Collaboration in Action

Term Two already! My TL and I have spent time organising a Web Quest to link in with the HSIE Unit Australia You're Standing In It (Stage 2). She has very kindly (and might I say selflessly) rescheduled her Admin time  so that it coincides with my Computer Lab time. The class will be divided into two grps. She will take half and go through the various print and video resources we have available in the library, and my grp will scroll through websites that we have selected to decide which ones are most suitable. We are starting with brainstorming of ideas using the bubbleus.com mind mapping tool and going from there.

Some New Thoughts

I had a surreal experience the other day. A friend of mine (and fellow tchr) has a son in Yr Nine who had to complete an assignment for School. She was telling me that not only didn't they understand the question, they had no idea how they would go about tackling it. I know this sounds really strange, but I actually suggested that we look at using an Info Lit Model(I'm really not looking for brownie points, but we attempted to use the PLUS Model). We were able to break the question down into parts to ascertain WHAT exactly he was being asked to do. We then followed the PLUS process to create a scaffold for him to follow in order to complete the assignment. God knows whether we were entirely successful, but he felt more confident with the result so that has to mean something!!

QUEST - Quality Education Support and Training

While scrolling through stuff online about Information Literacy Models (because let's face it that's all I seem to be doing lately) I found a site called QUEST - Quality Education Support and Training - written by Trevor Bond from New Zealand.
It had some great info re: different Models, ICT and Info Literacy as well as what I thought was easy to read and informative ideas about THINKING itself. There were links to various sites that further explained some of the models.
Trevor Bond is the creator of the  SAUCE process which is an Info Literacy Skills Model that facilitates pupils into inquiry learning, thinking and information literacy.
To read more info about SAUCE see:
http://ictnz.com/sauce-resources/SAUCEDiagram.htm

Libraries for post-literate society- Doug Johnson

I read this fascinating article in Connections (Schools Catalogue Information Service) Issue No: 72 Term 1 2010 about POST LITERACY. (By the way I had NEVER heard about these journals before our TL popped this one in my pigeon hole at work)

Essentially, the article by Doug Johnson discusses the idea that with the overwhelming amt of technology available feeding us all manner of info at a moments notice, the art of READING a book is actually declining. People are relying on audio, video, graphics and gaming to support their information and recreational needs.

Collaboration

After reading fairly extensively, I have come to the conclusion that one of the KEY elements in creating an ILS is COLLABORATION. This does not only mean between c'rm tchrs but includes, the principal, students and specialists tchrs as well.
A collaboratively organised Unit is one where:

• there is an equal partnership between c'rm tchr and the TL.
• each partner has an opportunity to share their expertise so that learning experiences are enriched.
• activities move away frm behaviourist to the use of cognitive strategies (Herring 2004) so that they are student centred.
• resources, info skills, and objectives are shared and support a common vision.
• the work load is shared throughout the learning process - planning, implementation, assessment and evaluation.

Ideas that speak to me - a work in progress!

Henri, J (2005) "Community is something that transforms thinking within the school and does so in such a way that the transforming pulls the world of school and the world outside school closer together." (p. 12 Information literate school community 2)
Henri, J (2005) "Schools must be places and spaces where people learn to learn and this must be transparently obvious and demonstrable." (p. 13 Information literate school community 2)

Survey at HS

As part of Assign One I thought I'd do a quick survey of members of the HS School Community (this thought occurred one morning at about 2:30am when I was in yet another state of panic!)
Basically I asked similiar questions of the Principal, TL, C'rm Tchrs and Students. I realised afterwards that I'd left out the Parents- oops!!
Summary of results: