All resources in Granite State Project Partnership

IMLS Fellowship Course, Creating Alternative School Library Environments, Planning for Innovation: Renaissance or Renovation

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In the third module we will consider tools for students to use to plan new school library spaces.  This module along with Module 4 will expose students to structured ways to develop new ideas for not just renovating space but taking it in new directions.   These modules are transitional, a way to move toward renaissance rather than mere renovation.  Hopefully, they will provide a framework to explore ideas beyond their experience and the experiences of other planning team members.  After critically evaluating the advantages and limitations of either a Learning Commons or a Maker Space and considering futuristic ideas, let’s focus on what might be an interim solution.  What might be an affordable alternative that school libraries could be considering to enrich progressive, alternative educational models?   We need to consider how to embed inquiry into new learning models while maximizing the space, the resources and the mentoring skills of a trained librarian. The goal of Modules 3 and 4 are to provide students with objective ways to step away from their preconceived library space designs and think about new concepts based on the user.   We have moved space planning from a focus on housing the physical content to planning around the learning activities such as collaboration or team projects.  The next logical step is to take a humanistic approach; planning for users. 

Material Type: Module

Author: Margaret Sullivan

IMLS Fellowship Course, Creating Alternative School Library Environments, Leveraging Virtual Reality in a School Library

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The module asks students to think beyond their current experiences in school libraries.  We will look at content that is not specific to school, yet it will be the basis for discussions about how it might apply in future school library environments. You will ask your students to "think out of the box" for the moment then consider those futurist ideas when planning a space for today while knowing the space  should be flexible enough to accommodate futuristic possibilities. 

Material Type: Module

Author: Margaret Sullivan

IMLS Fellowship Course, Creating Alternative School Library Environments, Creating Alternative School Library Environments

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Introduction to the CourseThis module will introduce students to the overall goals of the course, contextualizing the creation of alternative library spaces within two key movements currently seeking to transform library spaces:  Learning Commons and MakerSpaces. Students will be asked to begin reflecting on the complex factors which are involved in successful planning and implementiation of transformative solutions in their school library settings.Two suggestions for a final project for the course are: Project Have each student document where they believe their library is in its evolution of change, explain how its current environment is supporting inquiry for students in their school today.  Then using tools from the course develop a plan for obtaining the information needed to project into the future what their school library and school could be in the next 10 years.   Develop a persuasive argument to present to school administrators why resources should be allocated to initiate the plan.  How could the plan improve student learning, enrich instruction and support the mission of the school?   How would the physical space and your role within it change?Alternative ProjectYour district is launching a new STEM Charter Middle School in the next year.  Initially there is no plan for a library in the Charter School; it will be a one-to-one environment, large studio style learning environments, extensive access to technology, and planners have decided a library is too“traditional” and unnecessary in the new building.   Consider the educational model, the curriculum, the diversity of instructors and students and why the district has approved this concept for new construction.  You believe strongly that the new school needs the inquiry based skills a librarian can provide and ask for the opportunity to present an alternative library concept to the board.  The school board gives you six months to research, compile data, and you have access to the original concept team of educators and the school design team as you plan.   Prepare your presentation for the board. 

Material Type: Module

Author: Margaret Sullivan

Becoming a Leader through Action Research: Building Open Education Practice in the School Library

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The role of the school librarian is evolving from keeper of library materials to leader in school reform. The digital age has elevated  information literacy from the mechanics of searching and finding to thinking and inquiry. To meet this challenge the library facility is reconceptualized as a learning environment and the collection as a dynamic process of curation and access. Library staff, including paraprofessionals, student peers, and parent volunteers are viewed as instructional support. Allocated budgets are supplemented by funding sources such as grants and donations. The school librarian, trained in Action Research, can realize the library as learning center as she systematically collects evidence, sets priorities, and constructs a Strategic Plan. This module brings together the processes of action research, including identifying a problem in practice, formulating a research question, collecting and analyzing data to conduct a Community Scan and School Library Needs Assessment. She will apply her findings to building a Strategic Plan that will transform the school library into a learning center, or improve its existing functions.

