August 2022 archive
I think that using social media in the classroom is a slippery slope. There are arguments for and against using these platforms, but I personally would be reluctant to harness social media as an education platform.
There are several arguments supporting the use of social media. Students are using a variety of social media platforms and, as educators, and particularly as digital literacy experts, the teacher librarian are well-placed to support students in the safe use of these online spaces. Using social media opens up opportunities for ‘teaching moments’ to show students the importance of online responsibility and the use of privacy settings to ensure their online safety. Students also learn to engage with social media in a responsible manner and learn to only post what is appropriate. It’s the ‘think before you post’ mantra. My go to was always ‘if you wouldn’t put it on your grandmother’s fridge, don’t post it online’. These are vital skills for students as they interact with each other more and more in the digital world.
In saying that, interacting with students in a social media platform potentially opens a minefield of problems. When a page is opened for students to use it would become the responsibility of the teacher to monitor the use of the page. Teachers cannot monitor a page 24/7 so there is potential for the page to be used inappropriately. The page can’t be ‘closed’ overnight so students would have 24/7 access. Depending on which platform is chosen, students would be able to directly message the teacher, and this can place the teacher in an awkward situation in regard to child protection. These platforms are not monitored by the school and would breach child protection policies.
So, are there better options than teaching students how to be responsible in a public social media platform? Well, it depends on what the social media platform is being used for. Is it simply for sending out messages to students or is it for students to collaborate and contribute to the page? For messages being sent out be the teacher, the platforms School Stream and Class Dojo allows the school to make whole-school and individual class announcements. These platforms are monitored by the school to ensure that the content is appropriate.
Google Classroom allows interaction between teacher and students, and it includes a class homepage where students can post. I have previously worked in a ‘Google’ school and Google Classroom was used effectively to teach students about appropriate online interaction. The beauty of this choice is that the platform was monitored by school IT services, so the teacher was not on their own in monitoring the content. The page was also ‘closed’ from 8pm – 8am and on weekends. This is a setting the school chose to employ as a way to reduce issues around page monitoring.
I understand that students need to have real-world opportunities to build their skills in digital citizenship and that social media is not going away any time soon. However, I don’t think using public social media platforms is the way forward. I would suggest that teachers need to think carefully about what the purpose of using social media is before diving in headfirst.
I’m now halfway through ETL501 and I have been enjoying my learning journey so far. It has definitely challenged my thinking in the design of the physical library space and how that space is used by ALL members of the school community. I have looked at my library through a more critical lens and thinking about more than the aesthetics. The physical layout of the library must be purposeful and fit the needs of the school community, taking 21st century skills into account, thus future-proofing the library space. It was exciting to share the (imagined) library redesign ideas with my colleagues and to spark conversations around why the space is set up how it is and what would be changed, if anything. Being more critical of the library space allowed me to realise there are issues in my library, particularly the height of the non-fiction shelves. I hadn’t realised that the height makes browsing prohibitive as well as a WHS issue.
It was also eye-opening to realise that the library’s number one purpose is to service the needs of teachers and the students come secondary to this. However, by supporting the teachers it enables them (and us) to support the students. It’s not about neglecting student needs but supporting them through the curriculum needs of teachers.
Doing all this learning online is challenging however it does have advantages. The online delivery model allows me to
- Access the content when I want to
- Refer back to the content as required
- Curate readings digitally
Disadvantages include
- A lot of reading online
- Feeling isolated because there is no in-person interaction with the unit coordinators or students
Even though I have enjoyed the learning in ETL501 so far, I do find it difficult to be excited about it. I have to be self-motivated to engage in the learning and the discussion boards. The amount of reading can be overwhelming. I would like to see a change in the delivery of the bulk of the content through recorded weekly lectures with additional reading and activities required in addition to the lecture. I have previously engaged in distance education that followed this model and I found it to be more motivating.
Engaging with online content has got me thinking about the concept of the flipped classroom. The flipped classroom model needs to be considered carefully before implementation. The resources provided must suit the needs of the learners otherwise it is difficult to engage with the materials independently. The flipped classroom model also needs to take differentiation of content into consideration. There is not a one-size-fits all when it comes to learning. I can see that the flipped classroom model could possibly allow students to move through their learning more quickly because the learning is taking place outside of class time. This frees up the class time to be used for support from the teacher and peers through questions and practice of new skills.
The flipped classroom model could influence library research investigations with students engaging in independent research outside class time and then receive guidance from the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian at school.
However, it does make me wonder if the flipped classroom model works for motivated, capable students but is potentially a pitfall for students requiring more support.
Key aspects of Web 2.0 that are likely to impact on education in today’s schools include web search skills, website evaluation strategies and the effects of social media.
