Teachers Need School Librarians
While reading a fabulous book by Jenna Obee, entitled Social networking: The Ultimate Teen Guide, I found two great quotes that point out how educators are NOT trained or prepared to incorporate technology in the classroom.
One study, Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up 2010, found that 74% of high school teachers and 72 % of principals felt that their school was using technology to enhance classroom learning, but only 47 % of the students agreed. (pg. 203)
Let’s emphasize again that less that 50% of students believe technology is being used effectively by their teachers!
Here’s a great quote from a student to drive home the point:
My school has us join Podium and Moodle, but we only use them once or twice a year for group projects, and when we do the projects we feel more like the teacher wanted to use a new format to teach in than they are actually better projects because they had this online component. I would have rather had an in class discussion on the book, that way you could actually have a flowing conversation that everyone could keep up with than do an online forum and either have to wait a day and a half for a reply or log on to find that you missed a huge argument that you have had points to contribute [to] if only you were on line at 1:43 a.m. the night before. — Averil, age 18. (pg. 202)
When a high school student admits that s/he would PREFER to have an in-class discussion, you know that teachers are doing tech wrong. So, how can we get better and integrating technology in our 21st century schools?
The first step would be to train teachers to use technology during the credentialing process. This post clarifies how dismal teacher-training currently is when it comes to technology. Of course, then whatever tech tips teachers learn during their training may become obsolete by the time they graduate from their credential programs.
The next step would be to EMPLOY SCHOOL LIBRARIANS!!!
To quote another Project Tomorrow study, (Unleashing the Future: Educators “Speak Up” about the Use of Emerging Technologies for Learning,) :
Teachers continue to rely on “word of mouth” when determining which digital resources to incorporate into their instruction, over 40 percent depend on referrals from colleagues followed by recommendations from education membership associations (27 percent), education blogs or websites (20 percent) or their state department of education (19 percent).
Wouldn’t it make grand sense to employ a professional school librarian at every school to help teachers stay up-to-date with technology and to support them in finding effective, dynamic ways to incorporate up-to-date, learning tools in every classroom?
Hello Regina thanks alot for this info. I do agree with employment of a professinal school librarian at every school because in some schools i have visited libraries double as food stores. But with a trained personnel such athing wouldnt happen.
I know, right? It’s a scary shame that School Librarians aren’t valued as much as the SHOULD be. I’m determined to change how SoCal peeps view librarians role in modern education!!!