Inquiry Post #4: Use of Mobile Devices in Developing Countries for Literacy

What can a mobile device be used for? 

Almost every student in the high school where I teach has a smart phone of some sort. Student use and access to these devices is hotly debated. Students have access in some classes and no access in others. Students use cell phones in many non-productive ways from constant texting to bullying. But they can be employed for educational purposes as well. Our Library Learning Commons does not restrict cell phone usage. It would be a losing battle and a constant source of confrontation with students. Instead our policy is that school devices—desktop and laptop computers and IPads—are for educational purposes and students need to use their personal devices for other activities. We do encourage students to “Bring Their Own Device” however this policy has limitations. Students cannot log on and print from their own device so they are then forced to email the work to their school account, log onto a divisional computer and print the work. As we move to OneDrive and an e-share platform, my hope is that this process will be easier to manage.



Last year our WIFI network was upgraded to make room for all of the devices that log onto it daily. There are still times where there isn’t enough bandwidth and students are asked to take their phones off of WIFI in order to allow classrooms to connect and work.


I was pretty surprised to find that almost everyone in developing countries has a mobile phone. According to the UNESCO report, Reading in the mobile era,"Recent data from the United Nations indicate that of the estimated 7 billion people on Earth, over 6 billion now have access to a working mobile phone (p. 16).” Cell phone use has continued to grow throughout the past 5 years. In developing countries were access to books is limited, mobile devices are filling some of the gaps in literacy. In the video link below, one of the authors of the UNESCO report explains how inexpensive and accessible mobile devices make reading. An open access book that can be read on a mobile device can cost as little as two or three cents. While the same book in paper would be approximately ten dollars.                                    

Video: Reading in the mobile era

There are a significant number of projects to improve literacy and numeracy in developing countries. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) implemented a “mobile phone based literacy and numeracy program…conducted in two regions in Niger (Aker p. 2-3). Niger is a region with a very low literacy rate. “Close to 90 percent of adults in the regions are illiterate, and male and female literacy rates are estimated to be 15 and 7.5 percent, respectively (Aker p. 6).” The project ran for two years. The results showed significant increases in both literacy and numeracy. “These results suggest that simple and relatively cheap information and communication technology can serve as an effective and sustainable learning tool...” (Aker p.1).

So, in the end are cell phones or books the answer to improving literacy in developing countries? Both have benefits. Books are difficult to ship, they do not survive harsh climate conditions, and only one person at a time can use them. But the pleasure of sitting and becoming deeply absorbed in a book is hard to duplicate by cell phone use.
Mobile devices allow access to resources from around the world. They democratize knowledge, but it is hard to focus on just the book at hand. Text messages and notifications can be constant interruptions. Maybe a combination of both books and smart devices will serve developing and developed nations best.

Works cited

Aker, Jenny C., et al. “ABC, 123: The Impact of a Mobile Phone Literacy Program on Educational Outcomes.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2010, doi:10.2139/ssrn.1694142.

Marc Smith. Mobile West Africa . Johannesburg, South Africa, 13 Oct. 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/4018314144. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019.

Mark West, and EI Chew Han. “Reading in the Mobile Era: A Study of mobile reading in developing countries.” UNESCO, 22 May 2014, unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000227436.

Reading in the Mobile Era, UNESCO, 22 Apr. 2014, youtu.be/4gOtpCIl-Ng.

Inquiry Post #3: Teaching the Teachers and ICT

Supporting Teachers' ICT curriculum and Pedagogy: On-going Professional Development

Image: Irish Computer Society https://www.ics.ie/news/view/1727 

One of the most important jobs as TL is to teach teachers as well as students. One of the best ways to do this is through collaboration. But how do teachers know that the teacher-librarian wants to collaborate with them when the teacher-library doesn’t always have a platform for informing the staff about opportunities.

What can the TL do to make a difference in this area?

