Top Shelf

Back in September, Cushing Academy in Massachusetts made the news by announcing that they were removing all of the books from the library in order to make room for digital information sources. This move prompted librarians and education bloggers around the country to write and wonder about the place that print resources have in a 21st century library. A great response came from Brian Kenney, editor of School Library Journal, in his editorial from the October issue.

In this month’s issue of Teacher Librarian though, David Loertscher puts it all in perspective with this list:

Ten Things Worse Than a Library Without Books:

1. A library without a credentialed teacher-librarian.

2. A library without information in the format users prefer.

3. A library that restricts access to information in any format.

4. A library that most teachers ignore.

5. A library that most students Google around.

6. A teacher-librarian who is afraid of, or ignores the impact of technology.

7. A library that only deals in print materials.

8. A library of antiquated computers and computer networks.

9. A library where tech directors have a big sign behind their desks reading: Just say NO!

10. An empty library.

He makes a great point – what’s the point of having a library (with or without books) at all, if students and teachers aren’t using it?

In a time when information is plentiful and easy to get, users have to believe that coming to the library adds value to their information experience or they will get what they need elsewhere. What are you doing to add value to your students’ and teachers’ experiences in the library?

Today’s students will enter a job market that values skills and abilities far different from the traditional workplace talents that so ably served their parents and grandparents. They must be able to crisply collect, synthesize, and analyze information, then conduct targeted research and work with others to employ that newfound knowledge. In essence, students must learn how to learn, while responding to endlessly changing technologies and social, economic, and global conditions.

The quote above comes from an article in the October 2008 issue of Edutopia magazine and is exactly the same thing that Mike Eisenberg was saying the first time I heard him back in 1994.

The article goes on to say that there is now research to back up the claims that inquiry-based teaching helps students develop those highly sought-after critical thinking skills and I know that I should be jumping for joy.

My reaction though is somewhat different. I wonder: Is change even possible?

We’ve known for years that kids learn better when they are engaged and involved in activities that relate in some way to the read world. Educational gurus have been advocating for this type of teaching for at least 15 years.

So why is it still a struggle to get some educators to understand the value of a teacher working with a librarian to provide these types of experiences for our kids?

Is change possible?

Image citation: Change, we fear it… uploaded to Flickr on December 29, 2007 by apresara and used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Greetings from NECC 2008! DS & I arrived in San Antonio last night for ISTE’s (International Society of Technology Education) National Educational Computer Conference 2008. This is the largest ed tech conference in the country with over 18,000 attendees. It is HUGE!
This morning we visited the exhibits, and are now in our first session. (We tried to go to the Coolcat Teacher’s session on wikis earlier today, but couldn’t get in. Maybe she has something online that we can take a look at later.)

The presenter is David Warlick and he is talking about three converging conditions that we need to pay attention to in order to work successfully with today’s students, who are 21st century citizens learning in 19th century classrooms. Some of the content is a repeat of the information that he shared at Region 10 back in May, but it is worth repeating.
These are the three conditions:
1. Unpredicatable future
-Authors like Daniel Pink and Richard Florida say that we are moving into an age of creativity, where workers will need to be able to solve problems in creative ways.
2. Networked students
-Students have invisible tentacles/personal learning networks that connect them to the people and information that they want.
-They think of information as a raw material that can be mixed with other content to make it better.
3. New information landscape
-Wikipedia is an example of this new information landscape where information content is created by the community. Sharing of and access to information is more important than protecting the authority of the source.
In the past, curriculum, content and teachers were at the top of the hill providing information to the learners below. Today’s students are already published content creators, and are ahead of their teachers. The classroom has become “flat.” We have to be willing to let them teach us and each other. It’s no longer necessary for teachers to be the all-knowing sage.

He closed by encouraging us not to be afraid to change the way we are doing things to meet our learners’ needs.

Click here for handouts from this session.

Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed pointed me to a very interesting and thought-provoking article today. Entitled Is Google Making Us Stoopid?, the author explores the increasing tendency to skim, scan and browse information rather than doing “deep reading” on a topic. In fact, he presents the idea that perhaps our brains are actually changing and becoming less able to handle this type of thinking.

I’m not so sure.

Where does the purpose for reading come into play? If skimming and scanning information on the web gets me the information that I need, then I’m going to skim and scan. If, however, I have a need to understand something in a deeper way, I’m going to make the effort to find some good quality resources and read them carefully in order to understand the topic and make an informed decision.

Before the days of the Internet, the encyclopedia was the enemy of teachers who wanted students to do deep reading and thinking in a research paper. Students would skim and scan an encyclopedia article and copy enough information to complete the assignment. Today they use the Internet to do the same thing. If, however, we change the assignment/research question so that it is requires original thought, skimming and scanning won’t do.

Maybe deep reading, thinking and writing will occur naturally when that’s what is required – in school and in life.

Take some time to read the article, then share your thoughts in the comments.

Image source: A Twisted Family Tradition – the Lime Jello Brain. Uploaded on February 6, 2005 by hurleygurley. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license