One of my goals as teacher-librarian is to support teachers and myself in facilitating inquiry based learning for our students. This became clear to me as we read Will Richardson's book "Why School?" at the beginning of this course and he discussed the importance of shifting our focus from content mastery to learning mastery.
This made me think about how I, as the teacher-librarian, could organize and curate resources that would allow them access to quality information online? How could I create access with the least number of clicks and searches? How could I promote student inquiry by providing a place for them to share their learning? All of these questions and more, began to lead me towards creating a new virtual library learning commons that could meet their needs for access and curation.
I am excited to present my final product and future vision project for this course, LIBE477, and for my school community.
Many of the design elements in this website were influenced by my learning throughout this course.
One of my takeaways from my initial research was the importance of seeking feedback from the school community (Schaffhauser, 2014). In this spirit, I presented the website to teachers at our monthly staff meeting this week. The initial reaction was positive however I sensed that teachers are too busy at the moment to provide meaningful feedback. I am sure that as the year progresses and they are able to use the site, then they may have more opinions about its design and usefulness.
I also shared the website with my student library monitor team this week and they suggested that the home page needs some kind of "Start Here" button to link to a tutorial or tour of the website, as it is not immediately clear when you go to the page, what you should do or click on. I thought this was an excellent suggestion and so I added a button on the home page that says "NEW? CLICK HERE!" to link to the first blog post that I made. That blog post explains the website and also includes screenshots to illustrate where to find information.
Schaffhauser, D (2014). Will This Website Save Your Library (And Your Librarians)? The Education Digest, 80 (1), 37-43.
Walnut Grove Secondary School Library Learning Commons. Accessed 18/09/2019 from https://www.wgsslibrary.ca
'That means students have more ownership over their own learning, using their access to knowledge and teachers to create their own unique paths to the outcomes we, and they, deem important.' (Richardson, 2012)
This made me think about how I, as the teacher-librarian, could organize and curate resources that would allow them access to quality information online? How could I create access with the least number of clicks and searches? How could I promote student inquiry by providing a place for them to share their learning? All of these questions and more, began to lead me towards creating a new virtual library learning commons that could meet their needs for access and curation.
I am excited to present my final product and future vision project for this course, LIBE477, and for my school community.
Many of the design elements in this website were influenced by my learning throughout this course.
- My inquiry into building reading engagement made me realize how important it is for students to be able to connect their reading experiences with their identity and culture. Within the 'Read and Research' page of the website, I have included various links to online reading tools. My favourite discovery was a website called 'Unite for Literacy' recommended by the AASL Best Website and Apps of 2019. It is a free website that provides short read aloud picture books with narration in a variety of different languages.
- At the beginning of the course, I searched and evaluated different resources for building virtual library learning commons. The visual design of this website was largely influenced by much of the ideas within Reid's (2019) article. I used large, clear text, minimal colour scheme (school colours), and included the most frequently used links ('digital resources' and 'Tumblebooks') on the home page, as users do not always think to scroll down (Buerkett, 2014). Reid (2019) also recommended using visual icons to create access for English Language Learners. I was not able to create this as yet on the home page, however, I endeavoured to make visual icons on the 'Read and Research' page.
 |
| https://hollyelementary081.wixsite.com/hollyhawks/books |
- In thinking about the importance of PLNs, I included social media links on the home page. My twitter account (which I try to make both useful for me and my PLN) and a new school Instagram account @hollyhawksllc that I just recently created. I am hoping to connect our school learning community to wider networks within our district and online global world. I was very tempted to include more links on the 'Staff Zone' page, however, I tried to stay mindful of teachers limited time and offer them clarity rather than an overwhelming number of options. I also included a link to my Symbaloo webmix for teachers. I have used this tool for a while but I am thrilled that this website provides the perfect location to share it with teachers and it doesn't become a link attached to an email that gets lost somewhere in their inbox and forgotten about.
- Finally, the blog is a crucial part of our virtual library learning commons. I have created one post but I am envisioning it as a collaborative, evolving space that includes student voice, promotes and shares student learning and allows our school community to connect in meaningful way with the wider world.
One of my takeaways from my initial research was the importance of seeking feedback from the school community (Schaffhauser, 2014). In this spirit, I presented the website to teachers at our monthly staff meeting this week. The initial reaction was positive however I sensed that teachers are too busy at the moment to provide meaningful feedback. I am sure that as the year progresses and they are able to use the site, then they may have more opinions about its design and usefulness.
I also shared the website with my student library monitor team this week and they suggested that the home page needs some kind of "Start Here" button to link to a tutorial or tour of the website, as it is not immediately clear when you go to the page, what you should do or click on. I thought this was an excellent suggestion and so I added a button on the home page that says "NEW? CLICK HERE!" to link to the first blog post that I made. That blog post explains the website and also includes screenshots to illustrate where to find information.
Challenges during design:
- It was quite difficult to force myself to be selective in the links and pages so that the website was not visually cluttered and overwhelming.
- I worked hard to make sure that there were the least number of 'clicks' to get to the links that users need
- I had to push myself to persevere with the technical learning involved in creating a website. I eventually realized that I can use Wix ADI function with set templates to get the overall layout and then use the Wix 'editor' to tweak the size of text/buttons/icons etc.
Next steps/goals for the future:
- Make the blog a collaborative space - guide students towards creating content for the blog. Ask teachers for updates about interesting projects or events in their classroom.
- Continue to seek feedback from teachers and students and add links as needed.
- Promote to families - perhaps make QR code poster outside the library for parents and students to access the website easily.
- Introduce classes to the website during library times - provide time for them to explore and become familiar with the website.
- Make the website the landing page for our laptop browsers, so that students are automatically taken to it when they go online.
- Explore some of the ideas that I proposed in my initial brainstorm - I would like to tackle screencast tutorials next!
References:
Buerkett, R (2014). Where to Start? Creating Virtual Library Spaces. Knowledge Quest. Library Spaces - Online Exclusive 42 (4), E23-E27.
Canadian School Libraries (CSL). 2018. “Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada.” Available: http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca
Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Talks.
Canadian School Libraries (CSL). 2018. “Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada.” Available: http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca
Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Talks.
Reid, L (2019). Virtual Library Learning Commons Inquiry. Canadian School Libraries Journal, 3 (1). Accessed on 18/09/2019 from https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/virtual-library-learning-commons-inquiry/
Schaffhauser, D (2014). Will This Website Save Your Library (And Your Librarians)? The Education Digest, 80 (1), 37-43.
Walnut Grove Secondary School Library Learning Commons. Accessed 18/09/2019 from https://www.wgsslibrary.ca
Comments
Post a Comment