Personal Learning Journey

The library environment deals with “ the individual learner, the role of technology, and the contemporary world, linked together through concepts of equality and collaboration”  It also  needs to be part of a learning-focused culture - focused on learning, and characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy, collaboration and safety. (Our code, our standards) This is where I want to position our school library.  Until students and teachers see the library/information centre as relevant it will not be used to its full potential.

For the beginning of the year  the library was primarily being used as a corridor and a socialising space for the students, with one end being a classroom space.  There was no quiet area to read or study or play board games,.It was no longer a safe place.The first strategies I used were ones I had used to develop a library culture in the previous ‘stand-alone building.  This resulted in conflict  A change of strategies which included and met the students’ needs has resulted in an environment which can be learning focused.

This was the biggest change in my practice this year.  The next phase of the change is to develop the role of technology in the library. I have begun working with students on blogging.  Another teacher has asked me to work with some students from her maths class next term. I have found some students who know a bit about coding, and will work with them to develop this area of digital literacy.  I am also exploring ways to make the library website more interactive, possibly by using some gamification elements

My professional development for the year is planned to support me with my ideas for the library and to consolidate the learning I have done with Mindlab  I will be learning about the new digital technologies in the curriculum, and working out how our library collections, programmes and services can contribute to digital literacy (MOE, National Library) I will be discovering more about makerspaces, (OEDb), robotics, and coding to see how I can develop these ideas in the library.  I will be experimenting with programmes and apps to make our digital library space more interactive. (Woolf Fisher 2017)

I also plan to continue reflective practise and publishing to my blog.  I am still trying different models to see which ones I wish to use in different situations (Finlay).  I have found it helpful to include research at a specific stage in reflection leading to action.I will continue to blog my reflections, and at some stage will work towards including this platform more in my personal networks.  Similarly I will work towards being more active on Twitter, though I doubt whether I will ever get to follow fifty  others.


References

Finlay L (2008)Reflecting on reflective practice  https://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf


Hack Education https://hackeducation.co.nz/

Ministry of Education http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Curriculum-areas/Digital-Technologies-in-the-curriculum

National Library (2018) https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/professional-learning/courses/823

Our Code, our standards https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

 A Librarians guide to makerspaces: 16 Resources https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces/


Woolf  fFisher research https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tT7g3-hibg0CwrpPAD71auZOiUJbwKABIuJ8ovOE8FQ/edit#slide=id.p

My  understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness and discussion on communication and special activities.

“Indigenous knowledge refers to the understandings, skills and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings…. This knowledge is integral to a cultural complex that also encompasses language, systems of classification, resource use practices, social interactions, ritual and spirituality.”(Unesco)

I like this definition of indigenous knowledge as it is so simple and so inclusive. It provides me with a frame of reference to decide if something may be based on indigenous knowledge, or possibly have been impacted by colonial ideas,  It helps me to use different cultural lenses.

I am a Pakeha New Zealander, and was brought up in in a rural. predominantly Maori area, where the school and marae were the focal point of the community.  My mother’s family was German, my father’s English.  My husband immigrated to New Zealand from Holland as a child. I tatai to Te Aupouri, Ngati Kahu, Te Atiawa; and  Ngati Whatua, and work in the Ngapuhi rohe.

Our school is is some ways almost monocultural, having a 90% Maori roll.  Many of the teachers are fluent Te Reo speakers, and the rest of us hear it regularly  My school fits somewhere on the green/ red pillars of Ann Milne’s action continuum.  In some ways we match more the Whare tapawha idea with the fifth dimension of whenua added.  (See Heaton, 2015)  We are Te Pu o te Wheke, we are inside Te Whare Tapu o Ngapuhi., and this establishes  and grounds us.  Our core values - Whanaungatanga, Aroha, Kawenga ako and Mana tangata ensure we care for the wairua, tinana, hinengaro and whanau of our students.  We begin each day with a karakia, some classes finish the day with a karakia mutunga.  Mihi whakatau and powhiri are the usual way to greet visitors.   Tikanga and kawa are explained where necessary, and to some extent embedded in our policies and systems. 

The school has been involved with Te Kotahitanga for many years now, and many teachers practise elements of the effective teacher profile (ETP., Bishop)  The teachers all show authentic caring for the students as Maori;and have high expectations of their students’ learning.  They give feed back and feed forward; and use contexts where the students are able to apply their own knowledge.  A range of teaching strategies are used; and teaching and learning strategies are evidence based.    Most can manage their classrooms effectively. All of this gives students’ hinengaro a strong basis We have a kaumatua at school, and staff members with standing in the Mormon and Ratana churches, so along with our counsellors have the basics to care for students’ wairua. Food and sport activities are provided to care for tinana.  Whanau are welcomed and respected.

