Diversity in the Media Center

Diversity means how we differ in terms of race, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or other forms. Schools are changing and are now faced with educating a diverse population of students with learning issues. As part of the public school education, the media program is made available to all students. Therefore, I think that the media program should support diversity regardless of how children differ, to develop literacy skills. As educators, we must be prepared to accommodate all children in this changing society.

Most of the centers that I’ve visited do provide a collection of print and electronic resources to address different ethnic group awareness and interests. Although, what’s offered would largely depend upon the population of the school. So far, I haven’t seen any assistive technology for students with disabilities. Again, that would also depend on whether there is a need for it.

Media specialists could find ways to accommodate students with diverse needs with technology resources. A listening station with a CD player and headset could be set up for ESL students. Free visual and audio software could be downloaded for visual and hearing impaired students. Web pages could be developed to include print and online resources to address different forms diversity as well. Students could use these resources at school and at home. Our school district uses SOLO for our special needs students. SOLO is an assistive technology software that includes a text reader. The Technology Specialist could install this software on one of the computers in the media center. The Media Specialist could also collaborate with the teacher and the Assistive Technology Specialist for the school district to install devices like a switch on a computer. These devices could assist students with speech and physical impairments.

It is important that we understand our students with diverse needs and help by creating a supportive learning environment that allows for opportunities to learn.

e-books and Digital Storytelling

Some thoughts on e-books are that it would be awesome if a company could create a version that would allow it to be affordable to all students (of course this will probably never occur). Then students could have their own e-book and have access to the e-book collection that the media center could purchase or the media center could have access to the 33,000 free e-books through Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page ) and then students could check out their own books and it would be automatically returned to the media center at the due date. There would be no concern for losing the books and never getting them back. The e-book would be the property of the student so it would be their responsibility to care for it. There is also a possibility that a grant could be written to acquire the money to purchase some e-books.

Some concern with the e-book seems to be that because of its creation there is a possibility of it replacing physical copies of books and then the media center will have nothing to shelve. I honestly do not see that this would happen. There is always going to be a need for having an actual book that you can hold on to and put in your bookshelf. I personally prefer to read from an actual book but e-books could be a great addition to a media center, especially in today’s generation. Children today have been raised on technology so it is natural for them to gravitate to an e-book. My daughter has her own Kindle that she reads often but yet she still enjoys reading actual books also.

The benefit of an e-book is that it can hold a lot of books (up to 3,500 for the new Kindle) in a small compact system and it is easily portable. With e-books you can access over 725,000 books including audio books, periodicals, and blogs (information retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=6533262216&ref=pd_sl_1aem4eussc_e ). Some e-books have a read-to-me feature that converts text to speech; this could be extremely helpful to ESOL students. These are all great features that make e-books attractive; I still do not think that they will ever replace hard copy books, especially picture books. Who doesn’t love to sit down with children and share with them a wonderful story with beautiful pictures out of a picture book? There is something special about this and I do not think that holding an electronic device and reading it to children would have the same feeling.

I spent a day at a middle school media center this week and the media specialist stated that she currently does not have any physical e-books, she would love to get some but the budget does not allow it right now. They do however use the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Digital Library of Georgia, the Encyclopedia Universal en Espanol, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, of which all of these resources can be accessed through their school webpage.

Just as e-books could be a great addition to a media center, digital storytelling could be a great resource that teachers and students could create. Teachers could create a digital story that is 5-10 minutes long that would introduce students to the topic that is going to be taught, this could be a great way to grab the students attention and get them interested in the lesson. Students could also use digital stories to present the information that they have learned on a topic. This would be a great way to display this information. The media center could assist by having a tutorial posted on their webpage going through the steps of how to create a digital story. They could also post digital stories on their website that others could see and comment on.

There is so much technology that is available to media centers today and the key is to be able to figure out which technology will be able to enhance instruction without taking a lot of time away from the educational process. Anything that can grab a students’ attention and make them want to read and learn new things we should be incorporating into our media programs.

Technology Training

To teachers, professional development means more time taken away from an already busy schedule. At my school, a middle school, professional development is mandatory on Fridays. Teachers are reluctant to attend, because it’s usually something else that they might have to do and the amount of time involved is another issue. Technology is usually not included on the agenda. Occasionally, the media specialist sends an email to teachers about learning new technology like Animoto to use in their classrooms. Teachers are invited to the media center during planning times or after school on certain days for training. In speaking with the media specialist, many teachers do not respond due to time constraints. However, he does post technology tools and cool websites for the classroom on the school's media center web page. The media specialist does not offer technology training workshops since we have a Tech Specialist, and she usually keeps the staff abreast of technology training in the District. The Tech Specialist also sends out Tech Tips through the school’s email.
Moreover, since teachers are busy during and after school, as a media specialist I would request to briefly meet with teachers during their regular scheduled meetings. Beforehand, I would find out what technology topics teachers would be interested in learning by conducting a survey. Based on the results, I would do a quick overview of the topic at the meeting and follow-up with “How to Tutorials” on the media center’s web page for teachers to learn at school or at home in their spare time. Teaching strategies, requests, feedback will also be a part of the webpage along with links to the technology tools.
Dos and Don’ts to consider:
Do offer continuous support.
Do offer quick and simple training.
Do a needs assessment to determine the needs of teachers.
Don’t offer technology training that’s not relevant.
Don’t make training lengthy and overwhelming.
Don’t just teach how to use the technology, but also how to use it in the classroom.