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This week, I'm doing some brainstorming about possible options for my final vision project. It is meant to be a representation of my vision of teacher-librarianship. I have three main ideas for digital artifacts I could create:
1. A professional X account focused on staying current as a TL
I've started to create this already. It is a great way to connect with other teacher-librarians and hear about very specific teacher-librarian things. The X account allows me to create a personal learning network (PLN) that will stay with me wherever I go, which is a wonderful long-term thing to have. However, I don't think anyone at my school has a professional X account and it wouldn't be easy to share my learning with the people I actually work with. If I were to create a school library X account, it would look very different than the professional X account I'm creating. When I think about social media as my final project, I get confused on who I'm posting for - parents? teachers? myself? - and how it connects to my actual day-to-day job.
2. An elementary school library website
Conveniently, I ran into the person in charge of the Microsoft Teams page for all the TLs in my district the other day, and she added me to the VSB TL Team. I was curious as to why so few schools in my district have a library website, so I searched the Team for information. I found a post from 2021 in which someone asked the group about the pros and cons of creating a library website. While a few TLs had websites, the general tone of the answers was that library websites take up a lot of time and don't get used much. Some TLs commented that there was a spot on the Destiny Discover version of the catalogue that could be edited for individual schools. Others said they ask their administrator to put the basic info on the library page of the school website. One had a school library Instagram account. It was an interesting post to read, because I see so many positives to having a webpage. I wrote a bit about it here. If I took the time to create a website for my final project based on my current school, it would (hopefully) be relatively straightforward to update for my new school. I know I would find it useful to help me keep all my resources organized and available.
3. A series of videos explaining how to use Destiny Discover
Destiny Discover is the library catalogue used both in my current school district and the district I hope to work in one day. It is simple to use, but elementary school students still need to be taught how to use it. I could create a series of 'how to' videos for students explaining how to find the catalogue, how to log in to the catalogue, how to find out if the school library has a specific book, how to find out what books the library has on a topic, how to do a basic works cited page, etc. How-to videos for teachers could focus on the 'Collections' tab. There are a lot of classroom teachers that don't know about that tab, and it can be very useful. These videos would be useful for as long as the Destiny Discover program is being used.
I'm leaning away from an X account as my final project, because the connection between it and my job is less direct. I want to create something that will be directly useful for when I am hired as a TL (hopefully next year). Both the library website and the series of videos check that box. I like both ideas, but I've been thinking about library websites for so long that I want to explore that option. The ISTE Standards ask educators to "seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning" (2023). I believe a library website is an example of such an opportunity.
Works Cited:
"ISTE Standards: For Educators." International Society for Technology in Education, iste.org/standards/educators. Accessed Nov 12, 2023.
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Hi Laura, I am considering an X account, webpage and tutorial videos as well. Thank you for sharing your finding about the webpage. It is what I was leaning towards but not so sure anymore.
ReplyDeleteWe are having similar thought processes!
DeleteYou've got lots of ideas to ponder here! I think Destiny Discover videos for student use would be useful. then you could use the videos to teach classes - or teachers could use them in the classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI think a website might get used more if you post pages from it directly to social media sites where the community is. It sounds like you might be in transition from one job to another, so learning the skills about building a website now could be useful, but once you're in the community you want to be in - you could get involved in the PAC social media pages so that you can post website updates in those spaces? I think this would be a way to increase traffic to your website.
I'm going to be investigating how to link social media to this potential website - wondering about a blog/social media section. PAC social media would be great to help get the word out that the website exists - thanks for that suggestion!
DeleteI appreciate the way you are carefully considering a combination of tools to help you accomplish your goals. Either the website or series of video tutorials would fulfill the requirements of this course. With either of these options, you would want to consider how you would reach your intended audience. You would also want to consider your plan for continued development. One aspect that can be missed on the final projects is the need for academic reading and research. You would want to connect this to the specific goals of your project.
ReplyDelete