Material Type: Module

Author: carol gordon

IMLS Fellowship Course, Creating Alternative School Library Environments

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In this course we will look at ways to change the narrative on school libraries from questioning the need for them or how to renovate the industrial era models of a single, shared resource environment to a learner-centered model.  We will work on how to move beyond traditional concepts, personal biases and even past current Learning Commons and Maker Spaces to creating learning environments where resources are ubiquitously accessible to students in virtual and physical formats.    We will look at the enormous complexity of this model in a K-12 school and why not exploring unique, alternative concepts may be hastening the elimination of school librarians.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Curriculum Curation

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Collection development, a foundational component of the library program, is the formal, professional process of selecting, with the aid of appropriate evaluation tools and knowledge of the school, comprehensive and balanced materials  to meet the diverse needs of the community.Rather than using a comprehensive and balanced acquisitions procedure, curriculum curation is a tightly targeted selection process to meet the knowledge and/or cognitive goals of instruction in service of student learning.  Rather than generalized pointers to resources, curation will identify a specific section or element within each resource. Therefore, curriculum curation requires co-planning with faculty and using professional discernment, adding value to the chosen resources.  Dialogue between librarian and instructor must be part of the curation process In order to surface student learning goals. Such negotiated curation shines a light on the expertise that each educator brings to the conversation about the thinking tasks and relevant experiences that will augment student learning. This module scaffolds and models curating an interdependent set of OER sources and tools to support the instructional core of a unit.Granite State Learning Outcomes3.    Demonstrate the ability to facilitate developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences based on the unique needs of each learner (and) make the discipline(s) accessible and meaningful for learners;6.    Design and implement instructional strategies that engage students’ interests and develop their ability to: inquire; think both critically and creatively; and ethically gain and share knowledge;15.  Complete a narrative reflection on the course and personal growth.AASL CompetenciesAASL Standard 1.2 a: Implement the principles of effective teaching and learning that contribute to an active, inquiry-based approach to learning.AASL Standard 1.2 b: Make use of a variety of instructional strategies and assessment tools to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments in partnership with classroom teachers and other educators.AASL Standard 1.3 a: Model, share, and promote effective principles of teaching and learning as collaborative partners with other educators.AASL Standard 1.4 c: Integrate the use of technologies as a means for effective and creative teaching and to support P-12 students' conceptual understanding, critical thinking and creative processes.PSEL Standard 4 a:  Implement coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that promote the mission, vision, and core values of the school, embody high expectations for student learning, align with academic standards, and are culturally responsive.PSEL Standard 4 e:  Promote the effective use of technology in the service of teaching and learning. 

Material Type: Module

Author: Debbie Abilock

Remix

School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning, Faculty Fellows, Year 2, Webinar #3

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The "School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning" (SLASL) project, supported by IMLS, and in partnership with Granite State College, NH, meets with Year 2 Faculty Fellows and the project team, September 21, 2016, to focus on new draft modules and providing feedback toward final publishing of the OER modules for school librarian education.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: Amee Godwin

Remix

School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning, Faculty Fellows, Year 2, Webinar #5

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The "School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning" (SLASL) project, supported by IMLS, and in partnership with Granite State College, NH, meets with Year 2 Faculty Fellows and the project team, November 3, 2016, to focus on newly created modules and provide feedback toward final publishing of these OER modules for school librarian education.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: Amee Godwin

Remix

School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning, Faculty Fellows, Year 2, Webinar #4

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The "School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning" (SLASL) project, supported by IMLS, and in partnership with Granite State College, NH, meets with Year 2 Faculty Fellows and the project team, October 17, 2016, to focus on newly created modules and provide feedback toward final publishing of these OER modules for school librarian education.

