Tag Archives: future

Grappling with Life After Lockdown

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I have been struggling these last few weeks/months. As I have mentioned before, I do tend to be the Glass Half Full guy. In the current world pandemic situation, is is definitely getting harder to keep afloat, even though most of Australia has, seemingly, been making good progress.

None of us in Australia should be complaining too much – maybe my current negative feelings are more a product of Survivor Guilt. So many others in the rest of the world are dealing with situations far worse than us. I heard a theory a few months ago that, when singer David Bowie died, we were all propelled into an alternate timeline. As each month of 2020 has brought more new and unusual surprises – Australia’s horrendous bushfires, the awful smoke hazes, a drought (and water restrictions) that killed off any greenery that had not already been burnt… – that alternate timeline theory became more and more believable.

It was delightful to chat with a long-lost friend on the phone a few weeks ago; it really made my day to catch up with him after over 20 years, but I deliberately kept the first call short. I tend to talk way too much and I had this nagging thought that a brief conversation first might be wise after such a long time. But his followup emails of gossip and news have not been coming through to me. We have now had several more shortish calls trying to ascertain what was happening. His phone doesn’t receive texts, and emails seemed sensible. I’m trying not to be too paranoid, but he’s not the only one sending emails that apparently disappear into the void. With the prevalence of Junk Mail and phishing schemes in recent years, it is rare enough that I get many emails that I actually want to read (most of them are correspondences about online purchases these days). When you are really looking forward to an email – one that never comes, but supposedly was sent – it gets hugely frustrating. In my desperate searches, I have found a Social drawer, a Promotions drawer, a hidden email Junk drawer… So many places a stray, important email can hide.

Complicating matters, I had recently created a new Googlemail e-address because temporary codes to enter various sites were taking to long to arrive in my regular mail before expiring. When the new system asked if I wanted to copy across the full address book from my usual mailbox, it sounded a rather useful thing to do. What I actually managed was to let it pull across everything into the new, empty In-box. Now new emails come into one box, sit there a few minutes, then get whisked away to my new account. Sometimes they sit just long enough for a copy to come into my iPhone from the iCloud. While this accidental strategy has cut down on incoming email to my phone, the rest has to be checked manually via the laptop – and for both accounts. Do I really need more apps on the iPhone? I am hesitant to attempt to undo the transfers, but if mail keeps going missing, I will have to resolve this issue.

Several of my concerted efforts to make sure my life stays full and interesting into retirement have been unravelling. The “New Normal” we are having to expect and accept. My monthly writing group has to meet with Zoom, which is a totally different experience. Some benefits, but also some pitfalls, resulting in more preplanning. My literary agent is now semi-retired and no longer taking on any new children’s book manuscripts at all. (I can’t believe such a great advocate of mine is now essentially gone from my future plans. I really missed the boat with that, just as retirement had granted gave me the additional time to write – and rewrite.) The Young Adult novel manuscript still needs at least two more drafts before it is ready to show anyone.

But the old days of gregarious Star Trek clubs seem to be long gone, despite my best efforts to revive the local groups. The mainly US-based action figure collectors’ group, Playtrek, has, however, met twice by Zoom during the lockdowns. It was a fun way to lift everyone’s spirits.

PlaytrekFest on Zoom in June

My Diploma of Remedial Massage course has had to tread water with weekly Zoom lectures – where would we be without Zoom? – but the college has now exhausted all the remaining theory classes that can be converted to online modules. Most of the next two terms (extending our course, now, to an 18-month commitment instead of only one year) are highly practical Clinic sessions, requiring members of the general public booking in for remedial treatments. It is sounding like social distancing and full PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) are to be part of our New Normal. At this point, massaging through single-use nitrile gloves seems almost incompatible with using my newfound palpation skills. I know it’ll be possible – and is mandatory – but I do feel that some clients might have to be in considerable pain before they seek out a massage from gloved hands.

My doctor once asked how I was feeling (about a year before I retired) and I told him I was worried I was becoming depressed and he said, “You’re not depressed, you’re just lonely”. That line has given me much to think about. So many things were happening that were cutting me off from my reliable positivity networks, and several more were about to be lost (or at least strained) due to retirement. I was hating that I was getting invitations to funerals, but hearing about other gatherings after they had happened. I know other doctors who probably would have written a prescription on the spot, not that I was asking for one. I think he was probably right. I am trying to monitor the situation and firm up some networks, but building a new friend network is something that gets harder each decade, I think.

Online friendships are good, but different, and no replacement for what I am needing at the moment. The best thing about Facebook, for example, is its immediacy. Several of my penpals have become Facebook buddies, meaning the wait times between letters is greatly reduced. Especially now that interstate and international snail mail services have become so unreliable. I recently reconceived the Instagram account I set up (then ignored) years ago, and it is finally pulling some interest. I am digging up some old pics of various vacations. My Andorian Sock Monkey travel buddy is quite a drawcard, although a dedicated Facebook page for him, created a few years ago, received no traction at all.

