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I did notes (on my computer, would you believe it or not!) and am uploading a summary now.
A major aspect of being a good leader is knowing yourself and knowing your strengths. Knowing what you can do well and knowing what may be best to distribute to other team members. Also, knowing where you fit in within the leadership structure; both within the school or site but also the wider educational department and the curriculum bodies. Knowing that the situation will change, depending on the setting, is vital to make sure that no toes are stepped upon. Understanding that a public school is different from a private school and a primary, secondary and combined (R-12) are all different in their requirements and leadership structure is vital. Also, understanding that there are different leadership styles employed by staff within a school is important to understand what their focus and objectives are. There are different forms of leadership; including Situational, Transactional, Transformational, Servant, Distributed and Instructional. All of these can benefit the wider school in different ways. Situational Leadership is more focused on what the situation at hand is and how to respond to it appropriately. This form of leadership changes and the exact leader can vary. Transactional Leadership utilises rules and incentives to maintain normal flow of operations and is not generally focused on the future or strategic operations. Transformational Leadership is, as the name implies, a leader who goes beyond the day-to-day level of operation and focuses on how to take the organisation or site to the next level of success. A Servant Leader displays attributes of someone who has their staffs' interests at heart - they are servants of their team. Distributed Leadership is based upon the distribution of tasks by team member's strengths and expertise. Finally, Instructional Leadership generally focuses on the executive leadership team within a school or site. They direct and manage from the top but allow staff to develop their own leadership as well. All of these play a part in how leaders and staff operate within any organisation, both within schools and outside organisations. Leaders come from many different backgrounds and we have to take that into account when working within teams; both as a classroom teacher and as a Teacher Librarian. As a Teacher Librarian, we must be open to developing our own skills and the skills of those who we work with and to do that successfully, we have to be good leaders.
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Well, I'm in for a big September!
Firstly, the assignments due and all the work associated. But most importantly, I have been offered (and I accepted!) an opportunity to work a four-week contract in a local high school! To protect the privacy of staff and students at the high school, I am not going to name it but I will be teaching Year 11 English and overseeing a Student Teacher with a Year 9, 10 and 12 English class. It's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time! I can't wait and I'll keep you updated! Digital texts are becoming more and more prevalent within our society. As students, we reach for websites and online journals before looking at books when doing research. At home, we look for audiobooks to listen to while cooking, at the gym, or in the car. We look to buy e-books for textbooks or for pleasure reading rather than purchasing paperback or hardback books. As a generalisation, people don’t have large book collections anymore; they talk about how many books they have on their Kindles or iPads instead.
Digital texts are defined as “audio, visual or multimodal texts produced through digital or electronic technology” (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n.d. para 1). This particular definition was chosen due to my primary area of teaching and because I would be using digital texts within the classroom or in a secondary school library more so than in any other area. Digital texts can be a wide range of different formats, from audio and e-books to interactive books with videos and hyperlinks to even mobile apps and movies. When reading or using a digital text, I do miss the feel of paper and being able to annotate (within reason!) it with my own thoughts and putting sticky notes on the pages where I have done some analysis. I am fairly ‘old school’ in this regard and dislike using digital versions of texts; however, I can see a use for them within a classroom and I am highly likely to use them when I teach. The use of varying digital texts is set against the rapid growth within the technological field as a whole. Many of our students have grown up with iPads and mobile phones within easy reach and knowing instinctively how to use them. Students, at the same time, are so far removed from the ‘conventional’ literacy demands of study such as looking to printed texts for information and instead relying on online sources. However, at the same time, “web-based learning environments, notions of connectivity, the potential of social networking, digital and mobile technologies are permeating … not only through student practice but in terms of dominant institutional drivers” (Lea & Jones, 2010, p. 378). This article goes further to highlight that an ever-growing reliance on digital texts places a growing burden on the level of government-led funding in order to harness the required technologies of the age. The overall use – and therefore the purpose – of a digital text is to enhance the learning experience, some schools can do this through high fees, while others rely on government grants and donations. Some schools can provide a large number of digital texts and access to them, whereas others struggle to provide the basics. A digital text should, in conjunction with enhancing the learning experience, complement the curriculum of the jurisdiction or the assessment tasks in the unit of work. So, all of this beggars the question, what makes a good digital text? Is it the format it is in? Is it the interactivity, and accessibility of digital texts? I believe that it is a good mix of all of that and more. A good digital text should have good content, have good long-lasting value, be accessible, interactive and above all, be enjoyed by students and teachers alike. Of the three texts I reviewed, I preferred the Bible app, which did come as a surprise to me. If I were teaching Religious Education, I would use the app as a way of supplementing the curriculum by participating in one of the plans it offers as a means of homework or formative assessment. I would also use it as a supplementary mechanism of understanding the Bible and its contents, both for my student’s understanding and my own. Being able to use the text alongside my students is one thing that I look for when evaluating any form of resource – digital or not. I believe that whether we, on a personal level, like digital texts, they are here to stay and we should try and use them in our classes and libraries as best as we can. We should be mindful of the ever-changing technology and be willing to adapt our practices where necessary. References
I have chosen a Bible App to review, YouVersion Bible App + Audio, Everyday Verse, Free (referred to as YouVersion Bible App) published by Life.Church. This app has a rating of 4.7/5 and has over 2 million reviews. Of the Bible Apps on the Google Play Store (I have an Android device), this one was the most recommended after the advertisements and having looked at other apps, this was the most comprehensive. The YouVersion Bible App gives the user a Bible verse of the day as well as a corresponding picture that can be saved to their device or shared to social media platforms. Users are able to connect with friends and can gain badges to show different achievements within the app. The badges can be for something as simple as creating a note about a particular Bible verse. Users also are able to highlight relevant sections of the verses that they are most drawn to and can revisit those particular sections later. There are also offline versions of the Bible that can be downloaded for times when an Internet connection is unavailable.
