious. In the school context, evidence can then be used to accurately guide the direction of the school library (Bonanno, 2015, p. 17). On a professional level, it assists in identifying areas of personal strength and areas in which professional development goals can be created. Prior to reading Joyce Kasman Valenza’s article Evolving with Evidence: Leveraging New Tools For EBP (2015), I had only considered using digital technologies as a way of displaying and sharing the evidence, as opposed to an efficient way to collect data. Taking advantage of these digital tools can assist busy teacher librarians to work more efficiently, as once a tool is established it can run automatically, with some digital tools also having the ability to analyse data at the click of a button. Valenza’s article also highlights the effectiveness of using digital technologies to capture not only quantitative, but qualitative data. Asking questions, such as “what have you learned about finding information?”, can lead to a richer understanding of less tangible aspects, such as the skill level of students or the culture of the school library (Valenza, 2015, p. 38).

When it came to collecting evidence using digital technologies, the only concepts I had prior to reading this article were taking photos or taking screenshots of documents that contained data. As Valenza states, taking photos are still a worthwhile way to collect evidence (Valenza, 2015, p. 42), but if I can supplement this with a myriad of other digital techniques, it will make a portfolio of evidence much more robust. I was already aware of some of the digital tools Valenza described in the article and have utilised them within in my teaching practice, such as Survey Monkey and the Google Workspace suite of programs (Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms). But overall, most of the digital tools listed were new to me. I have analysed a few below that I would see myself using in the library context in the future, and added a few more digital tools that I have used in the past that would provide other avenues for collecting evidence of my practice as a teacher librarian.

Padlet logo: https://padlet.com/

From perusing the website, Padlet really stood out to me as a digital tool that I could use in a multitude of ways, both professionally and personally. Valenza suggests using it as an exit ticket system, where students reflect upon their learning at the conclusion of a lesson by answering a metacognitive question, which is a fantastic formative assessment strategy (Valenza, 2015, p. 39). There is also a great website that details 30 creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students (Renard, 2017), which includes some library-specific strategies, such as using Padlet to create a book wishlist or a library suggestion box for students to request books that they would love to see included in the school’s collection.

Curriculet logo: https://www.curriculet.com/

My first essay for ETL401 analysed the different attributes of eBooks in comparison to print books, so reading about the digital tools that give teachers and students the ability to interact within eBooks piqued my interests. While researching my essay it was clear that there was a preference amongst current students for print books over eBooks, leading to implications for the teacher librarian to actively promote eBooks to ensure they do not become an invisible, unused resource. Using add-ons such as Curriculet would allow a teacher librarian to assess reading skills by designing prompts to questions through the reading of set texts. It is the perfect way to ensure eBooks are a well-used resource within the school library as well as being an efficient way to collect data on reading skills.

Thinglink logo: http://www.thinglink.com/

My instant reaction when I analysed thinglink was to use this digital tool as a way to enhance the photographs that I would have already been including in my portfolio of evidence. Thinklink allows the user to create hotspots within a picture. When a user clicks on the hotspot, it provides additional information on a particular aspect within the picture. The format of the hotspot can be text, video or audio. This would be a fantastic tool to demonstrate how each area of the school library is utilised in meeting the schools mission statement. It also allows me as a teacher librarian to demonstrate how I meet the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’s (AITSL) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2011).

As a classroom teacher, I have come across other apps that I would consider useful for collecting data:

Kahoot! logo: https://kahoot.com/

Kahoot allows a teacher to create personalised quizzes which students can access without an account from an iPad, phone or laptop. The questions and multiple choice answers are displayed on a central display screen (such as a SmartBoard) and students use their devices to answer. They get personal feedback instantly on their screens and group feedback on the main screen. I have used Kahoot quizzes as icebreaker activities at the beginning of a school year and for formative and summative assessment pieces within units of work.

Seesaw logo: https://web.seesaw.me/

SeeSaw allows students to take photos or videos and annotate their work. This app was created as a way to share work in the classroom with family, but I have also used it as a way to capture student learning for my own records. Valenza discussed how she gets the students to video her library so she is able to gain a glimpse of the library from their point of view (Valenza, 2015, p. 42). SeeSaw could be an alternative way collect this evidence from students.

Valenza’s article has opened me up to a myriad of different digital technologies that I had never considered using before. I am excited to explore these apps further, even for my own personal use. From the readings within this module it is clear that I need to ensure that as a teacher librarian, I am conscious in making my pedagogical impact in the school obvious through the constant collection of evidence, which can be made more efficient through the use of digital tools.

References:

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. AITSL. https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards

Bonanno, K. (2015). A profession at the tipping point (revisited). Access, 29(1), 14-21. http://kb.com.au/content/uploads/2015/03/profession-at-tipping-point2.pdf

Renard, L. (2017). 30 creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students. BookWidgets. https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2017/08/30-creative-ways-to-use-padlet-for-teachers-and-students

Valenza , J. (2015). Evolving with evidence: Leveraging new tools for EBP. Knowledge Quest, 43( 3), 36-43.

Connect the dots

Thoughts and reflections from a Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) student

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