- The Games Librarians Play: Using Interactive Strategies to Stimulate Information Literacy Learning
- Engaging Students with Visual Literacy: providing the framework and materials for actively engaged teachers and learners
- Teaching the Information Literacy Teachers: Fostering a Community of Practice
- Easing the Intimidation: Decreasing Library Anxiety with Instruction
I mean, how do you choose? Yes, they all have the obligatory library (or any academic) presentation "first part of the title :colon: second part of the title" format, but they all look interesting, relevant, and valuable. I ultimately decided to attend Malia Willey's and Brian Sullivan's session "Teaching the Information Literacy Teachers: Fostering a Community of Practice" because, though I had explored the concept of Communities of Practice (COP) during my internship and when preparing for our LOEX 2011 presentation, I haven't worked to create something like that here in Des Moines, I was interested in seeing how they developed and grew their COP at Loyola. Also, a small gang from around the state of Iowa are interested in getting an online COP going to facilitate sharing ideas and reflection specific to library instruction. (It's in the beginning stages, but I think it's going to be something special!)
The presenters began by looking at the literature (and continued to do so throughout the entire process), first noting why they felt the need to address IL through a COP. They noted the changing nature of librarianship and the increased emphasis on IL Instruction in new librarian positions (as well as a the need for already established librarian positions to do some of the instruction as well), but not all librarians have the necessary training (whether from graduate school or from work experience) to feel comfortable developing curriculum, writing lesson plans, and assessing student learning (along with assessing the effectiveness of their instruction). This lack of preparation or experience can lead to anxiety and a resistance to change. One way to combat this fear is through education and practice.
Willey and Sullivan shared various definitions of a COP, emphasizing that it's a group brought together (physically or virtually) by a common goal, interested in sharing and creating knowledge. One of the most important parts of creating a successful COP is developing trust among members. A COP is a place to come together, share ideas, ask for advice, share successes, and fail safely (in failure, that's when some of the most valuable learning happens). They shared best practices (and noted that you can partner with like-minded people, or think outside of your immediate box and expand beyond departmental boundaries or even beyond your institution or region) and emphasized that the most important things are to model openness, curiosity respect, and enthusiasm. (Think of some of your favorite librarians or teachers--do these things not exactly describe them and their approaches to life?! I thought so!) Another important element of developing a successful COP is to gather formal feedback.
At Loyola, they started the TLT (pronounced "tilt"-- short for "Teaching and Learning Team") with informal meetings sparked by one person's awesome experiences at ACRL's Immersion program. They developed a self-evaluation form after examining the Association of College and Research Libraries Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators, and asked questions like "how have you grown as an instructor?" and "what would you like to learn more about?" and had their librarians self report about other instruction-related strengths and weaknesses. These evaluations shed light on some areas librarians felt they needed help with, and also showed that there are some things that librarians say they are comfortable with (or good at) that need to be reexamined. Eventually these informal conversations morphed into times where they discussed shared readings or teaching experiences with the group. The COP leader made a conscious effort to turn reoccurring conversation items into formal agenda items during meetings.
Things to consider when selecting shared readings:
The presenters began by looking at the literature (and continued to do so throughout the entire process), first noting why they felt the need to address IL through a COP. They noted the changing nature of librarianship and the increased emphasis on IL Instruction in new librarian positions (as well as a the need for already established librarian positions to do some of the instruction as well), but not all librarians have the necessary training (whether from graduate school or from work experience) to feel comfortable developing curriculum, writing lesson plans, and assessing student learning (along with assessing the effectiveness of their instruction). This lack of preparation or experience can lead to anxiety and a resistance to change. One way to combat this fear is through education and practice.
Willey and Sullivan shared various definitions of a COP, emphasizing that it's a group brought together (physically or virtually) by a common goal, interested in sharing and creating knowledge. One of the most important parts of creating a successful COP is developing trust among members. A COP is a place to come together, share ideas, ask for advice, share successes, and fail safely (in failure, that's when some of the most valuable learning happens). They shared best practices (and noted that you can partner with like-minded people, or think outside of your immediate box and expand beyond departmental boundaries or even beyond your institution or region) and emphasized that the most important things are to model openness, curiosity respect, and enthusiasm. (Think of some of your favorite librarians or teachers--do these things not exactly describe them and their approaches to life?! I thought so!) Another important element of developing a successful COP is to gather formal feedback.
At Loyola, they started the TLT (pronounced "tilt"-- short for "Teaching and Learning Team") with informal meetings sparked by one person's awesome experiences at ACRL's Immersion program. They developed a self-evaluation form after examining the Association of College and Research Libraries Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators, and asked questions like "how have you grown as an instructor?" and "what would you like to learn more about?" and had their librarians self report about other instruction-related strengths and weaknesses. These evaluations shed light on some areas librarians felt they needed help with, and also showed that there are some things that librarians say they are comfortable with (or good at) that need to be reexamined. Eventually these informal conversations morphed into times where they discussed shared readings or teaching experiences with the group. The COP leader made a conscious effort to turn reoccurring conversation items into formal agenda items during meetings.
Things to consider when selecting shared readings:
- The K.I.S.S. method: Keep it short, stupid!
- Resources to check out: LOEX Quarterly (love!)
- Tracking back recommended readings lists from other articles
Tips for conversations:
- Come prepared with an activity or questions (as is the case with everything, you may deviate from this, but having a plan--but staying flexible--is always good)
- Monitor the conversation to allow all to participate
Encouraging others to try something new:
- Teaching Challenges (I'm super-excited about this and am probably going to issue self-challenges, if nothing else): At Loyola, they issued Teaching Challenges to all of their librarians to try something new as they teach (but, it's something specific. It's like unlocking a new level, or achieving a quest on a video game, but this is with instruction...So that's pretty cool!). Some of the examples they gave were co-teaching or using new technologies like Adobe Connect. At the end of the semester they shared with the group the results of their challenge efforts
Preparing presentations and workshops:
- Occasionally workshops covering teaching to different learning styles, incorporating active learning into instructional design, writing learning outcomes (yes, this is something that takes practice, especially if you've never done it before), etc. were held in addition to article discussions
Thinking outside your box:
- Collaborate beyond the library: I immediately thought of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL, pronounced kettle, for anyone interested). We already have a series of "Conversations on..." a specific topic, faculty development sessions--often with a library/information literacy component. The issue right now is over-committed faculty and (in the past) too many sessions for faculty to schedule into their already packed schedules. We've already been working on a new way to deliver these sessions & I hope it makes a difference. One idea I liked that goes along with this element is to deliver the main presentation and then have a follow-up workshop (which could even be one-on-one if needed) to reinforce and apply the concepts with the faculty member.
- Regional Un-Conference: A casual gathering of area instruction librarians to discuss instruction ideas and approaches.
At Loyola their TLT group meets every other week for 1.5 hours and the presenters were careful to emphasize that developing COPs takes time and purposeful reflection in order for it to really become a part of the culture.
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| And here's the photo I forgot to tweet while actually at the conference... |
So, that was a ridiculously long post--to reward you for getting (or skipping) to the end, here's a fun resource (it combines one of my fravrit memes and famous quotes) and the promise that the next couple of posts will be significantly shorter.
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