Readings: Semadeni, Blowers and Reed, Fontichiaro,

Wow, final week for blogging for SI 643.  My goal is to continue doing so weekly, with a focus on my library work.  But for now, I'll discuss the readings for this last class...

Semadeni - When Teachers Drive their Learning
Semadeni's article about professional development (PD) in his district was quite encouraging.  The Fusion method of professional development for teachers based on coaching, mentoring and observing simply made sense and seems to be much more effective than what I know about other PD (where teachers mostly sit in a room all day and hear presentations).  The interactive ideas of involving teachers in their learning process in a real way seems effective and motivating.  I also like how time is set aside for this (and he makes great points about the amount of time that teachers don't have outside of school) and also how it provides teachers choice in how they develop professionally.  Finally, the idea of fostering leadership within schools is something I see is lacking - it is quite hard to "advance" professionally in a traditional school system while this method provides teachers with those opportunities.

At first I thought, why are we reading this?  We aren't going to be teachers.  But, we are, in our own ways - we will be in instructors who have a say in how things are run in our libraries and we can bring these ideas of professional development with us.  Why can't librarians do this for each other?  Maybe not in exactly the same way, but in a similar way - coaching observing mentoring.  I bet that anyone in a new position could use an approach to professional development that is highly engaging and where they can direct their own learning.

Blowers and Reed - The C's of our Sea Change: Plans for Staff Training, from Core Competencies to Learning 2.0
This was an interesting article - written in 2007 but still applicable today.  It seems that staff do need to have core competencies when it comes to technology but that very few libraries take the time to do training on things that are assumed people would know.  I like the Four Tier's model and the idea of play - a lot.  When people get to play, they don't think of things as work.  Further, this model pushes collaboration which provides automatic community building among staffs.  The more collaborative and "fun" something is, the more people will want to discover how new Web 2.0 tools can be useful to them and their work.  And, I'm betting that those who needed this instruction in 2007 most definitely need it in 2011.  With all of the new tools available online, it can be overwhelming to jump into one that people have been using for years now (ahem, Twitter). 

This article, in it's own way, applies to something on which I'll undertake soon.  For the Enriching Scholarship, U of M's week-long technology symposium, I'm co-instructing a Computer 101 class.  We'll talk about what a browser is, how to open multiple tabs without closing a browser, what right-clicking can do, how to download something from a website, how to put a usable link into a PowerPoint presentation... etc.  These all may seem like things people know how to do - but they don't and it hinders their efficiency and abilities to understand how to use computers and not fight them in their work.  I'll follow up with a blog post about this in the first week of May :)

Fontichario - Planning an Online Professional Development Module
What I liked most about this article was that it recognized the changing needs of staff and how, even in tough financial times, librarians can do outreach for instruction and purposes of getting others excited about new tools.  Again, the idea of "play" was emphasized and I cannot express enough how glad I was to see it.  Even children don't play enough anymore in schools - their experimental classes like music are being replaced with training for standardized tests.  So, the ideas of adults playing - and passing that passion onto students - is pretty exciting.   Further, this module forces instructors to pave the way for thinking about how Web tools can be used personally AND professionally and to consider the privacy and safety issues which are still being defined overall in the world of the web. 

This week's reading, like many of the others, provides me with resources to consult when thinking about technology instruction and training, and how to truly engage the learners in the process.  Paired with the Fusion model, I can envision a comprehensive PD program involving both social and technological learning.  Pretty exciting stuff :)