Blog Post #1 

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

The AASL guidelines were created to provide guidance to librarians, library leaders, and students. These standards are not a curriculum, instead, they serve as a framework to develop curriculum and programs to create lifelong learners at the grade school level. The guidelines are designed to be easy to use and emphasize vertical planning. The AASL guidelines are divided across 3 integrated frameworks, 4 domains, and 6 shared foundations. 

The integrated frameworks include Learner Competencies, School Librarian Competencies, and School Library Alignments. While these are presented as individual frameworks, they are interconnected and can only function correctly if all are addressed. The shared foundations of the AASL standards are the core values that should be promoted by members of the three frameworks. These core values include Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage. Within each foundation domains are listed as Think, Create, Share, and Grow. These domains function to engage learners, teach them to grasp competencies,  and collaborate with others.

The ISTE standards have some crossover with AASL standards, however, there are some distinct changes. The ISTE standards have a focus on technology rather than process. The ISTE standards also serve as a framework for librarians, students, and library leaders; but also contain a section for coaching. This is not a surprise to me as more coaches and sports turn to analytics to get an edge in competition. The connections within the framework are slightly different as well. Students for example are broken down into seven sections; Empowered Learner, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker, Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator. Each section has four additional parts containing information and strategies for implementing these programs.

The KQ article that resonated with me the most was "An Appealing Menu Of Digital Literacy Tools and Resources" by Mary Lou Canon O'Connor. In this article, O'Connor details how she creates a "menu" of information based on the AASL guidelines. The Think domain appears on the menu in the form of which database to use for searches. Create is represented through different technologies that can be used for the project. The menu also features ways to Share the project using SeeSaw and Padlet. Finally, the Grow domain of the Explore and Engage shared foundation is also covered using SeeSaw. The menu is an amazing way to generate engagement and collaboration with learners. At every turn of the project, there is another step forcing engagement and critical thinking. 

While the menu was designed with the AASL standards in mind, there is a great deal of crossover with the ISTE standards. Using the AASL crosswalk with ISTE is a good way to get a grasp on these concepts and explore their similarities. For instance, the first section of the menu fits into the Create domain of the Engage shared foundation. This domain lists 3 competencies for librarians for the AASL side, detailing ethical decisions about reproduction and credit attribution. The ISTE side contains four related competencies including privacy, curation, data literacy, and professional learning. All of these factor combine to create engaged learners, able to share and collaborate with others. 


References

National School Library Standards Crosswalk with ISTE standards for Students and Educators (2018). American Association of School Libraries. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-future-ready.pdf

International Society For Technology In Education. (2004) International Society for Technology in Education ISTE. United States. https://iste.org/standards

O’Connor, M. L. C. (2019). now serving: AN APPEALING MENU OF DIGITAL LITERACY TOOLS RESOURCES. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 16–21.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Blog Post #3 For this post, I would like to talk about Squishy Circuits. Squishy Circuits is an amazing combination of technology, fun, and learning in the form of conductive and resistant play-doh. But this is not your average play-doh. The salt and water in the dough function as a conductor allowing electricity to pass through. Using sugar instead of salt when making the dough makes it resistant to electricity and functions as an insulator, important for preventing short circuits. Using both of these doughs together along with a current, students can create a variety of projects that creatively teach engineering and STEM activities! These projects can move, light up, and more!  Image Description: A flag project created with Squishy Circuits technology. The flag is designed with red, white, and blue dough, resembling an American Flag. Four white lights are placed within the flag, which can be turned on and off with a connection via black and red conductors to a Squishy Circu...
Read more
Image
 Blog Post #4  Image Description: The Natural Reader logo in blue print.  Natural Reader is an AI-powered text-to-speech app that can be a fantastic assistive technology resource for vision-impaired, dyslexic, and ADHD students. Natural Reader can convert many text files including PDFs, emails, webpages, and even images and screenshots. Text is read aloud by the student's choice of over 50 languages and more than 200 AI voices (you can even clone your own AI voice). There is also an educational application, Natural Reader EDU, offered at a discounted rate for schools. Below is a video from Natural Reader describing their EDU program: Many features make Natural Reader a good choice for text-to-speech applications. The first is cross-compatibility with multiple platforms. Natural Reader is available using an online reader, a Google Chrome extension, or a mobile app. The mobile app is critical in modern times and lets students listen to documents, books, or lesson plans wher...
Read more