Kirkland, A.B. (2009).
The school library learning commons: Are we “virtually” there? School
Libraries in Canada, 27, 28-30.
Retrieved from www.clatoolbox.ca/casl/ slic/
In this
article, Kirkland begins by examining the evolution of the traditional school
library from a passive space, serving as a book depository/“study hall” into a
proactive, collaborative space that is the central social and academic hub of
the entire learning community. The virtual learning commons (“VLC”) represents the
ultimate extension of the modern library space, designed to maximize
accessibility and flexibility, so as to accommodate all manner of instructional
learning experiences. Kirkland explains how Professor Loertscher, one of the
foremost proponents of the evolving learning commons, distinguishes between the
new VLC and the traditional library website by highlighting the interactive,
collaborative nature of the former, as made possible through the use of Web 2.0
technologies such as wikis, shared documents, and blogs.
Beyond merely
providing the defining characteristics of the VLC, Kirkland also offers a few
key guidelines to increase the efficacy and appeal of the website for users. By
examining the search habits of users, it becomes clear that users rely upon the
satisficing—that is, the principle of exerting the least amount of effort—to
accept results that are the most easily attained, although they may not be the
most useful or of highest quality. Knowing this, VLC designers should make
every effort to make quality information as easily accessible as possible, in
addition to ensuring that the audio/visual format users encounter is
attractive, interactive, and simple to navigate. As Kirkland notes, although
the VLC is emerging as the school library’s “frontline” encounter for users,
most schools have yet to establish a significant online presence; there are
solutions school districts can take to remedy burdening school librarians with
the sole responsibility of designing and managing web the website and its
content, however. The plan proposed by Kirkland involves school districts
organizing collaboratively built library websites supported through a
district-wide content management system: the district pushes relevant
just-in-time information to all school sites, while teacher librarians at each
site have the ability to create more specific, school related content.
Meanwhile, school librarians across the district will divide the responsibility
of designing information literacy instruction, to be shared across the board,
in an ongoing, collaborative process.
The model
described by Kirkland represents the most balanced approach to dividing
responsibilities and resources across a school district that I have come across
to date, which maintains continuity between in-district schools while still
allowing individual learning community cultures to customize content and
features, as desired. After years of most school districts advocating a “do
what you will” attitude which places full control—and full responsibility—on the
shoulders of individual school librarians, rather than establishing a template
and distributing the weight of accountability evenly amongst the primary
stakeholders. I suppose this isn’t surprising since the importance of the
virtual learning commons has only relatively recently been recognized as having
the significance it’s currently being recognized as holding; however, I know
that it’s going to take more research and time for this method to unfold, and
the results of its practice to be recorded and analyzed, so I can’t just
blindly rejoice that this plan is “the” plan…in the meantime, however, it still
represents the best most promising strategy I’ve come across to date. I am
definitely interested in learning more about what the concrete, discrete implementations
of this design actually look like though, and am going to keep searching for
other articles about this same topic.
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