Direct your reading of this report to the relevant content and practical snapshots to envision and plan for leadership opportunities to explore in your own situation.

STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMEMT

Wolf et al. (2014) discuss the emerging and highly important role of the teacher librarian in the digital sphere, wherein they should maintain the currency of their digital literacies in order to support staff and students to access digital resources and develop their own digital literacies (p.5). In my own context I work with an older demographic of teachers who do not have the skills or confidence to implement new technologies or effectively utilise the digital technologies or hardware already accessible to them. There is certainly space and a need for my role as teacher librarian to support staff more effectively in improving their digital literacies through ongoing formal and informal training, so that they can more effectively implement these technologies with their students. However, I would need to be careful to ensure that this remains a role focused on the support of digital learning and does not transition to resolver of technological problems (Wolf et al., 2014, p.6).

COLLABORATION TO BUILD A BRIDGE ACROSS THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Another aspect to consider here is the impact of the digital divide, and how I as teacher librarian can work to reduce this disadvantage. This is particularly important given my context, where my school supports a significant number of students who live on farms and in reception-poor rural areas, or don’t have access to the hardware required to reliably access the internet at home. Often, students will ask to use the library at lunch time to work on assessments.  This trend is also reported by Wolf et al. (2014), who further suggest that the school library could extend their opening hours to before and after school to provide these disadvantaged students with the access to the support, the internet and hardware they require to effectively engage with course work (p.5). In my small school, this would present a challenge. Staffing the library for these additional hours would be difficult. In the future, I would like to investigate setting up a volunteer roster of teachers willing to offer their time to supervise these students, or perhaps even liaise with the local public library to support students in that third space beyond the school library to help students bridge the digital divide.

Reference List

Wolf, M., Jones, R., & Gilbert, D. (2014). Leading in and Beyond the Library. Alliance for excellent education. p.1-24.