For example, teachers can place books—such as K–12 NIMAC textbooks or other assigned reading—on a Bookshelf to be downloaded later by students, or give direct access to students with individual  memberships so they can log in and read using the Web Reader. Selections can be organized by interest, author, or subject, or educators can devise their own systems.

“The Bookshelf makes it easy for teachers to download the year’s reading list for multiple students at once, thus saving time,” says Justin Kolbe, assistive technology specialist. “It’s a good way of getting all the reading material organized in one place.”

The Bookshare Web Reader is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE 9.0 and above. It allows readers to adjust font size, colors and display format, and takes advantage of Google Chrome’s features to allow students to read books multi-modally, with word-by-word highlighting and text-to-speech.

Bookshare is a Benetech literacy solution, funded by awards from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

Today, more than 73,000 educators—including reading teachers, assistive technologists, and specialists—use the Bookshare library to support students who are blind or who have low vision, a physical disability such as cerebral palsy, or a severe reading disability such as dyslexia.

“These latest improvements to the Bookshare reading experience align with our long range vision to provide individuals with print disabilities equal access to content,” says Betsy Beaumon, vice president and general manager of the literacy program at Benetech. “We expect members will read more because they will access their books more quickly and have just one click to begin reading.”

“We are seeing that kids today are drawn to both print books and ebooks, yet e-reading seems to offer an exciting opportunity to attract and motivate boys and reluctant readers to read more books,” says Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic. “While many parents express concern over the amount of time their child spends with technology, nearly half do not have a preference of format for their child’s books. The message is clear—parents want to encourage more reading, no matter the medium.”

According to the study—the fourth biannual report from Scholastic and the Harrison Group, a marketing and strategic research consulting firm—the number of kids who have read an ebook has reached 46 percent, compared with only 25 percent in 2010, while 49 percent of parents feel their kids do not spend enough time reading books for fun, an increase from only 36 percent in 2010. Overall, 72 percent of parents show an interest in having their kids read ebooks, the survey found.

The findings reveal the potential for ebooks to motivate boys, who are more commonly known to be reluctant readers, to read more, Scholastic says, noting that one in four boys who has read an ebook says he is now reading more books for fun.

Ebooks may also be the key to transition moderately frequent readers (defined as kids who read one to four days a week) to frequent readers (those who read five to seven days a week), Scholastic says; according to the study, 57 percent of moderately frequent readers who have not read an ebook agree that they would read more if they had greater access to them.

Even so, the love of and consistent use of print books is evident, Scholastic says, with 58 percent of kids ages 9–17 saying they will always want to read books printed on paper even though there are ebooks available, a slight decline from 66 percent in 2010 This reveals “the digital shift in children’s reading that has begun,” Scholastic says.

The study also looked at the influences that impact kids’ reading frequency, and parents ranked extremely high, Scholastic says. According to the study, having a reading role-model parent or a large book collection at home has a greater impact on kids’ reading frequency than does household income. Plus, building reading into kids’ daily schedules and regularly bringing home books for children positively impacts kids’ reading frequency.

Scholastic also notes that the study shows kids prefer ebooks to print books when they do not want their friends to know what they are reading, and when they are out and about/traveling, but kids prefer print books for sharing with friends and reading at bedtime. Overall, kids are more likely to finish a book that they choose themselves, regardless of whether the format is digital or in print.

The study was conducted by Scholastic and managed by Harrison Group, a YouGov Company. Survey data were collected by GfK, and the source of the survey sample of 1,074 pairs of children age 6-17 and their parents was GfK’s nationally representative KnowledgePanel®.

Culled from the responses of 694 randomly selected educators, including librarians, teachers, and principals, the study compares findings with those from a similar survey conducted in 2009.

According to the report, “2012 Survey of K-12 educators on Social Networking, Online Communities, and Web 2.0 Tools,” 82 percent of all K-12 educators now use social networking for personal and professional use, up from 61 percent in 2009.

The study provides information about educators’ favorite sites by category and reveals social networking patterns by age and frequency of use. It also reveals educators’ concerns about privacy and provides information about school district technology access policies for students and teachers.

Facebook, Edmodo, and the Discovery Education Network most popular in their categories

Facebook is the most used social networking venue among respondents, with 85 percent using the site, the same percentage as in 2009.

LinkedIn is the second most popular, accessed by 41 percent of respondents, up from 14 percent in 2009. Twitter is third, at 39 percent, followed by Google+ (27percent), Ning (11percent), and MySpace (20 percent).

