Final Product: Instructional Videos to Encourage Students as Digital Content Creators

Photo source: http://www.unsplash.com

INTRODUCTION: 

In Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, the Canadian Library Association examines the needs of the modern student and how a properly equipped SLLC facility, as well as a teacher librarian with a vision for the future of their school can be an incredible support system for learners of all backgrounds and abilities:

“Without an excellent school library functioning as a learning commons, students are severely disadvantaged. Students need to be working with the best technologies and resource collections available. They require expert instruction and guidance to become sophisticated users of information and ideas in our complex world. To meet their learning potential and participate fully as successful learners and contributors our students need learning opportunities and new environments deliberately designed to engage and inspire. All schools in Canada need to be able to develop and support excellent school libraries responsive to the diverse needs of learners today and into the future. This means that all schools large and small, urban and rural, public and private, brick and mortar or virtual, need to provide access to teaching expertise in the library as well as best resources, technologies and physical and virtual learning spaces to support learner needs as they evolve. The transitioning of the school library to school library learning commons establishes the vision and structure to address these evolving needs and encourages continuous growth.” (Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, p 7)

So how do we engage our students in taking action and utilizing our library website in a constructive way? How do we lead them to the site and encourage them to interact with it, thereby taking ownership to “participate fully as successful learners and contributors”? This is where I came up with a simplistic and yet (hopefully!) effective way to appoint all students, in grades eight through twelve, as content creators in a manageable way (and also as an assignment for their English class.)

GOAL(S): 

I am hoping that by having students learn to access Follett Destiny and 1) create, then 2) post a book review, they will learn to move comfortably within the Follett site. Then, with the grade 11 English classes, I intend to scaffold their learning into utilizing the lit guides in small groups or teams to create a thematic guide that will be published on the site (see my step-by step list/English 11 handout below for them to use when creating a lit guide.)

PLAN: 

My strategy is that once the students are confident and effective book reviewers, I will have them work in groups of four or five to choose a theme and create their own thematic resource collection on Follett Destiny Discover. This is a great learning opportunity for students to work in teams and further familiarize themselves with both the physical SLLC space (pulling resources to scan) and the efficiency of the online resource collections for future research/school assignments. It also serves as an effective way to keep an ongoing analysis of the collection for the TL.

Visual example: A snapshot of the example Follett online lit guide/resource collection for Greek mythology (TL info redacted for privacy)

PRODUCT INSPIRATION: 

Below is the instructional video I created as my “final vision product”. I have never used our Teams platform to actually record a meeting before, and I have also never applied the “share screen” option as a visual way to screencast and demonstrate something on a website. I wanted to combine both those features from Teams, as I plan to make quite a few instructional videos as a TL in the future. I like the opportunity that videos give for repetition and playback, and of course, the visual nature of screencasting step-by-step lessons (thank you Darcy for always doing them for us! I definitely scrubbed back to re-listen to instructions from time to timeJ)

I also believe videos that highlight and promote various ways to use our library website will help to increase its traffic. This course has amplified the importance of an online presence for teacher librarians and the library in general, and how it strengthens relationships with our students in a meaningful (but often fun) way. This idea of building student relationships ties in nicely with my hopes for my overall image as a TL. Personally, I would want to curate the image of myself and my SLLC with an online presence that is full of joy, school spirit, and interesting ways to access, consume and document information. In Everyday Advocacy, Foote’s thoughts on creating a “virtual brand” make me feel like it’s a good place to start; it seems like a natural and consistent way to systematically share/promote the indispensability of the TL and the SLLC. She advises, “Establish an online presence and use networks and other web tools with regularity to share news, video, and photos of library activities…Create albums of your library…Even if you aren't allowed to post photos of students, you can share pictures of author visits, displays in the library, collaborative projects with classroom teachers, contests, and more…Ultimately, of course, it's not so much about the tools, but the potential visibility they provide for libraries.” (Everyday Advocacy, p 29-30) This online presence is also a very useful approach to provide ongoing evidence regarding the value of the SLLC – you can document progress and celebrate successes in a visual, dynamic way that improves community perception and public relations.

I thought Foote’s idea of having students help create logos/brands/bitmojis, contribute to the school website, and generally have them come up with creative ways to digitally “brand” the library is excellent. I am hoping that by having an assignment for them to actually interact with the library website in the form of writing a book review ties in with making real connections to student patrons.

PRODUCT:

 

EXTENSION OF THE PRODUCT: 

As a follow-up to my LIBE 477B “final vision product”, I created this list of steps/handout specifically for the English 11 classes on how to use Follett Destiny literary guides. My goal is to get students to utilize them as a learning outcome for gathering information and collating research thematically.

Here are the steps for the students to follow with their group:

1.     Do a keyword search on your group’s topic (we are using Greek mythology as our example)

2.     Locate and pull all the items from the keyword search

3.     With the help of the library assistant, scan them into a resource list on Follett Destiny.

From this list, your group is now able to build a specific resource collection of your thematic items on Follett Destiny Discover that other students and staff can easily access.

