Vision of the Future Project!

Vision of the Future: A collaborative network for school librarians

My Vision of the Future project centres on creating collaboration amongst teacher librarians to support ongoing learning as we move toward authentic integration of technology and 21st Century skills in our lessons. This project is a network opportunity for teacher librarians to develop relationships, skills, and best practices. The networking website I have created as my Vision of the Future project is intended to be dynamic in that I envision members to join in on conversations, make contributions to the site through blogging and media categories, and use the ideas and resources shared there to expand collaboration with others. Rather than work in isolation at each individual school, I hope for teacher librarians to build this network as a team, supporting and inspiring each other.

I am happy to report that what I learned in LIBE 477 made significant contributions towards my ability to complete the Vision of the Future project! Our discussions about the Why School book prompted me to think more deeply about the integration of technology in education and how it is necessary to ensure that the use of technology in school is authentic and purposeful. I was also inspired by our discussions about 21st Century skills and included this as a specific blogging category on my Vision of the Future project website. I'd have to say that the most significant "take away" from LIBE 477 is the exposure to social networking. I really hadn't thought too much about how to network with others outside of using Google or email to search for and communicate what everyone else is doing. Now that the course is over, I am almost embarrassed by my primitive approach to networking.The upside to this story is that I learned a lot and feel much more confident about moving forward with my exploration of this thing called social media!

 While I am pleased with my Vision of the Future project, it nearly cost me my sanity to make it! I chose to use my District's portal system to create the website and blog because in doing so, I would be able to access tech support (thank goodness). The program is extremely difficult, finicky, and downright obstinate most of the time. I am not happy with how limiting it is in terms of formatting and I am worried that it will be difficult for members that are unfamiliar with the program to make contributions...which is the entire purpose of the network!

I look forward to further developing my Vision of the Future project website and I anticipate that, as soon as I get the "go ahead" from the District to share the site publicly, I will undoubtedly be "super charged" when other people start making contributions to the site...and my Vision becomes a reality.

Please follow this link to view my Vision of the Future project:
School Librarian's Network
(If the link does not work, please copy and paste this link into your url bar to view the new website: 
https://portal.sd22.bc.ca/public/nzttsn24mn3g64ldmrqwi/Pages/librariannetwork.aspx)

Images:
1. Coming together...: http://trinityt4444.edublogs.org/files/2015/01/working-together-quotes-4-230ua7c.png
2. Ants Teamwork - http://www.viacharacterblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/8-08-teamwork.jpg
3. Social Media - http://oluwatobisoyombo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/TheSocialWeb1.jpg