Standards.
I can hear the collective groan at the faculty meeting already, but all educators know that standards have an important role in ensuring equitable education. While I started reading about AASL and ISTE standards with skepticism, I soon realized that many of the standards share many of the themes that I hear about in education on a regular basis: student-led, project-based, real-world application.
Many of the standard strands had similar wording but seemed to stem from differing philosophies. ISTE seems focused on librarians providing learning experiences for students, while AASL seems focused on students creating their own learning experiences. The ownership shifts to the students in the AASL standards, even from the perspective of the librarian role. I was especially interested that the “Curate” foundation was much more extensive in the National School Library Standards. This shows the focus on student-led initiatives. This chart offers a great overview of the crossover in the two sets of standards.
A key application of these standards in a school library is what Jenna Spiering refers to as “including learners in an important process” (p.48). The goal is student achievement, and while the standards pursue this goal from different angles, they both challenge students to create. And this is the goal. The standards are interlocked and connect with academic standards as well. As succinctly pointed out by Calypso Gilstrap, “Students must practice desired workplace skills, including the ability to adapt to new technologies and to communicate, collaborate, and think, while maintaining a high level of research skills” (p. 32). While the methods may change and evolve, the heart of school librarianship remains the same.
School librarians are here for the students!
I definitely agree with you that the ISTE and AASL standards allow for students to take ownership of their learning and engage in more student led opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI noticed so many different areas of the standards where the indicators overlapped and could be used in conjunction with each other. The standards could be used together to facilitate many student led learning goals.
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI agree the AASL standards do seem more focused on students creating their own learning experience. I like that they also share how the librarian can help guide the standards. I was also surprised to see the difference in standards for curation. For the learner, both standards were similar. However, the ISTE standards were insufficient in providing guidance for educators. I think it is very important for librarians or educators to demonstrate to students the curation process.
Stephanie Sulton
I completely agree that the ISTE and AASL standards are much like other standards in that they are student led and project based. The biggest difference that I noticed is the obvious that the ISTE requires the use of digital tools for student learning. As mentioned above, I wish the ISTE standards gave better guidance for educators like the AASL standards do. As a teacher, I like to know what I can do to help my students master what the standards expects of them.
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