Yesterday I handed in my last assignments for my last course in my Master of Educational Technology degree through the University of British Columbia. While I won’t graduate until May, it marks the end of an era – just shy of six years I have been plucking away at courses through UBC, first with my post-Bacc in Teacher-Librarianship, and then this program. Honestly, it probably won’t sink in until this January when the next semester begins and I am not juggling the demands of my day job and academia (and supervising the Varsity Boys Volleyball team, haha).
I am thankful for the learning of these years; the ideas and architecture of teaching, learning, and technology that have been made visible through thinkers and makers with skill much greater than my own. At least once a week I am reminded of the meme posted below, and when I pull back from my own unique situation, lenses, and experiences, I continue to be humbled by all of the things I know I don’t know, and even more so the things that I don’t know that I don’t know.
Random internet meme saved on my phone, original source unknown; thought about constantly.
One thing I wish I’d had throughout this degree — and especially in the final projects — was a small community of co-designers. Working full-time while studying part-time often meant creating in isolation or across time zones and distance, without the iterative conversations that sharpen ideas and reveal blind spots. Learning is ecological, and I felt the absence of that ecology at times. For anyone thinking about MET, I strongly encourage it, but especially for you to take the financial hit and take as many summer institute classes as you can. It was these experiences that really got me keen on the importance of hybridity. Even so, the work felt like a reminder that none of us should be designing the futures of education alone.
The more I learned, the more I realized that technology is never neutral — it always arrives embedded with assumptions, values, and power. I came into this program as a tech optimist, but leave it as a tech realist. This kind of program (both the T-L one and the Ed Tech one), would not have been possible to me given my geographic location. Such programs don’t exist here in Manitoba. This program was a gift — but one that came wrapped inside an increasingly precarious technological landscape. However, to borrow from the words of Cory Doctorow, the enshittification of technology has hollowed out some of my previous optimism. When so much of the truly equitizing and democratizing potential of technology is hidden behind paywalls and gradually whittled away even then for increasing add-ons you begin to wonder if the world-views of yourself and the architects of these applications are in alignment.
As a teacher-librarian trying to think carefully about ed tech, I see the role of libraries, both public, elementary/secondary school, and university as a solution to some of these challenges. This will require sustained public funding, and the (mostly) corporations that design these materials to subsidize access to ensure these technologies don’t become yet another divide between the have and have nots. It is not hard to imagine a future where the ability to participate in digital culture depends entirely on one’s ability to pay for the tools required to access it. Perhaps this is no different than inequities within print culture — but it still runs counter to the vision of education I was raised in, both as a student and later as a teacher.
I also hope that the notoriously slow-moving systems of curriculum-development and education are focused on what strikes me as the most crucial adjustment necessary of the LLM age – assessment. Our paradigm has shifted almost instantaneously, and our previous methods of assessing work at its conclusion feel unsuited for the times we are living in. Honestly, it was never suited – but it was easier, and for the students who were able to submit a polished product thanks to the assistance of a tutor, parent, or other support, their ‘knowing’ was never assured in the time before. I hazard to say that it was our biases about who specific learners are, their backgrounds, and what they look like (plus maybe the discomfort in challenging involved families) that made us look the other way. AI didn’t break assessment — it revealed what was already broken.
I used ChatGPT to create these (imperfect) graphs showing the shift to assessment that AI will necessitate. Pull the tab to the right to see how we’ve traditionally thought about product based assessment, and to the left to see my hypothesized AI assessment paradigm. Some day I will just make ones that more accurately represent my thinking (the AI Use label at the dip shouldn’t be there!)
While I worry that AI will mean increasingly high classroom numbers, I actually think that it calls for more teachers, more human mentorship, more conferencing and check-ins along the way – a necessity that is almost impossible in our current set-up. If AI teaches us anything, it’s that students don’t need us less — they need us differently.
Imagined as a rousing political speech, with patriotic music slowly swelling in the background.
Colleagues, I know many of you are excited about NotebookLM, especially that uncannily almost-human podcast feature. We upload our readings, videos, and professional documents, then receive instant synthesis supporting multimodality and differentiated instruction. But I want us to consider what’s happening to our professional expertise when we adopt this tool—or any LLM-based assistant. We’re witnessing the remediation of educational expertise itself, transforming teachers from knowledge-holders into knowledge-brokers. NotebookLM stands out for grounding its responses in uploaded materials, lending its outputs an authority that masks their mediation.
To understand what’s at stake, let me introduce a concept from media studies: remediation. NotebookLM remediates the entire research apparatus of teaching—our file cabinets, OneDrive folders, annotated textbooks, and accumulated professional wisdom. Bolter and Grusin (2000) argue that remediation occurs through networks of formal, material, and social practices:
Formally, it remediates the academic literature review, the planning notebook, even Socratic dialogue; but promises “complete and comprehensive access to information” while obscuring the interpretive labor that transforms information into knowledge (Papacharissi, 2015).
Materially, it replaces physical artifacts of teaching expertise (marked-up curriculum guides, annotated student work, scribbles in margins) with algorithmic processes that appear transparent through source citations yet are hidden behind algorithmic choices. NotebookLM produces what Bolter and Grusin (2000) describe as hypermediacy (visible layers of mediation like source links, formats, AI voices) that paradoxically create a sense of immediacy and authority rather than critique.
Socially, it remediates us as expert practitioners. When we upload materials and receive instant analysis, our professional authority shifts from knowing to prompting—a different kind of expertise entirely.
Goodbye Inquiry, Hello Output
Linguist Adam Aleksic (2025) argues that “truly knowing an answer requires struggling with uncertainty.” Consider planning a unit on New France in Canadian history—a unit Manitoba students often struggle to find relevant. Traditionally, this required understanding primary sources, synthesizing across texts, connecting to standards, curating materials, anticipating misconceptions, designing meaningful assessment.
NotebookLM generates all of this in seconds. But as Aleksic describes, “with each additional abstraction from uncertainty, the easier it is to find answers, and the more confident those answers sound.” The tool produces seeming pedagogical expertise with the “aura of truth, objectivity, and accuracy” that danah boyd and Kate Crawford (2012) identify in Big Data mythology.
Yet can we explain why these particular connections matter? In philosophical terms: do we know what NotebookLM claims, or merely believe what it tells us?
The Question Behind the Question
Aleksic describes how “the lost ritual of asking has collapsed the meaning of the question in the first place.” When we can instantly generate unit materials, we never wrestle with fundamental questions: Why teach about New France? What should students understand? How does this connect to their lived experiences?
These aren’t questions NotebookLM can answer. They require what Haraway calls “critical, reflexive relation to our own practices” (as cited in Papacharissi, 2015). The tool can synthesize curriculum documents but cannot interrogate why we chose those documents, what we’re unconsciously prioritizing, or whose perspectives remain absent.
As Aleksic (2025) writes, “figuring out which question to ask is more important than the answer itself.” But NotebookLM’s efficiency makes all questions appear equivalent. We’re “drowning in a sea of answers, forgetting how to ask the right questions.”