Material Type: Lecture

Author: Amee Godwin

Self-talk During Inquiry: Helping novice researchers productively shape metacognition

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Experienced researchers “get” inquiry - that is, they have an ongoing internalized self-talk process that evaluates, draws connections, and creates next steps for the information-gathering process. But, they may not know that or how they do it.Along with the steps of inquiry, we need to help learners understand the metacognitive "self-talk" that guides their decisions which drive the inquiry. What researchers think is more important than what they do. So how can we help researchers recognize and utilize their metacognitive processes that guide their research? In order to prepare information-age learners, librarians need tools to teach the thinking that lies behind the inquiry.In this module, librarian candidates will learn to make the internalized reflective process overt. Candidates will create metacognitive awareness of the reflection process that accompanies inquiry. They will demonstrate understanding by creating concrete reflection scaffolding tool for emerging researchers.The skills and understandings gained from this module will help school librarians build instruction in support of CCSS.ELA-Literacy. CCRA.R.7, 9, 10.

Material Type: Module

Author: Ann Spencer

Sensory Space Design: Framing Awareness

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In this space planning module we are going to explore taking our open learning environments to the next step beyond technology, to a richer higher level of mindfulness.  It is a step away from the ledge that is catapulting students into robotic mindlessness and a lack of cognitive control.  In our eagerness to connect students with technology we forget the human side of learning.  Our brains function with either a perception-action, bottom-up learning cycle or a more advanced top-down goal, attention setting process. “The perception-action cycle is fed by sensory inputs from the environment—sights, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations, whose signals enter the brain via an expansive web or specialized nerves.” (21 Gazzaley) There has always been a role for our senses to play not only in learning but in survival.  Enriching the sensory environment should be a goal in space design. But our ability to control the perception-action cycle or pause it is critical.  “During this pause, highly evolved neural processes that underlie our goal-setting abilities come into play, the executive functions.  These abilities of evaluation, decision making, organization, and planning disrupt the automaticity of the cycle and influence both perception and actions via associations, reflections, expectations and emotional weighting.  This synthesis is the true pinnacle of the human mind, the creation of high level goals.” (23 Gazzaley)  Creating a space for students to use all their sensory perceptions should be filled with energy.  They are the spaces we have been designing in recent course modules.  Now we should ask does that environment also encourage a pause; allow the individual to focus, be mindful of themselves, and learn cognitive control?We will start by looking at the scope of information and environmental overload,” the clutter”,  we have dropped learners into in our schools.  When technology came into libraries very little was taken out.  As technology has expanded expeditiously, libraries hesitate to remove aging equipment or under used print resources allowing the environment to become dense, difficult to navigate, simply cluttered.   Excessive clutter impends cognitive control and our ability to focus on finishing a goal. Before you can see the potential of a new library space we have to de-clutter, remove what is not contributing to student learning every day, and open the space to possibilities.  The environment can be a partner in learning, but first obsolete elements, not contributing to K-12 learners, need to be removed. In Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen’s research driven book, The Distracted Mind, they explore neutral processing and how easily young minds become addicted to distractions, especially when using digital devices while rapidly scanning through text, graphics, images and auditory sounds.  …three out of four K-12 teachers asserted that student use of entertainment media (including communication tools such as social media) has hurt students’ attention spans a lot or somewhat, 87 percent of teachers reported that the use of technologies is creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans” and 64 percent felt that “digital media do more to distract students than to help them academically”. (145, Gazzaley, Rosen)  The question now becomes: Have we introduced technology too pervasively without understanding its neurological side effects to developing minds?   Are our learning environments become a noisy distraction and if so how do we create more balance? We will look at design elements that can be added into the environment to shift attention back to sensory awareness and reflection. The inclusion of sensory design elements, like nature can add richness and focus to learning.  Contemporary learning environments should support active, collaborative learning but also invite quiet, reflection.  A “whole person” is coming into our schools and our learning spaces need to support that “wholeness.”  The next evolution of educational space planning, specially libraries, should focus on linking the physical, neurological and emotional well being of the learner.  We have designed educational spaces for pedagogy, for efficiency, for all the traditional educational tools and for all the new digital tools.  Now it is time to focus on the whole user and our need to encourage innovative thinkers through matching innovative environments.  Ellen J. Langer”s argues that “behavior depends on context.”  If we want students to be creative,  innovative thinkers we should pay more attention to the “context” through which they are learning.  This includes the tools and the pedagogy of their learning but also the environment.   We will explore Langer's concept of “sideways learning” which includes openness to novelty, alertness to distinction, sensitivity to different contexts, implicit, if not explicit, awareness of multiple perspectives and orientation in the present.  Being mindful of the present, moving beyond the comfortable categories of our past and what those two concepts mean for space planning.  

