Future Vision Project – Reflection on Final Vision Artifact

EXPLANATION OF FINAL VISION ARTIFACT

According to Kirkland (2017), “The virtual front door to our online library experience is the homepage of the library website, yet so many school libraries have no virtual home” (p. 1). Because we didn’t have a website for our Library Learning Commons (LLC), my hope for my final vision artifact was to create an online space that would be useful for students, teachers and parents.

Creating one central place where students can go to access resources was particularly important to me. Richardson points out “real learning happens anytime, anywhere, with anyone we like” and “it happens around the things we learners choose to learn, not what someone else tells us to learn” (2012, pp. 62-64). For this reason, I wanted to create a space that is useful for students whether they are accessing the site at school or from home. I talked to some of my grade 4 and 5 students about the website and I asked them what they would like. They requested links to Google’s sign in page as well as Google Translate, links to websites they visit often such as Prodigy, Epic and Scratch and links to help them with research. While I want students to learn to recognize fake news and develop the skills to find information on their own, I still wanted a site where students can go to support them with their research because many of our students are learning to research for the first time. When students login to our school district portal, they have access to a list of resources for research such as World Book Kids, but they have to go through three levels of navigation to get to this page and it is a combined list of resources for primary, intermediate and secondary students so it can be a bit difficult to navigate. Thus, I wanted to put links to some of these sites as well as other sites I think may be useful on one page that is easily accessible to students.

As mentioned in my post “Future Vision Project – Library Learning Commons Website/Virtual Learning Commons Design Considerations,” my original plan was to include the following: 

-       Our mission statement and information about a LLC

-       A blog where we can highlight what’s happening in the LLC

-       Links to e-books as well databases and useful sites/kid friendly search engines students can access for research

-       A place to highlight new books in the library including SOGI and Aboriginal resources

-       A form where students can request books

-       A page for parents including links to the public library website, the BC Curriculum as well as a list of useful apps

-       A teacher resource page with links to tech tutorials, helpful resources such as forms to setup students with their GSuite accounts, information on virtual field trips and links to other sites such as Adrienne Gear’s blog

I spent a fair amount of time adding links to resources for students, teachers and families. Because we have a high ELL population at our school, I wanted these links to be image tiles that would be easily recognizable for students and their families.

Pearson Library Learning Commons Website

I included almost everything on the list above, however I did not end up including our mission statement. Originally, I had it on the homepage, but it didn’t really fit in so I will include it in a blog post at some point. I did create a blog to highlight what is happening in the Library Learning Commons, but I didn’t embed it on the site as I originally planned. Instead, I decided to keep it as an external space, but create a section to highlight new blog posts on the homepage of the LLC website.

PSE Library Learning Commons Blog

As mentioned in my posts “Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy” and “Reflecting on My Learning,” my goals are to:

-       Try new things to foster a reading culture

-       Host more lunch-and-learn or after school sessions to support the teachers at my school in integrating technology in the curriculum

-       Create a Library Learning Commons website for my school and include a list of resources for teachers

-       Use Twitter to share information with a larger community

By creating this Library Learning Commons website and blog, I feel I am working towards the first three goals. In terms of fostering a reading culture, I plan to use the website and blog to promote reading by involving students in promoting books in the LLC. In terms of supporting teachers in integrating technology, I am hoping that by creating the staff resources page and continuing to develop this space, I can use it to highlight tech tools, follow up with lunch-and-learn sessions to support teachers, and then continue to support them by offering to share their students’ work online.

CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY/CHALLENGES

In terms of the design, I decided to create the site using Google Sites mainly because we use G Suite for Education in our district so I felt this would allow me to easily integrate documents from Google Drive as well as the option to share the site with my colleagues and give them access to edit it should they need it. In addition, I had visited several other Library Learning Commons websites created using Google Sites and I thought they were simple yet visually appealing. Overall I am happy with the end result, however I did get frustrated during the process and there were many times I felt like switching to WordPress.com or Weebly for Education, which I have used to create sites in the past. I was mainly frustrated by the lack of customization with Google Sites. For example, there are only six themes.

Google Sites Themes

Although I was able to upload my own header image, I was only able to choose from three header fonts and five font sizes. I found the text either too small or too large so I attempted to add the text to the header image in Photoshop, but then it was not responsive when viewing the page on my phone so it cut off part of the title. In addition, I was really frustrated by the way images appeared as I added them to the site. I was trying to create image tiles for each of my links and Google Sites automatically cropped each image I inserted. If I selected “uncrop” then it changed the size of my image box. I got around this by creating a template in Photoshop that I used for every image, but it was a pain because I had to import every image into Photoshop, crop it and re-save it. Luckily, I was able to save time by doing this all in one file and using layers in Photoshop.