It is not surprising that we are pulled to these tools – who has the time? Media scholar Zizi Papacharissi calls this tension ‘the unbearable lightness of information vs. the impossible gravitas of knowledge’ – and I feel that in my bones every Sunday night. (This meme was created with imgflip and supplemented with a screenshot of my own use of NotebookLM, plus other art from Canva)
Papacharissi (2015) captures this perfectly: AI outputs “oscillate between the unbearable lightness of information and the impossible gravitas of knowledge.” NotebookLM offers comprehensive information access but cannot deliver genuine pedagogical knowledge; the heavy weight of knowing that emerges only through sustained engagement with uncertainty.
Colleagues, I’m not asking us to abandon NotebookLM, but let’s use it differently. Treat its outputs as another text to interrogate, not authoritative synthesis. Our students need us to model what it means to genuinely know, not merely retrieve.
Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (2000). Remediation : Understanding new media. MIT Press.
Boyd, D., & Crawford, K. (2012). Critical questions for big data: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), 662–679. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878
Papacharissi, Z. (2015). The unbearable lightness of information and the impossible gravitas of knowledge: Big Data and the makings of a digital orality. Media, Culture & Society, 37(7), 1095–1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443715594103
Analyzing the ‘Bridge Encyclopedia’ through McLuhan’s Tetrad and Latour’s Actor Network Theory
I can’t be the only person who was obsessed with Microsoft Encarta’s Mindmaze game. I had always yearned for a set of Encyclopedias… but when that free disc comes with your computer, I shortly stopped asking for them.
Okay, so my video is a bit longer than 5 minutes, but I swear there’s a reason! My video tour is presented as a mock news segment with Artie Smarts, an animated robot newscaster. I went with this format to keep things conversational and fun while still walking through the project in detail, drawing on Mayer’s (2009) personalization principle to show that professional learning can be engaging as well as practical. The playful opening, a few jokes, and the closing segment were all part of setting that tone and holding attention — though they do push the video slightly past the suggested runtime. I was having a lot of fun making it (using a combination of Adobe Express, Apple Clips, and CapCut), and I hope that comes through when you watch.
Sometimes you plan something and follow your itinerary to the letter; other times, despite your best intentions, another path calls to you and you end up going in a completely different direction. Such was the case with my learning throughout ETEC 524. In hindsight, it’s probably not surprising that my main work ended up focusing on AI and educators; it is a topic I’ve been almost obsessively engaged with for the past two years. But this was not where I initially set out to go in May.
My original goal was to outline and begin developing a hybrid online/classroom course for Grade 11/12 students, centred on skill development and mastery in an area of their choice. I’ve long wanted to create space for students who are not drawn to more traditional academic programming to pursue a deep dive into something meaningful to them. However, as the course unfolded, I shifted toward building a professional development module for educators in my school division. This shift came partly from recognizing the immediate usefulness of such a resource, and partly from seeing an opportunity to help teachers design more accessible, less cluttered Edsby environments for their students.
When I compared my initial and final projects, I noticed that both aimed at the same underlying challenge: addressing crucial shortcomings in current pedagogical models. The difference was that the PD module would allow me to act on these ideas sooner and in a context where I could model thoughtful technology use for colleagues as well as students. That reframing not only changed the direction of my final assignment, but also reframed how I now think about my role as a teacher-librarian — not just supporting student learning directly, but shaping the digital spaces and professional practices that make deeper learning possible.
I suppose we always live in ‘interesting times’, but the phrase seems particularly apropos of our current moment. Large Language Model tools, economic models that incentivize the capture of our attention and data, and political dialogue are currently shaking the foundation of what it means to learn, and therefore what it means to teach. I leave this course with many great resources to strengthen my toolbox, but also quite a few existential questions about where we move on from here.
In terms of resources, several were especially important in shaping my thinking throughout the course. I’m always one for an acronym, and Bates’ (2015) SECTIONS model and its clear breakdown of considerations for technology selection was a very helpful frame. I still struggle with it in some ways, but only because I see that it may lead organizations to prioritize immediate cost over sustainability. Of course, this is a systemic issue. Planned obsolescence, increasing energy demands, and security and privacy issues create a scenario where tech requires frequent updating and replacement, while the majority of companies that have significant interest in developing hardware and software run on a model of infinite profit and growth. This results in devices where parts can’t be swapped out, or where our data is traded like a commodity. Fighting against this means using open source or older technologies that require more in-house tech support, and often significantly less ease of use. I can’t help but worry that we’re paying out of our future for ease of use today.
Outcome development and assessment was another area of growth for me. Given my role in the public school system, I am much more familiar with assessing by outcomes that have been provided to me, rather than creating those outcomes myself. My part one of my second assignment showed my weakness in that area. Assessing for PD learning rather than an academic course was something that I hadn’t really thought about. In most of my school-based PD learning experience, assessment seems to boil down to your name being on the attendance sheet, or (for online modules), a series of automatically graded multiple choice and true/false questions that staff often did as a group. But we know that simply being in the room isn’t learning something, and that tests generally only measure lower-order skills (Mazur, 2013). As such, Mazur’s suggestions to improve assessment by mimicking real life, focusing on feedback not ranking, and assessing skills rather than content were especially useful, and I tried to mindfully incorporate them into the activities I planned in my unit. His fourth point about resolving the coach/judge conflict is tricky for online learning especially, as instructors are often spread more thinly. For older users, peer and self-assessment can be a useful workaround.
Media literacy (particularly around images, and also video)has also emerged for me as an essential skill for both students and educators. Yousman’s (2016) discussion of speed versus depth, appearances versus analysis, and the emotional pull of images resonates strongly with my concerns about online-only learning. In a digital environment where learners are often inundated with visuals, the skill to pause, question, and analyze becomes a prerequisite for critical engagement.
Ultimately, this course has left me feeling more positive about the state of in-person teaching, and with significant question marks about the long-term sustainability of online-only-asynchronous education — especially given generative AI’s rise. Many edtech tools, whether devices, applications, or Learning Management Systems, allow for holistic application of UDL principles into a blended learning environment; a fully inclusive environment that allows for multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression (Bourlova, 2025). But assessing learning without a real connection to the learner in an online-only environment becomes increasingly challenging in a world where almost anything can be made for you in seconds. When we are digitally siloed, it becomes far too easy to “other” the entire world. Bringing learning back to community, even in a hybrid format, becomes a moral as well as a pedagogical imperative.
This is why I leave this course particularly invigorated to see how learning technologies can be applied to hybrid environments, especially in the realm of professional development. When I plan professional development in schools, I often hear how great it is to have bespoke learning that is relevant, personalized, and even a bit fun when topics are difficult. I know, though, that these sessions are limited in their universal design, as some individuals need more time to process, different modalities, or repeated exposure to key ideas. What if this kind of work can be done at my divisional level to plan PD that reaches more of us, on locally relevant topics, and what if that trickles into our classrooms? One next step I see is reaching out to upper administration to share my vision of hybrid-learning PD using our Edsby system. I don’t know of anyone within my division with this specific background and training, and I wonder if I might be able to shape a role for myself in this space. McErlean’s (2018) work on interactive narratives also strikes me as especially relevant here — using immersion to engage participants while still controlling the delivery of key content. I think hybrid learning could benefit greatly from this balance.
