It’s not all about the technology

The introduction of IWBs (interactive whiteboards) at Firbank Grammar School in 2006 marked a major change in teaching and learning methods within the school. By the end of 2007, over fifty interactive whiteboards were in use in classrooms throughout the junior and senior campuses. Their introduction was supported by intensive professional development of the teaching staff, led by an expert consultant.

From the start, the library staff took the initiative and decided that their role would be a proactive one; one of providing resources to support this new technology, but they had to develop their own knowledge before they commenced their chosen task. They too participated in IWB training so that they had the skills to understand and utilize this new technology. They too created flipcharts for use in library programs, which gave them a greater understanding of what types of resources suited interactive whiteboards. In this way, they established their credentials with the teaching staff. They would be part of the process rather
than separate to it.

The library staff, consisting of Ms. Laraine Stephens, Ms. Juliet Hayday, Ms. Adrienne Dore and Ms. Rosemary Bellairs, mapped out their strategy. The first stage was to embark on an audit of the curriculum, using published syllabuses and discussions with heads of departments. It was felt that this task was a one-person job and was assigned to a teacher-librarian, Ms. Dore. She started with history, dividing it up into year levels and topics, in Excel spreadsheet format. She kept it simple, listing topics such as ‘Ancient Egypt’,‘Vikings’, ‘The Gold Rushes’ and so on, rather than adding unnecessary detail. This was emailed to each member of the library team and was updated regularly, as new information came through. This process was completed for each subject area until an overview of the whole curriculum was achieved.

The next step was to define the type of resources that would be appropriate for use with interactive whiteboards. IWB resources may be defined as those with animation, diagrams, photographs, sound recordings, videos, quizzes and games, interactivity or significant visual content.

Once the initial work on the curriculum audit was completed, the library staff were ready to search for appropriate resources. Rather than being assigned a particular subject area, it was decided that each person could select resources for any part of the curriculum. However, each would be allocated a particular research tool, such as Weblinks, the Del.icio.us website, Scan magazine or the Victorian Education Channel, to mention a few. It would quickly become a boring task if staff were restricted to one subject only. In this way, they gained an overview of the curriculum as a whole, which was most beneficial to their work with teachers and students, as well as when they were selecting curriculum resources in general. Over a period of around six months, they gave priority to this task which resulted in the selection of approximately 900 online resources overall. This was achieved with the equivalent of 3.0 full-time staff in 2006 and 2.6 in 2007. Library staff were mindful of not neglecting their other, more traditional, responsibilities and continued to offer all their usual library programs and services.

Details of resources were emailed to the Head of Library, who compiled topic lists for each subject area and created the web pages for display on the Intranet. To avoid duplication of the URLs (uniform resource locators), these resources were sorted into alphabetical order under subject area and emailed to the library staff so they could quickly see if the resource had already been selected to avoid wasting time.

To introduce the range of new resources, the library staff presented professional development sessions to teachers in their subject area groups. The Deputy Principal, supported this initiative by arranging for replacement teachers to cover timetabled classes, thus enabling all staff to attend the sessions. Hotlists were also emailed to staff, subject lists were uploaded to the library home page on the Intranet and a ‘Request for IWB Resource’ form was pigeonholed for each teacher. During these professional development sessions, teachers were given a hard copy of the resource list in the same order as those displayed on the library home page. As each item was shown on the IWB and its features explained, teachers could mark any items that they thought would be useful in their teaching.

Over the last year, with changes to the curriculum, the resource listings have been checked for dead links, relevance and currency. After the initial compulsory professional development sessions, subject departments have been invited to hold their meetings in the library and see the latest resources that have been selected in their area of curriculum, which are displayed on the IWB. Feedback has been most positive as to the usefulness of the sites and the valued support of the library staff. At the same time, teachers have shared their resources with library staff and had them integrated into these lists.

Since 2007, the work that the library staff have done in this field has been demonstrated to many of their library colleagues outside Firbank Grammar. They have endeavoured to share their innovative approach by showing that the library has a central and significant role to play in relation to interactive whiteboards, a new technology in Australia

In conclusion, the library staff of Firbank Grammar School decided “to boldly go where no man has gone before”, to quote Star Trek. There was no precedent to follow and so, at each stage of the process, they discussed what the options were and which one was most appropriate. It was a real team effort. Their aim was to centralize the resource lists so that they could be easily accessible to staff and students and would therefore enhance teaching and learning using interactive whiteboards. Their reward has been an increased profile within and outside the school as well as a closer relationship with teachers, who have been most appreciative of their efforts to assist them in their work with interactive whiteboards.

It is vital that school libraries remain central to a school’s main business: that of teaching and learning. It is vital that teacher-librarians ‘seize the day’ and be innovative and proactive when new technologies are introduced into their schools.

By Ms. Laraine Stephens