Linda Liukas: A delightful way to teach kids about computers School libraries enhancing student wellbeing - SCIS The story of one of our students, Anna, demonstrates how student wellness can increase in a safe, welcoming environment where there is freedom to explore, play, and create. Anna has been coming to our library for a few years before school and during lunchtime. She is a sporty girl, but reserved. Last year, Anna entered the Ekka (The Royal Queensland Show) competition, which involved designing a toy. The school library serves the whole-school community by providing and supporting events like author visits, Readers Cup competitions, parent functions, professional presentations, social nights, hobby nights, and the list goes on. References Image credits Supplied by St Aidan's Anglican Girls’ School
Examine What Makes a Literacy in the May/June Issue A few years ago, at an ALA Annual Conference, I found myself experiencing a very peculiar day. Besides my standard sessions on information literacy, I attended sessions on civic literacy and news literacy, as well. There were conversations in hallways about digital literacy, but also about disciplinary literacy and financial literacy. In the May/June issue of Knowledge Quest, we endeavor to shed light on why and how to teach specific literacies and to look at the larger question of how these seemingly disparate areas might jigsaw nicely into a meaningful and attainable school library program. Reference Thomas, Sue, et al. About the Guest Editors Tasha Bergson-Michelson is the instructional and programming librarian at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California. Jole Seroff is director of library and information services at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California. Read their Guest Editor Column “What Makes a Literacy?” Table of Contents Features Online Exclusive Articles Column Departments
Sugata Mitra: Slum chic? 7 reasons for doubt This is a Sigatra Mitra ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’ site in India. Literally just three holes in a wall. That’s because it failed. Here’s another, set in a school playground, the computers long gone. My own research into a hole-in-the-wall project uncovered the same story - empty holes in the wall, resentful teachers and testimonies that claimed the whole project was a faulure from start to finish. Doubts My own doubts arose when I gave a TEDx talk and the speaker after me was an academic from Mitra’s department at Newcastle University. 1. Few realise that hole-in-the-wall funding came originally from from NIIT then the International Finance Corporation, a commercial Indian e-learning company and the for-profit side of the World Bank. 2. Arora, although not totally unsympathetic to the Hole-in-the-wall project, exposed a glaring weakness in the design of the experiment. 3. “Schools are obsolete” said Mitra – oh yeah? 4. 5. Warschauer (2003) is even more critical than Arora. 6. 7.