Applications of Blogs to My Practice

In my role as a media specialist, most likely in an elementary or middle school, the blogging experience offers an appealing learning opportunity for both students and educators. According to the American Association of School Libarians (AASL), a branch of the American Library Association (ALA), there are four major roles for a media specialist -- teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. In the "teacher" role, the AASL states that the media specialist "is knowledgeable about current research on teaching and learning and skilled in applying its findings to a variety of situations--particularly those that call upon students to access, evaluate, and use infromation from multiple sources in order to learn, to think, and to create and apply new knowledge." I interpret this to mean, among other things, that I will need to provide a substantive learning experience that will be beneficial and applicable to what is going on in the world inside the classroom, but outside the classroom as well. Having never actually worked in the media center, it is not clear how often or in what ways opportunities will present themselves to use certain technology tools. However, I envision the blogging experience to be somewhat of a replacement for the past "current events" projects, and much more robust in its capabilities. I see the potential to collaborate with core curriculum teachers to develop an ongoing dialogue via a classroom blog about a very critical or interesting current event taking place in the world (such as the Darfur Genocide blog I was recently exposed to through this class). The possibility of truly digging into a subject, researching, following it, and posting comments about it on a regular basis seems like so much more of an in depth learning experience compared to just a one time "current event" write-up.

This is just one idea that comes to mind for the use of a blog. I am certain far more opportunities would present themselves. As a media specialist, it is critical that I am aware of these tools and know how to use them and share my knowledge with other educators and students. Blogging is happening on the web in incredible volume on every topic imaginable on a minute by minute basis. That means it is very applicable in our culture today, and therefore, is something our students should know about.

American Association of School Librarians. Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning: Roles and Responsibilities of the School Library Media Specialist. Retrieved April 3, 2008, from http://www.ala.org/aasltemplate.cfm?Section=informationpower&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=19930.