Spinning globe in the Daily Planet building

I suspect I am not the only person feeling a cut off from reality in this New Normal of social distancing. Remember that line people used to put in autograph books? “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold.”

Hopefully the “old” is not too tarnished, eh? Wish me luck.

Meeting the future learning goals of schools?

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Over on the School Libraries 21C blog, the point is made re “the cost of ‘modern’ resources, especially online ones”. For most NSW DET schools, it is very difficult to justify the expenses of specialist online subscription databases, especially when many topics might only get revisited every two or three years in a cyclic teaching program. Hence we tend fall back on free online material (.com, .org, .edu) and the ubiquitous Wikipedia (although the advantages and disadvantages of such material can be useful teaching points). And, of course, books… which remain viable even in a power blackout.

I perceive a move to more schools sharing campus library facilities. I assume studies are being done on the successes of the NSW “education precincts” already set up. It would be interesting to hear how those experiments are faring. (Did these end up being “libraries of the future”?)

Challenging students to research widely – via collaboratively-planned, taught and assessed Guided Enquiry activities – would seem to be a most effective way to ensure that students will be able to achieve success, especially if the pool of relevant/available resources is already limited by budget. I like the strategy where the students agree they must use a variety of resource types as they research a topic.

Making time for teachers and teacher librarians to plan their collaborations would seem to need to be a high priority, too: ie. one of the school library’s current and future primary responsibilities and functions to meet the learning goals of schools.

But… a school library can’t be setting up its responsibilities and functions in isolation. The addition of outcomes and indicators in all syllabuses puts the learner first. How often do some of us put the learners first in other considerations? Furthermore, individual school communities articulate expectations which can and should inform the learning goals for each school. The trained teacher librarian is an invaluable human resource in ensuring that learners, educators, resources and technology come together in an organised way to achieve the goals.

If the school of the future is not clear as to its learning goals, the school library of the future can’t be expected to be helping to achieve them effectively.

I really like the “What did you do in school today?“ research findings of the Canadian Education Association. Our school has now had numerous sessions on the “development of ideas through the disciplines and through work on authentic problems”, including an excellent one-day session here with Jamie McKenzie, but I think we’d all agree that finding that little bit of extra planning time, to make lessons more focused on authentic problems is the hardest bit. The school day goes by so fast; not to mention finding more time to assess the work before students move on to create their final product. The more “authentic problems” become embedded into our syllabuses and teaching strategies, the more things will improve, but for many staff it’s a challenging hurdle. The way of the future, but we’re not there yet.

I find that a lot of what happens in my school’s library program fits with that idea of “individual and collective knowledge building”, especially in a PSP (Priority Schools Program) school. Teacher librarians seem to be well placed to help students – and teachers – to make connections, and I encourage the ongoing development of field knowledge constantly. Although my IWB has only just arrived, I have seen glimpses of amazing programs that can be used on it during brainstorming and synthesis sessions to take that knowledge building so much further. There’s just so much to learn! The way of the future, but we’re not there yet.

The IWB being placed in the library is certainly also challenging me to maximise the “effective learning time”, since each class only visits for 45 minute sessions, and our semi-flexible timetable has fewer gaps than would be ideal.

Our school has worked hard to ensure we have a positive classroom disciplinary climate” and we have regular, weekly meetings where students who slip through the learning and disciplinary cracks are monitored, discussed and reevaluated, and this helps keep everyone on track. The previous teacher-librarian was always a regular part of this committee, and I made sure I kept up that participation as part of my role when I moved back into the TL position. It’s constantly enlightening, and I know I bring a unique perspective to these meetings.

Our school also tries to have “high expectations for success”. Again, very important, and often very, very hard to maintain, especially in the face of disappointing test results. Inevitably high expectations won’t always be achieved. But you’re unlikely to achieve high results without aiming high in the first place. (But, sadly how often do we hear students, student teachers – or even TLs undergoing their post-grad work – saying, “I only need 51% to get a pass”.)

The importance of “positive relationships with teachers” is also paramount to the survival of future school librares. I do seem to put a lot of energy into that. It pays off, so I keep doing it (Pavlov’s dog.) I think some teacher-librarians still allow themselves to become marginalised in a school staff. That old adage of finding one person you can work well with, then presenting your successes as a team to the other staff, then slowly working with more and more people, is so important.

I know there are some TLs that feel they are unable to do this. (It’s never been my personal experience, and I’m sure it’s not just that I’ve led a charmed life as to what TL appointments I’ve ended up in. Building positive relationships with other staff is a crucial responsibility and, if it’s unable to occur, then it becomes a whole-school problem. Again, this is something that needs explicit training for the participants – in this case the learners are the staff, not the students.)