I’m also especially interested in making Open Educational Resources that align with UDL standards. In creating accessible and Creative Commons-licensed resources, I can work toward reducing the paywall creep that has marked the shift from the open optimism of the Web 2.0 era to today’s increasingly commercialized edtech landscape. This work would not only address accessibility and equity concerns but also provide sustainable, adaptable materials that could serve both students and educators long after their initial creation. In my job as a teacher-librarian, I can promote the heck out of these resources to teachers; we don’t have to be in the pocket of big textbook anymore.
This course has reinforced for me that educational technology is at its best when it strengthens human connection, promotes equity, and cultivates critical engagement; not when it simply delivers content faster or more efficiently. The challenge, especially in “interesting times,” is to hold on to those values in the face of rapid change, commercialization, and the seductive ease of automation. My next steps (from advocating for hybrid, UDL-informed professional development to creating accessible OERs) are grounded in a belief that technology should expand possibilities for both teachers and learners, without locking us into closed systems or shallow engagement. The tools will keep changing, but the responsibility to use them thoughtfully remains the same.
Issa, T., & Isaias, P. (2022). Sustainable design : HCI, usability and environmental concerns. Springer.
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
McErlean, K. (2018). Interactive narrative. In Interactive narratives and transmedia storytelling: Creating immersive stories across new media platforms (pp. 120-151). New York: Routledge.
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–93.
Yousman, B. (2016). The text and the image: Media literacy, pedagogy, and generational divides. In J. Frechette & R. Williams (Eds.), Media education for a digital generation (pp. 157-170).
; bringing the @aallibrary reference collection into modernity and relevance
Reference collections and services are an integral part of any Library Learning Commons. The collection itself has traditionally been defined as a physical section of the library that holds print copies of materials that are not allowed to circulate outside of the library, to keep them on hand for client questions and research (University of British Columbia, n.d.). Services include helping define the information needs of users, creating environments for learning and collaboration, teaching students how to use reference resources, and differentiating good reference materials from bad ones (Riedling & Houston, 2018, p. 2). Good reference services require access to a reference collection that meets the needs of a building’s clientele, and the development of all good services is done through conscientious observation, user feedback, planning, and execution. While reference services have been more static over the last 20 years, the reference collection has changed drastically. So how do we support developing library users into informationally literate citizens? The first step is to ensure the building and maintenance of a collection of physical and virtual materials that are responsive to the needs of our school communities. What follows is a plan for the continued development of the AAL Library Learning Commons reference collection in a way that will help guide students towards becoming informationally literate citizens.
(CASL, 2006, pp. 10-17)
When this kind of work is being done, we refer to various standards set by professional organizations that help inform our practice; in this case the Canadian School Library Association’s Achieving Information Literacy (AIL), which sets standards for School Library collections, including reference ones. Another document heavily used in this plan is Riedling and Houston’s 2019 Reference Skills for the School Librarian (Fourth Edition).
Where We Are At Currently
The Physical Reference Collection
Riedling and Houston include the following materials as important to a reference collection; bibliographies; factbooks, directories, almanacs, yearbooks, and handbooks; biographical sources; dictionaries; encyclopedias; geographical sources; periodicals and specialized databases. Only several are present in our current physical reference collection, which has mostly been disbanded over the past five years. Most materials have had their spine labels edited to remove REF and been shelved in the appropriate Dewey section – most notably factbooks like our Guinness Book of World Records. 101 items remain with a REF spine label, which are kept on a bottom shelf at the end of the non-fiction collection. Highlights of this section include,
A Time for Kids Almanac (2017) *
A book on birthdays (2006)*
The Globe illustrated Shakespeare; the complete works annotated (1979)
An unabridged Collins English Dictionary (2011) and abridged Junior Dictionary (2006)*
Several visual dictionaries (1989 – 2011) *
A set of Rand McNally Classroom atlas of Canada and the World (2008)*
A sizeable National Geographic atlas of the world: Eighth edition that invites group viewing (2007)*
An eight-volume set on Diseases, by Grolier Academic Reference (2006)*
A six-volume set, Exploring the World of Mammals, by Chelsea House Publishing (2008)*
Several historical Atlases of Manitoba
This seems to be a mishmash of materials that have been missed during previous weeding or relocations. Those marked with an asterisk are in need of replacing as they exceed CREW criteria for their Dewey number. For example, the CREW manual recommends that Almanacs should remain in the reference collection for a year, then be moved to the circulating collection for a year and then discarded (2012, p. 39). Only the historical atlases and Shakespeare seem like they deserve to remain.
We have let materials from Reference circulate outside of the library. The sizable (but hopelessly outdated) National Geographic atlas has circulated 12 times, the collection of Shakespeare 15 times, and the unabridged Collins 17 times. The rest show 2 or fewer circulations.
The Virtual Reference Collection
Our virtual reference collection is housed in two separate locations, one mandated by our school division, and the other chosen because of ease of access for students. It provides links to our school catalog and other digital subscriptions, some of which would be considered reference materials.
On the School Sharepoint PortalOn the @aallibrary Edsby page
Available to access through these two locations are the following:
Encyclopedia Britannica School (along with French and Spanish editions)
Britannica Image Quest
World Book Online
Teachingbooks.net (teacher reference)
NFB Canvas
Criterion on Demand
CBC Curio
Destiny Collections built on curricular topics/interest
Magazines through our Overdrive/SORA subscription
Digital access to the Winnipeg Free Press
Areas of Improvement
User Feedback
“Libraries build collections based on what they think faculty and students need”
(Riedling & Houston, 2019, p. 4).
If this is to be truly the case, more time collecting feedback from clientele (both students and faculty) needs to become a focus. This will allow us to meet their needs and encourage growth and development of pedagogy and information literacy more adequately.
Weeding and Collection Development
The average age of materials remaining in the reference collection is 17 years (Follett Destiny, 2022). While this is okay for materials of historical relevance, for most this is inappropriate. Those marked above should be weeded from the collection and replaced if there is adequate demand and/or an online option is not suitable. New materials should be purchased based on user feedback, with emphasis placed on highly browsable ones. Popular titles, like the Guinness Book of World Records should be bought in duplicate – one for the circulating collection, and the other for Reference. When considerations are being made for adding resources to our collection, Riedling and Houston’s criteria for that format will be utilized.
Location and Physical Space
Currently, the remaining parts of the reference collection sit on the bottom of a shelf at the end of the non-fiction collection; a nondescript and unmarked location, suitable for a part of the collection that has been sadly left behind. According to AIL criteria, this meets ‘below standard’ criteria (Canadian Association of School Libraries, 2006, p. 42). While virtual materials are available, they should be curated and advertised more prominently, which could be a prominent feature in a designated reference section.
Philosophy
The most utilized materials in the reference collection are the ones that encourage discovery and collaborative use. Physical materials should be selected to encourage and inspire inquiry and research on topics of student interest. Materials (both physical and digital) should be selected to inspire “questioning, thoughtful investigating, making sense of new information, and developing new understandings.” A section that encourages inquiry also supports a pedagogical shift towards constructivism, where learners build their own meaning through a teacher supported environment that motivates students to question and discover rather than simply retain information (Stripling, 2008, p. 50).