Younger educators network the most, with 97 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds networking online, as opposed to 75 percent of respondents who are 55-plus, according to the report.

Among education-focused sites, Edmodo has the most members, accessed by 27 percent of respondents, followed by edWeb.net (15 percent), ASCD EDge (9 percent), Classroom 2.0 (9 percent), We are Teachers (6 percent), Teacher 2.0 (5 percent), NSTA Learning Center (4 percent), and Educators PLN (3 percent).

Librarians use the first four of these education-focused sites more than teachers or principals, according to the study. Looking forward, 31 percent of librarians say that they will likely join a new networking and PD site in the next year, as opposed to 22 percent of teachers and 31 percent of principals.

For librarians, the top five branded online communities are the Discovery Education Network (49 percent), Edutopia (31 percent), PBS Teachers (30 percent), Thinkfinity (25 percent), and BrainPOP Educators  (24 percent).

Webinars are the most popular networking tool among educators, while document sharing is the most used in classrooms.

Concern over privacy and restrictive school policies

Forty five percent of respondents express concern about privacy on education sites, while 26 percent worry about inappropriate relationships with students. Twenty six percent are concerned that affiliation with a social network “might head to an incident that would jeopardize my job,” according to the report. Among those surveyed, 80 percent keep their personal and professional accounts separate most of the time.

Twenty-three percent believe that their school or district’s policy on Web 2.0 tools is restrictive to teachers, and 47 percent think their schools’ regulations are a hindrance to students.

Fifty four percent of respondents work in districts that allow kids to bring their own devices to school, but only five percent of those schools allow students to use them with no restrictions. 64 percent of educators think it likely that their districts will “open up policies on BYOD in the future.”

“There is growing awareness that online communities help teachers create an extended personal learning network and access a wealth of professional development resources—often at no cost to the teacher,” a press release connected to the report states.

The press release adds that the U. S. Department of Education has encouraged educators to access online resources by declaring August 2012 “Connected Educator Month,” along with initiatives including the 2010 National Education Technology Plan and the Connected Online Communities of Practice Project (COCP).

By Joyce Kasman Valenza

Shift happens. It disrupts. Next year, it’s critical for our profession to see opportunities where others might see obstacles. We can scout. We can innovate. We can harness disruption and lead. Or, we can opt out and let others do it instead.

This year’s shifts situate librarians for creative leadership opportunities, to make sense of the resources and tools that bombard our schools, and our public library partners, like that proverbial fire hose. Who better to curate and flip—and to ensure that learners have the tools they need 24/7? Who better to point teachers and learners to new platforms for growth and difference making? Who better to recognize the growing number of informal opportunities for learning as well as assessments that realistically recognize performance and skill acquisition? Who better to show learners that their work can have meaning and that, whatever their age, they can begin to shape their worlds?

It’s exciting. Let’s examine some of the stickier trends and trends-to-be and see where our opportunities are.

1. OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES/USER-GENERATED CONTENT. High-quality, open educational resources (OER) are proliferating and many are worthy of K–12 discovery. Bloggers, tweeters, and citizen journalists offer new real-time primary source perspectives. Major universities continue to change the nature of knowledge distribution and redefine opportunities for lifelong learning with their sharing. Social scholarship flourishes. I know, I’ve gotten excited about this before, but it’s simply richer now—ignoring this trend by not considering this content as part of your collection would be a tragic waste.

Opportunity: Pick a platform and curate OER resources important to your community—perhaps for instance, Common Core resources and strategies, perhaps pointing to the amazing new wealth of primary sources, or free documentary films.

2. CURATION FOR DISCOVERABILITY. Our collections have too many entry points. Without serious curation efforts, those OER resources and the valuable, more traditional content we pay for will go undiscovered and unused. Our catalogs may no longer be adequate containers for the dynamic Web content, tools, instruction, ebooks, and media we need to share across vendors. Librarians need to step up and fuse together interfaces that make best stuff discoverable when and where learners and teachers need it.

Opportunity: It’s not just about curating adult-created content. Kids create work worthy of celebrating and archiving. How about leading a school- or community-wide electronic portfolio movement? (See Helen Barrett’s work at electronicportfolios.org.)

