Summarizing Topic Inquiries and Personal Reflections
During phase two, all the topics researched and shared on the blog posts were very interesting and added to my learning and understanding of Librarianship at home and internationally. I was particularly attached to the last topic, Developing World Libraries and Mobile Devices. This highlighted for me the many issues surrounding libraries and literacy levels in the various developing nations. One issue being the lack of resources and infrastructure in many developing nations is appalling. But, the most glaring issue is inequality among males and females as it pertains to access to technology, thereby contributing to fewer opportunities to learning and developing literacy skills in this manner. As an educator in a developed country, I felt a sense of guilt since we have so much here and a sense of hopelessness because the issue seems so big. I also felt hopeful too, as I learned about the groups and people out there that are helping these developing nations and tackling this issue.
The whole blogging process was awkward at first and a bit nerve-racking as I am not at all very technologically inclined. But, as I continued and learned how to navigate Blogger it became easier and even enjoyable. I liked learning how to add links and images to my blog posts, it's a great sense of accomplishment for me. I also really enjoyed the feedback, comments, and questions from my peers as well. I learned quite a bit from my group in this process and hopefully, my group has learned something from me as well.
In moving forward to the last phase of the course, I had revisited and thought some more about my initial idea for what I wanted to create for the future vision project. I had wanted to create e-portfolios with my students but I am not so sure about that idea now. I have considered and reviewed several tools to use in this project including Buncee, Popplet, Prezi and Google Slide. Any other ideas or feedback is appreciated. While browsing through the Library Media Network, I came across a post where one librarian was talking about having a coffee station in the library as a way to encourage teachers to come into the library. To extend that idea, I thought maybe my current high school library can do that, we certainly have the space for it. It can be a joint project involving the Business Education and the Foods classes in which students in those courses could be scheduled to operate it and get credits for it. Currently, the Business Education classes have pop-up shops where they are selling candy to the school population. I know I am a bit off topic her and upon further consideration, this is a huge undertaking and probably requires more time than allotted for a final project, but it would be great for experienced TLs who want to shake their high school library program up a bit. The following link is a good resource for TLs considering having a coffee shop in the library http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php?title=Libraries_with_Coffee_Shops and this next article is a good read about coffee shops in public libraries https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/18/public-libraries-should-emulate-coffee-shops.
(Retrieved from Google Image)
Wouldn't it be great to have a coffee shop/bar in the library?
References
Wikis.ala.org. (2017). Libraries with Coffee Shops - Professionaltips. [online] Available at: http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php?title=Libraries_with_Coffee_Shops [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
Yes; I can relate to the blogging process this was my first time ever blogging but I soon that it was an enjoyable creation that can be helpful to others and even posted publicly which is a big step for me. Having a coffee shop in a library is a great way to bring students in Chapters and Starbucks have been doing it for years! I too have tried out some tools and so far like buncee quite abit.
ReplyDeleteA good look back on the key learning for you so far in our course. You have shared your growing confidence and enjoyment well and I hope that it is infectious with others. Good thinking outloud about what your space could look like and how you can best support your own goals moving forward. I hope you come to a good decision about your e-portfolios for students coming up.
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