Effective Collaboration at Division Level
Many virtual reference resources are prohibitively expensive. Access to Middle School Databases would best (and more equitably) be achieved if purchased at a division level, rather than on a per school basis.
Digital Curation
For parts of the collection that are best served by digital means, these should be curated and organized in a way that allows for easy access by both teachers and students. This allows our clientele to access vetted materials that they might not discover on their own. Curation is about getting our students to quality content without throwing them into the wilds of the internet (Valenza, 2017). Students are familiar with Destiny Collections from genre-study collections, so this could easily be carried forward into content area pathfinders.
Connect with the Public Library
The pandemic has been challenging in a lot of ways, but one benefit has been that the Winnipeg Public Library have created an online membership option that does not require going in to a branch to complete. This gives students access to all virtual databases, audiobooks and eBooks offered by the WPL (Winnipeg Public Library, n.d. – b).
Where We Will Be – The Improvement Plan
Follow the link in the caption below to view an interactive vision for what an Inquiry and Reference Station (goal 6) could look like in the @aallibrary! Click on the green and red buttons to learn more about what this will look like in the future.
The @aallibrary has significant room for improvement in terms of its reference collection. The above seeks to balance the importance of physical browsing, opportunities for collaboration, curricular demands, student interest, and financial constraints into a plan that once implemented will ensure the continued development of informationally literate community members with access to both a strong reference collection and reference services. From next year forward, an annual budget line will be established to continually enrich the physical collection. The only one time expense is the building/purchasing of shelves to house our new Inquiry and Reference section prominently. These steps will help ensure that Reference doesn’t fall into disrepair again.
University of British Columbia. (n.d.). [Lecture notes Lesson 1: Information Literacy and Reference Services in Schools]. Teacher-Librarianship, University of British Columbia. https://canvas.ubc.ca
; guiding our peers towards growth in their reference collection use
Teacher-Librarians are not just student educators – they also help lead their peers to growth and development in their own practice. But just like student learning, this can be a sensitive task. Our students come to us with a wide range of background knowledge, experiences, interests, and skillsets, and so do all teachers. We know that there is no such thing as a one size fits all approach to student learning, and thus it should be no shock that we cannot develop a OSFA approach to teacher learning either.
But often, with the blinders of our daily lives and the heavy demands of education, we want to describe how to do something before thinking about whether teachers are ready and comfortable to push their practice (Loucks-Horsley, 1996 as cited in “The Concerns-Based Adoption Model”). Change is a slow process, and what one teacher is ready for, another will find inconceivable. Barriers can exist regarding teaching experience, content area knowledge, technological proficiency, on top of each person’s own learning experiences or what is going on in their lives outside of school. Pushing people to try and do things that they are not ready for is an invitation for stalling growth in practice.
So, how do we apply this knowledge to encourage teacher growth in the use of our library reference collections? Fortunately, we have the Concerns-Based Adoption Model to guide us in building effective coaching and growth opportunities for teachers across a wide range of readiness for innovation.
Stages of Concern and Levels of Use from the CBAM (Olson et al., 2020)
Also worth considering when planning teacher learning is Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model.
These two models have been considered when designing personalized learning opportunities for the two fictional staff below.
Teacher A
Who is Teacher A?
Teacher A has been teaching Grade 7-9 students at Imaginary School for close to 40 years. Almost all that time has been spent as a math and science teacher. Generations of community families have had A as a math/science teacher and for the most part, students have all done the same assignments across that time. Their teaching style matches a more traditional lecture method, and many of the learning resources that they use for their courses have not changed dramatically over the decades – their motto being “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Their walls are lined with out-of-date textbooks, from which they will still occasionally pull a page or two – last week we chatted in the office while they were photocopying from a textbook with a copyright date of 1984. All students in their classroom receive the same learning materials. Teacher A has strong classroom management skills and an engaging personality that helps them connect with students despite the sometimes-dry nature of their materials. While not an adept user of technology, A has shown significant growth over the pandemic, and it has made them more likely to incorporate what they know into their teaching. They have five laptops in their classroom that students use for basic research and typing up documents and making posters. When materials, resources and information are shared by e-mail, Teacher A does not respond.
Because of the sharing of project ideas between members of the Grade 7 and 9 Teams, small projects have been incorporated into most of the year’s science units, and students are expected to use digital resources to complete their research. Previously Teacher A reports using physical copies of encyclopedias that were in our collection, but since these materials have been weeded, they have not moved to their digital counterparts, and they are not using print resources in our general collection either. When asked, they were unable to identify any virtual resources. However, students are often left to ‘Google’ on their own, with little guidance on how to effectively find reliable information online or how to navigate various websites.
Evaluation
CBAM
In terms of ‘Stage of Concern’, Teacher A sits at the Awareness stage of development, as outside of the things that they know and are aware of, they have little interest in learning more about a resource.
Regarding their ‘Levels of Use of Innovation,’ they sit at the Non-Use level, showing no interest and action towards expanding their use of our reference collection.
SAMR
While Teacher A does have his students use technology in his classes it is usually done at the Substitution level, where students are simply typing up written work or collating materials for posters that will be printed out and displayed in the classroom.
Evolution Plan
Because presentations introducing materials or new technologies at staff meetings and occasional email updates have not pulled Teacher A towards freshening their practice, a more direct approach will be necessary. Based on my observations, our online encyclopedia subscriptions would be most useful, but pathfinders (Centeno, 2021) or other collections of materials may prove to be just as practical. Making a point to pop in and see the teacher during their prep time and discover what units and projects their students have upcoming is a first step to determining what parts of our reference collection will be useful to support them and their classes. Once this has been determined, I can provide them with a brief overview of what is in the collection that will be of best use to their students and offer to provide support for them and their students when it comes time to research by booking the library as a research space for their class. These small workshops using pre-existing assignments will provide an opportunity to tweak Teacher A’s practice without having them completely redesign their practice. These actions should help move Teacher A from the Non-Use level to the orientation level of CBAM’s eight Levels of Use.
While this assignment is regarding the Reference Collection, I think a similar model can be used to move Teacher A’s use of technology to a level of Augmentation. Because the teacher is not comfortable with technology themself, pulling a small group of students and providing instruction on a graphic design platform like Canva, which allows for embedding videos and other multimedia, could be a useful way to nudge them towards transforming their use of technology. Students can then present and share their projects and lead their peers in utilizing the technology on other assignments. I would also suggest the work of Fontichiaro to nudge A’s worksheets towards inquiry, without requiring a complete overhaul of their practice.