3. CREATIVE COMMONS. Students need to be aware of the Creative Commons (CC) movement, not merely as media consumers but as content creators. Kids can control how they’d like the text, art, music, and films that they produce to be reused or remixed. It’s up to us to ensure that our artists, filmmakers, and musicians consider applying CC licenses to their own works. This year, Creative Commons released a Choose a License wizard, clarifying that opportunity. All this glorious content inspires a variety of other trends.

4. MOOCS ARE BUSTING OUT. This may have been the year of the MOOC (massive open online course). The dramatic proof was a fall 2011 artificial intelligence course, which drew 160,000 students—followed by the launch of higher-ed courses on the Coursera platform, MIT’s MITx and Harvard’s edX. I participated in Google’s international Power Searching MOOC last summer. Many predict the MOOC movement will trickle down to K–12 schools. There’s no stopping older students from joining in.

Opportunity: Search for MOOC s and point teachers and learners to strong opportunities for informal learning.

And, it seems, where there’s a MOOC, there’s often a badge.

5. DIGITAL LEARNING BADGES. Perhaps in response to measures of achievement that don’t really measure, well, real achievement, digital badges recognize skills and accomplishments that get developed online. Badges nod to those other-talented students who don’t get recognized for their touchdowns or AP scores. Badges follow learners when they leave the K–12 system, and come encoded with metadata to explain their value. Learners/users can then collect and share badges, potentially marketing themselves for future career and learning opportunities.

Opportunity: Scout for badge opportunities that match and recognize your students’ independent learning passions.

6. FLIPPING. Flipping the classroom changes the place in which content is delivered. If a teacher assigns instruction—in the form of video, simulations, slidecasts, readings, and podcasts—as homework, then class time can become interactive. Flipping frees the class for face-to-face critical thinking, exploration, inquiry, discussion, collaboration, and problem solving. Flipping is a sweet spot for the talents of librarians, who can lead the professional development involved in curating high-quality resources and creating digital instruction. We need to flip our libraries too, and mobilize them for the many users who access their information largely on phones and tablets.

Opportunity: Support a favorite teacher by helping her flip the lecture she least enjoys teaching!

7. PORTABILITY. My dream is that every kid in America will have a library in his or her pocket or tucked in a sleeve. If your school is working toward BYOD (bring your own devices) or a one-to-one program, this has got to be on your radar—no excuses. We should be involved in selecting apps for learners, and we should be driving the reinterpretation of the library for the phone or tablet. It’s time for all of us not only to have virtual libraries, but to have mobile sites or apps.

Opportunity: Let your students help build your app or mobile site. Even younger students can help determine what resources they most need to have in their pockets 24/7.

8. COLLABORATION AND CONNECTION. Kids are comfortable in the cloud. Whether it’s working on a story, script, survey, or presentation, students and their teachers collaborate automatically. Google Apps illustrates how ridiculous it is that other tools require individual logins, won’t accept group participation, and won’t move with users across devices. Professionally, TL Cafe thrives, and this year the #tlchat hashtag went live.

Opportunity: Be the go-to resource for linking classrooms with other classrooms, authors, and experts. Lead in setting up learning events via Twitter, Skype, Google+ Hangouts, or Elluminate.

9. MAKERSPACES/LEARNING COMMONS.Inspired by the Digital Youth Project and Henry Jenkins’s work on participatory culture, many of us are recreating our physical spaces. This, of course, dovetails with our rethinking of the space required by print and the place creation plays as the end result of research or play. It seems to me a perfect storm. Libraries are evolving as makerspaces (aka hackerspaces or fablabs)—flexible, collaborative spaces that foster playful design and creation.

Opportunity: Dedicate an area of your existing space as a makerspace. Ask students to help you run making workshops for the faculty during lunches.

10. KID POWER. We witnessed the power and agency of children who used social media to have their say and command the world’s attention. Nine-year-old Caine, for example, built a cardboard arcade that inspired boys and girls around the world. Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl from Swat Valley, leveraged the media to advance education for girls. After Taliban gunmen shot and wounded Malala in October, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared November 10 as Malala Day, a global symbol of every girl’s right to an education.

With the support of mentors from the First Light organization, British school girls raised awareness of the underground practice of genital mutilation (FGM) in the U.K. with their compelling documentary, Silent Scream.

Opportunity: Share this story (and the ones above) of kids making a difference with your own kids. Use them as an inspiration for creating meaningful future projects.

