Communication

Effective communication between a librarian and its users is crucial to any school environment. The librarian should engage with faculty to collaborate and work together. Being open-minded to new ideas and willing to offer different learning approaches can benefit both students and faculty. The goal of a library is to drive students towards successful student learning.

Oral communication can be shown through face to face interactions, video conferencing, like Skype and Zoom, or Webinars.

The Texas Library Association currently has a Lunch and Learn series through Zoom, where I can participate in a variety of librarianship topics and communicate with others through Distant Learning.

Zoom is also a great tool I have used with other teachers in different countries! Our grade level has also used Zoom to meet with a "Chicken Farmer" during our life cycle unit as we were incubating eggs!

ePortfolios

EPortfolios are a valuable tool that can showcase your learning over time. Academic portfolios have been around for many years but as technology increases, so does the need for more shareable ways to show collections of work. Others as Batson stated in his web article, “You may know enough about ePortfolios to know that implementing ePortfolios requires extensive planning and change, and so, again, you are inclined to wait. (Batson, A Profound Disruptive Technology, 2010). Using an eportfolio can function as an assessment tool. A portfolio can be an assessment of learning and an assessment for learning. There are differences between the two. Assessments of learning center on an eportfolio being more summative, or an end product. It may be used as an end of term/class assignment that would showcase student achievement in a particular topic. The basis is to show what you have learned. When I give summative tests in class, they are to show what you know or mastery of a topic. The usually carry more weight than more informal style grades. An eportfolio used as an assessment for learning is more informal, or formative. This style of assessment is open to student choice, is ongoing, and flexible. The eportfolio is organized by the learner and the learner can adjust the learning as needed. In class, a formative grade is not a “big picture” grade, but more like the steps taken along the way to learn content. Although these two types of portfolio assessments seem very different, they can overlap. They are both used to measure learner progress and evaluate. Grades, transcripts, and exam scores give you a number, a cumulative score of work produced. Using an eportfolio gives you a more in-depth picture of who the learner is. It can measure student achievement, evaluate, and still give accountability. In the article, AAEEBL: It’s All About Evidence-Based Learning Supported by ePortfolios, it states that by using evidence based learning you know have evidence that can back up and support the grades that you give. It shows to whole child instead of a measure of one area of success of weakness.

References:

Batson. (2010). A Profound Disruptive Technology.

Batson & Grush (2012) AAEEBL: It's All About Evidence-Based Learning-Supported by ePortfolios

ETEC 524: Tech Play!

Communication can come in a variety of forms including non verbal and verbal. In this blog I created it showcases forms of communication you can use in your classroom to communicate with parents and students.

Feb 1, 2019 3:28 PM.webm

Elevator Speech

Having an elevator speech is a great communication tool. I found that creating an elevator speech for myself will help give important key information about myself in a short snip of time.