Technology Leadership Role of School Librarians

     There are numerous benefits of technology use in the educational setting.  Student engagement is one of them.  When used properly with student led activities students learn more because they take ownership of their learning. They are able to create, collaborate and communicate with others applying and demonstrating their knowledge using technology tools like Google Apps for Education and the suite of apps such as Google Documents and Google Presentations that it offers. These skills are mandated in ISTE's Standards for students under standards 1 and 2 (2007). Differentiated learning is another very important benefit of technology use in education. Many web 2.0 tools are adaptive and allow the student to work at their level in skill reenforcement.  Technology is able to level the playing field for students with learning disabilities. Apps and programs enable students to get the same information that once was not available without special help, such as text to speech options.   With technology, information is portable and learning is at their fingertips. With this access comes a new set of rules and instructions as to what is appropriate and how to navigate information. This is where the School Librarian plays a big role. Learning digital citizenship, how to search, what to search and where are necessary skills for this information age. Digital citizenship is a skill listed as standard 5 in ISTE's standards for students (2007).  Students need to be able to discern from a good source and a bad one. Listed in the AASL's standards for 21st century learners is standard 1.1.7 that states learners need to be able to make sense of information from diverse sources (2007).  Web 2.0 tools like Diigo allow students to gather this type of diverse information and search using tags to cross exam information. Librarians are equipped to teach these skills and should be knowledgeable on all tools like this that will help students wade through the massive information that is available today. Librarians can make a safe environment for those new to research by creating a search engine from websites they have curated.

     AASL's  set of standards define the necessary skills learners need today. It describes how multiple literacies are vital rather than just information it includes multimedia and technology skills. The goal is to create life-long learners that are equipped with skills to think critically,  create new knowledge, be ethical users and producers, and to cultivate a desire to learn.

     In summary the role of school librarians and technology implementation is a crucial one. Fontichiaro said it best when she describes the roles of teachers and school librarians as "tightly aligned" (2009) This implies the need for librarians to communicate and collaborate with classroom teachers to create a strategy for teaching these skills.  In doing so they will model those skills to the students. One of the mandates found in the School Librarians Bill of Responsibilities is to support multiple paths to understanding, which means to differentiate teaching styles to accommodate the different learning styles (Bogel, 2009).  All of these things stress the important role of the school librarian in teaching with technology and all the responsibilities that go along with its use.

References

AASL Standards for the 21 century learner (Rep.). (2007)

Bogel, G. (2009). SCHOOL LIBRARIAN'S BILL OF RESPONSIBILITIES AND THE ALA CORE COMPETENCES. Knowledge Quest, 38(2), 64-68.

Fontichiaro, K. (2009). HOW DO SCHOOL LIBRARIANS FIT IN?. Knowledge Quest, 38(2), 70-72.

ISTE Standards Student (Rep.). (2007).