11. BIG DATA. Possibly best known as the intelligence behind recommendation engines or the Human Genome project, Big Data was abuzz in 2012. Politicians exploited it. Examples include the Google Crisis Map; the One Million Tweet Map, which analyzes who’s tweeting what and where; and GapMinder (www.gapminder.org), which demonstrates global trends through data and promotes using statistics to develop a fact-based world view. Big data fosters problem solving in the form of computational thinking, a literacy that we librarians seldom explore.

Opportunity: Encourage your students and teachers to be data scientists. Examine large datasets and tell stories about them using infographics.

Image courtesy of Project ENABLE.

Image courtesy of Project ENABLE.

Mary Lee Schneider, president and CEO of the Follett Corporation

Librarian Carolyn Foote with some of her students. Photograph by Michael Thad Carter

Walk into our school library and you’re bound to see scores of iPads propped up on the tables. Our students at Westlake High, a large suburban school on the outskirts of Austin, TX, are using them to read ebooks, download assignments, edit videos, write blog posts, and to do much more. Since we rolled out our 1:1 iPad program a year ago, more than 4,100 teachers and students, including eighth graders at the nearby middle school and even some of our elementary school classes, have taken advantage of these devices. In fact, they’ve become as much a part of students’ everyday lives as their notebooks, backpacks, and textbooks.

Our students aren’t the only ones who’ve gotten into the iPad act. Our AP environmental science teacher has had his students take iPads along on field trips so they can use free apps, such as LeafSnap and iBirds, to chart their surroundings. Our computer science teacher showed his class how to create their own apps, and our American Sign Language class uses the iPad’s camera to Skype with their peers at the Texas School for the Deaf. And to cut down on the amount of paper we consume, our English, math, and science teachers post their assignments as PDFs, which their students can view on their iPads, instead of printing them. That simple decision has already saved our campus more than $30,000 in printing costs during the past year.

How’d we get to this point? It all began in the fall of 2010 with a modest pilot program in our library and just six iPads.

Why iPads? I’m a gadget head and a librarian, and when I first used one, I sensed that they had great potential for learning and that they could revolutionize our students’ access to information—and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one again.

We started small, purchasing the tablets with money that we’d raised. And since our administrators were eager to see how the devices could be used to promote learning in the library and in the classroom, I set up a pilot program to gather data, using Google Forms to create a series of surveys and questionnaires for our teachers to chart the effectiveness of using iPads with their students. I also encouraged my teaching colleagues to take the devices home on weekends and try them in their classrooms during the school week. And I helped them plan how to use the iPad’s preloaded apps in their lessons. As it turned out, our teachers’ responses to these devices were unanimously positive. Beyond liking the obvious conveniences of the device’s mobility and apps, one of our teachers remarked that “an iPad levels the playing field for all of my students—from special ed to general ed to gifted.”

We also included a wide range of students in our pilot program, and gathered information on the ease of accessing databases and using the devices to read various texts. As you might imagine—especially two years ago, when the iPad was first released—our kids were thrilled to use them. One student (with an eye to the future?) even pointed out that the devices might ultimately save space in the library. And it was especially gratifying to see our most physically challenged students adeptly using the tablets to gain access to all sorts of things that had previously been inaccessible to them.

We also read about how other schools had successfully used iPads. (Palm Beach County School’s iPad wiki was one of the first to document the use of iPads in its schools and in others.) Armed with these observations, our survey data, comments from teachers and students, and photos of our students and staff using the devices (and a video of a one-year-old turning an iPad on and off that I just couldn’t resist!), I presented the findings to our principal, Linda Rawlings, and to our district’s curriculum and tech directors. They were so enthusiastic about our pilot program that we ultimately sent a district team to Apple’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA, to learn more about 1:1 iPad programs in schools, and we soon decided to expand our own program as a way to help students prepare for the ubiquitous devices they’d encounter in college.

Ready, set, swipe

To apply for the new program, teachers were asked to describe how they planned to use the iPads in their classrooms. After our principal reviewed their applications, she chose 40 teachers to be part of the official WIFI (Westlake Initiative for Innovation) pilot program, which also included 1,600 juniors and seniors—all of whom would be issued iPads, along with the rest of our teachers.