Here are your next steps to construct the online resource collection:

Ø  Login to your library account with one group member’s student number

Ø  Click on “Private” button

Ø  Select the collections specific to our school library

Ø  Click “Create Collection”

Ø  Title it and write a description (usually adding the course level and subject area)

Ø  Import an image and background colours. Our TL uses “Unsplash” for images

Ø  Import the previously-created resource list that your group built from scanning the items

Ø  Select “Create” and the resource list is uploaded to Follett Destiny Discover. (Only people that have been sent the link to “edit” can access as an editor and make changes or additions!)

Ø  Once uploaded, make sure you choose to publish as “Public”, so that all our students can access the online resource collection without logging in

Ø  Now our students and staff have digital access to your thematic resource guide (there is even a QR code!)

REFLECTION ON MY PRODUCT: 

I was initially planning on creating an informational video on LibGuides, but it’s access is limited to schools or school districts that purchase a subscription. Follett is widely used and I didn’t want to focus on a database/interface that might be out of reach for some TLs because it’s cost prohibitive. It’s also easier for students to access Follett, as LibGuides requires access that’s granted at the district level.

In terms of delivery, I wanted it to be both visual and auditory. I also wanted the document for the English 11 students creating thematic resources on Follett Destiny Discover to be published as “Public”, so that all our students can access the online resource collection without logging in (which we find tends to be a barrier for students.)

Pitfalls in creating the video – I had to record this video a couple of times, as I figured out there is lag time between when you select “record” and when the recording actually begins, so I unfortunately cut off some of the initial explanations my first crack at it. You’ll notice when you view the final product that I actually wait a few seconds before talking, as its hard to tell exactly when the Teams meeting recording has begun.

I also look tired AF in the video, but so do most teacher by mid-June, so there’s that, haha

As much as I appreciate those who create digital content for their classrooms, I’ve never been confident with it. This course has forced taught😉 me to become more comfortable with employing technology to build content, and I really like that it is something multiple students can reference repeatedly in order to acquire a new skill.

(Disclaimer – I am *actually* going to use this as an assignment for next year, but I plan to film a new video beforehand, as I feel like this initial attempt isn’t as “smooth” as I would like!)

REFLECTION ON MY LEARNING: 

Other than using Blogger as a homework site (prior to our school district adopting Teams; now I use that for communication), I had never used a blog. When writing my blog posts, I attempted to combine scholarly references/our course readings with my own “voice”, so the blog posts wouldn’t be as formal in tone as a proper essay. This was a great weekly exercise for me, as I’ve been accustomed to writing academically for quite a while.

I noticed when recording my video that my instructions turned out to be much more colloquial and “me” (and each version turned out differently as well!) – They sound like how I teach and interact with my students in our classroom. This course has also provided me with a broader learning community and a wealth or links, readings and resources to follow and employ as a teacher librarian, and as educators, we know that vetted, quality resources are golden!

Best of luck to all of you, and I hope to meet and collaborate with you IRL as TLs one day soon!

WORKS CITED

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. http://apsds.org/wp-content/uploads/Standards-of-Practice-for-SchoolLibrary-Learning-Commons-in-Canada-2014.pdf

Carson Graham Secondary Library. Greek Mythology Collection. https://collections.follettsoftware.com/collection/620eb8104d92ee00129f8922?h=857e08f12e8fce5ba0fa85e6b4d9b75d7ecb36dce80217119a48d63cd158e0c

QR Code for the Carson Graham Secondary Library Greek Mythology Collection:

Foote, C. (2010). Everyday Advocacy. School Library Journal, 56(8), 28-30.

 

RESOURCES

Buerkett, R. (2014). Where to Start? Creating Virtual Library Spaces. Knowledge Quest, 42(4), E23–E27.

Burns, E. A. (2018). Advocating for Change in School Library Perceptions. Teacher Librarian, 46, 8-14. 

Canadian School Libraries (2020). Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Accessed at: http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca

Destiny Discover: Carson Graham Secondary School. https://search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/51829  

Devitto, Zoe. How to spice up your blog posts with curated visuals. (2022). https://www.blog.scoop.it/2022/05/31

Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC). (2008). Evaluating, Selecting and Acquiring Learning Resources: A Guide. https://bctla.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2018/02/erac_wb.pdf  

Future Ready Schools. (2020). Empowering leadership for school librarians through innovative professional practice. Retrieved from Future Ready Schools: https://futureready.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/FRS_Librarians_Framework_download-2020.pdf

Hughes-Hassell, S., & Mancall, J. C. (2005). Collection management for youth: Responding to the needs of learners. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Lamb, Annette & Johnson, Larry. The School Library Media Specialist. (2007). Library Media Program: Collection Mapping. http://eduscapes.com/sms/program/mapping.html  

“Literary Studies 11.” BC’s New Curriculum. Province of British Columbia. 2020. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/curriculum/englishlangua gearts/en_english-language-arts_11_literary-studies_elab.pdf

Miller, S., & Bass, W. (2019). Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age. International Society for Technology in Education.

Powtoon: The Visual Communication Platform. http://www.powtoon.com