Well, here is my white board video in all its imperfect glory! I am pretty nervous to share it as I don't really know if it will be well received, but I put a lot of heart into and I believe in my message strongly. My target audience is senior school board staff but I think (hope) it could be interesting to my school staff, fellow TLs, and maybe even parents.
Click below to watch my Advocacy Video for Teacher Librarians:
General Thoughts / Reflection on the Course
When we first started our course and I read the description for this assignment, I was quite daunted. I really didn't have a solid understanding of what I wanted to do until we had progressed in the course and I started to feel more comfortable with the ideas surrounding 21rst century learning and using digital technologies. Before this course, I was generally pro-technology (as long as it enhanced NOT replaced learning) but I was discouraged by the lack of time, training and available of technology in my job/library. Working at an inner city school with a low socio-economic status can be challenging and frustrating, particularly when I was seeing my colleagues in other schools doing some AMAZING collaborative/inquiry/technology projects that just would not be a reality at my school. Sadly, I've often left PLC meetings and Pro D Days thinking "awesome ideas but won't work for me" because of a lack of staffing, time, funding, etc. I've found it really difficult to stay positive about my role as a TL when I just feel that more and more and more is being dumped on my plate. I started to find myself feeling stressed and anxious going to some TL events - instead of leaving feel inspired I felt almost a sense of depression that I wasn't "doing enough" as a TL.
I've come to realize now that the reality is I can't do it all. Even my full time colleagues probably can't "do it all" (but full time would certainly be a step in the right direction!) The reality is I am a part time TL working with limited funds, resources and staff. It's a tough pill to shallow and not one that I want to readily accept. I truly feel that I could be doing more for my school library, my staff and students if I had more time! It is such a shame the TL FTE is ultimately connected to enrollment numbers - our district continues to shrink and close schools which is discouraging. Despite all this, our district does have a wonderfully supportive TL group and we will not go down without a fight, so to speak.
Throughout our blog posts, I started to warm to the idea of using some technology (however limited) and I began to realize that my frustrations could be flipped around in a more positive light to create something useful and effective within my school district. I kept coming back to the idea of advocacy and how I could create an advocacy artifact.
The Idea
My default for most projects such as this would be a paper/essay (the English major in me speaking!). Cue the *bwamp bwamp* noise. I knew that now would be a good time for me to get out of my comfort zone, branch out and try something new. I have been wanting to play around with some sort of video project for a while, but always assumed they would be to time consuming. I had seen white board videos before, and I thought they were quite intriguing. Once I established that there was a good program to make white board videos, and that I wouldn't need any overly specialize equipment, I figured I would do as requested and try something that was for myself, rather innovative.
The Process
The most time consuming part of my project was the research. It took we a while to find what I was looking for given my time constraints (never enough hours in the day!). I did end up finding some interesting and helpful articles as noted in my Works Cited at the end of this blog post. I knew generally what I wanted to say - that TLs do a lot of good in schools, are relevant now more then ever, and need more time/support to do their job properly. After I had some initial research I began to write my "script" and think about my audience. It was very difficult to stick to the three minute limit (as you saw) because there was so much I wanted to say! I soon realized that with a project like this, less is more. I ended up pairing down the actual voice over audio and adding more text to the video to partner with my talking. I then went back and did some more research to fine tune what I wanted to stay. The actual putting together of the video was quite easy and at times fun! Videoscribe turned out to be very user friendly. I had to read through my script about four or five times on my microphone but I got it eventually. I also had to adjust some of the images and drawing lengths. After a few failed (panicked) attempts at uploading to YouTube, it was ready to go.
Challenges
While I'm proud of the process and how it turned out generally, the final product was different then how I originally envisioned. I did feel a bit frustrated with my research and wonder if I could have done better. I didn't have much luck finding that quantitative data I was after - I know when balancing budgets, school boards are often looking for basic numbers and stats about how a certain program/person, etc. has increased student learning and school performance. There isn't, as far as I am aware, a standardized test that straight out measures how much a TL has helped reading scores - as an example. So I am thinking that perhaps my video could have been a bit more "technical" with my intended audience in mind, but I found this very hard to do - the nature of teaching being what it is. I've included a copy of my original script to view here which includes in text citations of my research.
I also had the challegne of presenting the video in the correct way. At first my script read very much like an essay, with a lot of embedded quotes. While I felt this was good as it demostarted my research, it just didn't sound right on the voice over. I quickly realized that using my own words and ideas backed by research gave the video a much more natural sounding flow - I'm glad I made this change as my video now sounds more relaxed and less monotone.
Final Thoughts
I feel pretty good overall! I have learned a lot about 21rst century learning, Teacher-Librarianship and technology. I think every educator needs to read the "Why School?" book and I'm considering bringing it up at one of our PLCs in the future. I also appreciate that I was able to learn more about some Web 2.0 tools and social media for educational uses such as Twitter.
Our job really is so important (How can anybody do the research I've done and not get that?!?!?!) I've learned that I may have limits to what I can do, but that with baby steps and the right attitude I might just be surprized at what I can accomplish. It was great working with such as interactive class and I really enjoyed working via our blogs and not just off of Connect. I'd like to stay connected as much as possible and I'm hoping to read some of the blog post I wasn't able to get to before (particularly the one of fostering a reading culture) over the holidays. Thanks to everyone in the course!