The use of search engines has a huge impact on education. There are a vast number of search engines available, and they all allow a list of websites appearing at the click of a button. This information glut can be difficult to navigate, particularly if students do not have the skills to effectively evaluate websites. These skills are not innate, and students are not digital natives (Kirscher & De Bruyckere, 2017). It is disservice to our students to assume they have the skills to navigate and discern information presented to them online. Just because our students have grown up in a world where the internet always been in their lives, does not mean they naturally have the skills to navigate it. To put this in perspective, we all grew up in a world where there are cars, however we all needed explicit instruction to learn to drive one.
Web 2.0 provides an interactive experience for students, and they can comment on and ‘like’ pages and posts. They can create their own blogs and interact with other internet users. This opens a whole can of worms for schools around cyber-safety for their students. All schools have a responsibility to ensure that students are safe online. Schools need to have a ‘Responsible use of ICT’ policy and it needs to updated regularly and adhered to. This helps to ensure students’ online safety.
The impact of social media platforms is ongoing in schools. It’s more than teaching students about the dangers of these social media platforms (grooming, cyber-bullying, identity theft) but for schools to understand what behaviours are being promoted in trending videos (Wright, 2022). With this knowledge, teachers can support students in their safe navigation of these social media platforms. Our students are exposed to more information than ever before and they must have the skills to navigate this information. Remember, not everything you read in on the internet is true!
This might all seem like a lot of doom and gloom with the online dangers for our students. But there is a light! The teacher librarian can support students in their skills to navigate Web 2.0 tools. From effective search skills to website evaluation, the teacher librarian is well-placed to teach these skills explicitly in a range of subject areas across the curriculum. There is also opportunity here for the teacher librarian to provide professional development to staff to upskill them in these areas as well. Web 2.0 applications are here to stay and cannot be ignored. To ignore these is to ignore student needs.
References
Kirscher, P.A., & De Bruyckere, P. (2017). The Myths of the digital native and the multitasker. Teaching and Teacher Education. 10(67) 135-142.
Wright, A. (2022, April 7). TikTok: What Are the Dangers and What Should Schools Do? School governance. https://www.schoolgovernance.net.au/news/tiktok-what-are-the-dangers-and-what-should-schools-do
The layout of the library takes many factors into consideration. It needs to be visually appealing while servicing the needs of the school community. It needs to be a place of quiet study and collaboration. It needs to be a flexible, yet practical. Many of these considerations seem to be contradictory and presents the conundrum of ‘How does the library cater for all these needs?’
The conundrum
Different sections of the school are going to require different uses of the library space. This morning I was faced with one such conundrum around the use of the library. In the mornings, the library is a buzz of activity; students studying, chatting, playing cards, catching up on homework, and playing chess. There is particularly boisterous group of Year 8 students who enjoy sitting and chatting in the library. Their favoured space is close to tables at which the Year 12s like to study in small groups. One Year 12 student was labouring over a past paper and was getting frustrated about the Year 8s chatting. All students have equal rights to accessing the library space, but the Year 12 student didn’t see it that way. The year 12 student was offered a small study room, but he declined saying he preferred to be at the table. Who was right in this interaction?
This particular scenario is not unusual in the library space; one that I am sure we have all faced at one time or another. The question is, what do we do about it? Are we meeting the needs of the students in the current library space?
Role of the library
Loh (2019) states that “The five key roles of a 21st century school library are to support reading, research, collaboration, studying and doing” (p. 4). This is a far cry from the library of old, where it was simply a place to store and access knowledge and information (Australian Library and Information Association, 2014; Halder, 2020; Rashid, 2020). The library is a much more dynamic space now than ever before and is being used in dynamic ways. The space must have the flexibility to cater for all students needs within the five key roles. Reading, researching and studying require a quiet space, while collaboration and doing require a space that allows talking and movement.
Solving the conundrum
The key to the solution is being definite about what each section of the library is used for. There needs to be areas for quiet study, researching and reading, and there needs to be areas for collaboration and doing. When there is cross-over in these areas, that is when the situation outlined above occurs.
There is no one-size-fits all solution, and it’s vital for the teacher librarian to assess the needs of the students and staff through conversations and understanding the curriculum. They then apply this knowledge of their community to designing the space to suit the varied needs.
References
Australian Library and Infomation Association. (2017). Future of the library and information science profession school libraries. Canberra: Australian Library and Infomation Association. https://www.alia.org.au/futureoftheprofession
Halder, D. (2020). A transitional shift from traditional library to digital library. In A. K. A. Kaushik, Handbook of research on emerging trends and technologies in library and information science (pp. 147-156). IGI Global.
Loh, C. E. (2019). Envisioning the school library of the future: A 21st century framework. https://doi.org/ 10.13140/RG.2.2.32524.36489.
Rashid, M. H. (2020, December 28). Difference Between Traditional and Digital Library. Library & Information Managemet. https://limbd.org/