FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY TO LIBRARY LEARNING COMMONS: A PRO/ACTIVE MODEL FOR EDUCATIONAL CHANGE.  Eds. M Ekdahl and S Zubke

This document was presented at Treasure Mountain Canada 3, Canadian Library Association Conference, Victoria, BC: May 30, 2014.  It is a DRAFT / REVIEWING COPY.  It summarizes the work, over three years, of two groups of Vancouver School Board teacher-librarians, one elementary, one secondary, engaged in Teacher Collaborative Inquiry.  They focused on the questions, When and How Does a School Library Become a Library Learning Commons?  The answers are both highly professional and very personal.  The BCTLA provided additional release to begin the process of putting the two groups' inquiry products together and encouraged the invitation to include the experiences of non-VSB TLs whose participation has really perfectly expanded the "view" of ways to get there.

LEADING LEARNING: STANDARDS OF PRACTICE FOR SCHOOL LIBRARY LEARNING COMMONS IN CANADA: CLA, 2014. 

Also "launched" at the TMC3/CLA Conference was the long-awaited Canadian "standards" document. 

It is available electronically here: http://clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/llsop.html.

 The accompanying bibliography is here:  http://clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/llbibliography.pdf

NOTE:  Review of the first and serious consideration of these documents will begin in Vancouver at the day-long September 2014 Teacher-Librarian Updates.

DISTRICT TEACHER-LIBRARIANS' COLLABORATIVE INQUIRY "PRODUCTS":

The Secondary Learning Commons 2012-2014 Teacher Inquiry document: Library Learning Commons: A Secondary Perspective

Elementary Learning Commons 2012/2013 Teacher Inquiry Narratives:  The Elementary Learning Commons Inquiry group's articles.doc

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Learning Commons:  Are these the next stage for school libraries?  What do we know about them?  How and why do we build them?

From D. Loertscher, C. Koechlin, and S. Zwaan: The New Learning Commons: Where Learners Win

The google model                                                                            vs Microsoft model

(if they build it, they will use it)                                                            vs (if we build it, they will come)

Client-based                                                                                      vs organization based

Inquiry teaching                                                                                 vs behaviourist teaching

Differentiated                                                                                    vs “one size fits all”

Skills for lifelong learning                                                                   vs program specific skills

Conceptual Framework

• There is a need to remedy the disconnect between the personal use of technologies and most educational practice
• Administrative computing needs to be locked down; instructional computing facilitates learning
• Adults and young people need to learn to build their own information spaces and be responsible for their actions in those spaces
• Resources and services available 24/7/365
• Space which can be readily reconfigured
• Just-in-time coaching
• Focus on knowledge and understanding
• Collaborative action-research based teaching
• Learning to learn
• Clients included in the planning, implementing, and evaluating
• Opportunities to learn, grow, excel, and compete globally

The Space

• Coexisting functions as
• service centre, or Open Commons (inviting, collaborative space; wireless; adults and students as experts who consult with individuals or small groups; adults as mentors for projects, assignments, encouragement; extension of classroom; everyone owns, works, collaborates in social environment; policies are co-designed with students; welcome and purposeful; various specialists come and go, consult and co-teach, including TL, Tech Teacher, Counsellors, SEAs, etc.)
• connected / projects, resources, tutorials, advice, tool source, assignment centre, project production collaboration centre; links, sources, projects in progress; online students; TLs provide tip sheets; virtual discussions; best sources
• Experimental Learning Centre (hosts professional development, exemplary teaching; lab for testing new curriculum initiatives, technologies, collaborative strategies, cross-grade and/or cross-curricular initiatives; new staff work with outside experts; others learn new technology skills, classroom management, demo lessons, etc.  Students, course writers, meetings with consultants, superintendent; writing projects monitored for fluency, etc.)
• Communication central for learning improvement; virtual glue that knits collaboration and school improvement; leadership teams, under leadership of TL and tech teacher
• Comfortable, convenient, caring, supportive, helpful, experimental, jointly “owned,” high-tech; the LC provides coaching and mentoring for students and staff (a digital museum of student work and productions); the learning team merges specialist and classroom teachers
• Leadership Teams: Learning, Organization, Learning Literacies, Technology – including admin and TL and tech teacher as constants in all teams; school as learning organization, centre, hub
• Starbucks – energy, spirit, coziness
• Focus on inquiry-based learning journeys which are personal, small-group, or whole-class guided by classroom teacher and one or more learning specialist; LC supports a school-wide culture of inquiry; inquiry as dynamic, learner-centred process where learning is seen as a quest

Multiliteracies Development

• Traditional, digital, visual, media, information, cultural = 21^st C learning, where mastering the learning necessary to learn literacy help students master the content knowledge they are asked to learn; learners know a lot and they know how to learn anything they need to leard; resources are plentiful, technology is accessible; students develop deep understanding; independent learners as goal
• Teachers are empowered through a plan and an atmosphere conducive to literacy excenllence and through collaboration with specialists; TLs provide leadership, resources, strategies; a reading culture is developed that includes more than print
• Literacy Central – interest, engagement, excitement, relevance; exhibitions; technologies and media collaborations; “cool place” where literacies are differentiated, enabled, and made possible

Organizational Elements

• User-centric collections
• Dual learning commons calendars (Open commons vs Experimental Learning centre)
• On-demand Technology Assistance
• Just-in-time Tutorial and Homework Help
• School-wide activities
• Just-in-time Pro D
• Ample budget
• Financial efficiencies
• Teams / specialist staff, including admin, subject, support (technician, clerical, etc)
• On-demand networks
• On Demand User-friendly support