I found it interesting and valuable to look again at the values and principles of the New Zealand curriculum as well as the Key competencies which I am very familiar with.
When you add in 21st Century skills and digital literacy skills there is a huge range of skills students (and teachers) need to be familiar with. The competencies Costa and Bellick call Habits of Mind also relate to these skills.
The lists do include similar skills and qualities - create, communicate, collaborate, critique; be flexible, persistent, curious and aware; participate and contribute to (a diverse) society; achieve literacy and aim for excellence, for example. I am still trying to find a way to consolidate these qualities so I have a reasonably concise list to refer to when I check the library performance.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/21st-century-skills-future-jobs-students/
Retrieved from Sally Pewhairangi’s blog post
https://findingheroes.co.nz/2015/06/11/digital-literacy-has-8-essential-elements/
I found it interesting as well that many of these characteristics are also present in communities of participation (Wenger)
(This image is copyright, but is the best I can find - see https://sites.google.com/a/wesvt.net/library/habits-of-mind The icons on the poster are those used by Costa and Bellick)
Thought leadership
https://brandyourself.com/
I found it interesting that this term has had several resurgences since the 19th century, and definitions have continued to be useful now. Many of the articles about thought leadership are now concerned with industry and marketing, rather than education. The common characteristics of a thought leader are
- Expertise in a particular niche
- Ongoing involvement in (or awareness of) that niche
- A clearly identified point of view
- Credibility
- A supportive following
I found it interesting as well that many of these characteristics are also present in communities of participation (Wenger)
I haven’t read enough to know which is the chicken and which is the egg - someone showing thought leadership or a community ready to become involved. What matters is that both are needed to have any effect on making changes.
For me, I will have to develop a blog following if I want the Springboards blog on the library site to have any impact.
I liked the Anatomy of an Infographic and have found a library book about infographics to give me some ideas about presentation - it is also interesting how some of my quilting design books link to this. Once I get some ideas I'll then have to learn how to include these into my blogging or internet
The Information is beautiful blog is interesting too.
Curation of resources
Annotating curated resources is an area I have been very unsure about. Now I realise that the first step for me will be to name the icons I have included on the library web site and the OPAC, and add a short caption that explains what the sites contain. Many of the main sites - Te Ara, Papers Past, Topic Explorer for example, though clear to me because I refer to them regularly, do not have content obvious to students and teachers without a caption.
Similarly, while everyone knows to “ask Uncle Google” many of the students and teachers at our school do not know how to refine their search and do not know how Google uses historic searches, or meta tags to prioritise search results. Other search engines are not regularly used, and databases almost never used.
Once a website is found many students will plagiarise without trying to understand the concepts they are supposedly learning about. Some students are aware of copyright issues when it comes to using images, but are not concerned when it comes to music. I have discussed creative commons licences with one teacher, but nothing has come of it.
So skills for effective searching, selecting and evaluating websites are not automatic in my library. To make any change my leadership style has to be both collaborative and servant based - working with teachers and students to benefit them.
Both Kotter and Wenger suggest starting small - building a community and a need for change at the same time. People need to see a benefit for themselves and a link to something that interests them before they will buy in to something wholeheartedly. Change can be mandated, but this can lead to resistance.
Therefore my action plan has to focus first on what I can do, and look for an opportunity to involve a teacher and class into accessing the digital resources I prepare for them. Once I have found and shown useful resources to several teachers we can work together to develop school wide resources and skills such as a consistent inquiry system.
Using digital resources to create DLO (digital learning objects) is something I am just dipping my toes into. I have been working with a few students, suggesting things to try on their school blogs, One student has used google maps to show the journeys taken by three characters in a novel. Until junior classes have access to computers it is very difficult for me to work with a group or class, though several teachers are keen for me to do this.
While I’m waiting for this to be sorted I can work with individuals and develop a part of the library website to include ideas to use on blogs, suggestions for coding exercises, and other apps and programmes to work with. Thinglink and digital breakouts are two apps I want to try.
Wenger http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
Kotter https://www.kotterinc.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/
While working on my action plan I experimented a bit with a Kanban board. I like the visual aspects, the breakdown of the tasks and the way I can add a back task but I can’t find an electronic version to set up the way I want. This is partly because I am still working out what I want, so I have decided to try a manual board for a routine task and sort out the set up from there. I have also looked at a communication plan set-up for the tasks I want to do regularly and routinely - many of the tasks on my action plan are set to be regular, and I think a different visible format will make it easier to keep to my plan.
Library Web Site
No comments:
Post a Comment