I thoroughly enjoyed all the discussions from classmates on promoting reading culture within their school sites (or in the DL world). I now have some new ideas to add to my own repertoire.
I was amazed to find out just how much there is in terms of completely free online pro-d: from MOOCs, to self-paced courses, to webinars. As aside note, when attending the BCTLA Chapter Councillor meeting after the conference, I learned about a fabulous program of our association's: BCTLA Webinars in a series of four per year, for a $20 fee, plus free access to anybody to the archived sessions. Information about this year's series will be sent out via Chapter Councillors soon. The archives can be found here and/or here on the Youtube channel.
Furthermore, the number of amazing TL blogs with how-tos, and YouTube how-tos are an incredible resource in my own as-needed pro-d around Teacher-Librarianship.
Being "forced" to look into all of this stuff has been very beneficial.
Those online pro-d sources will become a sort of Personal Learning Network--a PLN that goes beyond just attending Chilliwack Teacher-Librarian Association meetings every couple of months. Also, getting back into using Twitter and having a small group through this class to follow, having a small number of blogs to follow, and making connections to other Chapter Councillors will be the start of an ever-increasing PLN.
I was really impressed when researching and reading blog posts about world libraries, with how many different innovative groups and ways there were of bringing both text and digital libraries to people and remote communities throughout the developing world.
However, I think my biggest "take away" from this section of the course has been engaging my curiosity about just what is being done closer to home, here in Canada, about increasing library access to remote communities, and especially to our chronically under-served Aboriginal communities. I think that looking into this is going to become a bit of a mid-to-long-term goal. As I've said in comments on other blog posts from this course this week, we've all heard about deplorable infrastructure conditions on reserves, about water that is completely polluted, and so on, but I know from talking to at least one teacher who worked in northern Saskatchewan for 11 years that library resources there were almost nonexistent.
The study referenced by Jen Maclean in her blog post, Libraries in Developing Nations, will be a great starting point for me to branch out from: Aboriginal Peoples and Access to Reading Materials. I have a feeling we could direct much more attention and fundraising toward supporting access to Library resources (print and digital) within areas of our own country instead of only trying to fix problems outside our borders.
However, I think my biggest "take away" from this section of the course has been engaging my curiosity about just what is being done closer to home, here in Canada, about increasing library access to remote communities, and especially to our chronically under-served Aboriginal communities. I think that looking into this is going to become a bit of a mid-to-long-term goal. As I've said in comments on other blog posts from this course this week, we've all heard about deplorable infrastructure conditions on reserves, about water that is completely polluted, and so on, but I know from talking to at least one teacher who worked in northern Saskatchewan for 11 years that library resources there were almost nonexistent.
The study referenced by Jen Maclean in her blog post, Libraries in Developing Nations, will be a great starting point for me to branch out from: Aboriginal Peoples and Access to Reading Materials. I have a feeling we could direct much more attention and fundraising toward supporting access to Library resources (print and digital) within areas of our own country instead of only trying to fix problems outside our borders.
References
Bctf.ca,. 'BCTLA: Professional Development For Teacher-Librarians'. N.p., 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Maclean, Jennifer. 'LIBE 477B Inquiry Blog #4: Libraries In Developing Nations'. Adventures of a Teacher-Librarian 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
National Reading Campaign,. Aboriginal Peoples And Access To Reading Materials. Osweken, ON: Stonepath Research Group, 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
YouTube,. 'BC Teacher-Librarians' Association'. N.p., 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Excellent reflection and highlighting of the most important takeaways in the course so far. Sometimes it is important to stop and take a look back at how far we have come as a course and a small community. I appreciate all that you put into this course and am glad that there is much you are taking away and will implement going forward. Looking forward to the last phase of the course and your future vision!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out, Chris! I agree that there is always much to be done in our own backyards when it comes to inequity but it gets overshadowed sometimes. I too am looking forward to continuing to expand my PLN now that I've got so many wonderful blogs to read and colleagues to follow on Twitter... I wish I had more time to engage with everyone but with 2 courses and work it's challenging! Thanks for sharing all your experience and expertise!
ReplyDeleteChris it sounds like you have big and admirable goals ahead of you in your teaching career. Good luck with your efforts to bring about awareness and to remediate some of the issues surrounding libraries in remote communities of Canada. I enjoyed reading all of your blog posts over the past few weeks -thank you for sharing.
ReplyDelete