Transforming Collaboration: Student Learning-Anytime, Anywhere

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2012

Publication Title

Teacher Librarian

Abstract

Collaborative partnerships have long been the brass ring of school librarianship. In many instances, face-to-face collaborationi s linked to the physical schedule of the librarian or classroom teacher rather than the curricular needs of students. Using free and open-source Web 2.0 technologies to develop online learning, school librarians can harness the power of virtual collaboration to impact student learning anytime, anywhere. Although librarians value collaboration, the virtual option has not been widely considered or understood. In today's school library program, is virtual collaboration a valid approach? the authors propose that school librarians participate in virtual collaboration with teachers through the design, development, and employment of online learning units.

Collaboration between school librarians and classroom teachers to integrate information-literacy skills instruction into the curriculum has long been a goal of the school library profession. In practice, establishing such collaborative partnerships has been difficult to achieve for a variety of reasons, including scheduling, lack of support staff, and an emphasis on standardized testing (Canter, Voytecki, Zambone & Jones, 2011). In many instances, face-to-face collaboration is linked to the physical schedule of the librarian or classroom teacher rather than the curricular needs of students. Eisenberg and Murray (2011) contend that our profession needs to move the sacred cow of collaboration aside and focus instead on "connecting" to assignments and curriculum, "making sure that the information literacy program reaches every student" (p. 10). An innovative approach to promoting such learning connections is through online learning, another way the teacher librarian can reach into the classroom.

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