Supporting digital literacy and 21st century learning through the school library

#SLAVConf

@slavconnects

The School Library Association of Victoria conference “It’s a digital world,” held recently in Melbourne, was a good opportunity to reflect on the digital environment that is shaping our personal, work and social lives and to ask, What are the implications for us as educators? What are the imperatives for new literacies, including digital literacy and 21^st century skills? How can international frameworks can guide the development of digital literacy in our schools? And how can digital devices and tools enrich the learning environment to support the development of skills, attitudes and understandings students need to be successful, effective citizens of the 21^st century?

 I had the opportunity to attend this conference and present the keynote address. The conference was opened by Hon. James Merlino,  Victorian Minister for Education and Deputy Premier. It was fascinating to hear of the Minister’s vision for education and innovation in Victoria.

This was followed by a presentation by Mr Marco DiCesare, Principal of Caroline Chisholm Catholic College and SLAV School Leader of the Year 2014. Marco demonstrated his strong belief in the value school libraries and talked about his role in the revitalization of libraries in two schools he has led. Both speakers were inspirational and set a great tone for the conference, asserting the important place of school libraries in education.

My presentation was “Digital literacy, 21^st century skills and information fluency.” My goal was to provide an overview of current international research, documentation and trends regarding digital literacy, and offer some insight into our practice at AIS.

I began with a look at our students today, the characteristics, attitudes and understandings of the digital generation, and international studies that add to our own observations.

A key point was the imperatives this drives for the development of digital literacy and 21^st century skills in our schools.

I referenced some international frameworks for 21^st century learning and digital literacy.

I then spoke about the AIS libraries initiative - framework for 21^st century skills and information fluency. There was also some discussion of the Student Research Guide that accompanies the framework, and a look at some digital tools that can support 21^st century learning. I closed with some consideration of further implications, including assessment and reporting of digital literacy, and the broader implications for our (teacher librarian) profession.

I also had the opportunity to lead a workshop, “Supporting inquiry and digital literacy through the library.” This was intended as a guide to participants who wish to develop a (online) resource for their school/library which supports the inquiry process and digital literacy of their students. It focused on the process, and I provided a lot of online support material that participants could use: clarifying purpose; considering framework/structure; platform options; tools for students; advocacy. During the workshop there was a lot of time provided to talk, and to look and suggested resources online.

There was opportunity for me to learn from other practitioners in two other concurrent workshop sessions. I heard about Joy Burlak’s evidence-based project to teach digital literacy to Year 7 at Sunbury Downs Secondary College. Later Wilma Kurvink showed the renovation of library spaces at Wesley College to meet the needs of 21^st century learners: zones for collaborating, storytelling, sharing, creating, reflecting and learning.

The closing library design panel reinforced many of the ideas presented by Wilma, each panelist giving their particular context for library renewal.

This was a stimulating and exciting conference. The digital environment we now work in has redefined the role of the teacher librarian. It calls for a new skillset and expertise. How does it shape the way we work with teachers, students, curriculum leaders? This dialogue is taking place in school library associations around the world, and it’s a continuing conversation we need to have.

Our AIS framework, research guide, and other resources, can be found at http://libguides.ais.com.sg/research

Presentations and workshop notes will be accessible on the SLAV website

Linda Twitchett

Looking ahead to Hands on Literacy, Nov. 17, 2012

There will be an open meeting to organize the planning of the next Hands on Literacy conference, scheduled for Saturday, November 17, 2012, hosted at the new UWC East campus in Tampines.  Anyone at your schools is welcome to join us -- whether librarian or literacy coach or reading fanatic.

Come to the planning meeting:  Monday, March 19th -- 5:30 -- at the Prologue bookshop on the 4th level of Ion on Orchard Road.  RSVP to Katie (kda@uwcsea.edusg/8233-2922) if you are coming to that meeting OR if you are interested in being on a subcommittee (Venue & Catering, Publicity, Sponsorship & Trade Show, Digital Work (website, app, etc.), Programme (guest speakers & workshops) & Registration, Budget & Finance, etc.).  Some of you may be on spring break that week, but just let me know and I'll put you on the Google Doc of the minutes.

As this will be our third conference, we are going into it a bit calmer than the first two -- but, of course, there can always be improvements and changes.

Probably the biggest difference about this conference will be that it is preceded (on the Sunday to Thursday) by a major conference in Doha specifically about international school libraries -- the IASL conference, "The Shifting Sands of School Librarianship".  Click here to see their conference website.

Here is a copy of the Call for Papers that was posted on the ECIS iSkoodle:

Call for Proposals - IASL Doha in November by Linda Hoiseth - Wednesday, 7 March 2012, 08:59 AM The Qatar International School Librarians are pleased to be hosting the 2012 International Association of School Librarianship conference in Doha, November 12-15 (preconference on November 11). We have some great speakers lined up, including Stephen Krashen (whose latest - yet unpublished - research is all about the value of libraries), Jack Gantos, Joyce Valenza, Laurie Halse Anderson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Eppo van Nispen. You have until April 1st to propose a research paper for the peer-reviewed International Research Forum and until April 15 to propose a workshop or other presentation.  For the online proposal form and other information, go tohttp://iasl2012.org.  The registration fee is  reduced for those chosen to present. Qatar is the place to be (look for the recent 60 Minutes and CNN reports on Qatar), and November is a great time to be here.  It's going to be a great conference!

There doesn't seem to be any financial information up on the website yet.  So we don't know what it will cost to attend -- or what discount you get if you do a workshop.

NB: We are trying to finalize arrangements with Joyce Valenza, teacher-librarian extraordinaire, to have her fly from the Doha conference straight to Singapore to be our keynote speaker on Saturday the 17th.  The trick is she needs to be back at work on the East coast of the USA by Monday.  The time zones are in our favor, but it will mean she will have to leave Singapore late on Saturday.  We'll keep you posted.

A lot of us here are interested in attending Doha -- and I don't see any reason why we couldn't get ourselves so organized that we could all go to Doha and still be ready for our own conference on the Saturday.  As IASL is such librarian-specific professional development, it would be a shame to miss it just to put on our more generic literacies day of learning.  So that's the goal -- go to IASL in Doha and put on a great one-day conference on the Saturday, along with Joyce Valenza.

Share your ideas with us

Even if you don't come to the Monday meeting or don't volunteer to be on a subcommittee, you can still give us your ideas.  How could we make it better?  Have you seen something at a conference that you think we could adopt for our own?

Click here to see the website of the last one in 2010 - www.handsonlit.com.  Once we start populating a new website, I'll switch over the domain name, but for now it's useful to see what we did before.

The workshop strands we identified for our last conference were

Digital Literacy  /  Traditional Literacy  /  Visual Literacy & The Arts  /  Research & Inquiry  /  Early Years  /  Librarianship  /  Other

Feedback can be via the comments here or direct emails to librarynetwork@gmail.com or personal comments to any of the executive committee.

-- Katie