Here is a list of articles and books about the development of the learning commons. Readers are encouraged to add articles not already listed.
Books
ISBN: 978-1-933170-40-4; Hi Willow Research and Publishing; 2008; $25.00 (available at: http://lmcsource.com) It is time to reinvent the entire concept of the school library! For 50 years, we have been guided by a great conceptual base; however our students have changed their information habits totally in the explosion of the Internet. They Google around us. They network socially. Web 2.0 tools change the face of ICT literacy. It is just a different world. Loertscher, Koechlin, and Zwaan team up in this book to rethink everything about the function and role of school libraries and computer labs. It is often a case of 180 degree reconsideration. What does this mean? The profession has been on a command and control model: If we build it, they will come. We build a website and expect students and teachers to use it on our terms. They Google, instead. We expect teachers to appreciate the collections we build. They want classroom collections. We open our doors during the school day. Our patrons want 24/7-365 service. The turn-around suggested is to think about and construct a client-side organization built around the idea that: If THEY build it, THEY will use it. This means competing with Google. It means collaboratively constructing a virtual learning commons that replaces the library web site. It means incorporating Web 2.0 tools that really boost teaching and learning. But we get ahead of ourselves. The authors recommend that the school library be converted into a learning commons. What is that? It is both a physical and virtual place consisting of two major spaces: the Open Commons and the Experimental Learning Center each governed by its own calendar. The Open Commons is not only a flexible access space; it is a flexible physical and virtual space where exemplary teaching and learning is demonstrated for all to see. The Experimental Learning Center is the center of professional development for the entire school. This physical and virtual space is where students and teachers work to improve the quality of teaching and learning. It is the place for all new educational initiatives, professional learning communities, experimental technology, action research. It is the hub of school improvement. Chapters in the book first justify the reasons for a change in foundational thinking. This is followed by a tour of the new learning commons with its Open Commons and Experimental Learning Center in full operation. We then take a look at knowledge building where learners are using their social networking skills linked to inquiry to build world-class excellence. Then we look at the range of new literacies required with reading as one central element. How do learners turn from struggling to meet required minimums to wanting to develop world-class abilities? We then turn to the world of technology and away from the concrete walls of administrative computing into the world of instructional computing where technology becomes the slave of the learners and teachers, not the other way around. Next, we look at the role of collaboration, not just from the point of view of the librarian, but from the point of view of all the specialists in the school such as literacy coaches, technology specialists, nurses, counselors, Physical education teachers, art, music, etc. who have wonderful dreams about change but are locked out of the classroom. We examine the elements of the learning commons organizational structure that turns the physical and virtual spaces from kingdoms into a personal extension of each learner and teacher. Finally, we make connections to major ideas and leaders across education that push us toward the reinvention of the school library. You are sure to have an opinion about this re-conceptualization; It is controversial. And, you will be invited to lodge comments and discuss new directions on the book's companion wiki. It is a major shift in ideas about who we are and what we do. We are already being reinvented in the educational literature. Isn't the best defense a strong offence? Come with us on a journey of new ideas.
Carol Koechlin, Esther Rosenfeld, and David V. Loertscher; Hi Willow Research and Publishing; ISBN: 978-1-933170-59-6; 2010; $30.00 (available at: http://lmcsource.com) As a companion to The New School Learning Commons Where Learners Win, this book is a planning guide for administrators and those interested in establishing a Learning Commons that reinvents the role of the school library and computer labs in the school. Chock full of checklists, planning forms, an organizational suggestions, this guide is a handy tool. It begins with a brief explanation of what a Learning Commons is and its role in total school improvement and then step by step goes through the aspects of program, physical facilities, changing technologies and ends with a variety of assessment tools to guage progress. The appendices provide a number of handouts and other resources for planning teams. Teacher librarians and teacher technologists contemplating the development of the Learning Commons should read the guide together and see that administrators have a copy as a prelude to assembling the leadership team of the Commons. As an additional help, take a look at another book linked to these two books: Learning Commons Treasury edited by Loertscher and Marcoux available from LMC Source. All three publications provide a wealth of information for the leadership team. Indispensable.