As Lee Cutler’s group suggest in their post on 21C, “school libraries are the ONLY facility in a school where ALL learning goals of every student and teacher of every KLA and school initiative is supported”.

Sounds good to me. “Developing intellectual engagement” (re the Canadian Education Association’s findings) may well be a good umbrella term for what future school libraries will be able to do best.

What does a school library of the future look like?

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This is such a daunting question.

A few things come to mind:

The future is now. Or at least by the end of next year.

Building the Education Revolution (BER) is here, whether we asked for it or not. For schools such as mine, which has “made do” with an old, portable library module (the school was supposedly promised it would be there for only three years, until a permanent brick building was erected, but it’s been at least 16 years now, I’m told). The “Primary Schools for the 21st Century” program is bringing us a new library (hurray!), but it won’t be quite what we’d always envisaged. (We’d assumed we’d, one day, have a new administration building, with a library on top. Now, new building regulations say that any new multi-storey public building must have an elevator, to ensure equity, and that takes such a concept out of our price range.) So, it’ll be single storey, on the site of the old portable, with an annexed room – to make up for the fact that we won’t be getting that new administration building we’ve only ever dreamed about, and desperately needed.

But that’s only the structural stuff. What has my brain whizzing at the moment is how much input and choice schools and staff will have on the internal layout of these new libraries. What does a 21st century school library need, and will it be expected to keep us happy in five years time, ten years time, or even as we approach the 22nd century?

My school’s current administration building is over 90 years old. When it was built, did people imagine it would still be being used as a school building nearly 100 years later? (If only they’d known then that we needed more than one power point in each classroom; what a saving we’d have made!) Because we live and work in the building every day, we usually only think of it in terms of its inadequacies. But to others, it’s a building of uniqueness. Attempts to revamp it would, no doubt, attract the attention of heritage-conscious locals.

Similarly, the portable library reminds me of its inadequacies – every time the floor bounces on the way to answer the telephone, and every time we complain about our lack of storage space, or when two or more classes are in the library at once. I can assume the new building will have a sturdy floor and adequate storerooms, but what internal layout and devices do we need to ensure our new library will be able to cope with the changing nature of how students need to access information?

I glance at my handy-dandy iPhone and am bewildered by the many functions it has, most of which I’ve never had time to explore in the eight months or so that I’ve owned it. My iPhone lets me locate myself on Google Maps (I’ve found some rather tricky addresses with ease, which is great when you’re a pedestrian and unlikely to have a Gregory’s directory on hand). I am never without a digital camera. I can check my emails and update my Facebook page whenever I’m bored. By clicking any URL in an email, I am taken immediately to the website being recommended. I can play all the iTunes music that’s ever been downloaded to my laptop at home, because my iPhone downloads all changes for me every time I plug it in for a recharge. I’ve bought things on eBay while on vacation using my iPhone, and paid for them with PayPal. I can instantly check four preset timezones to ensure my four library “newsroom” clocks are always accurate. A downloaded clever application keeps track of my extensive DVD collection, and automatically links me to IMDb on the ‘Net whenever I require cast and crew information about movies in my collection.

Most amazing is the “Mobile Me” program which enables my trusty iPhone and dependable Apple laptop to talk with each other – and exchange the latest changes to my calendar and address book – whenever they come into proximity with each other! No wires required. And, as I said, I suspect my iPhone does thousands of things I haven’t yet discovered.

I assume that, within a few years, everybody will have something similar (and smaller, and more powerful). Including our students, who’ll be quite blaze about having one. Such an ICT marvel shall be as important as wearing a wristwatch was until recently. When so much access to so much information can come with just one little device, I find it overwhelming to even try to imagination what we may have at our fingertips in five years time, let alone ten or twenty years.

As we know, our students are not usually daunted by touching a button to see what something can do. It’s the adults who sit there, sometimes frozen in fear, attempting to be brave enough to tackle the new technologies. There are still some teachers out there who’ve never sent an email.

We, and our students, are going to have access to an enormous amount of information, and soon no one may see a school library building as their first port of call. Hopefully, though, the concept of the school library (some of it virtual) as the hub of a school’s information needs, and the place (again, some of it virtual) where users can be guided to navigate information overload successfully, will remain paramount.

It seems to me that our school library webpages, online pathfinders, blogs, wikis, moodles, etc – and whatever else is yet to come in the virtual world – are going to be just as important, or more important, as the new BER library buildings.

The physical BER library buildings are what the public will see, and probably how they will judge if the money was well-spent. The important stuff may be (virtually) impossible to see from the outside, or even from the inside, because much of it may be virtual.

The discussion continues at School Libraries 21C.