As a Teacher-Librarian in an ever expanding and changing digital world, I believe that we are left with no choice but to attempt to keep up with technology and treat our own professional development in technology as a top priority. However, we must learn how to use technology to foster creativity, collaboration and inquiry, rather than use it as an isolating individualized tool for students. Like Phil McRae proposes in his blog post about the "teaching machine," relying on computer systems for learning, "fails to recognize that high quality learning environments are deeply relational, humanistic, creative, socially constructed, active and inquiry-oriented."
An issue that stood out to me in this week's readings is the issue of being knowledgeable about copyright infringements through an educator's and a student's perspective. As a teacher-librarian I was given a very brief pamphlet underlying the policies of copyright. I can honestly say I have hardly looked at it and rely largely on my knowledge of copyright as a high school and university student. I find myself teaching how to properly cite a source, and talking about the seriousness of plagiarism, yet I turn my head the other way when I see someone in the copy room photocopying much more than 10% of a book; likewise, I have been asked many times by various classroom teachers, for my Netflix account password -I have a hard time saying no! We learned in Moira Ekdahl's Copyright Considerations presentation that Netflix limits users to household and personal use of their product; yet more often then not, I see entire grades watching Netflix movies around Christmas time or at the end of the school year. So on one hand I am teaching students about being honest and the importance of their original work, yet on the other hand I am turning a blind eye when I see adults not necessarily following those rules. It's tough! Perhaps as a new teacher I lack the confidence to approach a teacher with much more experience, and tell them they are breaking copyright rules.
To me, copyright and inquiry go hand in hand. We cannot begin a research project without understanding the policies and significance behind copyright and plagiarism. In my experience however, usually classroom teachers have taught the "copyright" lesson on their own, and only wish to collaborate for the research portion of an inquiry project. After reading some of the links related to copyright, I believe I will now change my approach to inquiry and collaboration by requiring that we start each inquiry with a copyright and citing lesson, regardless if the students already are aware of these concepts.
In order to better equip myself to teach about these concepts, I do believe that the district has an obligation to provide teachers with more resources than the one pamphlet they provide. I will certainly consider the ERAC courses available especially because my district does subscribe to ERAC. Although the Surrey School District's copyright policy is quite brief, the Teacher Librarian Handbook provides more details about copyright policies. Also worth taking a look at is the Challenge Policy 3.6 pertaining to the process of challenging a print resource. I have never been challenged on a piece in the collection, however the guidelines are straightforward. First we try to solve the problem within the school, and if it is still an issue we send policy 3.6 paperwork to the learning resources management at the district level. I often have had teachers request that I not let a student take out a Geronimo Stilton chapter book or the like, because it isn't at the child's reading level - to this I always say I like to encourage their interest in reading, and have requested that child ask their parent to read the book with them.
In Module 6 we looked evaluating and curating online resources. Something new to me was the concept of "satisficing". I definitely disagree with the teacher that proposed his students Google and then Google some more, until they uncovered the information they needed. Recently, I did an inquiry project with students in Grade 6 on the topic of inhumane corporations. Students could choose a corporation of their choice and from there they were given minimal guidelines for what to uncover and how to show their work (in hindsight a single-point rubric would have been great for assessment!). I showed the students how to work the database "Explora". I was not surprised to learn that many students found it difficult and preferred to simply type a complete question into Google rather than learn Boolean/keyword searches in a database. It's tricky - one on hand I want my students to learn how to sift through the endless and questionable information Google yields -it is a skill necessary to navigate our world of infinite information; however, learning efficient research skills and how to properly use a database with its filters and advanced searches is an important skill to develop.
In reading about evaluating resources and information literacy development, I was reminded of an article I previously read. It is about the deep web. Google and similar search engines only account for 0.03 percent of the internet. That leaves SO much information unavailable to students, if they are not using district provided databases with articles inaccessible through Google. To read more about the deep web, here is the link for the article I am referring to: The Invisible Web
Likewise, in the article Finding Information on the Invisible Web, it is noted that "there's lots of helpful information locked away in databases that can never be indexed by search engines...LARGE amounts of other information is located in databases that have subscription fees." As Teacher-Librarians, we need to know about the deep web and the limitations of exclusively using search engines for research.
A learning point for me in this week's readings came from Debbie Abilock's article. She provides what seem like effective rules of thumbs for determining the authority of information. One simple rule of thumb is to email the author directly and ask where they learned their information from, or ask them various questions one might have. I have done this before, but I think it would be a great learning opportunity for students to contact authors. Another rule of thumb that I believe is great practice for all students is the idea of having students provide differing viewpoints on the same topic rather than articles that repeat/reiterate.
A final thought that really stands out to me is the quote by Abilock "Skepticism requires effort." In our busy lives and our sometimes expectations of instant gratification, it does require a lot of effort to challenge an idea, or question the authority of information. Perhaps the best way to teach this skepticism is to model it to our students whenever we have the chance.
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