I’ve been working with the Library Information Specialists in my district quite a bit… and I hear the same thing from them. They just don’t have time.
What good is all the cool technological gizmos when they are having to spend so much of their time cataloging, checking-in, checking-out, repairing books, doing extra duties and teaching classes. Today I visited a training that is taking place with 60 of our most technically advanced LISs and heard this thought stated yet again. In our district we are planning on having the LIS be the pivotal person on the building level to implement new technologies (modeling for teachers, assisting teachers, and teaching technology standards to the students.) It seems like another case of passing the buck however because the technology standards were writted with no one specified to teach them or grade them or assess them.
Not to mention the hardware deployment we are currently tackling. We’ve passed out 60+ laptops and CPS chalkboards without a plan as to what will be done with them over the summer, or who has ultimate responsibility over the equipment – the school or the district. During a technology department meeting last week, the technicians stated that the equipment, once deployed was the responsibility of the school. But today the Director of Library Services stated that the equipment would be inventoried by the technology department.
It will be interesting to see how it all ends up…
It seems like we are in a reactive state as opposed to being PROactive.
Tisch,
You are facing the same problems we as Information Specialists have been facing for quite some time. Many teachers want to collaborate and/or use technology, but this is seen as one more thing on their plate.
Most of us already do the instructional technology and information literacy you are talking about. The problem lies with various principals who put Information Specialists in the rotation with art, music and pe. This is a problem that needs to be addressed at the district level.
As far as the technology standards are concerned, I was on the elementary committee. We were told that the classroom teacher had the ultimate responsibility for teaching technology. The theory (not invented by me) was that if we wrote standards, money and support would materialize for technology teachers and equipment