I
remember when the technology experts thought that all of the computer systems
were going to crash when time moved from 1999 to 2000. We all were sitting and watching the
television to see if the world as we knew it was going to end. Obviously, it didn’t. The clocks all changed to 01/01/2000 and
nothing stopped.
In
reading out the skills needed by students by the Partnership for 21st
Century Learning skills, I couldn’t help but reflect on my past technology
experience. The P21 Frameworks states
that people should have the following characteristics to live today. Those are the access to an abundance of
information, rapid changes in technology tools, the ability to collaborate and
make individual contributions. This
Framework was published in 2015, and these words still ring true.
Abundance of Information
From
the moment you wake up until you close your eyes at night you are receiving
information. Time, weather, traffic
reports, news, Facebook, twitter, email, and even your watch is feeding you
information. All this before 8:00
a.m. Go ahead and agree with me…you know
I am right. It is constant, but we must
be able to determine what news we need and what places should you be spending
your time on? Clay Johnson, the author
of the book Information Diet, compares information to your daily food
intake. What are healthy calories or
empty calories? Is the information that
you are taking in enhancing your day or detracting from your day? Both are valid questions and something that
over time could easily affect many aspects in your life by causing conflict,
anger, depression or just wasting time on information that is not needed in our
life. I feel that a good information diet
should include a variety of sources to help to inform, teach, and inspire me to
share these healthy choices with others.
Rapid Changes in Technology Tools
I
often feel that when I am just getting the hang of my phone or computer, it’s
outdated. Technology never stops
changing. Working in an elementary
school this is also the case. Our
students are exposed to technology that they I did not see until college. These are little people and their brains are
just developing, but we are expecting them to make the changes in online
learning sites, research sites, blended learning, and technology stations every
15 minutes. What ever happened to just
sitting and daydreaming about what a cloud looks like. But we can draw a cloud on our laptop if it’s
at one of the stations that day in class.
The Ability to Collaborate and Make Individual Contribution.
Collaborate
is an interesting word in a technology society.
Everyone collaborates or discusses with someone else. News today sometimes feels like a
collaboration. A cellphone by a random bystander
takes the video and a report sees it on Facebook and makes their own
interpretation of the post. Ta-da
News. That would be collaboration,
right? The Liturgists’ podcast this week
went into depth about the difference between conspiracy and fake news. The thought was that fake news was created to
promote something. This could be politics,
fad diets or flu shots. I feel that I
don’t know what news source to believe.
The recommendation was to basically fact-check everything and never only
watch one media source all the time.
How
do we as librarians help in all of these areas?
The answer is not easy but simple…Knowledge. We must help student to learn how to manage
and organize the abundance of information that they see. What is news and what is fake news? That it is okay to not believe
everything. Trust must be earned and not
given freely when gaining information.
Many times in our schools, librarians are also helping with
technology. We are training the students
and teachers, how to use the latest promethean boards or connect to the school
printer. Everything with media literacy
and usage falls to us, the “Keepers of the Knowledge”. It’s a great undertaking, but someone has to
do it … why not us?
Resources
Gungor,
M. & McHargue, M. (2017, March 7). Retrieved from https://theliturgists.com/podcoast/2017/3/7/fake-news-media-literacy
Partnership
for 21st Century Learning. (2015). P21 Framework Definitions.
Retrieved from: https://www.P21.org/framework
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