Blog #3- Technology Leadership

As technology continues to be an ever growing presence in our lives, we are constantly trying to figure out the best ways to effectively implement it into our daily routines.  Teaching is not exempt from this.  There always seem to be SO many new programs and resources introduced each year.  While this can be overwhelming, it is important to stay knowledgeable of all that is offered.  One way that I try to stay up to date is by reading various technology and education blogs.  While recently exploring Dr. Med Kharbah's blog, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, I came across a review for an awesome resource called Pixton.  This resource jumped out to me as a great way to marry literacy skills (& various content areas) and technology.  It allows students to easily create their own characters, settings, dialogue and story line in a graphic story format.  Because students in my school are currently obsessed with graphic novels, I believe that this would be a great way to engage them across various content areas.  Pixton also offers a variety of lesson plans that teachers, and librarians, can easily implement with their students.  

Technology's place in education, and the library, is always evolving.  I find myself sharing more and more technology information and resources with the members of my school. Because of this, it is important that I have a good relationship with my Technology Learning Coach (TLC).  While she is the first line of communication for all things "techie", I also play an important role in sharing technology with the school.  Lois Wine (2016) states that, "They each bring special skills to a collaborative partnership, the school librarian as an expert on information literacy and the technology integration specialist as a technology expert".  Together we can provide a plethora of technology and integration information to our staff and students. 

"Libraries need to meet learners where they are, and where they are is on their laptops, tablets, and phones. To remain relevant in the lives of our digitally connected students, school libraries must be both available and useful (Boyer, 2016)". This quote alone explains why it is so important for librarians, teachers and TLCs to work together to educate our students. Our students are enthralled in technology on a daily basis. If we want to engage and excite them about learning, creating and growing, we truly have to meet them where they are technologically.

References:

Boyer, B. (2016). Meet your learners where they are: virtualizing the school library. Internet@Schools,

            23(1), 4+.

Pixton Comic & Storyboard Builder for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.pixton.com/

Wine, L. D. (2016, March). School librarians as technology leaders: An evolution in practice. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 57(2), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis.57.2.207