I've come to realize now that the reality is I can't do it all. Even my full time colleagues probably can't "do it all" (but full time would certainly be a step in the right direction!) The reality is I am a part time TL working with limited funds, resources and staff. It's a tough pill to shallow and not one that I want to readily accept. I truly feel that I could be doing more for my school library, my staff and students if I had more time! It is such a shame the TL FTE is ultimately connected to enrollment numbers - our district continues to shrink and close schools which is discouraging. Despite all this, our district does have a wonderfully supportive TL group and we will not go down without a fight, so to speak.
Throughout our blog posts, I started to warm to the idea of using some technology (however limited) and I began to realize that my frustrations could be flipped around in a more positive light to create something useful and effective within my school district. I kept coming back to the idea of advocacy and how I could create an advocacy artifact.
The Idea
My default for most projects such as this would be a paper/essay (the English major in me speaking!). Cue the *bwamp bwamp* noise. I knew that now would be a good time for me to get out of my comfort zone, branch out and try something new. I have been wanting to play around with some sort of video project for a while, but always assumed they would be to time consuming. I had seen white board videos before, and I thought they were quite intriguing. Once I established that there was a good program to make white board videos, and that I wouldn't need any overly specialize equipment, I figured I would do as requested and try something that was for myself, rather innovative.
The Process
The most time consuming part of my project was the research. It took we a while to find what I was looking for given my time constraints (never enough hours in the day!). I did end up finding some interesting and helpful articles as noted in my Works Cited at the end of this blog post. I knew generally what I wanted to say - that TLs do a lot of good in schools, are relevant now more then ever, and need more time/support to do their job properly. After I had some initial research I began to write my "script" and think about my audience. It was very difficult to stick to the three minute limit (as you saw) because there was so much I wanted to say! I soon realized that with a project like this, less is more. I ended up pairing down the actual voice over audio and adding more text to the video to partner with my talking. I then went back and did some more research to fine tune what I wanted to stay. The actual putting together of the video was quite easy and at times fun! Videoscribe turned out to be very user friendly. I had to read through my script about four or five times on my microphone but I got it eventually. I also had to adjust some of the images and drawing lengths. After a few failed (panicked) attempts at uploading to YouTube, it was ready to go.
Challenges
While I'm proud of the process and how it turned out generally, the final product was different then how I originally envisioned. I did feel a bit frustrated with my research and wonder if I could have done better. I didn't have much luck finding that quantitative data I was after - I know when balancing budgets, school boards are often looking for basic numbers and stats about how a certain program/person, etc. has increased student learning and school performance. There isn't, as far as I am aware, a standardized test that straight out measures how much a TL has helped reading scores - as an example. So I am thinking that perhaps my video could have been a bit more "technical" with my intended audience in mind, but I found this very hard to do - the nature of teaching being what it is. I've included a copy of my original script to view here which includes in text citations of my research.
I also had the challegne of presenting the video in the correct way. At first my script read very much like an essay, with a lot of embedded quotes. While I felt this was good as it demostarted my research, it just didn't sound right on the voice over. I quickly realized that using my own words and ideas backed by research gave the video a much more natural sounding flow - I'm glad I made this change as my video now sounds more relaxed and less monotone.
Final Thoughts
I feel pretty good overall! I have learned a lot about 21rst century learning, Teacher-Librarianship and technology. I think every educator needs to read the "Why School?" book and I'm considering bringing it up at one of our PLCs in the future. I also appreciate that I was able to learn more about some Web 2.0 tools and social media for educational uses such as Twitter.
Our job really is so important (How can anybody do the research I've done and not get that?!?!?!) I've learned that I may have limits to what I can do, but that with baby steps and the right attitude I might just be surprized at what I can accomplish. It was great working with such as interactive class and I really enjoyed working via our blogs and not just off of Connect. I'd like to stay connected as much as possible and I'm hoping to read some of the blog post I wasn't able to get to before (particularly the one of fostering a reading culture) over the holidays. Thanks to everyone in the course!
WORKS CITED
British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) "Read
The Points of Inquiry: A Framework for
Information Literacy and the
21st-Century Learner." Read The Points of Inquiry: A Framework for
Information Literacy and the 21st-Century Learner., 2011. Web. 29 Nov.
2015. bctf.ca/bctla/pub/documents/Points
of Inquiry/PointsofInquiry.pdf
Dickinson, Gail, et al. “The Access Gap: Poverty and Characteristics of School
Library Media Centers”. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. Vol. 81, No. 2 (April 2011) , pp. 143-160. Web. 29 Nov.
2015.
Haycock, Ken. School Libraries Worldwide:
Connecting British Columbia (Canada) School Libraries and Student Achievement:
A Comparison of Higher and Lower Performing Schools with Similar overall
Funding. 17 Vol. International Association of School Librarianship,
01/01/2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Huysmans, Frank, et al. Performance
Measurement and Metrics: The Library at School: Effects on Reading Attitude and
Reading Frequency. 14 Vol. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 07/19/2013.
Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Keith, Curry Lance.
"Impact of School Library Media Programs on Academic Achievement." Teacher
Librarian 29.3 (2002): 29-34. ProQuest. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Library Research Service
(LRS) "Make the Case for School
Libraries with Our New Impact
Montiel-Overall, Patricia. Library &
Information Science Research: Teacher and Librarian Collaboration: A
Qualitative Study. 30 Vol. Ablex Pub. Corp, 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
NCTE Comprehensive News. "The NCTE Definition of
21st Century Literacies." 15 Feb. 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition
Oberg,
Dianne. Education Canada: IGNORING THE EVIDENCE: ANOTHER DECADE OF DECLINE FOR
SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 52 Vol. Canadian Education Association, 04/01/2012. Web.
29 Nov. 2015.
Richardson, Will. Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning
and Information Are Everywhere. Kindle ed. 2012. E-book.
