Last week I was fortunate in
attending the second annual Librarians’ Knowledge Sharing Workshop at JIS in
Brunei with my colleague Meg Johnson from our Lower Secondary library. It was a
great opportunity to network and work with Teacher Librarians from all over
Asia. The smaller size of the event enabled delegates to get to know each other
well and extend our Personal Learning Networks for future contact.
In fact it was networking through Twitter that
brought Lyn Hay to the event as keynote speaker. In her presentation Anatomy of an
iCentre, Lyn challenged the group to consider new modes of working and new
learning space designs for libraries. Inspired by the Apple store model for
service and expert support , Lyn proposed the iCentre as a model for
collaboration, Library, ICT and classroom teachers working together towards
common goals in a shared space.
21C learning in a digital environment | Developing students as connected learners | Partnerships not buildings |
An innovative approach to programming was the use of two “slam” sessions with
short 5 minute presentations on a theme followed by group discussion: Virtual library spaces and What’s hot? Technology for libraries.
These proved to be highly engaging and interactive sessions. Other
presentations included Library design/the
physical space; Engaging readers;
Library management systems. All very
valuable and informative.
Lyn’s plenary session Guided
inquiry- an instructional framework for inquiry learning resonated greatly
with me and I made many connections with my own presentation.
My own
presentation was on our process for developing information literacy
resources for the Australian
International School: Information Literacy Skills Scope and Sequence
Preschool-5; Literature Skills Scope and Sequence Preschool-5 for the
Elementary School in 2012; and 21C skills @ AIS – An Information Fluency Framework for secondary students in
2013. These documents are supported by a library website and can be accessed at
http://libguides.ais.com.sg/research
Session notes: http://libguides.jis.edu.bn/lkswsession8
Takeaways – action plan. PD like this
is always a shot-in-the-arm for me, a boost to enthusiasm, a raising of
awareness of how we can work differently and strive to be better.
Seeing a presentation of a graphic interface for
one library’s databases website has me planning to do more with our list.
· Imovies on ipads – lend the ipad. We have a
library itunes account working well for mp3 audiobooks lent to students on ipod
shuffle. Movies are a natural extension of that – who wants to buy dvds? (our
new Macbook Air don’t have a dvd player). Now for the library sets of ipads…..
·
Extend our audiobook collection to the Red Dot
Books.
·
Meg and I talked about undertaking an
evidence-based project for our Teacher Inquiry Group focus this year. There was
an enthusiastic response from the others in our library teaching team when we shared
that idea yesterday. What better way to demonstrate the impact of the libraries
on student learning.
Conference organisers Karli
Downey and Angela Mann of JIW, with support from Barb Reid (Alice Smith School
Kuala Lumpur) are to be congratulated for a stimulating and rewarding 2 days.
It was a privilege and a pleasure to participate.
