Blog Post 4: Technology Leadership Role of School Librarians

The landscape of learning has changed in recent years.  No longer are students passively listening to or reading for knowledge acquisition.  With the advent of the internet and the advancement of digital media and related technologies, learning has the potential to be engaging and interactive, with students not only receiving information, but also creating knowledge and sharing what they’ve learned with the world.   According to the American Association of School Librarians (2007), students have multiple needs in today’s world.  Access to so much information brings with it the need to learn a framework of questioning that leads to effective learning, as well as ethical behaviors necessary when utilizing information (AASL, 2007).  The skills students need to function as members of society include an understanding of technology and information literacy that crosses multiple forms and platforms (AASL, 2007; ISTE, 2016).  The International Society for Technology in Education (2016) recently released their newest student standards to include strands that focus on digital citizenship, knowledge construction, computational thinking, communication, innovation, and collaboration.  The question for today’s educators should not be whether or not technology should be integrated into the classroom, but rather how to integrate it effectively so as to enable students to succeed.

There are still people who have a hard time envisioning a different type of learning environment, and North America is not the only country struggling with the transition the role of educators and more specifically, school librarians, play in this change (Lo and Chiu, 2015).  Still, there is an undeniable change in the way people interact with reading these days- a radical change (Wine, 2016).  According to Wine (2016), the role of teacher-librarian has evolved from one of simply keeper of the library collection into something much more.  With all the skills students must develop, teacher-librarians should be able to model the skills of collaboration, working with teachers and students alike to learn how to access and utilize information responsibly, both in and out of the library.  The skills of technology extend beyond the devices and into one’s way of thinking.  Students need help learning about the resources available to them, as well as learning how to evaluate the resources and organize the information they learn for later use.  

Technology is available to students whether given access by schools or not.  They will find ways to use the technology regardless of whether we help them or hinder them.  Now, more than ever before, the need for teacher-librarians to facilitate the learning of efficient use of technology is imperative.  Ideally, teachers would be integrating technology into everything they do in the classroom, and while more schools are moving this way, the transition is slow.  This is why the teacher-librarians who have a grasp on the world of technology and everything it encompasses is so important.  Teacher-librarians must lead the way in the navigation of our real and digital worlds, helping the community find a balance between the two.

Resources

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21st-century
            learner. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/

content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2
            007.pdf

International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). ISTE standards: ISTE

standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/
            iste-standards/ standards-for-teachers

Lo, P., & Chiu, D. W. (2015). Enhanced and changing roles of school librarians
           under the digital age. New Library World, 116(11/12), 696-710.

Wine, L. l. (2016). School Librarians as Technology Leaders: An Evolution in Practice.
            Journal Of Education For Library & Information Science, 57(2), 207-220.0