This week I enjoyed our lesson on library homepages, as this
is something I would like to develop when I get into a position at a library
someday. I appreciate the resources listed by Joyce Valenza in her WebQuest, as
I have found a couple of my library courses have referenced this website as a
good resource. This website provides many suggestions as to qualities that should
be seen in a homepage, including Information for Access and Delivery,
Teaching and Learning, Supporting Books and Reading and Program
Administration.
(Valenza, WebQuest on School Library Websites).
Incorporating a homepage into a school library in today’s
information age can be a useful tool in helping students and teachers access a
multitude of quality resources that they may have overlooked otherwise. As
stated in our lesson this week, “Providing access to online digital learning
resources can present ideal opportunities through which teacher-librarians can
support resource-based learning and teaching and promote student inquiry”
(McPherson, 2012, Lesson 12).
Another point that was brought up in the lesson this week: “What
is becoming increasingly obvious to teacher-librarians is that the Internet is
not only providing us with huge amounts of information, but information that,
if accessed correctly, may be more up-to-date, and in some cases superior to
learning resources that we can purchase in hard copy. Our ability to access
free resources via the Internet and purchase on-line digital resources
including encyclopedias and educational data bases has had a huge impact on our
reference areas.”
I agree, the internet has HUGE amounts of information, and
as a TL, I see part of my role as being able to pare some of that information
down for student and teacher use. The other operative words are “accessed
correctly.” Having the ability to know which resources are current, accurate,
relevant, and credible can be a challenging part of the position of TL. Once a
TL is familiar with more of these online resources, then I agree, some are superior
to print purchases, and potentially less expensive as well. Incorporating a homepage to provide this information
and the links to these sources provides a valuable resource for students and
teachers.
One of the reflection questions for this week had me
thinking about my potential future working in a school library:
Now that you have
seen the work that is being done to support online, digital resources, many of
you will be thinking about your own commitment or support for this area. Again,
if your time or the technology in your school is limited, you can start with
some basic lessons that will indicate to the students the importance of using
the better Internet sites and digital resources. It won't be a matter of
convincing the students that the Internet is an important source of
information. The challenge will be for you to get them to access the better
sites. If you agree with the above, consider how you, in your schools, might
you go about this?
How to go about accessing better sites? One step at a time.
As a TL, if I can keep informed about what units/projects teachers are doing in
a class, then I can suggest possible online resources. I know just recently I
suggested to a teacher friend some possible internet sites that her class could
use for their project research. I had TOC’d in her class, and in the day plan I
was to take the students to the library to work on a Social Studies project on
Famous Canadians. When I asked the teacher which websites she was using, she
said none in particular. So I suggested a few to her. As a TL, being equipped
in these situations to guide the classroom teachers and students to more
accurate searches and better quality information will, eventually, lead to
better teaching and learning about online, digital resources.
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