Teacher B
Teacher B has been teaching Grade 5/6 students at Imaginary School for the last 4 years, with several years of experience in other schools on term contracts previously. As a core teacher, they are responsible for teaching ELA, Social Studies, Science, Math, and Art. Teacher B is adventurous and willing to try new things without necessarily having proficiency in the skill themselves, and student learning is often guided by students’ own interests. While there are textbooks available to use in the classroom for Social Studies class, B does not use them often, as they find that they are often much too advanced for many students in the class to understand. Their class actively uses their small set of laptops and iPads, and frequently borrows from others as they need them over the course of each day. Teacher B reaches out to the Teacher-Librarian for collaboration and unit planning, often inviting them in for small group instruction or other lessons. Materials shared in staff meetings, PD, or emails are often seen incorporated into this teacher’s practice.
While aware of our digital encyclopedia collections, Teacher B had less awareness of other reference materials in our collection like CBC Curio, NFB Campus and teachingbooks.net
Evaluation
CBAM
In relation to the parts of reference collection they use and the CBAM ‘Stages of Concern’ Teacher B is at the Collaboration stage, where they are mostly comfortable with the resources but are considering how others are using these resources to improve their own practice.
In terms of ‘Levels of Use of Innovation’ they would be at the Routine level, where they are using the reference materials, they are aware of regularly but are making few changes to that use.
SAMR
I would assess Teacher B’s technology integration at the Redefinition level, where they are using technology to create transformative learning experiences like podcasts or multimedia presentations that would have been impossible (or much more difficult) 20 years ago.
Evolution Plan
Because Teacher B tries new things and collaborates frequently with their team, they will need less guided support to evolve their practice. One suggestion I have is to book a weekly collaboration time where B and I can discuss their current and upcoming needs and to co-assess student learning using our reference resources. What is working and what is not? What kinds of materials are we missing? Another suggestion is providing coverages, or requesting release time from administration, for Teacher Bs so that they can go and observe other teachers and their use of reference materials and technology. To raise awareness of the other reference materials in our collection, lunch and learn sessions can be provided to provide brief overviews of what these materials are and some short examples of ready-to-use activities utilizing them.
Olson, K., Lannan, K., Cumming, J., Macgillivary, H., & Richards, K. (2020). The concerns-based adoption model and strategic plan evaluation: Multiple methodologies to understand complex change. Theory and Practice, 31(3), 49–58. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1274351.pdf
Whelp. I’m finally coming up for air. This past week has seen the world change forever in my neck of the woods and probably yours too. You maybe are even a week or more into it. Fortunately I was a bit ahead of myself in my coursework – but I know that I haven’t even looked at other blog posts from last week yet. Now that we are no longer in class, I will have a bit of time to sit down and catch up.
Everything that I have written below in black font, was written in the world before. Now, as we in Manitoba enter this new world, my coursework seems to be even more important and relevant. How do I teach students to do these things from a distance, with no consistent technological access? Stay tuned.
Keep calm, wash your hands and stay at home, friends.
Last week, I set up a beginning outline for my final vision assignment. The project would be posted using Adobe Spark Page, and would be a digital trove of information on Digital Storytelling. I envision it as a website/article hybrid. This project would be designed mainly as a resource for teachers who don’t know where to start with digital storytelling in the classroom. The outline is tentatively as follows,
1) What is digital storytelling?
2) Why you should be doing it.
3) A step by step guide – featuring a digital story how-to video made with the Adobe Creative Cloud.
4) Lists of helpful apps and programs.
5) ‘Tips and Tricks’ videos.
6) Some sample project ideas.
7) Useful handouts for students.
8) Some examples of digital storytelling projects.
It’s funny how the human brain works. Until I sat down and looked at this week’s question, I had never really thought of framing this project in any way other than at other teachers. It is interesting to me that my brain went so automatically to something aimed at educators rather than students. There probably is a definite need for resources on digital storytelling for students, in student friendly language. In many ways the best learning is that which is self-motivated.
I was reminded of this on Sunday, driving while listening to the program Tapestry on CBC Radio. Frank Kadillac, the Juno nominated singer of pop duo Neon Dreams, was being interviewed. I was struck listening to Frank as he talked about falling in love with the guitar as a kid – wanting one so badly that he drew out a paper fret board and strings on four sheets of paper and practiced playing chords and songs from tabs that he found on the internet. This kid took a marker and the internet and turned it into a career. I want to help kids do that.
This video seems appropriate for the times in which we are living.
But, then I am torn by the knowledge that frequently the teacher is the person who makes project decisions in the classroom, and so I need to make them more likely to buy into this as an option. And what is it that makes some of our staff such reluctant technology integrators? Factors that get in the way of teacher usage of technology have been reported to include things like “negative attitudes towards computers, technology incompetence, passive school support policy, different pedagogical beliefs and limited access to technology tools” (Chen et al, 2019). Another study concluded that beliefs about what makes a “good” education needs to be a part of any professional development for teachers (Tondeur et al, 2016). My main audience are the teachers who are less likely to use technology in innovative ways with their classes.
I feel like there might be an overlap between use of technology and love of Comic Sans.
To counter this, I am going to include rationale in my project, connecting Digital Storytelling to 21st century skills to help tie this to modern knowledge about what constitutes a good education. To help with feelings of technological incompetence and negative attitudes towards computers, I will provide step by step instructions and offer to join teachers as a co-teacher when they are providing Digital Storytelling opportunities to their class, or run smaller sessions where I completely take the lead. I hope that this project will work towards providing support to teachers, alleviating feelings of a lack of support from the school. To ward off limited access issues, I have planned to teach basics using operating systems and programs that we have access through our division and/or that are available across different platforms.
Why was I so set on planning this for educators? Ultimately, I do see my main audience as being teachers. However, I want many of the materials (especially videos) to be accessible to a student audience. They should be able to be used by educators as part of the digital storytelling experience in their classrooms. This is important for me to consider as I continue storyboarding and planning over the coming week – this project will hopefully create a grab-and-go kit for teachers to use with their students. While teachers are my main audience, I must keep students in mind.
Here is a first draft of a digital storytelling exemplar that I have put together for my Final Vision Project. The goal is to have materials that will engage students, as well as teachers. I learned some important things from this – especially the importance of a good microphone. Also it is missing the last 30 seconds. Better luck next time, I guess.
Chen, M., Zhou, C., Meng, C. et al. How to promote Chinese primary and secondary school teachers to use ICT to develop high-quality teaching activities. Education Tech Research Dev 67, 1593–1611 (2019). https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1007/s11423-019-09677-0
Tondeur, J., van Braak, J., Ertmer, P.A. et al. Understanding the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education: a systematic review of qualitative evidence. Education Tech Research Dev 65, 555–575 (2017). https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1007/s11423-016-9481-2
Cerebrating on these last few weeks (yes, sometimes I do use the thesaurus), the word connection is the one that comes to mind the most, although you could argue that listening fits just as well. Library patrons, both locally and globally need to be connected and listened to in our spaces.
This video was created by a corporation that profits on libraries, but the message is a great one.
It’s important for students to feel connected to the library; if it is not a warm and accepting space we’ll never get students through the door. We connect with them both in our everyday interactions, where they know they can ask us for help or for a personalized book recommendation, and through social media, where I post literary memes and hype new books. I feel as if school libraries are taking a page out of the public library playbook and opening up our spaces to be community connection points, rather than simply academic study spaces.
