Calgary Board of Ed to Unveil First Learning Commons
RSSThis article originally appeared in SLJ's Extra Helping. <a href="https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/subscribe.asp?screen=pi8">Sign up now!</a>
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 11/11/2009
The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) in Canada
The learning commons is part of the CBE’s Learning Resources Strategy, a plan to enhance information literacy
among students by emphasizing collaboration and sharing. As a piece of this larger strategy, which will eventually dovetail with the new learning commons, students will be able to access their school network over personal devices such as their iPod touch or mobile phone in a program tagged Connect 2010. Starting this month, networks will slowly start to open across several pilot schools, and more than 200 schools are expected to be up and running with student-accessible WiFi by August 2010.“We’ll be working with teachers and students on how these mobile devices can support digital citizenship,” says Karen Pegler, a specialist in curriculum and learning technology, with the CBE. “What gets more personalized than having learning right in your pocket?”
The University of Calgary will co-run the pilot programs and help CBE look at increasing the use of digital content, such as audio and e-books, evaluating whether digital resources are appropriate for classrooms, and acquiring more inclusive technologies, such as Reading pens, for students who might need added assistance.
“Overall, we’re recognizing we need to be very responsive to the needs of all learners in multiple formats,” says Erin Hansen, senior education specialist and the program lead for the Learning Resources Strategy. “What that means is personalization for all learners.”
While most librarians have had little pushback in increasing the level of digital media in schools, opening up networks to students on personal digital devices has been a harder sell to districts concerned about security.
Some school systems, such as the New York City Board of Education and the
But CBE sees mobile devices as another set of learning tools, similar to pencils and pens—albeit a bit more vibrant and dynamic. And by launching the program slowly, they hope to be able to glean not just the impact of learning across these devices, but also what sort of professional development will be needed for teachers.
Pegler hopes to have three pilot programs that use mobile devices up and running in February 2010, one each in an elementary, middle, and high school classroom. And that launch will also bring an emphasis on helping students understand how to use these mobile devices on the Internet, securely and responsibly.
“It is important that they understand how to use this in terms of digital citizenship,” says Pegler. “Safety and ethics will have to be embedded in their daily practice in class.”