Since I was familiar with our school’s overall curriculum, our campus technology coordinator and I investigated apps that would be useful in a variety of subject areas. We searched for note-taking apps (such as AudioNote, Sundry Note, and Penultimate), PDF annotation apps (like Neu.annotate), audio-recording apps (Bluefire), apps for special education students (Dragon Dictation and Tap to Talk), and many more. Along with those that our teachers recommended, we created a list of apps to include on our iPads (for more details about the program, visit our blog at www.eaneswifi.blogspot.com, which I created with our district technology director to document the process). Many of the apps were free, and we also went through Apple’s Volume Purchasing Program, a special plan for schools that reduces the cost of apps by 50 percent, to buy the rest. We primarily used state technology funds to purchase our apps, and bond money allocated for technology to pay for our iPads. And JAMF Software’s Casper Suite gave our information services (IT) department the ability to manage the iPad inventory, tracking, etc., which made it possible to retrieve devices that our students had misplaced.

During the summer, our teachers could pick up their iPads early if they attended a brief introductory training session; our juniors and seniors had to wait until the third day of the new school year to receive theirs. You should have seen their faces when we handed them their iPads, and their enthusiasm was contagious. The library was absolutely buzzing as they explored the apps, started using them on assignments, and got creative with the cameras. Suddenly these students weren’t being told to put away their devices—they were actually being encouraged to use them in the library and in class for learning, creating projects, and organizing their lives.

It’s a major challenge for teachers to move from a classroom with no electronic devices (other than those on a library laptop cart) to an environment in which mobile devices are constantly available. And as more and more teachers dropped by the library, it became obvious that they needed our support to navigate the new devices. Thanks to our previous experience with iPads, the library staff was able to assist teachers with technical help and curriculum support from the get-go.

Café society

Since the library is centrally located in our school, we offered up space in our “café” area to house the help desk, which, after a contest to name it, we dubbed the “Juice Bar” (as in a place to get powered up and also for creative juices). We removed unused bookcases, installed USB power strips, and added window-side café tables, comfy seat cushions, and catchy Juice Bar signs. We also added district-built mini Plexiglas boards where students could post messages and recommendations. The revamped space is perfect for the tech-support staff to help students; after-school “Appy Hours,” led by our district technology coordinator; and individual planning sessions with teachers.

To help teachers expand their iPad repertoires, I brought in consultant Dean Shareski for a daylong workshop on incorporating photography apps into lessons. His biggest impact? Showing teachers that it’s not really about “the app”—it’s about using these applications to enhance a well-thought-out, purposeful lesson.

Now that the help desk is located in the library, my library assistants and I have became busy troubleshooters—doing everything from giving out passwords to showing kids how to edit an iMovie or offering a quick tutorial on using the WebDav app to access their home folders on our Novell network. At lunchtime, the desk is staffed by members of our IT staff and student mentors, who have also been a huge help.

How has this technology affected our campus? One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed is that there’s a stronger spirit of collaboration as we all learn how to use apps to support our instructional goals. Teachers are constantly helping other teachers; as the librarian, I’m helping the technology team; students help their peers and their teachers. For instance, the tech crew, library staff, and teachers have all pitched in to lead our lunchtime workshops, including an AP environmental science teacher who offered to teach Flubaroo, a script for Google Forms that self-grades tests.

Now that we have iPads, I’ve also had to grapple with providing our kids with ebooks that’ll work effectively on their devices. To make sure I’m up to speed in this area, I’ve made a concerted effort to attend webinars and conference sessions, read articles, and test ebook products. Although I know things are constantly changing, we currently offer ebooks through Overdrive, Follett Shelf, and Gale Virtual Reference Library. And we’re also considering using Mackin Via, Baker and Taylor’s Axis 360, and BrainHive (full disclosure: I’m an advisor on this product), among others. There are a lot of informed decisions that need to be made regarding ebooks, but they all begin with understanding the purpose for which you plan to use the materials.

With our students having iPads, QR codes have become a handy way to get ebook information, surveys, and other necessary messages to them. Using apps such as QR Code Reader or Scan, students can scan QR codes posted in the library to access our database lists, ebook apps, or book reviews. Since we started using QR codes in the library, they’ve really caught on: our student council posts them in the hallways to spread the word about blood drives, teachers post them beside their doorways with links to their websites and homework pages, and more. (A quick tip: after a student replicated one of our QR code signs, but changed the code to go to an inappropriate site, I now include a handwritten symbol on the corner of each sign so I know it’s legit!)