Different languages are available, including French, German, Afrikaans, Arabic and even Pitjantjatjara; as well as different versions of the Bible. Versions of the Bible include English Standard Version (ESV), King James Version (KJV) and Modern English Version (MEV); however, there are several more to choose from. This allows for use of the app within classes where English may not be the language of instruction or for the app to be used within language classes, even if the school’s main language of instruction is English. The app can be customised to suit the Bible that is used within the specific Christianity based religionand it is quite easy to move between different versions of the Bible. There is no cost associated with the app unless a user chooses to purchase a reading plan associated with the app. These plans are designed to help the user read more of the Bible and understand and analyse the contents; many are free but some have a cost associated. The plans are designed and produced by various churches or religious organisations associated with the publisher. Within a class or even a library, the YouVersion Bible App can be a way to easily access the contents of the Bible and what messages are contained. Rather than flicking through a paper Bible when looking for a certain verse or book, a student can use the mobile app and mark the section and revisit during study time or Religious Education classes.This can also be used ‘on the go’ which can be helpful when completing homework (particularly Religious Education) on the bus or even at home if space is sparse. I am not a trained Religious Education teacher (I am a secondary school, Legal Studies and English trained) nor have I ever participated within a Religious Education class; however I was christened Anglican as a child and have an interest in religion now that I am in my 20’s. I have found the app really great and the plans informative; these, in particular, can be of use for students who are new to a school that has a Christian focus or for Year Eight students who may find the app more accessible than a printed Bible. The plans also could be implemented as part of the unit or as a homework task for the subject. For those who are particularly devout Christians, the daily quote images can be great ways to share their faith amongst their classmates and teachers. The daily quotes and the accompanying images could be used by the teachers in their morning homegroup sessions or as a point of reflection during the day. A teacher librarian could enable access by ensuring that on all school mobile devices the app is downloaded and that there is a comprehensive guide for the teachers to use, particularly if they are temporary relief teachers. Overall, the YouVersion Bible App would be a brilliant resource for a school to have.  The book that the author is reading, and yes, it’s a paperback! The final digital text I am reviewing is a PDF version of the Year 8 Geography Alive textbook. This textbook is written for the Australian Curriculum so can be used within Australia, regardless of location. This textbook covers the following areas:
The ‘how to use the textbook’ section does mention that there is the ability to link to the myWorld Atlas as well as ProjectsPLUS, however, when I attempted to use these functions, they would not work. I am presuming that this is due to the PDF nature of the textbook rather than working within an online version of the textbook with full capabilities. The PDF textbook does give the teacher and class a good starting point, regardless of whether it has the online aspects or not. Teachers are able to base formative or homework assessment off the tasks outlined within the PDF textbook and this can be of benefit for early career teachers or those teaching the subject for the first time. I would recommend that Teacher Librarians organise for this particular textbook as well as others within the series to be purchased and available for all teachers to access. Having looked at the website that purchases would be made, it is not unreasonable to presume that bulk orders could be made for the school use as well as a mix of e-book and physical books within the order. As a teacher with no Geography experience, bar what I have seen on practicums, this is a really great resource for gaining an understanding of what can be – and should be – taught within the classroom as well as a more in-depth at the sections individually. As it is tailored to the Australian Curriculum, any teacher can use it which I think is a really great design by the editors as it allows the textbook to be moved freely without restraint. This text can be purchased from https://www.jacaranda.com.au/ in both the e-book and the physical book form; as well as other books in the Geography for the Australian Curriculum series. Overall, I would use PDF’s or e-books within my professional life but on a personal level, I think I will stick to paperback! *** Mraz, J., Bedson, C., Westhorpe, C., McMeekin, T., Gibson, K., & Dempster, A. et al. (2013). Geography alive 8 for the Australian curriculum (1st ed.). Brisbane, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.  The authors (well worn) copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in paperback form. I have chosen to review Audible, an audiobook service which has a wide range of texts that you can choose from. This service gives the user one free audiobook in a 30-day free trial, after that paying $16.45 per month and gaining one Audible credit each month which can then be used to purchase audiobooks. These audiobooks can be re-listened to, as much as the user desires once the purchase is made. The user can download an Audible original book for free each month without impacting on the credits accrued and the user can also purchase an audiobook using a credit card as well as purchasing more Audible credits. The user keeps the audiobook within their library, regardless of whether they continue to use the service or not. Users can return the audiobooks that they are not happy with, however, I did not look in-depth into this function of the service. Users can also review the audiobooks and in the case of the one I chose to listen to, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban written by J.K. Rowling has 4.9/5 stars with 2, 907 ratings as of 20th of August 2019. The user can also listen to the audiobooks across their mobile apps as well as through their website and the speed at which the audiobook is listened to can be changed up to 3x the normal pace.
