Thing #1 - The Networked Student

We’re back! The Common Craft guys are back! The kickball captains have donned swimsuits and life preservers! Woo-hoo!

Librarians will most definitely play a role in “helping students navigate the future” and continue to help our students become lifelong learners. Joyce Valenza put it well in her article “On the Librarian: What’s the point…?, “if you are not an expert in new information and communication tools, you are NOT a media specialist for today.”

As teacher librarians, our charge in all of this is:

1. learning the 2.0 technologies (thanks Kickball Captains/Lifeguards!)
2. teaching/modeling for students and teachers how to use these technologies in collaboration with the classroom teachers and curriculum expectations, while teaching these 3 things - a research model such as the Big6, web site evaluation, and the ethical use of electronic information
3. giving students the freedom to create their learning environment using the 2.0 technology tools
4. having the technology hardware (and GEEK support!) for accessing and using these 2.0 tools.
   

Next to Last Thing #22 Nings

I love the concept of Nings, especially Shonda Brisco’s Texas School Librarians and Joyce Valenza’s TeacherLibrarianNing. It’s like having the best of LM_NET all in one location without the overload of irrelevant emails often found in the listserv messages. These Nings are the perfect venue for sharing best/interesting practices by having the opportunity to easily introduce and discuss topics of interest with librarians around the country. In addition to the main page, I noticed that there are different break out groups that the user can join, so that the discussion is more relevant to his/her particular interests within school librarianship. The video section would be a great place to share student or teacher or librarian generated videos. Both Nings are a nice extension to the terrific network of SBISD librarians we are so fortunate to have in our district. As an example of one of our own, check out this fabulous Ning!