Students need to be connected to the books that they choose to read, rather than being assigned them by a leveling system (that is arguably arbitrary). Some of the events that most help create a culture of reading are those that bring about genuine connections with others – at a micro level, things like classroom book clubs or buddy reading between classes, but in macro terms, world-wide events like the Global Read Aloud. Being able to connect with the thoughts and opinions of other readers through apps and services like Goodreads give us the ability to connect with stories and ideas that would have been unimaginable even twenty years ago. We also need to be able to connect students to resources that exist both inside and outside of the library walls – whether digital, or through connections with the public library system. More and more we see that our clients (students and staff) need to be able to make connections between themselves and the characters of the books they are reading – culturally relevant texts and learning materials are integral to creating a culture of reading.
Books can connect you to your passions.
When it comes to my own personal development, the need for connections continues. No learning is done in isolation. In order to learn we must live in a community (physical or digital) that allows us to interact with the thoughts, words, images and ideas of others. These shared connections are what truly makes all learning possible. Through my research for this course, as well as the wonderful suggestions of my peers, I can connect through local organizations, or international ones like ISTE. Twitter, Facebook and blogging platforms both offer free options (if you consider the gathering of your personal data worthless) for personal Professional Development and the ability to connect with other Teacher-Librarians throughout the world. Without other individuals to connect and share with, we would be limited to our own innovations – but it’s the connections and collaborations that allow new ideas to flourish and problems to be solved.
Actual footage of professional learning. Just kidding, it’s a nice gif though,.
As Teacher-Librarians, the first step to sharing our learning with others is by connecting with our peers and getting to know them as individuals. Being adaptable and flexible is necessary, because people are more likely to engage with something that they see as having a connection to them personally. We need to make connections between what we learn during our own professional learning and what will be useful/relevant to the teachers we work with. We need to make time to connectwith these people to share, and we need to connect with them at a level that meets their level of skill and interest. In my experience, the best PD opportunities have been the ones that have allowed teachers to connect with each other and share their ideas and experiences with one another. Connecting over food came up countless times while I was reading through other blog posts. There are so many more options for ways to connect with people, whether through collaboration, lunch and learns, book studies, ed camps, or PLNs. It is only through connections that relationships are possible, and these relationships are the best way to create a collaborative work environment.
When looking at global libraries, especially in areas home to marginalized populations, connections again resurface as a recurring theme. It is especially important that we connect with individuals in these communities when creating solutions – we don’t simply want to pass off our problems (weeded books, for example) and end up creating unintended economic consequences for parts of the world that are already struggling. We are all connected, and ultimately what negatively impacts one of us, negatively impacts all of us. Modern technology has made it possible for us to connect and interact with people half a world away from us, and to benefit from and hear their solutions to their local issues. It is the issue of connection that struck me the most in my study of the issues faced by libraries in the developing world. These libraries, just like our own, are connecting spaces for their communities, and they are frequently the best sources of internet connections in their communities. Instead of relying on dated texts as information sources, these libraries want access to high quality digital resources. These resources would leave these communities connected to the world, rather than at the whims of our leftovers.
Mobile technology has changed the way that the world connects and has opened the doors of literacy wide open. Before this week, I had never thought about how mobile phones were a gateway to literacy – I took for granted that people could access books, and I minimized the impact that multi-use devices could have on female literacy. But mobile phones are a multi-purpose device, and they connect people to a world of information, including stories to read to their children.
I think that we often focus on the negatives of mobile technology (especially related to distractions), without thinking of the empowerment and personal agency they provide for those who are less privileged.
While reading my way through feedly, I was able to find a wide range of global initiatives that work to connect libraries across the globe to important information. I was struck particularly by Melissa Hunt’s post, which alerted me to the existence of Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). It is a global organization that connects librarians around the world to technology and information. I was especially struck by their website because the site was truly accessible and would not require top of the line devices to access it – the website offers a text only option that would make access possible on older models of cell phones, or older web browsers. This accessibility makes connection a possibility for all. They also connect users to Free and Open Source Software, along with other important topics for library development.
EIFL is a global non-profit connecting librarians to the resources they need.
I think this process has only served to strengthen my interest in digital storytelling. I see it as a great way for us to tell our stories, and to connect with others. Despite differences of access to resources, libraries are connected by a common goal. The same goes for people as well. There is power in story as a tool of connection. I will be mindful of this as I move on to the next stage of this course and begin to work on my vision of the future assignment. I want to create something that will help teachers and students connect with new technologies and connect with one another.
Ultimately I think, Libraries are a place of ubuntu; to borrow from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We realize our interconnections and support others in accessing what the world has to offer. This vision is what I want to bring to our future.
“Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, ‘Yu, u nobunto’; ‘Hey so-and-so hasubuntu.’ Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, ‘My humanity is inextricably bound up in yours.’ We belong in a bundle of life.”
Tutu, D. (2000). No Future Without Forgiveness. New York, NY: Image/Doubleday.
When I first sat and pondered this week’s blog topic, I was reminded of the ‘charitable’ practice of donating used clothing. According to this 2018 CBC News article, 80–90 percent of clothing donated in Canada isn’t being resold here. Some is cut into rags, others ground down into upholstery filler, but the majority is packaged up to the developing world where it is sold. The issue with this is that this is the end of the line of the re-use cycle, as once they end up in these countries the clothing will inevitably end up in a landfill. Another issue is that these donations and second-hand goods end up suppressing the textile industries in these countries – industries that would offer citizens good paying jobs and the promise of economic development (Jay, 2018). Thus, these donations end up empowering the developed world (the United States economy is benefitted over $680 million each year from used clothing exports) while the economies of importers get access to cheap clothing, but at a developmental impact. Several decades ago, almost half a million Kenyans worked in the garment industry – in 2017, only approximately 20,000 of those jobs remained (Harden, 2019).
Weeded donations – good deed, or pushing garbage onto others?
Are book donations from the developed world similar? Are they just another way for those of us here to feel good about ourselves and get rid of items that we don’t want any more anyway? Are we just assuaging our privileged guilt?
I think the answer might be yes, at least a little bit. In a world before internet access and mobile devices, an old book very well might have been better than no book at all. And when the option is between nothing and something – yeah, I’d generally take something. However, my research on this week’s topic tells me that librarians in the developing world don’t see donated books as being key to their development and growth. Mose and Kaschula researched the impact of donated books from Book Aid International on primary school literacy levels in Kenya. It should be noted that these donated books were not weeded copies from libraries, but rather from using fundraised monies to purchase new books from publishing companies. Their report showed that students showed a definite improvement in literacy levels, and an increased level of enthusiasm for reading. (Hooray!) However, the authors noted that the donated books were often not relevant culturally to the readers, and went on to explain:
Rudman (1988) states that ethnic groups need to see themselves reflected in literature and that their portrayal should be well developed and offer a multi-faceted view of their heritage; this is not the case in a majority of the books donated by BAI and supplied to schools by KNLS. Rudman further indicates that individuals who develop an appreciation for their own diversity are more likely to value others.
(Mose & Kaschula, 2019, p. 396)
Perhaps our support would be better used to assist developed nations to create, write and publish culturally relevant materials of their own. Mobile and internet technology is key to this transformation. This assistance would provide untold economic development to the nations where it occurs.
