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Evaluating First Nations Resources in a School Library Setting

Teacher Librarians (TLs) have a mandate to develop balanced, up-to-date and contextualised collections, and to understand the pedagogical potential of the resources they promote and share with students and teachers. Photo by Drahomír Posteby-Mach on Unsplash TLs develop school library collections that must act as mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors – that is, collections which offer texts…

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#collection development #First Nations people of Australia #First Nations Resources

Updated! #StudentsNeedSchoolLibraries

The research is undeniable. EVERY school needs a well resourced school library AND a qualified teacher-librarian! Go to https://studentsneedschoollibraries.org.au/for more info. This post was originally shared in April 2017, highlighting the research which demonstrates the essential role of school libraries and qualified library staff in enhancing student achievement. Now, in October 2018, a…

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Responding to our changing information ecosystem

I tackled this huge topic in a one hour webinar that I presented on behalf of the ALIA Schools group, and can forrsee a number of blog posts on these topics happening in the coming months. For those who were able to attend the webinar (and for those who couldn’t make it :-)) here are the curated collections I referred to. These resources are by no means exhaustive, but if you are new to either of…

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#information fluency #information literacy

5 reasons why EVERY student in the 21st century needs a School Library and a Teacher Librarian.

Happy International School Library Day! School libraries and library staff do so much for their school communities, but to celebrate today, I have put these slides together with a focus on how Teacher Librarians (TLs) and school libraries support students growth as global citizens. This is something that I believe every school would say they are working towards, but too often, the fantastic…

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#advocacy #ALIA #International School Library Day #ISLD

Leading from the Library - Eduwebinar presentation

Leading from the Library – Eduwebinar presentation

As many of you will be aware, I have been finding synergy between the leadership research included in the MBA that I am currently involved with and the role of the Teacher Librarian. This has sparked my most recent posts, Teacher Librarian as Leader: Lessons from the Literature, Teacher Librarian as Leader: Theories of Leadership in Action and Leadership in practice. Building upon these posts, I…

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Leadership in practice

Thank you for joining me for the third and final installment of the Teacher Librarian as Leader blog post series. If you have missed the first two posts, consider jumping back to the start to read all three in order. The first post discusses the role of the TL, and how it embodies both management and leadership. This is followed by the second post, which offers an overview of some of the theories…

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#leadership #social media for professional learning #teacher librarians #teacher librarianship

Teacher Librarian as Leader: Theories of Leadership in Action

This is the second of a series of blog posts I am sharing on the concept of Teacher Librarian as Leader. The content has been inspired by my recent work as a Learning Designer, working on the design and development of a new online MBA for the University of Southern Queensland. If you missed the first post, Lessons from the Literature, why not jump back and see where the discussion began. I hope…

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#advocacy #leadership #leadership theory #teacher librarianship

Teacher Librarian as Leader: Lessons from the Literature

As you may be aware, my recent experience as a learning designer contributing to the development of a new, fully online MBA being offered through USQ has led me to consider how Teacher Librarians (TLs) might take advantage of leadership literature emerging from the field of business to enhance their own professional practice as leaders. In this series of blog posts, I will introduce the concept…

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Finding your tribe: Think-alikes or think-abouts?

As Brisbane enters its second day of a three day lock down, I have been thinking about how much more we have come to rely upon our online tribe since this time last year. Although here in Queensland we have been fortunate to (so far, touch wood) avoid a long stretch of lockdown, having experienced almost three months of living alone in Singapore in lockdown last year, and with family and friends…

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#"social media"#online learning

The value of narrative in online learning

We were always moving towards providing more formal learning experiences via online media, but the lockdowns of 2020 gave online learning an almighty push. While blended learning opportunities, where students has the option of attending on-campus lectures as well as accessing learning resources online have existed for some time, the concept of entire courses being offered in an online mode is…

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#digital pedagogy #online learning

Putting theory into Practice: How Networked Learning Transcends Disciplines

2020 has been quite a year for everyone. I won’t bore you with my personal story of how 2020 has turned my life upside down, because I am sure you have your own! However I will say that I am writing this blog post from a completely different perspective than I would have expected in January of this year.

One aspect of 2020 that I am happy to say has survived is my association with ONL (Open…

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#MBA #ONL #ONL202 #open networked learning

Why this survey might be the most important thing you do today

It is a sad, and well known fact that the role of the Teacher Librarian is in decline in many countries, and library staff often hold the perception that their role and the school library is not valued compared with the work of other educators (Merga, 2019) . In Australia, there is now only one University, Charles Sturt, that offers a Teacher Librarianship qualification, and in many schools, the…

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#advocacy #Softlink

Supporting students through the Research Process

Returning to a K-12 school environment after several years’ teaching at a Masters’ level at University has given me interesting insights into the way younger students engage with the research process.

At different stages through their Primary/Elementary years, they are given fantastic opportunities to develop a variety of research skills – they are explicitly taught how to take notes from an…

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#education #information literacy #information search process #isp #k-12 #research #research process #school teaching #teacher librarianship

Covid 19 has changed everything...

Covid 19 has changed everything…

The speed at which the Covid 19 Pandemic has transformed our everyday lives is perhaps one of the most overwhelming outcomes of this global event.

In a matter of months, economies have been devastated, health systems challenged beyond measure, our lifestyles have become unrecognisably different and technology has become a focal point. We rely upon our internet connection as we seek to…

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Privacy - Even more important in 2020

Privacy – Even more important in 2020

**Disclaimer** The majority of this text was written in 2016 in this blog post. I have added updated information, but what I shared then was even more important today, and so I have reposted it here for Privacy Awareness Week – take time to Reboot Your Privacy!.

When I was nine I had a diary which had a lockable clip on it, which would only open with a special key. I thought it was awesome. My…

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danismm

“The Autotutor”, U.S. Industries teaching machine. New York Wold’s Fair 1964.

findingtheconnections

A realistic history of the future?

Open pedagogies: Transforming and empowering learning

The open movement has been defined as:

An informal, worldwide phenomenon characterised by the tendency of individuals and groups to work, collaborate and publish in ways that favour accessibility, sharing, transparency and interoperability. Couros & Hildebrandt, 2016, p.145)

A feature of the open movement which is gaining increasing exposure, is the concept of open educational practices (OEP).…

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