Category: ETL501

ETL501 Assessment 2 Part B: Critical Reflection

In terms of technology and the role of the TL in creating resources and learning objects, I have learned so much over the course of this unit that I need to consider, assess and implement in my own practice in the future.

Teacher librarians typically have three main roles within school contexts: they are information specialists, curriculum leaders and information service managers (Laretive, 2019), all three of which relate to the use of technology in supporting effective 21st century teaching and learning. This is particularly significant when thinking about 21st century learning from a school library perspective, as teacher librarians not only provide information literacy skill development for students but also have the opportunity to provide meaningful learning experiences and to guide lifelong learning when properly resourced (Quezzaire, 2018). Furthermore, teacher librarians are experts in the fields of knowledge and information; there is no one tool or technology that will provide students with all their information needs such that we are required to go above and beyond to provide our stakeholders with the most effective tools for learning (Gilbert, 2013). Through engagement with the unit content I have come to realise that this ultimately requires librarians to create their own resources and learning objects to fulfil these specific information needs, whether it be for library lessons, in the classroom or in collaboration with other teachers in the school (Johnson, 2020a). Especially in the current COVID-19 climate where there is a trend towards digital resourcing, school libraries are focussing now on providing online access and support for stakeholders (Dearnaley, 2020). This will inevitably result in the creation of a multitude of learning objects to support student, staff and parents in navigating this online environment, as well as engaging and participating in online learning, and supporting the learning itself.

As I have reflected previously, digital materials and learning objects should be created for specific purposes and their usefulness evaluated to investigate their effectiveness (Johnson, 2020b). This has been nowhere more relevant than in making the research guide for this assessment. Throughout my teaching career I have created a number of specific learning objects to achieve all manner of different ends, although my evaluation of these, as well as my collaboration with other staff to use these objects, has certainly been lacking in the past. As such, I began this assessment by approaching staff I would be co-teaching with next term to see which topic areas needed the most support, as well as to identify specific learning needs of individual students across Year 7. Following this, the process of finding digital resources for this research guide was thorough. This was due to my own strict criteria as all web tools and learning objects should be assessed against specific learning needs (Laretive, 2019), such that I initially rejected a number of informative websites in favour of more interactive resources that would support individual research processes. As a result, I believe the resources used are highly effective, although the time that went into searching and selecting these as opposed to creating and designing the website have let me down in terms of presentation and useability. In future, I will aim to address both of these crucial elements in a more balanced manner, especially now that I have developed a framework for future resources.

References

Dearnaley, M. (2020). A snapshot of a school library during COVID-19. Access, 34(2), 22–25.

Gilbert, K. (2013). What we hold in our hands: Teacher-librarian, knowledge manager [online]. Synergy, 11(2).

Johnson, T. (2020a, September 15). Learning Objects: A Quick Reflection. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/tomthetl/2020/09/15/learning-objects-a-quick-reflection/

Johnson, T. (2020b, August 3). Reference Materials – Print or Digital? Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/tomthetl/2020/08/03/reference-materials-print-or-digital/

Laretive, J. (2019). Information literacy, young learners and the role of the teacher librarian. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 68(3), 225-235.

Quezzaire, P. (2018, February 23). Libraries in the 21st century: the struggle between perception and reality | IB Community Blog. The IB Community Blog. https://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2018/02/23/libraries-in-the-21st-century-the-struggle-between-perception-and-reality/

Learning Objects: A Quick Reflection

Scootle ‘Learning Paths’

http://blog.scootle.edu.au/2016/05/31/scootle-learning-paths/

This LO is ‘Learning Paths’ in Scootle and is used to streamline the delivery of online resources, increase teacher collaboration and curate and manage lists of resources for different groups. It allows teachers to create a list of resources to be viewed in a specific order for a lesson or unit, as well as allowing for notes and additional resources to be added to curriculum content.

I believe this LO would be extremely effective its purposes as:

Students can access a teacher-created learning path directly to have immediate access to all of the resources used for a lesson/unit of work.
Teachers can share ‘learning paths’ with other teachers, as well as modify and add already created learning paths to their own login.
Resources can be annotated and notes added (e.g. Instructions for students or teacher use of a resource), as well as resources added or deleted as required.

COVID-19 Wellbeing Resources

https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/educators/covid-19/

This LO is similar to the previous choice as it packages a number of digital items to instigate a learning experience. It is a single website that provides a number of other digital services and resources to support student, teacher and parent wellbeing around COVID-19, as well as a great deal of extra information.

I believe it would be extremely effective in providing support to any member of a school community around concerns to do with COVID-19. The depth of resources provided in the LO offer multiple different avenues of support, strategies and links to additional services available to the school community. There are also a number of easily navigable menus, the site is well-presented and easy to read and there is a search function, all of which add to the useability of the learning object.

STEM Educator Resources

https://www.thegist.edu.au/schools/stem-educator-resources/

This is another LO that packages various digital items in order to provide a learning experience, although it is extremely effective.

The LO is aimed at supplying STEM programs and lessons for educators, providing a wealth and depth of resources for STEM teachers of Years 5-10 alongside other additional promotional posters. Again, the website is easily navigable, easy to read and follow, the colours are soft and there are handy search and sub-menu functions. It is an extremely user-friendly LO and the lessons/units of work provided are comprehensive and easy to replicate.

