This unit has been a real eye-opener for me as a Teacher Librarian in my current school. It has allowed me to view my role in a different light and hold myself at a higher standard. Many of the topics learnt and delivered throughout this course has allowed me to reflect on my role at my school and acknowledge that I could be offering my skills and services in a much broader range. I now acknowledge that my role is much more important than just being the release teacher for all classes throughout the school. I have always been a strong believer in collaboration between teachers and the Teacher Librarian. This belief has now been consolidated during my learning in this subject and it is evident that collaboration between the classroom teacher and myself can only have a positive impact on student learning and outcomes (McNee & Radmer, 2017).
My understanding of Information Literacy was very limited before undertaking my learning on this subject. I was always of the understanding that to specialise in Information Literacy you had to be knowledgeable in locating information for others to absorb. I have learnt throughout my readings and assignments it is much more than that. However, I truly believe it will be difficult for anyone to know everything there is to know about Information Literacy as this is a constantly evolving space. As new technologies are invented and new systems are put in place, there will be a constant requirement to learn new ways information can be absorbed, located and displayed. The Information Literacy space will be an area of learning that will consist of new lessons and classes that are constantly evolving (Chia, 2012). I have never specifically, and never thought of, teaching my students about Information Literacy until now. I feel exposing my students to the basics of Information Literacy would be the step in the right direction for helping them understand the importance of how learning can occur in the library, classroom and life in general. However, to truly help our students to become highly capable information literate students, it needs to be an integrated approach that involves collaboration and careful planning and programming from early on within the school (Gill, 2020). If an integrated approach was not achievable due to unsupportive staff or executives it would then make our jobs as the Teacher Librarian quite difficult if it was solely left up to us, as we often have very limited time with students (Kutner & Armstrong, 2012).
In previous years I have done a variety of inquiry based units, however, many of them were based around STEM activities and projects that have had a hands on approach. During these projects I have never taken full advantage of the library systems and knowledge base I had at my fingertips. After learning about the different information literacy models it has opened my mind up to the possibilities of extending the students learning journey during inquiry based units. Although not all concepts and stages involved in information literacy models could have been relevant to my STEM units, it is evident that many of them could have been used during the learning process. The Guided Inquiry Design Process model would have worked well with many of my STEM activities as it has similar stages to the engineering design process. However, after gaining a greater understanding of the process of inquiry learning, it is evident that I need to take more initiative to collaborate with my classroom teachers in other areas of the students’ learning, not just STEM. This may present some challenges for me as a Teacher Librarian as many teachers in my current school see me as mainly the technology guru preparing our students for the digital world they will be facing. I believe it would be my role to educate my fellow colleagues on the process of research and inquiry based learning in order to establish, build and deliver high-quality inquiry based units of work (Maniotes & Kuhlthau, 2014).
As stated earlier, this introductory unit has opened my mind and exposed me to new and exciting concepts that I have already started to implement in my library at my current school.
References:
Chia, J. (2012). The constant evolution of information literacy. Library Connect. https://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/articles/constant-evolution-information-literacy
Gill, L. (2020). 5.4 a: Information Literacy. Interact 2 Discussion Board. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_44233_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_88814_1&forum_id=_182066_1&message_id=_2666118_1
Kutner, L. & Armstrong, A. (2012). Rethinking information literacy in a globalised world. Communications in Information Literacy, 6(1), 24-33. CSU Library.
Maniotes, L.K, Kuhlthau, C. (2014). Making the shift. Knowledge Quest. 43(2) 8-17
McNee, D. & Radmer, E. (2017). Librarians and Learning: The Impact of Collaboration. https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/ELQ/0401-aug2017/ELQ0401Librarians.pdf
