Worlds Collide: Thursday, November 15th at 7:00PM ESt with #literacies twitter chat where I will be guest hosting. We'll discuss:
- What do you think is important about #literacies in the library?
- What are your thoughts on transliteracy and the library?
- Why is the library program important to fostering literacies?
The school library (or media center depending on what part of the country, or world in which you reside) is a fantastic place to experiment with multiple forms of literacy as well as provide a space for students to “play around” and “create” in the sandbox of literacy. Many school libraries today provide access to plethora of varied resources and devices as well as a flexible, casual and creativity provoking environment for student to work individually, in small groups or as a whole group while supporting the curriculum, but also allowing a multitude of enrichment opportunities in literacies that may not be given time in the classroom where there is so much that is required to be covered. The school librarian can also be one of the best resources in a school to provide instruction for students and faculty on information literacy as well as various forms of digital literacy.
Just last month I attended the AASL Fall Forum which was focused on Transliteracy and how school libraries and school librarians can help create environments and collaborative opportunities for their students in transliteracy. With a keynote presentation by Henry Jenkins on library as a place for participatory culture for “a generation with a mouse in one hand and a book in the other” I found that I left the conference with my head buzzing. He shared with us YOUMedia Chicago which I have been trying for a few years to recreate in my own school library. He talked about the 4 C’s: create, collaborate, circulate, connect, and I could feel how the resources and space I provide in my library should facilitate these four concepts. And most of all I left the conference buzzing about Transliteracy--defined by Thomas, Joseph, Laccetti, Mason, Mills and Perril (2007) as "the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks." How could I do more to connect my previous knowledge in literacies with these new concepts and infuse the school library program with all of this?
Over the last few years, I have learned so much about literacies while taking a class with Dr. Donna Alvermann and my discussions with dear library world friends such as Andy Plemmons, Buffy Hamilton and Beth Friese as well as the many, many Twitter conversations I’ve had with the founders of #literacies chat and lots of other folks in my PLN on Twitter and now my worlds collide with the #literacies twitter chat and my recent musing on transliteracy. So, what do you think is important about #literacies in the school library? What are your thoughts on transliteracy and the school library? Why is the school library program important to fostering literacies?
Thomas, S., Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S. and Perril, S. (2007). Transliteracy: Crossing divides. First Monday, 12(12). Retrieved July 13, 2010, from firstmonday.org/htbin/
