Vision for the Future...

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To be honest, it took awhile to wrap my head around this assignment. Being a detail oriented person, I needed to stretch my brain and try to grasp the "bigger picture" of my role as a 21st century teacher-librarian. In Richardson's book, he cited Friedman, "What we're entering is the 'main event, and by main event I mean an era in which technology will truly transform every aspect of business, of government, of society, of life'... And, I would add, education" (Richardson, 11). When I started my library diploma courses, over and over again, I would hear my professors state that, "Right now, you are part of an exciting change in teacher-librarianship." Desperately, I wanted my vision to show that I am prepared to embrace the ever-changing technology and challenges in order to keep current in the span of my library career. It is easier said than done! I am glad that I have my family, staff members, and online librarian community to journey together. 

This prezi highlights four key elements a 21st century teacher-librarian must embrace:

1. Personal Learning Network  - Twitter, Ning, RSS, Google Reader

2. Collaboration - Wikis, Blogs, epals.com, global connections

3. Technology - Mobile devices, apps, Web 2.0 tools

4. New Literacies - (multi-literacies, evaluating Web content, presentations)

Digital Bookshelf 2.0 on Prezi

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REFLECTION

Immediately, when I think about before and after photos, they are usually about weight loss, plastic surgery, or home decor photos. However, here is my interpretation of a before and after teacher-librarian photo.

             

picture by Lucien E. Martin

Book cover: Thomas Peters and Lori Bell

This course has equipped me with many different Web 2.0 tools that I could share with the staff and students at Vancouver Christian School. Sharing this knowledge and experience with them has gradually shifted their stereotypical perceptions about teacher-librarians. Having my Nexus 7 tablet as my mobile library has drastically increased circulation, improved the reference interview, and upped my teacher-librarian status! This course provided opportunities for me to explore and play with the different Web 2.0 tools. Wikis, Twitter, Podcasts, and Google Hangout/Reader were new tools added to my "Web 2.0 toolbox." Here are a few highlights of utilizing these tools at my school:

• The school's first wikis!!! Foods and Math 8 wikis. The VP and I bought 8 mics and headsets and we will be using these to screencast lessons. Also, the students will be screencasting their lessons. The most exciting thing is that we will be able to invite other math experts to participate! In the Foods 8 wiki, I taught students how to make their own cooking show video. It was uploaded to the wiki. For the last class, we will watch the videos with snacks provided by moi.  
• Podcasting with the music teacher (my hubby) with recording and uploading band songs to his blog. 
• Promoting different presentation sites and classrooms actually using them - Glogster, Animoto, Photostory 3, and Storybird (picked up from one of our classmates' blog).
• Helping individual teachers and students navigate around the Web and databases using Screenr. When Aaron used Screenr in Vista, I quickly wanted to sign up for an account. 
• A presentation to middle school students about using Easybib, citing sources, and research skills (now some students are bugging their homeroom teachers about citing their sources.)

Here are some of my personal learning highlights:

• Building on my PLN with connections made in Twitter, Ning, and Blogs.
• Google Reader/RSS added to my iGoogle page with instant access to reading materials of my choice.
• Google Hangout with friends, family and other librarians in my school association.
• Shamefully, uploaded my first video to Youtube. Yikes!                      
• Encouraging students to leave a positive digital footprint                                                                 

LIBE 477 is a practical, relevant, and useful course. I am surprised that it is an elective course instead of a required course considering where teacher-librarianship is heading. I would like to leave this last post with Joyce Valenza's quote: "The library should be more of a kitchen than a grocery store." Well, I better roll up my sleeves and start cooking!