LIBE 477 Future Vision Project Blog 3

 Future Vision Project:  A Collaborative Digital Toolkit 

For my final project, I developed a digital toolkit of useful links and resources to share with the teachers in my school. My goal was to curate a collection of digital tools and resources that would benefit my staff and encourage collaboration and integration of digital resources into the classroom.  I chose Padlet because I found the format easy to work with and appreciated the simple interface which I felt would not be too overwhelming for teachers who may be hesitant to use technology. I wanted to ensure this tool enabled teachers to freely contribute ideas and comments. As Miller and Bass argue, it is important to know the school community and recognize what tools would be best suited to meet the needs of staff and students (2019).

Item ID: 645940306 (Shutterstock, n.d.)

 When considering my audience, I needed to make sure the resources I chose were compatible with school devices, easily accessible for staff, and suitable for students in grades kindergarten through to grade 5. I took into consideration when deciding what to include and what not to include, which subscriptions we have at the school as well as ones we did have previously but teachers agreed they did not want to keep. I tried to assess the implications of each resource to student learning rather than simply collecting resources for the sake of compiling them. I wanted to ensure items contributed to or enhanced student learning in meaningful ways.  The items in red are ones for which the school has a subscription, such as those provided by the school district through BC Digital Classroom. 

 

Choosing the categories turned out to be more challenging than I had anticipated as there was much overlap between some resources.  One benefit to using Padlet is I could easily change these categories should I decide there are better options in the future. I wanted to choose resources that would be useful for teachers and would connect to curricular outcomes and the BC Digital Literacy Framework's characteristics of research and information literacy, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, creativity and innovation, digital citizenship, communication and collaboration, and technology operations and concepts (2013). The headings I have chosen to start with include:

• Coding
• Design
  
• Digital Citizenship
  
• Digital Storytelling 
• E-books and Read Alouds 
• Indigenous Resources 
  
• Math Resources 
  
• Reference Resources
• Science Resources
• Student Educational Sites
• Teacher Tech Tools 

I chose the padlet shelf design in hopes it would be visually appealing and easy to view, access, and understand. The following screenshot shows the different design  options.

Screenshot (Padlet, 2022)

This project not only provides collaboration opportunities and resource sharing, but gives the teacher librarian an opportunity to act as a role model for technology integration. Modeling technology integration and being up to date on digital resources is an indirect way to encourage teachers to participate in new learning opportunities (Donham & Sims, 2020). 

 

Even with warnings from our course instructor, I was amazed at how time consuming this project was but I do feel I have the swing of it now and already have many ideas for the future.

Personal Bitmoji, 2022

For example, I would like to organize book resources under categories such as Social Emotional Learning or SOGI, etc. At first I thought the three free padlets would be sufficient but I am realizing it would be beneficial to have more. I also have been struggling with ways to share new books with teachers that I think may interest them and have stumbled through emails at this point, but Padlet seems like an effective way to share these texts in the future. 

 

In the end, I was excited with how this digital artifact turned out and I am especially looking forward to seeing other teachers' contributions. I know of at least one teacher who will be keen to contribute and my hopes are her participation will encourage others to partake.  If there are teachers not comfortable contributing to the padlet, I hope they gain ideas from the resources provided. I will continue to promote this resource and will let teachers know when there have been updates.  In addition to sharing these tools, I will offer opportunities to teach staff any of these resources or teach their class a new technology thereby encouraging and supporting the teacher's integration of a new resource (Holzweiss & Evans, 2018).

Here is the link to my Final Vision Project:

Digital Toolkit: A Collaborative Resource

 

Final Thoughts 

There are many things I learned from this course, from hands-on tools and resources to new understandings of my role as teacher librarian.  During the inquiry process, I was inspired to learn about global libraries and initiatives that bring literacy and information to disadvantaged communities and was reminded that I am not only an educator, but also a member of a large community of librarians. 

 

As a result of working with and exploring tools as well as exploring ICT professional development, I am more confident in my technological abilities and supporting colleagues through collaborative projects and professional development.  I realized that being tech savvy does not mean one has to know everything there is know about technology and that it is most important to be proactive in one's learning, even when it is uncomfortable. I admit I dreaded the day I would have to make a blog  and now I wish I had them in every course!  Leaving my comfort zone has opened up a whole new world of learning for me. This also includes exploring the world of social media which has proven to be a tremendous resource and one that will be pivotal in my professional development moving forward. Learning from my classmates and colleagues has been an invaluable part of this experience.  

 

Image ID: 588813473 (Shutterstock, n.d.)

I learned a great deal of valuable content and hands-on tools throughout this course but I would argue the most influential learning occurred because my perspectives shifted. One of my greatest take-aways is the realization that leadership, collaboration, and professional development take many forms and are not limited to the narrow definitions I once envisioned. My definitions and understanding of leadership, collaboration, and professional development have expanded and as a result I now find these roles to be more achievable in my position as teacher librarian.

Item ID: 238389058 (Shutterstock,n.d.)

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