As Vermont Library Media Specialists, you will have the chance to shape the direction of the topics to meet your needs.  Online surveys will help us identify areas of professional development, and there will be a social networking site developed for the “Issues” strand of coursework.  Look for that in early 2010.

We are also looking for instructors to join our faculty.  If you enjoy working with adult learners and would like to share your knowledge with fellow practitioners as a learning leader, send your resume to Judy Kaplan. (Judith.Kaplan@uvm.edu).  I am looking for folks who might also be interested in teaching the basic courses in the sequence.  The minimum educational requirement is a MLS or a Master’s Degree in content.

Already proposed and set to go early next summer is a 3 credit course taught by Anna Bolognani:

Powerful Web Tools for the School Library Media Center: Changing the Way We Teach and Learn
Course description and goals:
This class will explore Web 2.0 literacy and how tools such as blogs, wikis, twitter, social bookmarking, mashups, podcasting, and vodcasting can be used to foster collaboration and learning in our schools.
Participants will explore current research and information on student learning in the digital age.  Through the use of blogs, wikis, twitter, IM, social bookmarking, mashups, podcasts and vodcasts they will become familiar with the technology and develop ideas on how to use them for collaboration and lessons in an educational setting.  Students will use web tools to develop a multimedia web based presentation.

In the formative stages are several others that will be available in following semesters:

School Library Leadership in 21st Century Schools
3 credit course-Fall 2010
Course description:
21st Century Standards have been developed to meet the changing educational needs of learners in schools across America.  Library Media Specialists are asked to revision the future for school library practice for the future, and the future is now.   This course will explore the ideas presented through the AASL documents, Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (2009), and the Standards for the 21st Century Learner (2007).  The focus of the course will examine the concept of educational leadership, and  offer ways to create leadership opportunities for Library Media Specialists to become agents of change and educational leaders within the school community to ensure the continued support of equitable access to resources, both physical and virtual through Library Media Centers.

Contemporary Issues in Children’s/Young Adult Literature: The Literacy Connection
3 credit course Spring 2011

Course description:
Reading is described as a “window to the world,” as a common belief listed in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs.  (ALA 2009)  Library Media Specialists face challenges in making the literacy connection between collections of literature for children and young adults and young learners.  New pedagogies for teaching reading skills and comprehension, written expression, and other communications skills impact student learning.  To be effective educational partners and collaborate with classroom teachers in literacy instruction, Library Media Specialists will be introduced to many of the recent learning theories and practices that are used in the literacy classroom.  Basic language literacy and other 21st Century Literacies will be addressed as well.  Library Media Specialists will use current children’s and young adult literature to apply these new pedagogies and literacies in the School Library Media Program.

Assistive Technology in the School Library Media Center
1 credit course

Course description and goals:
The School Library Media Center is arranged so students have complete physical access to library materials.  Aisles are wide, shelves are low, but can students actually access the content of your collection? Can the students see the print, can they use the computer mouse?   Assistive (or adaptive) technology can help all students who need accommodations to use library resources for their learning needs

Copyright News in the Time of the Social Web
1 credit course

Changes to concepts about copyright have recently emerged in response to the impact of Web 2.0 social network tools for student learning.  This course will provide a guide to navigate the new interpretations of fair use rules and how to help students and colleagues make sense of using resources appropriately.

Watch for upcoming announcements on the VSLA list serv, and consider joining our team. It’s great fun!

Judith Kaplan, MA, Library Media Specialist, School Library Media Sequence Coordinator , University of Vermont