Here we are, in the midst of completing our initial introductory phase of our Innovations for Media Specialists course. I am the only participant that is not a media specialist yet. No experience; just here because of the result of acting out on a well-cultivated impulse to spend the last phase of my professional career in a library.
My first impression as I got started is the fact that even though I am tech-savvy and I know the theoretical aspects of information theory and informatics; I know nothing about media centers. As I perused through the first of the suggested readings, self-doubt certainly became prevalent. What have I gotten myself into? But then again so many different resources were pointing me in a direction I am so well aware of. Information is everywhere. The different means for searching for it are evolving. (How many times had I shared Shift Happens with our teachers at school?)The Pipeline articles by Abram reaffirmed the numerous workshops and articles I had written for our staff as I tried to convince them that the collaborative prowess of Web 2.o tools should be harnessed and used in education. But they also introduced me to a cleaner definition of Web 3.0 and suddenly my head started to spin as I began to form conjectures on what that would mean for our classrooms. In my youth I took courses in Artificial Intelligence and now Web 3.0 might just start incorporating many of those principles of natural language processing and knowledge bases into organizing information and into personalization. Mobile is something schools cannot ignore. (Why so many restrictions on the use of iphones and blackberries?) Semantic webs and personalization will direct students into the right or wrong directions more readily. What if students cannot convey to their machines the right way they should search? Good grief! A budding disaster that would probably take eons of time -from a computer's perspective- to correct if personalization really takes hold! Now more than ever it is imperative for us to develop information skills! Web 3.0 might make things easier but it also has that potential to make things much worse if not used "correctly." But from a tech point of view, I still believe that the evolution and maturation of 3.0 is farther away than the hype pretends it to be. Nevertheless as educators we should be prepared.
One of the participants blatantly pointed out how limited we are in trying to keep up with technolgy. Sister, we cannot keep up with it. Not individually. Maybe collectively as this course has proven. I was introduced to at least a dozen more search engines that I had never heard about as I followed some of the readings that in turn led me to go to other cited articles. Question: What search engines should we sponsor at a given time? Has anyone written any guidelines as to evaluating the validity of search engines for K-12 schools? Maybe that is something media specialists have to include within their job description.
Of course the allotment of responsibility for producing digitally competent students is probably greater on the shoulders of the media specialist than elsewhere. A great revelation for me. I seemed to have gotten that point when I read the AALA standards. Now I have to square my shoulders as I try to convey this to the administration. Again I ponder on why I gave into that guarded impulse to work in a library. Perhaps it was because I saw that the library at my school was not being used to its potential and the administration visibly manifested no clue as to how it could really grow into a hub of learning. I have had so much support from them on my technology plans that I am sure they will readily support efforts in this direction. Now with standards in hand, there is a "higher authority" backing me up in what I will have to present at the beginning of the school year. I had the hunch but blessed be the standards and guidelines that "prove" things!
As a non-American I have interestingly viewed from the sidelines the discussion on NCLB and the media specialist cut-down crisis. Those are not realities in private schools here in Colombia and are sadly non-issues in our public schools that rarely have libraries. But the principles used in defending our profession teach invaluable lessons. Media specialists have to be up-to-date, ready for service, nurturing their "customers" and taking actions that clearly state how important they are to developing literacy and 21st century skills. We could never let our guard down!
The experience I had when trying to purchase "The World is Flat" tickled me! No sir, the world is still not totally flat. If you live in Latin America an e-reader such as the Kindle diminishes in its power because of copyright rules. Why? No clue -although I sheepishly confess that I should know this on account of becoming a media specialist. Anyway, to not be able to purchase the book because of my geographical situation blunted the sharp edge and dramatic proclamations the book makes. Not living in America or Europe does give me some a different perspective on knowledge/information acquisition. Here another anecdote:

My parents knew the restrictions that their children would have if they were brought up in Barranquilla, so they decided, when I was a few months old and my brother barely three, to pack up and move temporarily to New York City. They had no family or friends there, just a wish to expose us to the world in our childhood years. The plan was to return once we became adolescents and live the rest of their lives in Colombia. So we went. In fourth grade I was given a social studies assignment on Antonio Pigafetta. We were on a unit on explorers and conquistadores and each one of us had to write a report, make a poster board and give an oral presentation on a famous historical character. When I received the paper -after having seen Christopher Columbus being given to my seat companion called Chris- and the teacher pronounced the name, I looked at her in disbelief and asked, "Antonio Piga-WHO?" Well, the teacher looked at me uncomfortably and I just sat down. My search began. I went to the school library and Mrs. Cartwright, my hero, looked at me and said, "Antonio Piga-WHO?" No luck there, nor in the local branch library, so my parents had to take me to the adult section of the New York City Public Library. With the help of a team of about four librarians I finally was able to get a paragraph on my man. I learned he was the guy who wrote the diary of Magellan's trip around the world and not much more. So with a lot of imagination -no paintings of him- I researched Magellan's trip and extrapolated. Move two decades forward. I was working in the Information Center of the Universidad del Norte and testing for the first time Gopher on the Internet. I was requested to search for something so I resurrected my pet peeve and wrote Antonio Pigafetta. (Colleagues crowded around me said, "Antonio Piga-QUIEN?") I got more than 100 hits and boy, did I ever smile. When I moved back to Barranquilla, I personally knew how disconnected I had become from the world, now this simple exercise with the Internet made me sleep better at night because I knew that most of my potential queries could be met! My world got flatter! (By the way, I still hold this pet peeve so every once and again I check out Antonio Pigafetta...the last count gave me more than 150,000 references and yes, I have read his diary, taken a virtual tour of his home and seen documentaries on his somewhat exaggerated allegations).
I have used this anecdote in the past to illustrate to teachers how the set of skills that students should develop has metamorphed over the years. I usually turn it into a brainstorming section where everyone lists the skills that a ten-year old is faced with today given the same assignment. Ummm....it seems I have been partially playing the role of a media specialist without knowing it all along!
Let's see what other discoveries I could make as we advance along this course!