My Personal Roots
I'm always somewhat surprised that I am a teacher librarian. My father was a secondary Teacher Librarian and English teacher. I, on the other hand, I was going to be an actress. I was always inspired by my dad's love of learning and language. His passion for books and technology were the threads (or roots) through my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood and inspired my imagination and ensured my ability to develop almost any character I had the chance to play. Courage failed me though, as I matured and realized that acting was not the best way to survive in Canada. My university studies evolved into my teaching career and as I neared graduation, a new tool was introduced to student teachers - the personal computer. Because personal computers began to enter the school system just as I was beginning my career, it seems that they have always been part of my ongoing practice and learning. Like Vygotsky's "perezhivanie" or emotional play/learning experience, I have always played with technologies and had them embedded in my emotional growth. Learning to deal with challenges of new operating systems, slow dial-up connections, limited bandwidth, audio and visual system glitches and various other difficulties have helped me learn patience, problem-solving and a sense of humour. Teaching inquiry and information technology skills to children aged 8 to 18 has also helped me grow in my own skill sets as an educator and learner. The strain of behavioural management has given way to the confidence in creating an environment where my interest in learners' and colleagues' lives and their own engagement in their learning helps smooth the bumps that can come when groups of people working together.
What inspired my interest in further personal education, though, was my transition from working as an elementary teacher librarian to working as a secondary teacher librarian. As I made this transition, Dr. David Loertscher published a challenging book, The new learning commons: Where learners win! The premise of his book was that K-12 school libraries needed to become Learning Commons, where teachers could practise new teaching strategies with new technologies, and where the school community could use and work in the space with the support of technology and information experts to support their inquiries and community activities. I could see how this vision would be applied and was excited to begin expanding my knowledge in teacher librarianship and technology leadership.
What inspired my interest in further personal education, though, was my transition from working as an elementary teacher librarian to working as a secondary teacher librarian. As I made this transition, Dr. David Loertscher published a challenging book, The new learning commons: Where learners win! The premise of his book was that K-12 school libraries needed to become Learning Commons, where teachers could practise new teaching strategies with new technologies, and where the school community could use and work in the space with the support of technology and information experts to support their inquiries and community activities. I could see how this vision would be applied and was excited to begin expanding my knowledge in teacher librarianship and technology leadership.
My Academic Roots
I came to the Masters in Education Technology (MET) program after starting to work on completing a Diploma in Teacher Librarianship, on-line, through the University of Alberta (U of A). Having completed nearly two years of the program, while watching my husband complete the Masters in Education Technology program simultaneously, I realized that the work he was doing had a stronger affinity for the type of program and direction I wished to grow towards. Based on our conversations, my husband encouraged me to apply. It was time to see if a "graft" was possible. In my application essay, I recognized that understanding learning theories and constructivism more thoroughly was going to be essential to successful creation of a Learning Commons. I I was able to transfer my credits from the U of A into the MET program and this would mean a new type of nurturing to ensure the two separate programs would integrate as well as I anticipated they would. The foundation necessary to establish a new rooting was research blended with practicality. The practical nature of the course work for teacher librarianship allowed me to evaluate library spaces and programs, and create materials for the library programs I was running. I also gained experience in reviewing resources and deepened my understanding of the Guided Inquiry process.
When I began work in ETEC 500, I knew I had made the right choice. My literature review completed for ETEC 500 was the nutrient base necessary to fuel further growth in new branches, allowing me to improve service in my library programs through reflection on related research and using the reflection to drive my own research questions. I found the reading challenging and the writing process significantly more rigorous than in previous post secondary work, but realized that my understanding of cognition and literacy was getting stronger and deeper. As my questions about literacy and cognition expanded, it also fuelled the growth of a research proposal as part of the ETEC 500 experience.
When I began work in ETEC 500, I knew I had made the right choice. My literature review completed for ETEC 500 was the nutrient base necessary to fuel further growth in new branches, allowing me to improve service in my library programs through reflection on related research and using the reflection to drive my own research questions. I found the reading challenging and the writing process significantly more rigorous than in previous post secondary work, but realized that my understanding of cognition and literacy was getting stronger and deeper. As my questions about literacy and cognition expanded, it also fuelled the growth of a research proposal as part of the ETEC 500 experience.
During my ETEC 512 course, I had the chance to apply a technology I had worked with in EDES 501 (U of A). In preparing to present to our cohort on the theories of Lev Vygotsky, I realized we could engage the class with the use of a Voicethread presentation, while using a classic children's book as an illustration of the theories. Not only would we be able to create a strong metaphor for "perezhivanie", one of Vygotsky's psychological theories of the deep integration of play and learning, but we would also be able to encourage collaborative discussion thanks to the voice recording capabilities of Voicethread. The idea to use the story Where the wild things are was a moment of inspiration during a group Skype conversation. As we were discussing the topic of joint play and playworlds, I recalled the classic story where Max completely loses himself in play. As a metaphorical exploration of Vygotsky's ideas, it seemed perfect, although I did wonder how our peer group would perceive it. Would they see it as childish and somewhat ridiculous? I was prepared to risk academic "persona" to be able to explore the topic in a slightly different way than others. It was unfortunate that we had a limited amount of time to engage our classmates, so had few people engage with Voicethread, but the process of scripting and reading aloud what would normally be written expression proved challenging and enlightening. I could see the potential for "grand conversations" (Brownlie, 2008) at the secondary level, but using a smaller piece of imagery and text, perhaps even a single image and quotation. My roots were solidly planted. It was time to solidify my philosophy of education - the "trunk" of the tree of knowledge.
References
Ferholt, B. (2009). The development of cognition, emotion, imagination and creativity as made visible through adult-child joint play perezhivanie through
playworlds (Unpublished master's thesis). University of California, San Diego. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from
http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Projects/FerholtDissertation.pdf
Loertscher, D. V., Koechlin, C., & Zwaan, S. (2011). The new learning commons where learners win!: Reinventing school libraries and computer labs (2nd ed.).
Salt Lake City, UT: Hi Willow Research & Publishing.
Sendak, M. (1963). Where the wild things are. [New York]: Harper & Row.
Ferholt, B. (2009). The development of cognition, emotion, imagination and creativity as made visible through adult-child joint play perezhivanie through
playworlds (Unpublished master's thesis). University of California, San Diego. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from
http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Projects/FerholtDissertation.pdf
Loertscher, D. V., Koechlin, C., & Zwaan, S. (2011). The new learning commons where learners win!: Reinventing school libraries and computer labs (2nd ed.).
Salt Lake City, UT: Hi Willow Research & Publishing.
Sendak, M. (1963). Where the wild things are. [New York]: Harper & Row.