A.   Provide instruction and ideas in casual ways.

A teacher-librarian is a teacher first. In the case of ICT the teacher-librarian often must focus on getting teachers to be comfortable with and able to use technology. (This is a stretch for me since I am working on mastering much of the technology myself.) For this to work the teacher-librarian has to be seen as someone they are comfortable working with. I try always to casually frame the introduction to new technology in a “we are in this together,” “let’s figure it out” kind of way.

In the hallways, I might suggest an app I learned about or I send an email with a link to something that might enhance the curriculum in a class. I also include an invitation to work with me to figure out how the technology will fit into their course.

B.   Provide support for ICT in more formal way.

I sometimes have the chance to share information at the staff meeting and I use these opportunities to introduce staff to a new app or another technology idea. I always close with an invitation to anyone who wants to work with me.

During Professional Development days I have worked on different sessions. I prepared a BreakoutEDU game to introduce our staff to the SAMR model.

Duckworth, Sylvia. BreakoutEdu Sketchnote.  https://cooltoolsforschool.net/breakoutedu/

As well, I ran a session highlighting 10 apps to improve literacy. I continue to look for opportunities like these to share tech information with my colleagues. I have asked my administrator if it is possible to put me on the agenda every month. Next year we are going to a new format for staff meeting to take place. Students will have a late start to school every Wednesday and our staff meetings will take place one of these Wednesday’s every month. At least one of the other three late starts is designated for professional development. I am going to volunteer to provide a monthly session focusing on technology.

I think that two barriers to teacher’s experimenting and using new (for them) technology in the classroom are fear of failure and lack of time. Teachers fear appearing incompetent and losing the respect of the students. If something goes awry in their class, staff don’t want to be seen a lacking in skill.

As well, teachers often have ideas but no time to learn the technology and plan to implement it in class. I am happy to go into the class, do the tech piece with the students and work out the problems as they surface. This provides the teachers with a learning experience without risk and works around the time crunch issue as well.

C.    Broadcast success, in other words, share your successful projects.        In my previous course in the LIBE degree program we learned about advocacy. An important realization for me was that part of advocacy involves broadcasting the ways in which you, as teacher-librarian, can collaborate with teachers for student successes. It feels like bragging to say with whom I worked and how successful we were in a specific project. But I recognize that this is one of the ways that teachers can see what types of things the TL can work on with them. At our latest staff meeting, I shared information about an infographics project I worked. I also posted it on Instagram, talked about it at a program area meeting. I am now working on a similar project with another teacher.

D.   Our new staff calendar publishes which staff are attending Professional development sessions. In order to improve our professional development section in the library, I have encouraged staff to make a list of resources that they would like the library to buy so that they can continue with their learning and so that other teachers can have access to new ideas. I plan to continue this process. 

E.   And finally, a number of teachers have expressed an interest in learning over lunch hour or after school (maybe). I think this will be a great opportunity to meet some of the professional development needs of the staff.

Inquiry Post #2: How I learned to stop worrying and love ICT

I have been a French teacher for a long time. One of the ways the students get better at speaking in French is by speaking, so I build in activities that allow them to practice and get better by using the language they are learning. They take risks and are rewarded by significant improvement and comfort in an additional language.


So now it's my turn. This is the exact process that is happening for me in LIBE 477. I need to improve my skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and this course in one of the ways I am doing it. It is difficult because there is risk involved—the risk of looking stupid; the risk of feeling foolish; the risk of getting it wrong publicly…but because Information and Communication Technology Skills are an area where growth is necessary, I have chosen to participate in these technology learning experiences. In the past month I have created and posted several times on a blog, inserted links and photos, made a twitter account (no posts yet!), posted consistently on Instagram, joined three google hangouts. Doing each of these activities was scary the first time, but it has gotten a little easier each subsequent time.


Manitoba Education and Training Curriculum has a Learning with ICT Model.

This model can be linked to the list of “21st century literacies” (Richardson location 177).  Students have to “manage, analyze and synthesize.” (Richardson location, 177). They have to “question, design and share” (Richardson location 177). ICT is implemented as a continuum of skills throughout all curricular areas and from K-12. In this, teacher-librarians are ideally situated to help other staff and students, so I need to be developing more skills in this area.