Besides being able to drag and drop content, something I really like about Google Sites is that you can insert a website using the embed option. Initially, I was going to embed my Blogger page on this website. However, I found it made the homepage too cluttered and I didn’t want to add another menu item to the site for now. I liked the heading titles on the Royal Bay Secondary Learning Commons website as well as how there wasn’t too many menu items. As a result, I thought about including an image slider to highlight the blog items. I tried Wow Slider, but I didn’t like how I had to edit the slider offline so I tried the POWr Image Slider Plugin but the images were changing too fast and you have to pay a monthly fee to get a plan that allows you to adjust the slide speed. While I didn’t use the embed option to insert my blog, I did end up using it to insert the LibraryThing widget in order to highlight new books on our homepage. Overall, I am really happy with this widget. The only thing I was disappointed with is that when adding all our new books to my LibraryThing Library, I was unable to find any of the local Aboriginal titles we purchased so these will not be highlighted using the widget.

Make a LibraryThing Widget

Another thing I really like about Google Sites is the responsive design tools. I was easily able to preview the site and see what it would look like on a phone or tablet. Finally, I really liked the ability to embed Google Forms and Google Docs because now if I update the Suggest a Book form or Booking Documents, they will automatically update on this site as well.

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE FINAL VISION ARTIFACT

According to the Canadian Library Association (2014), “The library learning commons is the physical and virtual collaborative learning hub of the school” (p. 5). Up until now, my focus has been on improving the physical space in the library and updating our collection, but I had been planning to create a Library Learning Commons website. According to Richardson (2012), “Access doesn’t automatically come with an ability to use the Web well. We aren’t suddenly self-directed, organized, and literate enough to make sense of all the people and information online — or savvy enough to connect and build relationships with others in safe, ethical, and effective ways” (pp. 169-171). I feel this is especially important at a school like mine where we have a high population of ELL students, so I wanted to curate resources and make it easy to navigate for all of our students. This way they can go to one place to access information both at school and at home. However, while I started with the idea of simply creating a space for students to go to help them with research, I began reading about the concept of a Virtual Learning Commons (VLC).

Loertscher and Koechlin (2012) suggest “The Virtual Learning Commons (VLC) is the online force of the Learning Commons; it's a digital learning community in which the whole school participates” (p. 20). They suggest “It is not a library website that only provides a one-way stream of useful information,” but it is “a place where individuals and groups are actively learning, communicating, and building together in real time” (2012, p. 20). Loertscher worked with a class at San Jose State University to divide the Virtual Learning Commons into five main rooms or portals which I describe in my “Future Vision Project – Library Learning Commons Website/Virtual Learning Commons Design Considerations” post.

VLC Rooms to Build, SLAV (School Library Association of Victoria) Library Learning Commons

After reading Loertscher and Koechlin’s work, I decided I would like to develop what I planned to create for the LLC website into a Virtual Library Learning Commons while attempting to include some of the interactive elements they suggested. I started by creating an Information Center and Experimental Learning Center by including links to useful resources  for students as well as professional development resources and I will continue to develop the Literacy Center, Knowledge Building Center and School Cultural Center via our new blog.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROJECT TO TEACHING & LEARNING

According to the Canadian Library Association, “The Virtual Learning Commons needs the same attention as the physical environment. It is an organized but collaborative space for learning. It is not a replacement for the physical LLC but an extension of it to make the LLC available to students and learners 24/7” (2014, p.35). In her post, “Virtual Library Learning Commons Inquiry,” Lindsay Reid writes about “Designing a VLLC to engage at-risk learners and promote literacy beyond the four walls of the school library” (2019). She visited a sample school and based on her experience and interviews with teachers and the Teacher-Librarian, she suggests it is important that the following needs are met when designing a virtual space:

-       Icons and recognizable graphics for non-readers

-       Simple, easy-to-navigate pages (kid-friendly as parent involvement and support is not a guarantee)

-       A portal for the web tools most commonly used in the classroom (navigating to websites has been identified as a huge area of difficulty and deterrent for teachers to use web based tools)

-       A showcase of student work to hook both students and parents, as well as celebrating the successes of the school community

-       Collaborative spaces

-       An emphasis on promoting reading

-       Some content available in multiple languages for ELL families

-       A community effort (involvement of students, teachers, and parents) to create content and influence the design of the space (Reid, 2019, para. 7)

I actually read this article after creating our LLC website and blog, but I think all of these needs are in line with my goals for our online space. I would like to include more content available in multiple languages in the future, but for now I started by attempting to create a space that is simple, easy to navigate and consists of resources represented by image tiles rather than an abundance of text. I also tried to include students, teachers and parents in the design of the space by asking them what they would like included on the site before I started creating it. Now that the space has taken shape, I plan to show the site to students when I visit their classes and create incentives for them to go to the site. In addition, I have already emailed all the teachers at my school as well as our PAC President to ask for their feedback on the site. I also plan to share the website and blog at our next staff meeting and ask for feedback and I am going to the next Parent Advisory Council meeting to talk about our vision for the LLC so I will share it with parents at this meeting. In addition, I plan to send an email to all families with the link to the site as well as post the link on our PAC Facebook page. Finally, to reach a wider audience, I shared the link to the website on Twitter and I plan to send the link to other Teacher-Librarians in our district as well as some of the Teacher-Librarians at my previous schools in the Lower Mainland.