Our communications  and our special celebrations ensure our whanau are informed and welcomed into school.  Our komiti Maori includes parents and whanau, kuia and kaumatua and gives them a place to korero,  to share their opinions and discuss and make plans with staff.  Staff are welcome to attend takiwa meetings, so the involvement is reciprocal.  All of this helps strengthen our students’ cultural identity.

Now what?

As a school our next step is to consolidate the progress we have made.  Not all staff are comfortable with karakia mutunga in their classrooms, or with attending hui at a marae. Our students have made racist comments about other students, and staff from different ethnic backgrounds, so we have work to do there.  And finally, we need to move towards challenging colonialism in teaching programmes..


 15 Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies and Examples + Downloadable List
https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Culturally-Responsive-Teaching-Strategies-and-Examples.pdf

Education for Māori: Relationships between schools and whānau  https://www.oag.govt.nz/2015/education-for-maori/docs/education-for-maori.pdf

Heaton,S (2015) Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems Mai Journal 4 (2)
http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/sites/default/files/MAIJrnl_2015_V4_iss2_Heaton.pdf

Savage,C, Hindle, R., Meyer,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetito, W. & Sleeter, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198 https://culturally-responsive-pedagogies-in-the-classroom-indigenous-student-experiences-across-the-curriculum%20(1).pdf

Unesco http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/priority-areas/links/related-information/what-is-local-and-indigenous-knowledge/

Trends Blog Activity

The trend that interests me is the impact of digital learning, because this extends into every facet of our lives.

Social media outlets available now provide a context for people to connect, to collaborate on initiatives and to create new content.  People can create and communicate information relating to commerce, religion, political ideas, cultural identity, geographical events, climate, conflict and many other topics.  Online users can access information easily about all of these things almost as soon as they are published.

The problem with this is that disinformation and fake news can be created, published, read and believed just as easily.  As the world becomes more closely connected, the number of groups seeking to establish and reinforce their identity  also increases as people seek to ensure some stability in their lives in the face of rapid change.  Leaders in these groups will become more influential, and belief in what they state becomes more accepted as truth.  Those with a stronger intensity of faith or belief will be less likely to change or challenge views.  As a result, social media platforms are an emerging tool for creating divisiveness, and spreading disinformation and increasing conflict- in fact, they have huge potential for propaganda.

There is a belief that as people become connected through digital means, they will be able to access the information they need, at the time they need it, so librarians in particular are seen as unnecessary.  Their role, when described as as gatekeepers of knowledge, is viewed as limiting and anachronistic. A true gatekeeper knows which gate to open to help information seekers - As Neil Gaiman remarked,” Google can bring you 100,000 answers to a question, but a librarian can give you the right one.”

Students know how to access information - just ask Google.  What students do not do intuitively is look past the first five results out of three million possibilities.  They may not recognise that the suffixes on the urls will provide some information about the provenance, bias and accuracy of the information provided.  Students may not realise or acknowledge that Google has chosen which items of information to show first - based on metadata, previous searches and so on.

A strong culture of literacy needs to be developed in schools - data literacy, digital literacy, information seeking and evaluating literacy for starters.  Librarians and teachers have the responsibility of developing this culture, and of providing resources to develop and strengthen such cultures

Access to digital technology is another variable that may be affected by population trends.  One trend is that more people will live in cities, but there is no indication of what form these cities may take.  If they continue to spread, will there be less rural land available?  If they are concentrated in smaller areas, how will these be imagined and constructed?  Access to digital technologies is already less in poorer areas, and rural areas regularly have less access to the services that run these technologies.  Power supply, or telephone access may continue to be less available in rural areas,   If dependence on access becomes prevalent, there will develop a strong need to find smaller, less centralised and cable-dependent points of access.  The printed word may become as important as digital material.  Librarians and libraries will become important in providing access to both delivery forms as well as audio and video.  Teachers will need to ensure that they somehow walk the tightrope and keep a balance between digital tools and the real world problems of lack of access.


National Intelligence Council. (2017). Global trends: The Paradox of Progress. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Main-Report.pdf
Neil Gaiman quoted in The Guardian 27.6.2018 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/17/the-guardian-view-on-books-for-all-libraries-give-us-power
Trends shaping Education 2016 OECD https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/trends-shaping-education-2016_trends_edu-2016-en#page1