Technology in Education and the Librarian's Role in Ensuring Its Use

          Technology is a large part of education in today's world. It is used to present information in different ways, explain concepts, and help to develop students' understanding of content. When considering the use of technology in education, it is also important to consider how school personnel, librarians in particular, can help to ensure its effective integration.

          When considering the use of technology in the classroom, it is important to consider the benefits that students will reap. Technology contributes to developing the multiple literacies needed for students to learn from and with technology, which is a crucial skill in the modern world (American Association of School Librarians, 2007). According to Berger (2010), technology can help to create engaging and active learning experiences for students to participate in. Similarly, students can interact with information using modern technology in ways that simply were not possible in the past (Wiske, 2006). This enables them to better analyze and interpret information. To that end, technology also supports inquiry-based learning, which helps students become critical thinkers as well as independent learners, both skills emphasized by the Standards for the 21st Century Learner (Berger, 2010; American Association of School Librarians, 2007). Technology offers not only new ways of accomplishing familiar tasks, but enable students and teachers alike to complete new and meaningful tasks.

          Given the benefits of technology, it is important for librarians to be an integral part of ensuring its integration into education. Perhaps the most obvious way for librarians to do so is to become familiar with new technologies and their educational applications. In turn, librarians can show teachers how to effectively use them (Wiske, 2006). Given the emphasis on inquiry-based learning and its use of technology, librarians can offer their support by changing the setup of libraries as much as possible to provide opportunities for this type of learning, such as providing areas for students to collaborate or creating places to easily access electronic resources such as online databases (Berger, 2010). Librarians can also help provide students and teachers with new ways to share information, which is important for students as well as teachers to be able to do effectively (American Association of School Librarians, 2007). Similarly, librarians can help plan different ways to best utilize technology as it is acquired for schools (Wiske, 2006). This means that librarians help determine the best ways to use limited resources to ensure that all students can benefit. Lastly, librarians can help by collaborating with teachers to find ways to meaningfully integrate technology into instruction as well as modeling effective uses of technology (Berger, 2010). In these ways, librarians can assume an active role in integrating technology into the classroom.

          Technology is a large part of the world today, and because of this, it is important for students and teachers alike to know how to use it. When effectively integrated into instruction, technology can have large benefits for students, ensuring that they develop the multiple literacies necessary for success in today's world. Librarians can help achieve this end by advocating and facilitating the use of technology in education.  

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21st century learner. Retrieved from: http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2007.pdf

Berger, P. (2010). Inquiry, learning and web 2.0. Information Searcher, 19(3), 1-3, 26. Retrieved from: http://www.infosearcher.com/

Wiske, M. S. (2006). Teaching for meaningful learning with new technologies. In E. A. Ashburn, & R. E. Floden (Eds.), Meaningful learning using technology: What educators need to know and do (pp. 26-44). New York: Teachers College Press.