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How do school libraries foster digital literacy?

Libraries Reimagined

In his book A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink tells us the Information Age is over (Pink, 2006).  We as a society are emerging into a Conceptual Age where the  mindset of  computer programmers who crank code, lawyers who  craft contracts, and MBAs who crunch numbers is now the mindset of creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers, artists, inventors designers, storytellers, caregivers, and big picture thinkers. (Pink, 2005).  For centuries academic libraries have provided a structural foundation of traditional knowledge, a warehouse of volumes to be consumed by studious left-brainers.  That has changed.  The mindset of the school library, too, is changing to meet the needs of the innovators and designers of the future.  This project is about re-defining libraries to meet the needs of today's digital learners, and it is about creating a school-wide culture of collaborative teaching and learning.

 

My vision for Calistoga Libraries...

Digital Image Credits

According to Linda Darling-Hammond (2014), "A leftover of factory-model school designs of the early 1900's makes it harder for our teachers to find time to work with their colleagues on creating great curriculum and learning new methods, to mark papers, to work individually with students, and to reach out to parents. Partly because of the lack of time to observe and work with one another, U.S. teachers receive much less feedback from peers, which research shows is the most useful for improving practice.  They also receive less professional development than their global counterparts. One reason for this is, according to our own schools and staffing surveys, is that, during the NCLB era, more sustained learning opportunities reverted back to the one-shot, top-down, "drive-by" workshops that are least useful for improving practice." 
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