Bridging+the+Digital+Divide+in+School+Libraries

media type="youtube" key="-BARWmnj7Aw" height="315" width="560" align="right" Please begin the second section of our exploration of how school libraries are bridging the digital divide by viewing the video on the right. Created by the e-Learning Foundation (2008), this video aims to shed light on the fact that children who grow up without a computer and internet access in their homes are hugely disadvantaged. Schools and teachers are left to pick up the pieces and are working with an increasingly diverse range of students with various competencies with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Swain and Pearson (2001), explain that “exploring digital divide issues in schools requires educators to examine the access students have to technology as well as the equity in the educational experiences students have with technology” (p.2). In an effort to differentiate instruction to accommodate all students’ individual learning, in addition to their varying ICT competencies, teachers and teacher-librarians need to be as self-aware and as reflective as possible. Educators are encouraged to take the time to master what Banister and Reinhart (2011) refer to as Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK), more specifically “add(ing) yet another dimension to identifying effective classroom instruction, arguing that 21st century teaching and learning must reflect compelling uses of digital technologies” (p. 4). Banister and Reinhart (2011) defend that “teachers (who) utilized digital technologies to support teaching and learning in their classrooms (TPCK), ... promoted social justice and… began to address digital divide issues” (p. 18).

Teacher education programs are becoming increasingly involved in developing and supporting initiatives to overcome this gap using the educational and digital resources available in classrooms. Educational researchers, Tousignant, Xu, and Zhang (2012) confirm this in a recent report entitled: “Introducing Accessible ICT to Teacher Candidates: A Way to Address Equity Issues.” The authors use Selwyn’s (2011) definition of ICT literacy to explain that this “means more than the basic development of skills, as this literacy involves ‘a full range of creative abilities to make use of digital technology, alongside the critical understanding required to make the best use of digital technology” (p. 4). “We need to take all possible measures to create an awareness among teacher regarding the relationship between ICT and educational equity, and train them how to creatively utilize available ICT to solve inequity issues that continue to exist in education (Tousignant, Xu & Zhang, 2012, p. 12). Consider these topics as you watch the video below from Joanna Goode, a professor of Education Studies at the University of Oregon (2010), who explains that schools must take an active role to combat the inequities that continue to arise from the ongoing digital divide. She also challenges us to consider how our instructional choices with respect to the extent to which we incorporate versatile ICT outcomes can affect the future opportunities for students following high school. How is your school and individual instructional choices measuring up?

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 * Questions to consider: **

1. How do you view your role in effectively promoting ICT skills in your school? To what extent do you believe that funding is positively or negatively impacting your ability to provide practical and influential ICT experiences to your students?

2. How could you use some of Colleen Swain and Tamara Pearson’s (2001) techniques and approaches (such as experimenting with the placement of furniture around computers and different group learning and project-based instruction) suggested in their report “Bridging the Digital Divide: A Building Block for Teachers”? []

3. To what extent do you agree that parents should be jointly educated and informed of the related ICT skills their children are learning in school? What are the implications of parents that are unable to attain this type of training on student learning?

4. Do you see yourself being able to modify your instruction to incorporate a wide range of ICT skills regardless of the subject being taught? To what extent do you believe this to be effective in influencing digital literacy on a larger scale for each individual student?

Feeling inspired and think you need to find some more like-minded people to jumpstart your journey into influencing the digital divide one ICT infused lesson plan at a time? Then developing your own Personal Learning Network (PLN) might be just what you and your students deserve. Coined by Will Richardson and Rob Macabelli (2011), PLNs serve to empower and connect educators with a desire to improve their teaching practices for the benefit of their students. Are you feeling like this is something you would like to know more about? Great, because teacher-librarian Jennifer LaGarde has developed her very own PLN Starter Kit available on her blog: []
 * Additional Resources: **

For another shot of inspiration, have a listen to her presentation of PLNs where she gets to the root of how these work and why they are so instrumental in affecting change in teaching practices surrounding technology.

http://www.librarygirl.net/2012/06/video-its-small-world-after-all-my-pln.html

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