I often hear people ask, “If we have the internet, why do we still need librarians?”
This is something I’ve heard since the days of dial-up and continue to hear right now. It misses the vital role that librarians play in our students’ lives. It’s true that the information landscape has changed. It is easier than ever to create a work and publish it to the world and with a tap of a button, we access information from anywhere at any time.
But actually, that’s why librarians are more vital than ever. Here are some of the things librarians do:
It’s true: programmers think differently than everyone else. Not to say that programmers are necessarily smarter, more logical, or more rational than everyone else, as is commonly said. But scientists have recently started studying the brains of programmers and have come to some interesting conclusions. Source: How Programming Affects Your Brain: 3 Big Truths According to…
On a bright July morning in a windowless conference room in a Manhattan bookstore, several dozen elementary school teachers were learning how to create worksheets that would help children learn to write. Judith C. Hochman, founder of an organization called the Writing Revolution, displayed examples of student work. A first grader had produced the following…
As kids head back to school this fall, which class should they enroll in? French — or programming? Apple CEO Tim Cook told a company conference this year that computer programming should be taught in schools as a second language. Others have echoed that view, arguing that programming should be considered a necessary skill for the 21st century, right alongside…
If we are waiting for some “technology” to come along and redefine schools, we will be either waiting a long time, or it will be too late. This is a shift we will need to create in our own thinking. Source: Technology Will Not Redefine Schools As a product of 20th century school who is…
Using technology for learning makes sense. Technology creates access, transparency, and opportunity. Any smartphone or tablet is media incarnate–video, animation, eBooks, essays, blog posts, messages, music, games. The modalities of light, color, and sound all arranged just so to communicate a message or create an experience. But there is a difference, claims this graphic from teachbytes,…
Today’s digest revisits the idea of inquiry methods. Why? Because a quick Google search resulted in the very clear impression that many instructors still believe (or at least blog about) the idea that students learn more when they discover new knowledge on their own, without being explicitly taught. Given this apparent pervasive belief, we share here a…
