An Honour!

I was recently honoured to be mentioned in Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog. My article, 50 Ways To Love Your Library, was initially written to commerate the 50th anniversary of the Saskatchewan School Library Association, in which I am an executive member.

The article details the paradigm shift that teacher-librarians must embrace in order to create a physical and virtual space tailored to the 21st century learners' needs. Categorized into months, there are suggested learning experiences meant to transform the library learning space and revitalize the "school library 1.0" into a manageable pace.

Teacher-librarians are well posed in meeeting the learning imperative of the 21st century learner and are eager in designing deep meaningful experiences that connect to the students' needs. However, the ability to facilitate meaningful learning embued by emerging technology is often hampered by many barriers. These eager teacher-librarians are often told "we are not ready for this right now", "let's not focus on cool tools", "for safety, that site is blocked". David Loertscher, in his post Flip This Library: School Libraries Need A Revolution, boldly proposes the paradigm flip needed by school libraries to be relevant and to remain connected with the latest generation of learners and teachers.

The question remains "Are teacher-librarans bold enough to begin a grassroots revolution in an effort to show that emerging technologies SHOULD and MUST be integrated into learning experiences in order for students to remain engaged in their school environment?"