Material Type: Module

Author: Margaret Sullivan

Collection Development for School Librarians in the Era of Open

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Open educational resources (OER) play an increasingly important role in the era of open education.This module addresses the questions around how to integrate OER into a school library collection. Specifically, it looks at:What are the considerations, such as quality, accessibility, and curation that might make them more challenging to manage than traditional library resources?How do you begin to work with classroom teachers to introduce and integrate OER into their arsenal of classroom resources?How do you link selection of OER to your school's curriculum?What role does OER play in the larger concept of open pedagogy?A final look at OER and collection development as a social justice issue

Material Type: Module

Author: Patricia Erwin-Ploog

Leadership Essentials: School Librarians and OER - How will you lead your school? Making the Leap.

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The School Librarian Program at Granite State College is based on the foundational belief that school librarians are essential, integral and transformational leaders.  The program focuses on preparing school librarians as catalysts for school change and learning for the digital age.  In addition to developing the requisite skill sets and knowledge base needed to perform at top levels, there is a focus on the development of dispositions and attitudes such as initiative, creativity, self-direction, resilience, flexibility and intellectual curiosity which are crucial in assisting learning communities to engage in continuous improvement, innovation and reflective practice.  The program emphasizes the convergence of these dispositions,  skills, knowledge and understandings in order for candidates to achieve and succeed with a strategic plan for schools to ramp up and redesign school library media programs to provide the requisite, robust environment and intentional opportunities for meaningful student engagement with content, ideas, information and technology.This module is intended to be completed over the course of a 12-week semester and is designed to develop understanding about becoming a more effective school library leader within the evolving contexts of the digital age – especially related to the assessment of leadership dispositions and competencies needed to ramp up and redesign school library programs to provide the robust, flexible environments and intentional opportunities for meaningful student and teacher engagement with OER content, ideas, information and technology. The module addresses five areas of focus — preparation (2 weeks), planning (2 weeks), organizational strategy and change (3 weeks), transformational learning (3 weeks) and reflection/synthesis (2 week).

Material Type: Module

Author: Susan Ballard

Teaching Infographics as Multiliteracy Arguments

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From "The Spectrum of Apple Flavors" to "We are all Zebras: How Rare Disease is Shaping the Future of Healthcare," we find colorful visual displays of information and data used to persuade, inform and delight their audience-readers. Most infographic assignments result in loose collections of related facts and numbers, essentially a collage or poster. Student create displays of unrelated factoids and spurious data correlations and they "ooh" and "ahhh" at beautiful nothings. However, the visual and textual elements of an infographic can culminate in a coherent multimodal argument which prompts inquiry in the creator and the audience.  In order to teach infographics as a claim expressed through visual metaphor, supported by reasoning with evidence in multiple modes, instructors employ a sequence of interventions to invoke the relevant skills and strategies at appropriate moments.  Composing and critiquing infographics can enhance understanding of both the content and rhetoric, since people analyze, elaborate and critique information more deeply when visual and textal modes are combined (Lazard and Atkinson 2014).This pedagogy of reading and writing multiple literacies can be adapted to other multimodal products. For an overview, refer to "Recipe for an Infographic" (Abilock and Williams 2014) which is also listed in the references for this module. We recommend that you experience this process yourself as you teach it to students.   

