Reflection on Assignment 1 - ETL503

Initially I thought this assignment seemed straightforward enough i.e. find 10 resources to adequately resource an area of the curriculum. Wow, did I learn a thing or two! First of all being that assignments and end of term parties don't go well together. 
Before starting this subject I had heard about learning objects from forum postings and postings on listservs I subscribe to, but couldn't really visualise what they were. Gaining access to The Learning Federation website was like striking oil. I found so many objects that my teachers could make use of and that are totally relevant to our units of study, but unfortunately overseas schools are not able to access the site. So disappointing.
Loertscher's notion that the users guide the selection of resources reinforced that I am on the right track in involving the students, teachers and parents in collection development. He also states that it's not about what a library owns but what it can make available to its users made perfect sense to me. My users love their printed books (I'm a TL in a primary school) but they also appreciate the flexibility of using digital resources as these can be accessed from home through the library's Moodle page. The difficult part for me is ensuring the resources are relevant, suitable and support the students' and teachers' curricula needs.
I enjoyed the challenge of sourcing new resources for the Year 5 topic "The Environment" and believe the teachers will be pleased with the results when they come to teach the unit in May. 

Website Evaluation

It turns out that the way I have been evaluating websites has been on a fairly superficial level. Having completed my first assignment for ETL501 Information Environment, I now know what to look for when evaluating websites for students' and teachers' use. In the past, my main criteria for evaluating a website was whether or not the content was useful and pitched at a level suitable for the intended audience. I also took into account how easy it was to navigate around the site and how visually stimulating it was for learners.
Now, however, when I attempt to evaluate a website, I am armed with a checklist consisting of educational, reliability and technical criteria, enabling me to critically analyse how suitable the website is for the intended audience and whether or not it supports the teaching and learning taking place.

Digital Resources for Younger Learners

This is something I have been struggling with for a while now. I would like to find suitable online resources for my younger classes to use, but so far I haven't found what I'm looking for. The budget is there, but the products aren't.
My school subscribes to Britannica online, BrainPOP and Expert Space which are suitable for the upper primary children. For the younger children we subscribe to PebbleGo, BookFlix, Tumblebooks and Enchanted Learning.
PebbleGo is a great resource which supports some of our units of study for research purposes. However, it is very American and doesn't cover the breadth of topics we require. What I really need are more digital resources which can be easily navigated by my younger learners when they are looking for information for their research projects.
I have asked fellow TLs and they feel the same. There is an obvious gap in the market which needs to be filled.

Mackay, H. (1998) - Resolving conflict through listening

Had to chuckle when I read Mackay quoting research that suggests that "high self-esteem in children is more likely to be found in families where there is open dissent and disagreement". No wonder my children are so confident and self-assured!
Mackay tells us that reflective listening is paramount to conflict resolution and provides six steps to guide us in having "sensible, cooperative discussion". Both parties need to maintain a high level of communication and to respect what the other person is saying. We don't necessarily have to agree with the other party's opinions or comments, but we need to acknowledge what they say.

Savage, W. W. (1989) - Communication: process and problems

Before reading Savage's article, I was not aware that there were so many facets to communication. He tells us that communication "is an exceedingly complex process in which people, behavior, and objects transmit information, ideas, and attitudes."
I didn't realise the power of our non-verbal behaviour to send messages. Our unintentional communication can influence negatively the intentional communication we are attempting to transmit, so we need to be cognizant of this when imparting information, ideas and attitudes to others. For instance, if we are able to describe to visitors the wonderful resources available in our library but do not offer a welcoming greeting when they enter or answer their questions in a non-threatening manner, we are showing them that yes, we may have a state-of-the-art facility, but they're not really welcome to use it.
Communication can only be a two-way process when information, ideas and attitudes flow in an upward and downward motion between all members of the school community.

Lambert, L. (1998) - What is leadership capacity?

Some interesting concepts came from this article. Leadership needs to be a part of the culture of the school, not dependent on one or two people. It needs to be a shared responsibility, so that if the principal or key teacher leaves the school, the school is not left without navigation, like a ship without a captain. The shared leadership embedded into the school community allows it to follow a constructive course as reform and self-renewal are undertaken.
In my role as a leader I need to be a good communicator and encourage conversations (both formal and informal) between my team members so that they are able to create and validate new understandings. We should all be promoting the sharing of beliefs and information, encouraging learning together, offering support and reflecting on the path our journey is taking.

Assignment 1A - nearly there!

The thought of having to collaborate across the seas with strangers initially filled me with dread. How on earth could we collaborate on a shared assignment with me living in Malaysia and my team-mates living in Oz? I really felt that I was being pushed out of my comfort zone. Well, thanks to Skype, wikis and hotmail we have nearly completed our collaborative PowerPoint before the due date!
We have kept open lines of communication, each pulled our weight and each worked in a timely fashion to enable us to reach our goal without feeling too stressed. What began as a bitter taste in my mouth has now turned into the sweet taste of satisfaction. I am pleased with our output and feel that as a team we have been able to rise to the challenge to create a strong article proposal. Working in a supportive team where we remained focused on our task has turned out to be a positive experience, more so than I initially expected.