Learning Commons

[Kathleen R.]

I'm in the midst of researching learning commons for secondary schools. There are few schools doing this for a variety of reasons. They are obviously the thing on college campuses but after reading a compelling article in Teacher-Librarian (October 2008), "The Time Is Now: Transform Your School Library Into a Learning Commons" by Carol Koechlin, Sandi Zwaan, and David Loertscher and subsequently buying their book The New Learning Commons: Where Learners Win! I see how our school could benefit from moving towards this for our school library media center. Anyone wanting to discuss online?

[Julie Udy]

what exactly do you mean by "learning commons"

[Kathleen R.]

Julie,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you...end of the school year.
Follow this discussion thread and you'll see what we are talking about. Libraries on the college level have been doing this for awhile...it is now being looked at as the 21st century library in elementary & high school.
The article I refered to explains it better than I could!
Kathleen

[Pat Ropchan]

Hi Kathleen,
I read the same article and book (book first) and would like to move in that direction. This will need some funding and I am working on our parent group for that. We will need to reorganize our space to provide for different areas of use...teachers, students, individuals, class instruction, tutorials, multimedia stations, etc. Our library is a 1-12 library so we will have to make this work for the whole school.... For now, I am encouraging teachers to do their team planning in the library and am hoping to create a professional learning community based around technology (next year).

What do you have in mind?

Pat

[Kathleen R.]

Hi Pat,
I'm on the strategic planning committee for our school and have been asked to talk (this month) about this new model as it pertains to our three vision strands: global citizenship, common experience, and innovation. The Learning Commons model is very much supported by my principal. Looks like it will happen in 2-3 years as we are adding space to our current building. The opportunity to change the physical space of our library media center into the learning commons space will double its size. My hope is that the space will accommodate all the specialists, another media specialist, all of the tech dept. It will have group study spaces, classroom space, individual carrels, group computer spaces, etc. It will be open for longer hours (currently we are open 7-4) and perhaps on Saturday. Next year I will form a subcommittee of specialists, tech folks, admin, dept. chairs, and other interested individuals to research this type of facility and how we would best adapted it to our school.
I have a lot of work to do related to how this model is adaptable to the high school level. I discovered that there is one high school in Chelmsford, MA that has gone to this model. I will try to connect with the media specialist there in the fall.
Thanks for your response. I am excited to learn of your work in this area. I hadn't thought of using the library as a planning space for teachers or a professional learning community.
Kathleen

[Pat Ropchan]

Hi Kathleen,
You are much further along than we are in this process. I am quite impressed with the scope of your planning and will be interested to hear how your plans develop.

The Learning Commons is still just an idea in my head and I need to flesh it out before I present it to administration. I did complete an action study last year about the library and I can see a Learning Commons (or a version thereof) coming out of that.



Pat

[Rita Gravina]

Hi Kathleen,

I read this article as well. We have actually moved to this model over the past year. Our library has undergone a major physical overhaul last year. We re-ogranized the space with a focus on collaboration, inquiry, experimentation and new emerging technologies. Our new Learning Commons is in the second phase now wherein we are re-examining the role of those on staff and having several teachers come on board from various depts in our school in order to promote a truly collaborative environment -- one in which the Learning Commons and other departments will work together on integrated projects and skills delivery. The Learning Commons has actually hired subject specialists from our English, Social Sciences, Math and Science Depts to work with our Librarian and Library Technician. There are also two I.T. specialists and one inquiry specialist on the Learning Commons staff next year. Our goal is to move our students into the 21st century and equip them with proper tools and skills. The Learning Commons is at the centre of our strategic plan.

[Pat Ropchan]

Hi all,
It would be interesting to see some photos of your reorganization of the library.

[Tracy Richards]

I, too, would love to see pictures. My library is currently L shaped with computers around the outside and stacks in the middle. There are tables for classwork, but no spaces for individual work or reading. I am interested in transforming my library, but think I have a tough go with support from principal/parent group.
My library also feeds into two other computer labs.

Tracy

[Diana Tixier Herald]

I was just asked to submit a plan for an elementary school that would love to turn their library into a learning commons. We've gone in and taken measurements and inventoried furnishings since there won't be a budget to do this and we will be trying to do what we can with what we have. The space is quite limited, the reading interventionists and book room share space with the library right now and the center is taken up with several large tables used mostly by faculty for meetings.. It is an exciting opportunity. I would really like to hear some tips from anyone who has done this in an elementary school setting as well as warnings of pitfalls we may encounter and how to surmount them.

[Corynn Gammon]

I am just starting to look at turning our elementary school library into a Learning Commons - hoping for a grant that my admin applied for. To that end, I attended a seminar given by Carol Koechlin and David Loertscher, authors of the articles/books mentioned above. It's a very interesting prospect and I am currently looking at portable, lightweight and small furniture, while my admin team is gathering information on ipod stations and video conferencing, et al. If anyone has pictures of video they could post of what they have done in this regard, I'd love to see it. We have to use the existing space, but luckily all our shelving is already lining the walls, so we have flexibility there right off the bat.

Corynn

[Kathleen Johnson]

I proposed this in 2007 and our school has gotten very excited about this concept. However we will not be building a new building for at least 7 years. Nevertheless the future space has been given a preliminary design by the planning architects and it's beautiful. I see this as a great opportunity for the technology people and Librarians to work more closely together and in my initial proposal I mentioned that cross-functional training for both teams would be optimal.
My virtual learning commons is LibGuides. But i have to push it out to the teachers. Ultimately I want all of them and their students creating their own Guides. I just provide the platform.

[Kathleen R.]

Kathleen,
Thanks for you response to the initial thread. It's been a long time since I posted!
We are in the same boat as we are not ready to build a Learning Commons. It would probably be in the next three years. I'm amazed that you have a preliminary design. Did you consult books, experts, the architects when you offered your proposal for the learning commons? In other words what was this process like.
I'm also interested in LibGuides as I learned more about them at a conference I attended. I've seen them in use on the college level but not on the high school level. Could I take a look at these on your website? What is the URL?
Thanks! Kathleen