While listening to the audiobook, I was able to bookmark where I was on my laptop and then resume listening from that point on my Android mobile phone. While Apple does have its own book store and the ability to purchase audiobooks off that platform, it is difficult to use those Apple-purchased audiobooks on an Android mobile phone. However, Audible is a standalone app, available on iOS, Android and Windows devices and therefore makes moving between devices easy and simple. Within the curriculum, Audible could be used as a resource for English texts or for accessing non-fiction texts for research purposes in other subject areas. During practicums, I had students studying Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in a Year Eight or Year Nine class so this text, in particular, could be chosen as a classroom text but it is also commonly found in school libraries as a popular choice for pleasure reading. I chose to look at this book in particular as I could then focus on Audible as a whole rather than doing an in-depth text analysis of an audiobook. I found that listening to the book fairly soothing, however, it was easy for me to zone out and stop paying attention to the text. Whether that be because of my own tendency to listen to music while studying, or whether it is because I treated it as ‘background noise’ or my own knowledge of the text having read it numerous times prior; I am unsure. If students like having music or some form of ‘background noise’ while studying, audiobooks could pose a problem within a class as they may not pay proper attention to what is occurring and thus not being able to analyse the texts adequately. Going along with this, playing an audiobook aloud in class could be beneficial as the narrator could provide additional points to focus on due to tone or inflections on certain sentences or words. However, like listening to an audiobook on your own, it can be easy for students to zone out and stop paying attention to the text and this impact can be doubled when in a class with peers. Listening to an audiobook (especially one that is an original) for research can be difficult because of referencing the content in assignments. When using audiobooks for pleasure reading, it can be jarring hearing another persons interpretation of series or book specific words considering what we interpret them to be when reading from a physical book or e-book. When looking at using audiobooks for students with learning disabilities or specific needs, they can be beneficial but as with any student, there is still a risk of how much they are absorbing from the text. Audiobooks can be beneficial for students with speaking or general literacy skills as it gives them a different resource that they can use; especially as they could potentially repeat what the narrator says. Audiobooks can also provide access to the written word that they would otherwise be excluded from. Overall, would Audible and audiobooks be beneficial within a classroom or as a resource in a school library? Ultimately it would come back to demand within the school, if there is enough demand for it, it could become feasible within the long term. Short term though, there would be a costly monetary outlay as many schools could not justify purchasing one book a month with the Audible credits that are provided as part of the purchase. Could it be beneficial for classroom teachers to have as a resource that they could play within the class when needed and use on a ‘case-by-case’ basis? Definitely. As for me, I would use Audible within a classroom setting as needed but on a whole, I would encourage e-books or physical books in the first instance. On a personal level, I am sticking with my physical books for pleasure reading. My apologies for interrupting your reading of my module posts but considering my lack of posts last semester, that I am at all half kept up with them is a miracle. So, outside of Uni, what have I been up to?
