Technology in the 21st Century Library

     The role of the school librarian has changed immensely in the twelve years that I have been employed by my school district. Long gone are the days of just reading stories to students, collaborating with teachers, pulling materials for teachers and reshelving books before the end of each school day. The past four years we have seen major growth with the use of technology with both teachers and students. With our new role as a teacher librarian, it is important for us to keep up with the changing pace of technology and be able to integrate what we know and learn to our students. Johnson states "School librarians have a vital role to play in integrating technology to help students develop 21st-century skill to enable them to use technology as a tool for learning and ensure they are prepared to succeed and participate in a digital society "(p.3).

     One way of involving students with technology is the use of Flip Grid. I had never heard of it until earlier this year at a professional development meeting, and we are currently using it to share weekly videos with our classmates and instructors. I can see where I will be able to integrate Flip Grid for use with book talks, and for students to ask general questions when they need help or to share new media materials with others. I learned from Ditch that Textbook, I can use Flip Grid to plan education escape rooms.  See the link here Ditch the Textbook Escape Room for more information.  I did some further digging with my district and found we are able to check out one of the escape room boxes the district owns. Students could be divided into teams to work on figuring out the clues to see if they can unlock one of the locks. Clues would be printed out and placed around the library. Questions to be answered could come from newer materials that have been explained in the library, or vaguer such as the location of a certain book in the library based on the Dewey Decimal system to see what they remember from that lesson, which would be a great one to start off the school year. Obviously, for younger students, this would need to be made easier so the students would not become frustrated and give up. As escape rooms are very popular right now, and students like a challenge, I think this would be a great way to incorporate teaching with technology and collaborating with fellow team members to see which group can unlock the box first. Selection of rewards inside the box could vary, but most students prefer candy or a toy, but maybe some extra time outside would be appreciated as a break from being inside the majority of the day. Perhaps for older students (high school), small gift cards could be the reward.

     Smith states "It is essential for technology to effectively meet students' needs and keep them actively engaged during instruction (p. 619). As teacher librarians, it is important to implement technology and skills as much as possible in our lessons and lesson plans.  Some students might not have access to WiFi, so activities on Flip Grid might need to e used with the phone app. We should not only actively participate in district professional developments, but also become aware of and subscribe to technology websites that contain apps and activities that we can use in our learning environments. Team librarians, we can do this!

References:

Johnston, M.P. (2012). Connecting teacher librarians for Technology integration

 leadership. School Libraries Worldwide, 18(1), 18-33.

Smith, D. (2010). Making the case for the leadership role of school librarians in

technology integration. Library Hi Tech, 28(4), 617-631.