Material Type: Module

Author: Debbie Abilock

Ethics, Equity, and Critical Information Literacy in the School Library

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While school librarians typically are well exposed to issues surrounding censorship and selection, less attention is paid to the ethics of librarianship and how those play out in the specialized context of school libraries. Attention to the ALA Code of Ethics and the ALA Bill of Rights set the foundation for careful reflection on the role of the school librarian, particularly in relation to the role of libraries in a democratic society.Issues of equity are [inherent] in library service and attention to the dimensions of meaning and implications of the word “equity” is warranted. This module situates equity in the context of educational equity, and the alignment of libraries as gateways to opportunity and education as the pathway to opportunity. School librarians may or may not have opportunities to explore the contexts of “intellectual freedom” in relation to equity.The codification of information literacy in the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy Final Report in 1989 paved the way for information literacy to “become the predominant way to frame the educational role of libraries and librarians.” (Seale, 2013, “The Neoliberal Library” in Gregory and Higgins) As such, inquiring into the complexities and nuances of intellectual freedom and equal access to information is essential to understanding the school librarian’s role and responsibilities.Library and school library publications are increasingly recognizing the relevance of social justice to librarianship, as evidenced by a survey of library journals this past year. (example: “Equality vs. Equity” theme, Knowledge Quest, Volume 45, No. 3, January/February, 2017; “Social Justice Symposium” by Erin Hooper in VOYA, June 2017) Recognizing the power of the librarians to not only hold space for critical discourse but to also impact the shape and tenor of that discourse is the first step to fully owning the responsibility that comes with that power.A particularly relevant and useful resource is Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis, edited by Lua Gregory and Shana Higgins, Library Juice Press, 2013Learning Objectives:Participants will model, coach, and support "efficient and ethical information-seeking behavior"  (Standard 3: Information & Knowledge 3.1)Participants will support flexible, open access for library services and model and communicate the legal and ethical codes of the profession. (Standard 3: Information & Knowledge 3.2)Participants practice the ethical principles of their profession, advocate for intellectual freedom and privacy, and promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. (Standard 5: Program Management and Administration 5.2)Participants will understand, model, and share how open education practice brings a transformative shift from a proprietary and industrial education model to a participatory education model. (ISKME: Leadership and Advocacy - Advancing Open Practice) 

Material Type: Module

Author: Kim Carter

User Centered School Library Design

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If we take a constructivist approach to learning in libraries, then library spaces should be responsive to student needs. As Theodore Creighton points out in Setting the Stage for Staff Development,  "the teacher’s responsibilities involve creating classroom environments where students think, explore, and construct meaning, while including opportunities for students to have social interaction."  Similarly, library spaces, which allow support for both classes and "free-range" learning should do the same.  In a previous OER Commons module by this author on library space design, students studied methods for gathering student input into design. The next step is to begin incorporating that input into the actual design process and to apply input to the space as a whole.   Too often librarians start with furniture rather than starting with the purposes and mission of the program and space. As Malcolm Brown points out,"Creating a vision for learning and learning spaces is a powerful leverage point; it informs almost all other decisions about learning space design. A vision also allows us to effectively articulate to all constituents what we are trying to accomplish. The vision helps organize all participants in the design and implementation of these spaces as well as the activities they support. Simply installing wireless access points and fresh carpeting isn't enough if done in isolation; such improvements pay real dividends only if they are in concert with the institution's overall teaching and learning objectives."  (Learning Spaces)Prospective librarians may not have a current space to design, but they can begin envisioning space as a construct that incorporates user needs and wants and that drives program goals, and begin to think about spaces as a whole.   This module particularly focuses on ideas contained in the book Language of School Design(Nair and Fielding) and work by Ewan McIntosh (notosh.org).  Both works  ask library designers to think of spaces in terms of zones and how those zones make a variety of student learning possible.  A series of readings and recordings will provide an introduction to these concepts with examples.  School Librarian Competencies , 4, 5, and 10http://researchguides.austincc.edu/c.php?g=554360&p=3891603ISTE Educator Standards  2 and 5https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-educators

Material Type: Module

Author: Carolyn Foote

School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning, Faculty Guidelines, Year 2

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Outlines faculty engagement in year two of “School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning," a 3-year project (2015-2017), supported by a grant from IMLS, with the goal to extend a proven collaborative model to reach pre-service and in-service school librarians--and their STEM teacher colleagues as well as faculty in teacher education programs--in accelerating school librarian instructional expertise and leadership.

Material Type: Module, Syllabus

Authors: Megan Simmons, Amee Godwin, Letha Goger