The Role of School Librarians

Yesterday, I received the following information from Laurie Conzemius, SIGMS Communications Chair:

ISTE SIGMS has just released an important advocacy statement - "The Role of School Librarians in Promoting the Use of Educational Technologies". This document can be used to provide information on the important role that school librarians play in promoting the use of educational technologies in their schools and the need for libraries to have adequate available technologies. Please share this statement with administrators and other library stakeholders. See the document at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/advocacy.

The statement was created by the SIGMS Executive Advocacy Committee - Lisa Perez, Doug Johnson, Joyce Valenza, Keisa Williams, Wendy Stephens and Ernie Cox. It was created at the request of ETAN to better help us advocate for school librarians. Watch for a call for volunteers in September for the SIGMS Advocacy Committee, chaired by Kathy Sanders, to continue this important work.

The opening sentence of the document is clear and uncompromising: "School librarians perform an integral role in promoting the effective use of educational technologies in their schools."

Technology in education is not an add-on or extra; it's an essential component in the toolbox of every teacher, especially teacher-librarians. Authentic learning experiences do not always require an online element. But when technology can extend or deepen understanding, appropriate tools need to be accessible to students...and teacher-librarians must be able to facilitate their use.

The ISTE SIGMS statement declares that, "Libraries support the curriculum, promote literacy development, and foster lifelong reading habits among children through the development of carefully selected print collections and the infusion of educational technology."

Print AND technology, not print OR technology. Our students need both, and it's the teacher-librarian's obligation to ensure that both are part of the library experience.

Please read "The Role of School Librarians in Promoting the Use of Educational Technologies" and share it with "administrators and other library stakeholders." Consider it a statement of how our profession can, and must, look in the the 21st century.





"science in the stacks" by SpecialKRB

The Technology Department

Technology standards in New York State are included in the MST grouping:



According to the NYS Education Department,

"Historically, the subject area of technology education evolved from the subject area called industrial arts; as a result of the Futuring Project, a name change occurred in the mid 1980’s to what we now call technology education.

Although technology education programs offer students many opportunities to apply their mathematics and science skills, programs at the high school level offer additional opportunities to explore technology-related careers under the Career and Technical Education umbrella. At the intermediate level technology education is a required unit of study to be completed by the end of 8th grade"

New York regulation 100.4 stipulates:

"Except as otherwise provided herein, all students shall be provided instruction designed to enable them to achieve, by the end of grade eight, State intermediate learning standards through...library and information skills, the equivalent of one period per week in grade seven and eight."

Further,

"In public schools, library and information skills shall be taught by library media specialists and classroom teachers to ensure coordination and integration of library instruction with classroom instruction."

So my question is: exactly what constitutes the membership of the technology department that my home district is thanking?

Does the message refer to the certified technology teacher, who guides sixth graders through a ten-week 21st Century Technology Skills course? The middle school librarian, who instructs students in "library and information skills"? The classroom teachers, at all levels, who infuse technology in their lesson plans? The administrator who is Director of Technology?

Shouldn't ALL teachers be technology teachers?

Technology

Historically, an important aspect of technological advances has been to help humans control their environment and improve their daily life.

Buttons, belt buckles, zippers - all revolutionized the clothing industry. Isaac Singer maintained that women could be trusted to operate "machinery" and successfully marketed his home sewing machine, freeing wives and mothers from endless hand sewing tasks. Washers, vacuum cleaners, telephones, typewriters and automobiles all impacted households and the workplace.

In the educational world, the word "technology" is most frequently used to describe the inclusion of software, hardware, and Internet applications developed to enhance learning activities. There has been an astonishing number of products created that claim to support and extend classroom opportunities.



Choosing the proper tool, experimenting with it, assessing its strengths and weaknesses, is part of the process of technology integration. Consider whether the new technology

• fills a need
• better engages the learner
• improves upon the tool it is replacing
• is appropriate to the subject matter and grade level

Does the new technology do something faster, better, easier? Will it be transformative?

Will the tool drive instruction or will learners' needs determine the tool?




"Treadle" by dmcordell
"smartboard" by popofatticus
"blocks" by {dpade1337}