General comments about the book

[Barbara Jansen]

I finished the book last evening sitting in front of the fireplace with one of my dogs (it is really cold in Austin right now!). She didn't mind me using her new princess bed for my book rest.

Since my university studies resume soon, I won't have time to discuss the book chapter by chapter so I am making some general comments here. With the exception of a lack of quality collaboration with the school librarian (there was one good example), the book effectively operationalizes the kind of quality teaching and learning that many school librarians have been promoting for years--a move away from teacher-directed, out-of-context, yearly research projects to true student inquiry, using the information search process as a way of learning curriculum content and satisfying personal curiosity.

I already bought a copy of the book for the Academic Dean of our 1-12 grade school. For a number of years, I have tactfully expressed concern about the amount of content we feel obligated to cover in a school year for each course, especially in the humanities and sciences. The extensive coverage leaves little time to learn a scope and sequence of important information and communication technology (ICT) skills. While teachers are willing to collaborate with me to integrate ICT skills into their classes, they don't provide many occasions for those opportunities and also not many days for me to work with their classes. I cram in as much as I can to provide the skills students need for a particular project, but it is never enough. Students do not get the quality and quantity of instruction for the ICT skills because teachers have so much content to cover. In many (most?) cases, students do not get opportunities to discover and explore their interests within the content areas by delving deeply into a topic.

The Academic Dean agreed to read the book in its entirety (I think that this is necessary in order to capture the complete picture and set of strategies). If he thinks it has merit for our school (and he will), then he and I will put together a study group of interested teachers to read it and explore its possibilities for moving our curriculum and methodologies forward.

I am not worried about the lack of representation for genuine librarian/teacher collaboration in the book. I believe that once our teachers begin implementing true inquiry in their classrooms, that they will NEED and WANT my help and assistance --with teaching ICT skills and in identifying a variety of resources, including the premium content available through our subscription databases. I really don't see how teachers can do everything that the authors suggest in the way of gathering resources or in teaching necessary ICT skills. One of the weakest aspects of the book (other than the librarian connection) was the lack of identification of ICT skills (the mention a few such as evaluation of sources) and strategies for integrating them in the inquiry process. True inquiry cannot happen without teaching students appropriate ICT skills at point of need, and the school librarian is the best partner for that collaboration.

The examples in the book did not, for the most part, mention effective use of participative technology tools. This is another area that I can work with teachers as we plan for inquiry work. Librarians can promote the effective use of Web 2.0 tools in the inquiry process—for teachers and students to communicate and organize information and ideas and for connection among students in and out of the school. Librarians and technologists (if schools have both) can work with students to use appropriate technology tools to show their results and take additional action, and to extend their audience. I hardly see how true inquiry can occur without the full use of Internet resources and tools available on the free and fee-based Web. (Of course, teachers and librarians can use this argument to make a case to provide full access to participative tools to those administrators who wish to restrict access. But, this is a whole other conversation!)

All in all, I was extremely pleased with the book, as it affirms and operationalizes the real learning process that many of us have been promoting for years, and provides many thoughtful and engaging ideas for discussion and action. I do like that in the management chapter, it offers ways for teachers to move into inquiry for some of their curriculum, and does not expect a teacher to abandon what they know and start completely over. This would be the sure way to kill the initiative in our case. It is a convenient package to deliver to those in my school who know that some of what we are doing now may be in need of revision, but are hesitant about how to articulate it and make it happen. And, I’ll be right there to add the ICT and librarian collaboration!

Barbara Jansen
Chair, 1-12 Instructional Technology and Library Services and Upper School Librarian
St. Andrew's School, Austin, TX