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