Professionally, I have been working at OSHC still and working at my retail job. As of this post, I have worked an 8am-6pm day where my patience was pushed almost to my limits. I have also written job applications for three full-time jobs next year and if I don’t get them (chances are small if you want my opinion) I’ll be starting to look for TRT work for next year. Uni-wise, I have written two blog posts (and actually got them posted!) and am considering bed. But the likelihood of me going to sleep anytime soon is slim. I have kept up with INF533 but am about a module and a case study behind in ETL504. Not too bad if you compare this time last session where I was even more screwed. Personally, I have battled two colds, a virus, a parasite (don’t ask how I got them, just don’t) and laryngitis. I’ve raced in a Pedal Prix race where I did 15 laps for my team – considering it’s my first year, I’m happy with that. I’m planning for a close friend’s wedding in September, and also for the 24-hour Pedal Prix race the weekend after. However, my first event is Tuesday where I am seeing Hugh Jackman in concert – which I’m am so looking forward to! Anyway, off to drink my tea and do some work on ETL504. G’night everyone! This module discusses the implementation of technology and ICT within the curriculum and therefore within our classes, schools and libraries. We – both as teachers and librarians – need to remember that it is not enough to think of ICT and technology as a whole as a tool to help engage students for a period of ten to fifteen minutes. We need to be able to use technology to enhance the learning already happening and not detract from it.
The most pivotal point is that students are regularly seen as passive consumers of the curriculum and not active learners (Rowan, 2012, p. 219). One of the major areas where students are seen the most as passive learners is within the area of literacy. Students learn literacy skills the best through collaborative work with both their teacher and their peers. The biggest aspect of this collaborative work is that teachers are just as engaged with the technology as what the students are. A particular feature of ICT impacting on students and teachers is that more and more meaning is being made from common symbols that we would otherwise not glean. Simple punctuation symbols are now being strung together to create images designed to convey different emotions or to show affection to another person. As I alluded to in a previous post, we cannot assume that our students live in a world of 100% print; for a large portion of our students print is a foreign concept that they do not like and do not care for. We need to learn how to balance how we utilise technology and how meaning can be gleaned from aspects that we ordinarily would ignore. We need to adapt how we use technology and how we are engaged with it – it may mean that we use digital texts rather than print or learning what “<3” means (it’s meant to be a heart, by the way). There are plenty of other options and it is up to use as to how they are implemented and adapted within our schools and classes. References Rowan, L. (2012). Imagining futures (Ch. 13). In L. Rowan, & C. Bigum (Ed.),Transformative approaches to new technologies and student diversity in futures oriented classrooms: Future proofing education (pp. 217-225). Dordrecht: Springer Science +Business Media B.V. Module 1 opens with a generalised fear that the reading culture would be replaced by a visual one. I would have to say that 1970s-1980s fear is now true; movies and TV are more popular than books and the Internet is more popular than newspapers.
Over time, we have seen typewriters, postcards, the handwritten letter and more gradually disappear to the point where students of ours will not have seen any of them. They will only have heard of them as we have heard of VHS tapes and film negatives. As we have become more digital orientated, texts have become more multiform (Huang, 2012, p. 288) through experimentation with formats to varying degrees of success. Electronic texts are generally seen as cheaper because they are easier to store (Felvegi and Matthew, 2012, p. 40); however, one must take into account the ‘cloud’ or hard drive space needed to store these digital files. Technology – especially digital literature – can benefit classes greatly, however, they are not always seamlessly embedded into the classroom. This can be due to teachers nearing retirement or who are set in their ways being unwilling to change their practice. Or because of the classroom/school facilities cannot handle the high level of technology and digital material that we have. Similarly, some students may not have access to a laptop or tablet or even have the Internet connection at home – therefore making it impossible for them to connect to digital literature in the same way that we can. Digital literature is something we (including “digital natives”) are still feeling our way with. We are still learning how to embed it into our classes, schools and libraries. While our generation has grown up with technology and the digital world, it may take the next to fully have digital literature embedded within our classes and schools. References Flevegi, E. & Matthew, K.I. (2012). eBooks and literacy in K-12 schools, Computers in the schools, 29(1-2), 40-52. DOI: 10.1080/07380569.2012.651421 Huang, H-C. (2012). E-reading and e-discussion: EFL learners’ perceptions of an e-book reading program. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 26(3), 258-281/. DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2012.656313 This module opens the scene for Digital Literature in schools. The good, the bad and the ugly.
There is the ability to explore what we can use in our classrooms as well as have avaliable in the library for school wide perusal. Digital Literature can encompass all creative environments, including iPads and flexible use of graphic interfaces and interactive multimedia. Digital Literature can provide creative and easy solutions to common problems as well can create a host of their own. These problems can include accessibility (both in a physical and intellectual sense), pedagogical integration and individual site and learner needs. Digital Literature can be a blessing and a curse; it is up to us as to how we approach it with our students, staff and site. |
Note:The posts dated from 2019-2020 are direct from my Charles Sturt University blog; hosted on their servers. For my own record, I have chosen to re-post them here. Due to this, there may be some formatting problems and for that I apologise. Archives
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