My Own Practice

I would certainly incorporate these three LOs into my future practice, particularly to assist STEM teachers’ with programming and resourcing. Two of the chosen LOs would be extremely effective in supporting the resourcing and programming of STEM units across various year levels of my current school and I would definitely share them with the Maths and Science faculties as they would be incredibly useful for teachers AND students. The other resource is incredibly useful for providing well being support for my current school community, as many parents and students struggled during online learning and are still struggling to live in this new COVID-19 world. I have since added it to our Wellbeing Website.

I use a number of different LOs in my current practice to support my delivery of curriculum in the classroom, some created by myself, some created by colleagues and others that have been shared or found online or in professional networks. I also use a number of LOs to support my current practice outside of the classroom, including in the library, as an early career teacher and as part of my current course of study! Although, in reflecting on my current use of LOs, I believe I am not being as collaborative as I should or could in sharing LOs I have created or found useful in my own practice, nor have I instructed other staff on how to use LOs I have found effective in the past. In future, I plan to be more proactive in my collaboration around LOs, both those that I have created and those I have found. I also need to work on my organisation and management of LOs, particularly digital learning objects as maintenance of a digital collection is extremely lacking in my current practice, although this also relies on my organisational skills in general…

References

Education Services Australia. (2020). COVID-19 resources. https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/educators/covid-19/

Education Services Australia. (n.d.) STEM educator resources. https://www.thegist.edu.au/schools/stem-educator-resources/

Hughes, D. (2016). Save time and effort with Scootle learning paths. http://blog.scootle.edu.au/2016/05/31/scootle-learning-paths/

Flipped Classrooms

To flip or not to flip?

Flipped classrooms have some pretty big implications for program design and delivery in 21st century schools, both in the classroom and in the library space.

Classroom

In terms of the classroom, flipping frees up a lot of time for teachers to work individually with students on problems and questions as they have already learned or experienced the content at home. Where it has been reported to work practically, flipped learning has seen a beneficial effect on student learning in the classroom, as students are able to take responsibility for their own learning, experience content at their own pace to increase knowledge and understanding and potentially get through the content quicker than they ordinarily would in class (Earp, 2016). However, this relies on a number of assumptions of our students, particularly around having access to the work (some may not have internet access or an appropriate device), possessing the literacy and information literacy skills to work their way through the content unassisted, and being motivated to actually engage with the content at home.

The same could be said for myself over the course of this degree as the units could be seen as ‘flipped’ in some capacity (although delivered online we have the opportunity to interact with our tutors/convenors/peers and ask questions). I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to go through the content at my own pace and feel like I have connected well with the content and the way it is delivered, although I have found staying engaged to be a personal challenge at certain points of the year. In saying this however, and knowing how disconnected I was during my first degree at Macquarie University, I have definitely seen an improvement in my own learning process over the year or so that I have been doing this course and would ultimately put that down to the flipped nature of the content.

Library

In terms of library program design and delivery, flipping content is a very interesting idea. Programs that target information literacy by using Web 2.0 tools or specific online resources would require explicit training for students AND staff so that they can get the most out of them (although most online tools/resources have troubleshooting facilities available to users). In fact, this process could potentially mirror very closely that of the flipped classroom, in which students would be provided with the understanding around a tool/resource to be used in the next lesson and then given time in the lesson to apply the tool/resource to relevant problems and activities. This would allow TLs to focus specifically on working with students to improve their understanding of how to apply their new knowledge most effectively, without having to spend half the lesson cementing students’ knowledge around a certain tool/resource. The same could be applied to library research lessons, whereby students are given time at home to learn how to use research tools to find specific information and then given time in class to use the tools and their new understanding and skills to complete their research task.

References

Earp, J. (2016, February 3). Homework culture key to flipped learning success. Teacher. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/homework-culture-key-to-flipped-learning-success

Teachings in Education. (2017, June 20). Flipped classroom model: Why, how and overview [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/BCIxikOq73Q

Reference Materials – Print or Digital?

Farmer’s (2014) ideas about selection aids and criteria for both print and digital material mirrors a lot of the content I learned last Semester in ETL503. It makes sense to hold digital resources to a higher standard than print, as there are more elements that need to be taken into account (ownership vs access, ease of use, licensing etc.). It is also interesting to think of parents, teachers and TLs as reference sources, particularly as I am myself asked ‘research’ questions or even simple questions about facts and information just about every day by multiple students!

In my own experience the biggest factor influencing the decision about formats of reference resources is the purpose of the resource (what need is it fulfilling) and budgeting. Our school has had access to WorldBookOnline for a number of years but it had not been promoted until early last year (just before I started my role). As a result, the license had been continually renewed even though it had barely been used at all and only recently did I think to re-evaluate the purpose and usefulness of the resource. Originally, the license had been purchased purely as it was a ‘new’ resource and there was no specific use determined for it, nor were students or staff made aware that they had access to it or even what it was. In fact the very old reference books it was intended to replace were still on the shelves until I performed a weed earlier this year! I have since promoted World Book as our key reference resource that students should be using to start their research and the use has picked up dramatically, particularly during the COVID drop off. However, it is still not being used anywhere near as much as it should be considering how many research tasks are conducted by our secondary school students.

References

Farmer, L. S. J. (2014). Introduction to reference and information services in today’s school library. Rowman & Littlefield.