Editorial
School Library Media Activities Monthly/Volume XXV, Number 5/January 2009
Cutting Edge?
By Deborah Detenbeck Levitov
Pushing the edge, being innovative, thinking beyond what is known is important and necessary for all educators. Embracing new technology and Web 2.0 tools and putting them to the best use for students and staff is essential. It is also paramount that library media specialists put these new tools and modes of thinking into practice in ways that are instructionally sound. This can be encouraged in one of two ways.
One approach is to respect where people are, accept that there are real day-to-day limitations facing them, and acknowledge that good, solid, productive instruction and learning can still be accomplished with students and staff in these settings. This involves recognizing that what is being done has merit even though it may not be equal to the definition of cutting edge in terms of a Library 2.0 repertoire. It leaves room for thinking about possibilities.
The other approach is to dismiss and belittle people for where they are by undermining or ignoring existing successes that fit their settings. This approach involves lording over others the accomplishments of a few due to privileged settings without acknowledging the real restrictions and limitations that exist in individual schools or districts. This tends to shut down thinking rather than open minds to the possibilities.
Which approach would most people respond to? I think the answer is obvious and I think a panel at the most recent SLJ Summit in Florida, "Remixing Library Collections for Digital Youth," failed to inspire its audience because some panelists took the second approach rather than the first. The discussion seemed to be more about tech-egos and impressing others with tech-vibrato than providing inspiration.
The theme of one-stop shopping promoted by the panel suggested that library media specialists should make everything easy for the student by selecting resources and tools and having them all in one place. Is this really the role library media specialists should aspire to fill? Isn't the goal to develop independent learners and thinkers? If everything is packaged for students, in one place, how can they learn to find and discern the best resource and the best information? How can they be informed and diligent researchers? Doesn't this put the library media specialist back in the role of gatekeeper? Doesn't this make students dependent learners?
Library media specialists live in stressful times. Successful solutions that will make library media centers and schools more open and conducive to new 2.0 tools are needed. Ways to use the latest tools, incorporated within the library/educational settings must be implemented. Also, library media specialists must recognize when it is their own personal resistance that is preventing change and not their setting. But, above all, they need to be sure that what is done is instructionally sound. For those wanting to facilitate the shift to 2.0 environments, a positive, supportive approach seems more effective than lofty and extreme examples that make the possibilities seem impossible and the instructional approach seem less sound.