Posts Tagged ‘information_fluency’
Advocacy – gather startling facts
Strategy 3: Gather startling facts (and statements)
With this step it is possible to incorporate step 2 (capture killer statistics).
For example, “In this survey 86 (12.518%) of the schools reported an annual library budget of less than $1000. A further 113 (16.448%) schools reported an annual budget of less than $5000. In all nearly a third of the survey participants (28.996%) received less than $5000 for their school libraries. Across the whole survey group 45.123% of schools received less than $10,000 as their annual budget.” (2008, http://www.chs.ecu.edu.au/portals/ASLRP/report/libraries/annual-budgets.html)
As above, try and support the fact or statement by including the source, this way it is possible to avoid the “feel good” statements.
Here are some other examples –
“Students who know how best to summarise information that they read can perform much harder reading tasks, on average, than those who do not. Students also perform better when they know which strategies help them to understand and remember information, and by adopting strategies to guide their own learning.” OECD (2010), PISA 2009 at a Glance, OECD Publishing, p. 72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264095298-en
The statement could be used in the context of promoting school library programs that focus on developing reading and literacy capabilities of students as well as the integration of information literacy programs.
“Increasing literacy and numeracy skills had a positive, statistically significant effect on both labour force participation and hourly wages. Thus, from a policy perspective, if people’s literacy and numeracy skills can be improved, then they will tend to achieve better labour market outcomes.”
Shomos, A. 2010, Links Between Literacy and Numeracy Skills and Labour Market Outcomes, Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper, Melbourne, August, p. 58. (Note: This paper utilises data from a 2006 survey on the literacy and numeracy skills of the Australian adult population. See the statistics in a previous post http://www.schoollibrarymanagement.com/advocacy-statistics/).
This statement would support the role of the school library in the development of literacy capabilities for every student from an early age through to the final years of formal schooling. For Australian teacher-librarians, the connection with the National Assessment Program for Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) is crucial (http://www.naplan.edu.au/).
The following statement comes from The 2010 Horizon Report: Australia-New Zealand Edition –
“The need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy, poses a continuing challenge to educational programs.” Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report: Australia–New Zealand Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium, p. 5.
http://www.nmc.org/publications/2010-horizon-anz-report
This statement continues to be reported in the Horizon Reports with different variations. But, the key message is there is a very strong need for the teaching of information and digital information literacy skills in schools. Educators and policy decision makers need to seriously consider how this is can be effectively delivered to every student. We have a huge equity issue here that needs to be addressed and teacher-librarians should be very interested in taking up this cause.
So, what startling facts (and statements) have you been able to gather over the years? I’m sure teachers and students have made statements about the service of the school library that could be captured and used (with permission, of course). Even the principal may have made a statement along the lines of “the quality of the school library has a direct impact on enrolments.”
Digital literacy on the rise
The Horizon Report 2010 K-12 edition has highlighted a really important issue that is very relevant to teacher-librarians.
One challenge identified in the report is – “Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.” As discussed in the report, training in digital literacy is rare in any pre-service teacher education training. The reference to this lack in “school district professional development” is really a green light for teacher librarians to get out there and put a school-based professional learning program together for the staff.
Other sections that will of interest include the key trends – Five trends have been identified as key drivers of technology adoptions for the period 2010 through 2015:
- Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socialising, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives. Once seen as an isolating influence, technology is now recognised as a primary way to stay in touch and take control of one’s own learning.
- Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, learn, socialise, play, collaborate, communicate and succeed. Increasingly, technology skills are also critical to success in almost every arena, and those who have substantial facility with technology will advance while those without access or skills will not.
- The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. The ways we design learning experiences must reflect the growing importance of innovation and creativity as professional skills.
- There is increasing interest in just-in-time, alternate, or non-formal avenues of education, such as online learning, mentoring and independent study.
- The way we think of learning environments is changing. The ‘spaces’ where students learn are becoming more community-driven, interdisciplinary and supported by technologies that engage virtual communication and collaboration.
Some of these trends also help teacher-librarians to have a foot in the door. For example, consider inquiry-based learning and how we design learning experiences to engage learners in information rich environments to develop higher order thinking, creativity and innovation. Or, school library design and developing learning spaces for students.
We need to use the information in this report to our advantage.
School libraries and teacher-librarians inquiry
The inquiry into school libraries and teacher-librarians (TLs) in Australian schools by the House of Representatives is very timely. With the economic stimulus package, Building the Education Revolution (BER), the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) element budget was $14.1 billion. The priority was the construction of new school libraries or refurbishment of existing facilities (other facilities included multipurpose halls or covered outdoor learning areas or classrooms). As at August 2009 there was over 3000 school library projects benefiting from the BER funding for the first round (National Coordinator’s Implementation Report, February to September 2009). The second round of projects are to be completed no later than 31 January 2011 with the third round scheduled for 31 March 2011.
At the beginning of the school year of 2010 some of these new school libraries were opened. One concerning aspect was a number of these new facilities did not have a fully qualified teacher-librarian managing the facility or the new school library only had a teacher-librarian there for only a few days of the school week. In November 2009 the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) wrote to the Minister of Education requesting a review of school libraries in Australia. The response from the Office of the Hon. Julia Gillard in December 2009 was “the management of school libraries, including resourcing and allocation of staff, is the responsibility of the government and non-government education authorities in each state or territory”.
The Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools , announced on the 10 March 2010, has certainly created a great deal of interest within the education sector and the library & information services industry. Recent media coverage has been very positive. For example, School libraries are the lifeblood of learning – let’s not lose them by Dr Karen Brooks. Brooks’ closing statement will ring true – “…remind the powers that be that school libraries, TLs and librarians are our culture’s heart – let’s do all we can to keep it beating”.
In 2008 I contributed a chapter on ‘Managing and servicing the information needs of a digital school’ to the text, Leading a digital school edited by Mal Lee and Michael Gaffney (ACER Press, 2008). I mentioned the need for today’s students needing to become information fluent. “The means being able to:
- ask the right questions to identify the most appropriate search terms to effectively transact a successful search query;
- develop and apply high-level online research skills that require responsiveness to search results and utilising decision-making skills to revise the information-seeking process;
- be discerning users and understand the limitations of various search tools and the idiosyncrasies of specialised search facilities;
- check the reliability and validity of the information sourced;
- use the information ethically and know when and how to give credit to an information source; and
- actively engage in constructive knowledge creation knowing how to integrate sourced information to expand their understanding and knowledge of the world.” (p. 142)
The role of the teacher-librarian is absolutely crucial in the development of these 21st Century skills. As Brooks states, “Librarians and TLs are the gatekeepers and mediators through which children discover the different and amazing worlds at their fingertips.”
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