On her list of items for a virtual space, Reid also mentions the importance of showcasing student work, including collaborative spaces and fostering a reading culture (Reid, 2019, para. 7). These are some areas I want to continue to develop using the blog. According to the Canadian Library Association (2014), “A learning commons is a whole school approach to building a participatory learning community. The library learning commons is the physical and virtual collaborative learning hub of the school” (p. 5). Furthermore, Canadian School Libraries suggests that students need both a physical and virtual school LLC where they have access to Participatory Learning Environments, Diverse Learning Resources, Active Learning Experiences and Expert Instruction and Guidance (n.d., para. 1).

Student Success and the School Library Learning Commons, Canadian School Libraries

They define Participatory Learning Environments as the “[p]hysical and virtual spaces designed to engage learners in interdisciplinary learning and collaborative knowledge building, and inspire experimentation, creativity, making and innovation” (para. 2). I really want to provide students with authentic opportunities for collaboration and I want to ensure this is a space that enhances teaching and learning. One of my takeaways from the course is the importance of fostering a reading culture. As mentioned in my post on “Fostering a Reading Culture,” I want to get students involved in promoting books. I would like to start by getting students to write book reviews and create book trailers in iMovie. Both the book reviews and trailers could be posted on our LLC blog and highlighted on the website.  

Finally, I want this to be a space that I can use to promote digital literacy. In BC’s Digital Literacy Framework document, Digital Literacy is defined as “the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to use digital technology and communication tools appropriately to access, manage, integrate, analyze and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and create and communicate with others” (p. 1). Another takeaway from this course is the importance of developing a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Just as it is important to develop Personal Learning Networks (PLN) as teachers and Teacher-Librarians, I think it will be important for our students to develop a PLN in the future. As I mentioned in my post “Reading Review: Part C,” in order to integrate instruction on digital literacy and digital citizenship into our regular routine, I think making global connections would be a valuable experience for students because it would provide them with the opportunity to recognize how these skills are crucial to communicating online. According to Richardson (2012), “the potential for all of us to learn from, and with, real experts in whatever subject we might be studying has never been greater” (pp. 443-444). Thus, in addition to supporting students with finding and evaluating information, I believe it’s important to support them in making meaningful online connections with other students and experts from around the world.

My third major takeaway from this course is the importance of collaborating with teachers whether it is through gathering and acquiring resources, evaluating and curating websites, co-planning to develop inquiry lessons or supporting teachers in developing their ICT skills. According to Dees, Mayer, Marin and Willis (2010), “The librarian demonstrates leadership within the professional learning community (PLC) by providing professional development for classroom technology integration, sharing information about new resources, and demonstrating innovative instructional tools” (2010, p. 10). This is also highlighted in the graphic produced by the Surrey Chapter of the BCTLA and the Surrey Teachers’ Association.

 What Can Collaboration With a Teacher-Librarian Look Like?

I think our new school website and blog will help me to involve my students in fostering a reading culture, support them in developing a PLN, and work collaboratively with teachers, especially as we work towards developing a Virtual Learning Commons.

References

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.seobrothers.co/resources/clatoolbox_files/llsop.pdf

Canadian School Libraries. (n.d.). Student Success and the School Library Learning Commons. Retrieved from http://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/excellent-school-libraries/

Dees, D., Mayer, A., Morin, H., & Willis, E. (2010). Librarians as leaders in professional learning communities through technology, literacy, and collaboration. Library Media Connection, 29(2), 10-13.

Google. (n.d.) G Suite Learning Center. Retrieved from https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/sites/get-started/#!/

Government of British Columbia (n.d.). Digital Literacy Framework. Retrieved from the Digital Literacy website: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy?keyword=digital&keyword=literacy&keyword=standards

Kirkland, A.B. (2017). School Library Websites: The Bricks and Mortar of the Virtual Library Space. TMC2, Ottawa, ON, 2012. Retrieved from http://researcharchive.canadianschoollibraries.ca/2017/10/15/school-library-websites-the-bricks-and-mortar-of-the-virtual-library-space/

Loertscher, D.V. & Koechlin, C. (2012). The Virtual Learning Commons and School Improvement. Teacher Librarian, 39(6), 20-24.

Loertscher, D.V., Koechlin, C., & Rosenfeld, E. (2012). The Virtual Learning Commons: Building a Participatory School Learning Community. Salt Lake City, UT: Learning Commons Press.

 

Reid, Lindsay. (2019, March 18). Virtual Library Learning Commons Inquiry. Canadian School Libraries Journal. Retrieved from http://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/virtual-library-learning-commons-inquiry/

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere [Kindle Single]. TED Conferences.

SLAV Learning Commons (2014). Virtual LC. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/slavlearningcommons/virtual-lc

Steegle. (n.d.). Google Sites How Tos. Retrieved from https://www.steegle.com/google-sites/how-to

Surrey Chapter of the BCTLA, & Surrey Teachers’ Association (2018). What Can Collaboration With a Teacher-Librarian Look Like? Retrieved from https://surreychapterofthebctla.com/2018/12/17/what-can-collaboration-with-a-teacher-librarian-look-like/