Final Project Design Considerations

 Future Vision Project - Design

Modern librarians are curators of information, tools, and strategies... (Miller & Bass p.1)

Over my years as a technology specialist I very much came to see myself as a curator of information, tools, and strategies related to the use and integration / infusion of technology into the pedagogy of myself and my peers. Because of this, the first thing I thought of for my final vision digital product is a website. I have seen a number of library website, and honestly I find them rather chaotic.

My Vision

Model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning. (ISTE Educator Standard 2.2.c)

There are a lot of "old" and new tools out there for educators to consider for their lessons. By acting as a curator of resources, I can help my peers save time looking for tools and guides for those tools. And while some people only see the new and shiny digital resources as worth supporting, I believe something "old" can be new if the person putting themselves "out there" has never used it before.

My job would be to model the use of digital resources - new or old. So my website would need to support both.

The ISTE Standards: Educators gives a guide to create empowered learners. While the educator standards focus on working with students, by definition they mean the youth in the school. Should I be fortunate enough to become a TL in a school, my definition of student for the standards would include my peers. As Miller and Bass point out:

[L]ibrarians must be leaders in the fields of education, technology, and information and be both willing and able to share their expertise.(p.1)

There is a lot of information to share as a TL and Tech Specialist. As I pointed out in an earlier blog, one-to-one mentoring and collaborating is the ideal method for sharing EdTech with teachers and inspiring them to actually use it. However, time is the constant constraint when it comes to the sharing of information.

This is where a website would come in for me. I would use the website to curate information for teachers on topics relevant to their personal learning and use of technology in their classrooms. While I wouldn't always be available to work collaboratively with them, I can provide them with an organized tool to support them when I am not there.

I feel that a website is one medium I can use to share the knowledge and expertise I have built over time. A website can also act as a launching point for other mediums, such as short video tutorials, blogs, or other communication tools. For example, Humber Libraries has published videos on using Google Sites on YouTube. A website could act as one channel for reaching these videos.

Acting as a central hub, a website provides many different opportunities to share information.

Creation

Prior to becoming an educator I was in marketing. In one of my roles I the website of a medium size training company. In addition, I pursued an Internet Systems Specialist Diploma, so I am comfortable in working with websites. While the the tool I would use for creating a website would depend on the school division I work for as a TL, I am confident I can quickly become comfortable with the school / division sanctioned site development tool. 

In Winnipeg, the public school divisions use a combination of Microsoft 365 tools and division specific Learning Management Systems (LMS). Independent schools (what people in other provinces might call private schools) and some rural public school divisions will use Google Workspaces for Education

In a Public school in Winnipeg with a Microsoft environment, my preference would be to use a Modern SharePoint team site. SharePoint offers some interesting capabilities including document management and sharing capabilities. If not allowed, I would be looking into what tools are permitted (likely based on the division LMS).

In a school / division using Google Workspaces for Education, my preference would be to utilize Google Sites.

Each of these will offer greater control over information and should come with service agreements guaranteeing service levels and data security. I have also worked with both, so feel confident I could quickly have a site up and running.

Content

The content for this site will depend on the grade level of the school. For the purposes of this digital artifact I will focus on what I am most familiar with: Kindergarten to Grade 5. While early years in Manitoba is K-4, there are a mixture of schools that include K-4, K-5, K-6 and K-8 (which is combining early and middle years students).

The site will be organized around themes, such as:

• Productivity / Daily use Tools - this would support the teacher in the tools they use to perform their job, such as the school LMS and productivity suite (Microsoft 365 / Google Workspaces)
• Instructional Tools - this can include a number of different resources that would aid in the delivery of material in addition to the school productivity suite (which is usually used by students and teachers. This could include:
• Teaching apps / sites / tools (for example):
• Math (Sumdog, Prodigy, ABCYa)
• ELA (Stop Motion video, video creation, photo editing, ABCYa)
• Social Studies ()
• Coding (codeSpark, Scratch, Hour of Code)
• Digital Citizenship - sites and games for promoting discussions / research into digital citizenship 
• Professional Development - different opportunities to increase their exposure to EdTech in the context of their area of focus (some of this would be Manitoba specific and some more national/international). This might include links / directions / how to use pieces for:
• YouTube
• Conferences
• LinkedIn
• Twitter (if it doesn't die)
• Vendor information

Development

For this assignment I will use Google Sites to build my digital artifact. This site will be connected to my personal Google account.

Sources

Information

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

ISTE. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-teachers

Images / Video

Vision by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Libraries, H. (2020). Privacy & publishing in google sites [Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd735kKQIOg&t=155s