Week 4 Article review

The interview with Christopher Harris was a great change from some of the other reading that we have had to do thus far in this course. Where as Prensky pushed the line and via frustration made me think more about what I am doing with technology in my classroom, Harris’s thoughts were realistic and provided me with viable and useful suggestions.

One of the suggestions that Harris made was “Maybe instead of School Library 2.0, we can call this new idea a Digitally Re-Shifted School Library. That brings in not only this idea, but also the Web 2.0 elements of digital interaction with students and staff to provide them with the information they need in the most appropriate format while recognizing that school libraries have long used digital resources.´
This idea may present itself as less threatening to both Teachers and Teacher-Librarians alike. Someone how it appears to be less threatening.

Whereas Prensky suggests that teaching the “basics” such as reading may no longer be needed due to the fact that students will have text read to them via their cell phones, Harris admits that books are still the most appropriate format many times.” He goes on to say that ” that if school libraries fail to make a digital re-shift, they are going to loose relevancy in the world of digital information.”

I also agree that one of the modern day Teacher-Librarian’s jobs is to help students learn how to decipher and find ones way through the “chaos of information” that one can find on the web. However I also do believe that a second function of a Teacher- Librarian is to collaborate with teachers on lessons. Through collaboration, the Teacher-Librarian can introduce some Web 2.0 concepts into the teacher’s lesson plans.

I look forward to reading more of Chris Harris’s articles.