It should also be noted that it is significantly more likely that a discarded book will be recycled in the developed world. By sending our unwanted books to other countries, we are also increasing the likelihood that they will end up in a landfill.
What’s being done
Access to digital resources and community building were themes frequently revisited in my research this week. Tilahun Shiferaw, a librarian at the Haramaya University Library in Ethiopia referred to his library as a space to enable innovation, have cultural meetings and create community hubs (Ray, 2019, p.14). While half a world away, these words sound like they could be coming out of the mouths of any of us in this program. Shiferaw’s own research focuses heavily on digital methods – database management, digital knowledge base systems, digitization and system administration, as well as community service and research (Ray, 2019, p.14).
Several thousand miles away from Ethiopia, in the West African nation of Ghana, Dinah Baidoo says that the greatest prohibitive factor in her university library is the extreme cost of subscribing to electronic resources (Baidoo, 2017). This sounds like something I would say. If donations are needed from the developed world, maybe access to these electronic resources would be a better option? Some academic publishers are already offering free or reduced-price access to institutions in the developing world, like Sage Publishing’s Public Private Partnerships.
Barriers for school libraries
In “A Consolidation of Challenges Faced by School Libraries in Developing Countries” Liah Shonhe from the University of Botswana completed a literature review on issues facing school libraries specifically (2019). Educational policy, staffing, funds, and inadequate facilities for maintaining physical connections were commonly reported issues across nations in Africa and South-East Asia. The review contains a long list of policy changes and recommendations, including the importance of collaboration between school and public libraries, but I was particularly struck by the following:
Developing countries should consider embracing technology and fast track-rural network connection. This will ensure that school libraries provide access to the internet and up-to date information to students.
(Shonhe, 2019, p. 9)
The role of mobile devices
In a 2014 article by United Nations University, United Nations data indicates that 6 billion of the world’s population now has access to a working mobile phone (only 4.5 billion have access to a toilet, for perspective).
This 4:04 video discusses changes to reading across the world in the mobile era.
While these may not be complex smart phones, they feature rudimentary screens that allow people to read text, and even books. Studying the use of these devices in seven developing countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and Zimbabwe) approximately one in three stated that they used their mobile phones to read to their children. Mobile readers are heavily skewed female, with women reporting 277 minutes per month, while men average 33 minutes. This bodes well for development of female literacy, given that a disproportionate amount of the world’s population that is considered illiterate is female (64%). Mobile reading is inexpensive and allows reading to take place despite social stigma around female education. (Smith, 2014).
Data collected by United Nations University shows a significant increase in positive attitudes around reading after having access to a mobile phone.
Mobile devices allow for access to multiple modalities of text, including e-books, audiobooks, and built in translation and dictionary tools. They can be accessed at any time, from remote locations, they are incredibly mobile and they make text accessible for many. For an increasing subsection of the global population, mobile devices are what makes literacy possible.
Accessacross a range of mobile devices
As mobile devices continue to evolve, one thing that will need to be kept in mind (globally, not just in the developing world) is accessibility. In a 2017 article entitled “We went mobile! (Or did we?)”, Laura Turner and Alejandra Nann discuss what makes mobile based web experiences optimal. For their research, they used the following 4 criteria:
1. It uses mobile friendly software.
2. It does not require the viewer to zoom and can be read from the page’s initial loading.
3. The viewer does not have to scroll horizontally.
4. Links are easily clicked on. (Turner & Nann, 2016, p. 216)
Barriers to accessibility included having to download an app, download PDF files, or use Flash. Web browser-based solutions were deemed most accessible. This takes me to my final point.
Innovative ideas from the global community
So… we want materials to be culturally relevant and in their mother tongues, up to date, and easily accessible. What is being done in edtech in these areas?
This video, aimed at families in India, goes over the benefits and uses for Worldreader
My research led me to Worldreader, a global non-profit charity that only works in digital publications. Through web-browser based e-reader technology, which can be accessed at read.worldreader.org, students have access to free e-books. All these books can be downloaded on to your device to read offline (a great feature for places in the world with spotty access to mobile data or internet). The browser-based app includes awards and motivators for reading, allows readers to set goals, read in multiple languages and increase font size.
This advertisement, in Hindi, highlights the lessons that we can learn through story.
In partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Worldreader studied the impact of the e-readers in libraries in Kenya. More than 80% of participants reported reading more, 254 community events were held, 20000 people were trained to use the e-readers, and library visits at pilot sites tripled. You can read more about the effects of Project LEAP here.
This screenshot shows a view of English book options in the Worldreader catalog
I appreciate that their financials are available for all to check out on their website – something I find very important. Also, using the four criterial from the Turner and Nann study on mobile-friendly technology, Worldreader provides an optimal web-based experience. Finally, upon browsing titles I was struck by the diversity of characters, settings and topics. Non-fiction texts about women and technology, and crime thrillers and other fiction set from Ghana to Cambodia can be found on the site. To see oneself reflected in what you read, see and hear is so very important.
When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are apart.
(Bishop, 1990)
This is only one innovative idea that I found. https://libraryforall.org/ is another non-profit that seems to be working along the same principles. It operates via its own app, rather than an in-browser option, which makes it slightly less accessible.
I’m excited to see the other gamechangers that exist in the world of mobile technology that my classmates will suggest!
Turner, L. S., & Nann, A. (2017). We went mobile! (or did we?) reviewing and promoting third-party device neutral library resources. The Serials Librarian, 72(1-4), 214-222. doi:10.1080/0361526X.2017.1297594
UNESCO. [UNESCO]. (2014, April 22). Reading in the Mobile Era [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/4gOtpCIl-Ng
Worldreader. [Worldreader]. (2016, September 21). Readtokids.com [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/CUicPi3QQOY
Worldreader. [Worldreader]. (2018, November 19). Worldreader Kids – English [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/JmwnhFF-kCY
– or, we can lead horses to water, but how do we encourage them to drink?
Alternate title – if we build it, they will come?
I just finished reading Todd Rose’s The End of Average this week. Rose, a professor at Harvard and a student who barely made it through high school, discusses how the concept of average people and standards came to be. Ultimately, he argues that although this view has played a crucial role in creating the world that we live in, it is time for us to look for other ways to reach, educate, and employ the world around us. He describes how many of the ‘benchmarks’ of development that we have been taught to look for don’t so much tell us about normal development, but rather provides information about the environment someone was raised in (Rose, 2016, pp. 127-128), and that there are many ways to go from point A to point B. It wasn’t surprising when he went on to explain that even a concept like honesty is something that is context dependent.
Rose uses if-then signatures to map the context dependence of a concepts and behaviours.
When I was but a young T-L to be, I remember sitting in on an IEP meeting at which the student’s profile was referred to as a deficit based ‘Sawtooth’ profile. Some years later it’s clear to me that we are all, each and everyone of us, a sawtooth profile. We have strengths and gaps, just like very person does. Teaching students (and ourselves) how to leverage these strengths to develop others is one of the necessities of modern education.
