School libraries and teacher-librarians in 21st century Australia

The Report of the Australian Parliament, House of Representatives, Education and Employment Committee’s Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher-librarians in 21st century Australia was tabled on 23 May 2011. SLAV welcomes the recommendations and is working in collaboration with the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) to formulate follow-up strategies at the state and national level.

The full text of School Libraries and Teacher-librarians in 21st century Australia can be found at http://www.apo.org.au/research/school-libraries-and-teacher-librarians-21st-century-australia
The SLAV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry can be found at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/subs.htm (submission 114)
Be involved!

SLAV has established a Parliamentary Inquiry Reference Group that will provide input and support for its representatives in national discussions and also to identify and implement practical strategies that will ensure that what has come out of the national Parliamentary Inquiry will have a positive impact here in Victoria.

All SLAV members are invited to express interest in becoming a member of this Reference Group.
To express interest, please send an email as follows:
To: slav@netspace.net.au
Subject: Parliamentary Inquiry Reference Group
Message:
Please indicate your name, school and SLAV membership number
Briefly indicate how you would like to be involved – for example: attending meetings, collaborative online comments and discussion, skype hook-up, ….

SLAV needs input from as broad a range of members as possible!

Tell your good news stories!

To help build the evidence base regarding the positive impact of school libraries, members are encouraged to place their comments, stories and feedback on the following sites.

Facebook – What a difference a school library makes

http://www.facebook.com/pages/What-a-difference-a-school-library-makes/120543444695337

Wiki – What a difference a school library makes

http://schoollibraries2011.wikispaces.com/

Guest Post: BialikTV by David Feighan

David Feighan, director of Libraries and Learning Resources at Bialik College, Hawthorn, Victoria, has been kind enough to do a guest post about BialikTV. BialikTV is a place where the college celebrates learning, reading, and literature.

BialikTV was created in response to the fact that content is becoming more varied, more immediate, and more multimedia. Students are still working with text, but increasingly they are also working with images, sound recordings and audio-visual content. As a result there is a change in how people find information, with YouTube now recognised as the second largest search engine after Google. As a library that thinks about how information creation, distribution and use is changing; we need to understand and be on top of these major trends. What is the role of the library in a post text multimedia world? How do we collect and integrate text and multimedia? What metadata do we use to facilitate access to multimedia content? How do we include the growing amount of multimedia citizen journalist content into our collections? How do we ensure we are using authoritative content? What will a school library collection look like in 5 or 10 years’ time?

BialikTV is also where we celebrate learning, reading and literature at Bialik College. As such it is a platform where we can host and celebrate the student’s work,  for example the book trailers students create. To protect the children’s identity, and to prevent inappropriate comments, no children’s faces are shown, and the ability to comment has been removed from BialikTV.

Further reading:

· http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-search-engine-domination

· http://www.smartinsights.com/search-marketing-alerts/youtube-as-search-engine

· http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2078931/YouTube-Updates-Logoless-Player-HD-Previews-As-Seen-On-Pages

· http://socialtimes.com/youtube-and-the-future-of-citizen-journalism_b15810

Well done to David and the Library staff at Bialik College for creating BialikTV and for using it in such a wonderful way.

Worth watching – Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Worth watchingJane McGonigal spoke at a TED conference in February 2010 on how gaming can be used to make a better world. This was a very controversial talk (as can be seen by the online comments).

 

Gaming could engage students in learning who are failing to achieve the required standards, yet in games are achieving fantastic results. Acknowledging their games and the skills required to play them may be a start. McGonigal talks about Wold of Warcraft, a game that requires great collaborative and problem solving skills where gamers are working to the best of their abilities. It wouldn’t hurt to let a student show the class how a skill they are learning, such as collaborating, is used in a game they are playing. Using components of games, such as exciting epic stories, can be a way to introduce a classroom activity that requires solving a real-world problem. Using web 2.0 tools that allow for global collaboration builds the collaborative community, and allowing students to achieve small goals along the way, may maintain their interest. Embracing gaming is embracing a student’s interest and learning strengths.

TED Conversations

TED has a new platform for sharing ideas: Conversations. It is a space where, once registered, you can join or start a conversation that will belong to the category of ‘ideas’, ‘questions’, or ‘debates’. This platform provides students with access to a global community. A student could question this global community on how they deal with bullies, or receive feedback on an idea, or start a debate with hundreds of people from around the world on whether women should be on the frontline. Registration is free. 

TED Conversations

What’s on in July?

Below are some of the events on offer by SLV and SLAV for the month of July. Some events may require registration.

SLV

 

 

Tuesday July 5th (4.00pm – 6.00pm), ASAL Conference keynote address and literary awards:

ASAL Conferene keynote keynote address and literary awards

Tuesday July 19th (6.30pm – 8.30pm), TEDxMelbourne: innovation networking event:

TEDxMelbourne

SLAV

 

 

Friday July 29th (9.30am – 3.30pm), Communicate, collaborate, create: and think critically!:

Communicate, collaborate, create: and think critically!

Dr. Joyce Valenza’s TLNing and SLAV conference

Educators around the world are benefiting from the work of Dr. Joyce Valenza. Dr. Valenza is a teacher-librarian at Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, Philadelphia, USA. Dr. Valenza is an inspiration to many in her endeavour to provide the best learning opportunities for her students and to inspire educators to use ICT tools in their teaching and learning, to equip themselves and their students with the tools they need to evolve in the 21st century world of multi-information. Her work is accessible through her various networks. One of these is TLNing , a place ‘for those of us who connect, teach, share, and lead in new information landscapes’. There are close to 6000 members of the ning, and here you will find educators sharing their experiences with web 2.0, trying new things, giving tips on how to connect with students, creating networks, undertaking professional development, and being inspired by each other. Dr. Valenza created the ning, and is an active member. Once you register you will be able to access member pages, read blogs, view any videos and photos, access the forum, and more.

Dr. Valenza will be in Australia to speak at the SLAV conference ‘Communicate, collaborate, create: and think critically!’ in Melbourne on 29th July. There are still some places available at the conference. The registration form is below:

Communicate, collaborate, create: and think critically! 

FUSE learning resource: 1000Poppies

1000Poppies has been created by History Teachers’ Association of Victoria, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, and DEECD. It is a place where students from around the world can share their feelings, experiences, and stories about war. Students are able to use historical research and interviews with key stakeholders of Remembrance Day. The site aims to increase student appreciation of war and their participation in acts of commemoration.

1000Poppies

You can register as an individual on the site, or register a class (suitable for Levels 3-6 VELS and VCE history). Teachers, there is a teacher’s blog where you can get information on how to use 1000Poppies with your students. You are also able to share images and videos, and contribute to the discussion of groups around the world.

Visit the Poppy Field, where people plant their poppy and leave a message when registering to the site.