Introducing Today’s Special Guest:
Meet Cathy Knutson, a Teacher-Librarian/ “newly” minted Digital Literacy Specialist from Lakeville, MN who runs a rather fun (and quirky) blog called, “Technology Loose in the Library…and around the school!”
The blog is an interesting mix of classroom teacher collaborations with technology in classroom projects along with a teacher newsletter of new technology that can be useful to help students create their own classroom content.
http://ohekidstech.blogspot.com/
The Fun Tech Tool:
This website is a wonderful tool especially with their “The Art of Storytelling” section that guides students through the methods used by Pixar when creating and pitching stories they want to bring to life. Considering I like to use the Pixar vignettes to help teach my students story structure, I am eager to see what I can utilize for my primary grade students in helping bring their own stories to life.
What is a Digital Literacy Specialist?
A growing trend across the nation has begun by re-vamping what it means to be a school library media specialist, and along with that is coming a new job title: Digital Literacy Specialist.
Cathy Knutson’s school district is one of many nationwide that is taking what media specialists used to do, and giving it a new dimension with a greater focus on effective technology use and classroom collaboration. An article in School Administrator, an AASA publication, states:
Recognizing the importance of school media centers and school-based library media specialists to the success of students today, the Mobile County, Ala., Public Schools launched a project last fall to transform the school system’s library media specialists into digital leaders, coaches and collaborative partners who work with students, teachers and school leaders to ensure appropriate technology is woven throughout the curriculum. (Turner & White, 2015)
Our articles this week focused on the importance of the teacher-librarian being a technology leader. The shift of Cathy Knutson from a Teacher-Librarian to a Digital Literacy Specialist highlights how the definition at the district/ administration level has changed for what has been an ambiguously defined role for the teacher-librarian (Johnston, 2012). As teacher-librarians, it has been our role to collaborate with other professionals: teachers, administrators, and technology instructors to help educate and implement new materials (Smith, 2010). The shift has not been an easy one to make, but it seems to be making inroads thanks to districts like those in Mobile County, Ala and across our nation.
How does this apply to me?
I love storytelling in its wide variety of forms: comic books, graphic novels, radio theater, plays, films, and most importantly, as performance art. I grew up listening to Ed Stivender, Syd Liberman, Barbara McBride Smith, David Novak, Aunt Pearly Sue, Joseph Bruchac, Carmen Agra Deedy, Donald Davis, and a host of others too numerous for my mind to count through the years.
I want to engage with my students so that they can bring their own stories (personal and imaginative) to life. Nurturing their creative sparks helps our students engage in unique problem solving and critical thinking skills they wouldn’t normally employ except that they have gotten used to thinking outside of the box of a “typical” education through the gifts brought about by storytelling. We should be gifting our students with the stories, and grounding them in their lives because this will help them to understand themselves and their communities. Technology is simply another vehicle to use to bring about this understanding and engagement.
Sources
Johnston, M. P. (2012). Connecting teacher librarians for technology integration leadership. School Libraries Worldwide. 18(1). pp. 18-33.
Johnston, M.P. (2012). School librarians as technology integration leaders: enables and barriers to leadership enactment. American Association of School Librarians. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/slr/volume15/johnston.
Pixar in a Box | Partner content |Khan Academy. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar
Smith, D. (2010). Making the case for the leadership role of school librarians in technology integration. Library Hi Tech. 28(4). pp. 617-631. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07378831011096277
Turner, D., & White, M. (2015). From Media Specialists to Digital Literacy Leaders: Mobile County, Ala., begins a districtwide transformation to support classrooms in effective technology use. AASA: The School Superintendent Association: School Administrator. Retrieved from http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=37168