In order to continue to develop my skills, outside of the course requirements, I have taken a few steps. First, I’ve signed up for a school committee that will force me to learn new technology skills. Committee members will be in-serviced on new applications available in the division and then we will help other staff members to learn these new skills.

In order to connect with others, I am a member of the Manitoba School Library Association. The MSLA offers workshops and I've signed up for one in March called: Teaching Information Literacy Skills in the Age of Fake News.

In my previous UBC course we signed up to receive messages through LM_Net. I find reading the information helps inform me of current issues in Teacher-Librarianship. There are often posts about useful applications and other technology.

A few weeks into this course I can agree that “There’s obviously a learning curve to this (and there are just so many hours in the day). But these technologies are within almost anyone’s grasp” (Richardson, Location 408).

Bibliography

Creative Commons Technology Image: https://pixabay.com/en/technology-information-digital-2082642/

Richardson, Will (2012). Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere (Kindle Single). Ted Conferences.

“The LwICT Model.” Manitoba Education and Training, Government of Manitoba, www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/resources/posters/index.html

So READ already! LIBE 477 Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools

Inquiry Blog Post #1

It has become more of a challenge to get some students at high school to read and to value reading. At my school, the grade 9’s are our most active readers. Coming from middle school, they are used to book exchange and to an expectation that they will always have a book on the go. As well, in their middle schools they had much reduced access to their cell phones and much less “free” time. This changes at high school. The students come to the library learning commons to hangout, sleep, connect with friends, do homework and sometimes take out a book. We still have many die-hard readers, but it isn’t unusual for a student to tell me for me that they don’t read!

I recently spoke to a number of students in grades 11 and 12 and asked them what they were reading in English, and what books they had read and enjoyed. Almost all of them confessed that they didn’t really read the books assigned to them in class. Some of these students were in the highest-level English  courses. 

Video: Penny Kittle: Why Students Don't Read What is Assigned in Class

Sometimes I wonder if this is what assigned books look like to them--an array of bits of information, the organization of which is confusing, and requiring significant effort to make meaningful.

https://www.dreamstime.com/creativecommonsstockphotos_info

Public domain image Scrabble Tiles with Letters.

So, what to do? What to do? How to create a culture of reading in the school?

The video illustrates how each of the students improved in the number of books and the number of pages they read when one change was made and they were given choice. Teachers often teach a whole class novel. There are many benefits to this method. According to Kate Roberts, “Having the support of a teacher and a class of peers when reading a book can lift the level of our  thinking and can hold our attention in ways that sometimes reading on our own does not “(Roberts p. 11). 

However, if students don’t read the book any potential benefit is lost. This semester I will be working with a class of grade 11 English. We are beginning with a whole class novel, but then the students will be moving to individual choice novels with similar themes.  I hope that students will want to continue to explore the themes and ideas from the novel with additional books, articles, short stories and poetry.

Sometimes students don’t choose a book because they have difficulties making choices. I think book talks might be a way to focus on books they would be interested in. In high school, students choose option courses. Working from the premise that they are interested in these courses and might, by extension, be interested in reading more about the ideas presented in these courses, I am compiling reading lists of books, fiction and non-fiction. I hope to have at least a couple of these lists ready for second semester—next week. I’ll pull the books and take them to the classes for book talks. This is an idea adapted from Penny Kittle’s book Book Love. In chapter five, “The Power of the Book Talk” she advocates talking about three to five books at the beginning of class to introduce students to many different books. For example, if you like psychology, you might want to read The Silver Linings Playbook, School of Fear, or Freaking Out: Real Life Stories about Anxiety. Since I am not a classroom teacher I will go in only once or twice a asemester and ste the list of books that way. 

Bibliography

Kittle, Penny. Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers. Heinemann,  2013.

Penny Kittle. YouTube, 15 Mar. 2010, youtu.be/gokm9RUr4ME.

Roberts, Kate. A Novel Approach: Whole-Class Novels, Student-Centered Teaching, and Choice. Heinemann, 2018.