How are students using their iPads for research and projects? Our English AP students used Pages to storyboard a research project they were doing in the library. Our sophomore English students used photo apps to create a “one word, one image” depiction of a character from a novel. Geography classes use the Zapd app for blogging projects. Our French students filmed skits, as did our Latin students; and ASL students use the iPad’s camera for recording responses to quizzes, Skyping with classes at other schools, and practicing their signing. Our English classes use ebooks for their reading time, and free classic ebooks from Project Gutenberg for classroom annotations of novels they’re studying, using apps such as neu.annotate or GoodReader that allow them to write on PDF files. I recently met with our sophomore English teachers who are planning to use the Pulse app to help students create a personalized RSS “reader” of articles they’re passionate about for a new blog project. Our special education students are using apps like ProLoQuo and Tap to Talk to communicate more easily. And in the library, we use the Easybib app; Google’s app (which has built-in voice-and-visual search functions); Overdrive and Follett Shelf apps; database apps, such as Gale Access My Library, and many more, like the brand-new Haiku Desk for presentations.

How have our students responded to the 1:1 iPad rollout? Well, based on a survey conducted at the end of the first year, 76 percent of those surveyed felt that iPads had improved their educational experience and only 18 percent indicated that they had not improved their motivation in the classroom. Eighty-two percent claimed that iPads had a “somewhat positive” or “positive” impact on “their desire to dig deeper.” As one student commented, “We have been assigned more creative, interactive assignments such as making movies using the iPad and sending emails to continue and reflect on discussions held in class.”

Frankly, with all of this stuff going on, I began to wonder: Would our iPad-toting kids still want to use our library computers or have an opportunity to access our resources? In order to be sure our students had instant, one-touch access to the library, I visited their classrooms and helped them create library folders on their iPads containing all the pertinent library-related apps—hoping to instill the idea that the library is available 24/7. By the way, I needn’t have worried: students are still using our library computers. In fact, one of my favorite photographs that I took last year is of a student sitting at one of our computers, surrounded by an open book, her notes, a graphing calculator, and her iPad—and she’s using all of them!

Obviously, with this many mobile devices on campus and with our plan to distribute iPads to our ninth- and tenth-grade students this year, we’ll need to offer even more online tutorials, screencasts, and instructions. This past summer, I helped cochair iPadpalooza, an all-day, all-iPad conference at our campus, the brainchild of Carl Hooker, our director of instructional technology, where our teachers could attend workshops by presenters from around the state and country on all things iPad.

As we move into the schoolwide phase of our 1:1 iPad program this fall and our teachers become more reliant on their tablets, it’ll be even more important for us to provide both online and in-person information literacy instruction and copyright and curricular support. I used to roll out a lot of information on my webpage, which was the first site kids saw when they logged onto the library computers. But now that students have their own devices, I’m having to rethink our rollout strategy. This is where QR codes posted in the library can be helpful—directing students to new tutorials, updates on my website, etc.

Photograph by Bob Murphy

Life with iPads

What have I learned from our ambitious new program? For starters, it really does take a village to implement a 1:1 technology program—and the librarian has an important part to play in that community. We bring leadership and organizational skills, experimentation, knowledge of social media, and observational and communication skills to the table that help make it successful. We also see the students each day and are able to provide powerful input on their needs. We understand the curricular needs of our campuses, since we work across so many departments and grade levels. Support for teachers is critical to a successful 1:1 implementation and as a librarian, I feel this is one of my core missions. Understanding and relaying the needs of teachers to other departments dealing with iPads is an important role librarians can play. As Hooker, the director of instructional technology, says, “While our district is lucky enough to have an educational technologist on every campus, without librarians, this project would stall and students would get frustrated. They are the conduit to the ed-tech department as well as being a ‘just in time’ trainer.”

I agree. But we can’t wait around for others to ask us to be a part of the process. We need to be proactive in educating ourselves, offering our services, and creating lists of resources, because that’s what we do. Our jobs as media specialists require us to evolve, learn, stay current, and look for opportunities to help our student learners.

Last week, after we issued our latest batch of iPads, I watched two students in the library, sitting across the table from one another, Facetiming each other and laughing. I watched kids sitting in our armchairs reading on their iPads, and a student on our library patio using hers to study. Moments like these remind me that it isn’t really about the device. It is, as always, about facilitating access to information, helping kids learn, and empowering them. That’s why librarians are so indispensable.

Carolyn Foote is a “technolibrarian” at Westlake High School in Austin, TX, and has written a chapter about her school’s iPad program for the upcoming book New Landscapes in Mobile Learning (Routledge, May 2013). Foote will discuss her program at the October 17 virtual event The Digital Shift: Libraries, Ebooks and Beyond.