My apologies to my fellow bloggers ---- I have not given you very much to chew on lately. Currently I am in the library at Canarsie High School, getting a bird's eye view of a world that is eons away from what I work in back at P. S. 160. First, there are 31,000 books here -- it resembles an academic library far more than a school library. Having said that, it is very warm and welcoming to students. Kids come by every period to say hello to the librarian and "hang out" with their favorite genre (usually comics, cars, computer games--it's ok with the librarian to play because she doesn't consider it her job to police them).
As far as technology goes, not much here but the computers. No smart board, no television, no VCR . . .
The library is automated with the Mandarin system, for circulation and inventory. I've spent some time entering books into the catalog --- via the Library of Congress.
I'm observing and seeing the differences between theory and practice. Last week an economics class came in to research issues on social security, minimum wage and the Great Depression. The teacher stood in the middle of the library, read out a list of 7 or so questions, and told the kids to GOOGLE each topic and look for the answers. In addition, he nodded toward us (there are 3 interns) and said that the librarians would be happy to help us find print material. That's it.
My supervising librarian (who is an absolutly brilliant woman who is leaving this post at the end of the summer to take on a position at a juvenile detention center in the Bronx) was available to assist students, but she did not address the class as a whole.
I couldn't help but think that having known what they were going to research in advance would have made their time more worthwhile. As it was, I looked for some existing webquests on the Great Depresssion and the other topics. It was playing catch-up and turn up some resources, not many.
These high school students only knew GOOGLE, or ask.com, or to type in the whole question in the search box. I'm cosidering working on a series of lessons on webskills for my practicum. I'd love to see students come in with more of a clue regarding research. That is where this high school IS like my elementary school: these digital natives may be comfortable with their digital birthright, but they have been given so much more than they know -- funny that it will be the digital immigrants that lead them on . . .
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4 comments:
Hi Julie-
I found your observations to be surprising. I would have thought that age group to be a bit more savvy in their research skills. After all, they've been immersed in the internet for most of their lives.
I find their skills to parallel those of my students in elementary school. If I bring in the laptops to conduct research with my class, they either go directly to google or wikipedia. It's such an upward struggle to teach information literacy skills because it's easy for them to go where they are comfortable.
It's interesting, though, because the internet is so vast and students seem to enclose themselves in a little bubble of what they find to be good and reliable information/sources. I think that's a tough thing to change.
-Kate
Hi Julie-
It is always interesting to find out about what is happening in other libraries and the librarian's perception of his/her responsiblities. I found your comment about the digital immigrants (us) leading the way for the digital natives (the students) fascinating. You are right, they have been born into this technological age but do not use much of the stufff that it out there for educational purposes. What if google ever disappeared? I think that we, the next generation of librarians, have a lot of work to do educating the masses.
**Beatrice**
What IF Google disappeared? It's almost impossible to consider, which is why we should! Kids do get so used to their little "bubble" of reliable (read: easily accessible) information and just stick with it. I think we keep forgetting that while our high school kids are younger than we are, and they use technology with (seemingly) more ease, they haven't been at it that long themselves.
All of you ladies bring up some really important points. I think a lot of the students "say" they know what they're doing, but what does that really mean. Kids know how to find what they are really interested in (pictures of famous rap stars, game codes, etc.) I think in most cases they skim the surface. Their knowledge cannot be limited to this though. In addition, they may have the clicking skills, but lack the thinking skills and that is where we come in. It is up to us to hook students and get them intersted in other things and teach them to truly think about those topics and find and synthesize information, connecting it to their own thoughts along the way. I think it's really unfortunate that the teacher/class did not really utilize all the skills this library media specialist really had to offer.
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