David V. Loertscher and Elizabeth "Betty" Marcoux, eds.; Teacher Librarian Press; 2010; ISBN: 978-1-61751-000-7; $30.00 (available at: http://lmcsource.com) This compendium of articles from Teacher Librarian completes a trio of guides to leadership teams interested in transforming the school library and computer lab into a Learning Commons. The first book, The New School Learning Common Where Learners Win (Loertscher, Koechlin, and Zwaan) set the theoretical foundation for the Learning Commons. The second book: Building a Learning Commons (Koechlin, Rosenfeld, and Loertscher) provides administrators and learning leadership teams with the planning tools needed to establish a Commons. In this third publication, the editors have gathered together 25 articles they have solicited about the Learning Commons idea over the past several years and published in Teacher Librarian. Articles lay the foundation of the Common, provide real examples from teacher librarians who have established a learning commons in their school, provide a glimpse into curriculum matters related to the Commons, the technology needed to make the Commons a success, a guide for the staff and role of specialists in the Commons, and finally several articles dealing with assessing impact on teaching and learning. This trio is a valuable collection for reinventing the nature of school libraries into a 21st century model. 
David V. Loertscher, Carol Koechlin, and Sandi Zwaan; Hi Willow Research and Publishing; 2011; ISBN 978-1-933170-64-0; $35.00 Since the publication of the original best selling edition, the authors and users have discovered even more effective ways of constructing super learning experiences. Thus, every unit of study represented in the original volume has been updated and improved to demonstrate powerful ways of boosting thinking and learning through technology. The book provides 18 powerful instructional designs with examples across the disciplines and grade levels that can by used by teachers, teacher librarians, and teacher technologist to maximize both content knowledge and 21st Century Skills. And, at the conclusion of each learning experience, the authors demonstrate metacognitive strategies to probe what was learned and how future learning experiences can be improved. An essential tool for collaborative construction and assessment of learning! Price: $35.00
Thoroughly updated for 2008! Most school libraries have a web site or blog that provide a wealth of resources and links to information. However, young people may be saying, “We love you, library, but we love Google more.” This book and accompanying website takes a new approach in the battle to capture the attention and serve student needs: It asks each child and teen to construct their own home page using iGoogle, and construct three sections of their own information space: Personal Space (with assignments, calendars, hobbies, and other critical personal tools). This is a very tightly controlled space that the student can change regularly. If the school library has a blog, then information can be fed to every student via an RSS feed. Thus the librarian can notify a class about a particular library assignment, offering helps and deadlines that will assist the student in their daily work Group Space for doing projects with others often using web 2.0 tools. For example, a class may be doing a project with another class in a foreign country. A ning, a wiki, and blogs can be used to collaboratively share information, do joint planning, and share expertise on a variety of subjects. This capability has really developed over the past 5 years. The concept that multiple students can be seeing and adding to the same page in a word processor is a totally new concept whose time has come. Outer Space (controlled access to the larger Internet) Students will want to create ways of accessing the entire internet but also learn how to manage those explorations to avoid dangers and pitfalls. Thus, they learn to manage their own information space. But, even more importantly, they learn to manage themselves within that space. The time has come to offer young people a gift of a lifetime – control over the voices clamouring for their attention and the tools they need to emerge as truly information literates. Unique. What does it mean to control ourselves within our information space? It would seem that the rules of the road, crossing the road, driving a car safely and other rules that help us go through life need to be taught in information space as well. We learn to cross the street safely, we learn to navigate through information space knowing that there might be predators trying to divert our attention. Thus the librarian and technology staff help kids and teens develop responsibility - the idea is to give every kid or teen a fishing pole rather than a fish. Tech directors may immediately say “no” to such a radical idea. We are betting that developing individual control is far superior to being managed.
Articles:
Interesting articles and resources:
Academic Libraries and Online Learning
David Loertscher writes many reviews of professional books for Teacher Librarian. Rough drafts of these reviews are available as reviewed and may or may not have yet appeared in the magazine.
The wiki allows searching of the entire wiki by any word, author, etc. The entire wiki is arranged by the year in which the book/resource was reviewed.
See at: http://professionalreviews.pbworks.com/
Reviews of professional books, major documents, and research are also listed at: http://teacherlibrarian.com |