Now, you might be wondering what on Creator’s great earth is Morgan getting at here – but I promise that I have a point. There is no one-sized fits all approach to professional development, just as there is no one size-fits all approach to education in general. In assuming there is, we limit the achievement potential of those around us.
So, how do we reach all people without burning ourselves out?
Get to know people and what will engage them
Observe, observe, observe. In the first class I took as part of my journey to become a trained Teacher-Librarian, we read New on the Job and I was struck by the chapter on ‘Clientele’. While the chapter was focused on collaboration, I think that it has tendrils that hook into professional development. The discussion of Gregorc’s Mind Styles Model strikes me as important to this discussion. Gregorc sorted people into four combinations of perceptual and ordering ability. (It is important to note that he did not think that anyone was a “pure” version of each style, but rather that we exist on a continuum of these traits). Concrete Sequential teachers are highly focused and often do best with brief projects. Abstract Sequential teachers are big picture thinkers who would do well with PD based on large topics. Concrete Random teachers are those who are most likely to try something completely new and out of left field. Finally, Abstract Random teachers work well in groups and with broad topics that they will be able to narrow down to fit their own styles (Toor & Weisburg, 2015, pp. 101-102). Personally, I know I am a very abstract thinker, although I can sway between sequential and random. I try to be mindful of this when I am planning for others. Knowing who you and your coworkers are will help you design tasks that work for everyone.
This image shows the four main Mind Styles as theorized by Gregorc. I imagine that people fall somewhere in between many of these categories, and that this can be viewed like a Quadrant Graph where individuals fall within a wide range of possibilities, and few are 100% true to type. Image is from https://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learning/gregorc.htm
Pay attention to what people are teaching and send ideas and opportunities their way that will meld with their own teaching style. What are people interested in and passionate about? Connecting PD in technologies to these areas will enhance your likelihood for success.
Many things will influence whether teachers are likely to engage in PD. Time is one of them. Get to know the teachers in your building: some of the staff in your building will never, ever come to a lunch and learn session, or invite you in for a prep. Some will be more eager to get together outside of school hours. Are before and after school options for some? And what are your own personal availabilities? Remember to not get too set in your view of your coworkers and limit them before giving them choices, though.
Where is everyone at in terms of their own skill levels with technology? When it comes to whole group professional development, it might be a good idea to plan activities on a spectrum so that some are not left wondering what is going on, while others are bored. To borrow from math guru Jo Boaler, consider Low Threshold High Ceiling tasks that are accomplishable by all, but where increasing complexity is possible. Keep in mind that many educators have always felt successful at school, and new things, or tasks involving technology may leave them feeling less than successful, which can inhibit their participation. Do your best to plan so that you will not alienate those that need it the most. Everyone deserves to feel success!
Put options out there in advance
In the past, I have used an online survey to gather interest in small PD opportunities that I could provide for school staff. In the images below, you will see the questions that I asked of staff, which were based on technological availability as well as my own personal observations about the range of staff tech skills.
Here are some snapshots of my first staff PD survey. I used Microsoft Forms for this, but Google Forms could easily be substituted.
I’d say that this model was semi-effective, as I had a 45% teacher response rate. It did allow me to set up some small-scale exploration groups and teach some basic skills to teachers. I was left feeling like it didn’t have quite the effect on teacher pedagogy that I had hoped. The responses did let me know that there was a vocal minority who were uncomfortable with PD happening outside of divisionally mandated PD days. So, while it did not necessarily impact teacher skills and pedagogy, the rich information it provided did help me understand my co-workers.
When I redo the survey again, I think I will start with an anonymous survey in which staff rate their interest in various areas of tech related PD. We have a school Leadership committee that could provide some feedback on choices and options. I have created a draft version of the survey that you can check out here. If you want to see it, click here!
Try a range of different models
– Book clubs are a great suggestion for professional learning, and could be incorporated into many of the models listed below, whether Lunch and Learns or more formal PLNs.
– Lunch and Learns are a great option for those staff who are okay with giving up some of their mandated non-contact time. Bring in snacks, or see if your school budget has the ability to provide a light lunch (Weinstein and Toor are also big fans of food as a facilitator). If they are one offs, these are great opportunities to introduce and do a brief introduction to a new app or program. If this is over a period of time, you can make it a mini-inquiry.
– Kick off the staff meeting with a 5-minute highlight on a handy new tool or with a quick tip to make teachers’ lives just a little easier. Tangible take-aways often go over well in the education crowd; teachers love something that they can apply to their practice right away.
– Send out quick email updates on new technology tools and apps – I’m blessed to have a (mostly) flexible schedule that allows me to book banks of time with classes as they work on projects. This also means that if I find something new that I want to try out, I can just send out an email to staff and find some collaborators. Me taking the lead and organizing the event/activity takes a lot of stress out of trying something new, and means that I am more likely to get buy in. This allows me to work out some of the kinks and share problem solving hacks with those teachers who have heard about it through the grapevine and are now interested.
Here’s an email based on an app I found fwhile researching last week’s Inquiry Blog post!
According to research from the International Literacy Association, barriers to including new technology in classrooms involve the time to explore and prepare, the teacher’s own knowledge, and the perceived skill levels of students, amongst others. By doing some of the initial work, we have the ability to help teachers overcome some of those barriers (Thoma et al., 2017).
– Setting up collaboration time in our schedules to work with new and interested teachers is another great strategy to create individualized professional development that matches the styles and interests of that teacher.
– Give staff time to learn from one another – some of my favourite in-school PD opportunities have been done via an EdCamp model. For those unfamiliar with the model, this wikipedia article does a great job of summarizing it. I love seeing the tips, tricks and game-changers that the people that we work with are already using and having the opportunity to share things that I love. I think it gives power and choice back to individuals that often people groan about losing in a one-size fits all PD environment. Breakout sessions are another way to add choice and have staff play to their strengths.
– Become a part of, or help set up, school based Professional Learning Communities/Networks. If you can, set these up with the assistance of your divisions Joint Professional Development funds. This might mean creating a proposal and submitting it for approval – but it also means that you are more likely to hook teachers who are less likely to give up “their own time”, as substitute coverage will be provided.
– Consider framing any larger planning and development using the Technology Integration Planning Cycle to make sure that technology is used in meaningful and realistic ways.
Technology should not be creating barriers for teachers! (Thoma et al., 2017, p.169)
– Be open to trying new things! Here’s a fun thread I found on Twitter about the neat PD opportunities other schools are trying out
I’m putting together a post on alternative structures for PD. If your district is doing something besides sit-and-get, everyone in the same room, whole-school traditional PD, tell me about it! #edchat#satchat#mschat#leadupchat
NRICH. (2013, September). Low Threshold High Ceiling – an Introduction. Retrieved from https://nrich.maths.org/10345
Rose, T. (2015). The end of average: How we succeed in a world that values sameness. HarperOne/HarperCollins.
Thoma, J., Hutchison, A., Johnson, D., Johnson, K., & Stromer, E. (2017). Planning for Technology Integration in a Professional Learning Community, 71(2), 167–175. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1604
Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. K. (2015). New on the job: a school librarians guide to success. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.
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