Makerspaces in the School Library

This week we read about Makerspaces and how they can be implemented in the school library. In addition to our readings, I liked the blog post from “Don’t Shush Me: Adventures of a 21st century High School Librarian” called “Low Tech Makerspace in the H.S. Library”. https://dontyoushushme.com/2021/11/16/low-tech-makerspace-in-the-h-s-library/

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What I liked about the post is that the librarian details the transformation of the media center that she inherited. She goes through the steps it took to bring a traditional library space that was quiet and unwelcoming to vibrant and flexible. This included adding in elements of a makerspace over time. I enjoyed reading about her measured approach. She first realizes that the students need brain breaks and social time in the library. So instead of just buying a 3D printer and calling it a day, this librarian realized she needed firstly to welcome more students into the library with some collaborative games.I love the idea of having games accessible in the library, and have seen them used abundantly in the high school library in which I work. Chess in particular is having a real moment right now, and puzzles and big coloring pages always seem to draw in the kids.
When this librarian had a handle on her new space, she put out a survey of her new community. This idea came up as a common theme in this week’s readings and resources. A library, media center and makerspace should meet the needs of the community that it serves. Or as she states in her blog post, “This is why needs assessments are so critical, we don’t want to waste our time trying to get the library to provide resources and experiences that are already being provided elsewhere in the school community.” (2021) In their small study of librarians, Moorefield-Lang and Coker (2019, p.374) found that, “As with makerspaces in library settings, no two makerspaces in a school or department of library and information science were the same. Each faculty member had their own audience, technology, lens, and plan for implementation for their maker learning location. Common themes that emerged during the interviews were implementation, curriculum, and partnerships.”
This particular librarian’s survey results came back that students wanted low-tech tactile crafty maker projects, and she was able to get a sizable grant to have so many fun consumables and non-consumables to offer. We librarians don’t want to make the mistake of going all-in on technology-based maker products if the students already have a robotics lab and technology classes where they learn coding. On the flip side, the library could be a great place for students’ first dip into the technology-enhanced maker movement. We need data and observations to decide what is appropriate for our library space. “...libraries might not be the right fit for patrons desiring deeper, more specialized, or more expert engagement and that hand-offs to other organizations may be more appropriate at that stage.” (Fontichiaro, p. 52)
If you search for other posts with the “makerspace” tag, this blog has some great ideas for other low-tech projects for the high school library.
As a bonus resource, I also found the libguide called The Compassionate Maker. She is a high school librarian who has curated a ton of useful projects that utilize the maker movement for doing good deeds. I can see using a high school makerspace for student service learning projects, community service credit hours, National Honor Society work, and a way for the students to connect to the greater community.

https://hslibguides.islipufsd.org/c.php?g=805963&p=5751399

Resources

Bogan, K. (2021, November, 16). Don’t shush me! https://dontyoushushme.com/2021/11/16/low-tech-makerspace-in-the-h-s-library/

Fontichiaro, K. (2019, April) What I’ve learned from 7 years of the maker movement in schools and libraries. Teacher Librarian 46 (4). pp 51-53.

Moorefield-Lang, H. & Coker, M. (2019). How to make a maker librarian. Journal of New Librarianship. 4. pp. 371-379.

Seymour, G. (2021, February 10). The compassionate maker. https://hslibguides.islipufsd.org/c.php?g=805963&p=5751399

Cyberbullying

The thing that stood out to me this week is that cyberbullying is prevalent and insidious. It is easy to do and hard to prove. In the story, “I trolled someone on Ask.fm” from the Seven Digital Deadly Sins (NFB), the writer references using a proxy to remain anonymous which I didn’t know kids knew how to do. She shows us that if a bully really wants to get away with certain behaviors, they can.

The ways to address cyberbullying are similar to the ways in which bullying should be addressed. I think the strategy should be threefold: address the parents/guardians to be aware of students’ online quantity and behavior, address the staff to be a welcoming, empathetic ear, and address the students to speak up if they are a victim or if they know of bullying behavior from others. Additionally, librarians and media technology teachers can educate students on online privacy issues and anti-bullying strategies.

Parents and guardians are the first line of defense against bullying and cyberbullying. The online behaviors that students learn at home will certainly influence their own online behavior. One of the videos I watched led me to the website StopBullying.gov (HHS) which had a lot of great suggestions for parents (HHS, 2021):

• Monitor a teen’s social media sites, apps, and browsing history, if you have concerns that cyberbullying may be occurring.

• Review or re-set your child’s phone location and privacy settings.

• Follow or friend your teen on social media sites or have another trusted adult do so.

• Stay up-to-date on the latest apps, social media platforms, and digital slang used by children and teens.

• Know your child’s user names and passwords for email and social media.

• Establish rules about appropriate digital behavior, content, and apps.

As librarian-teachers, we can always remind parents of these ideas in our newsletters.

One of the videos, “Let’s Fight It Together” (ChildNet, 2008) started with a young boy filming himself and declaring that he had no one to talk to about his experience with cyberbullying. Luckily his mother eventually found out about the situation and confronted the school administration. But imagine feeling like no one at school would listen or help? Teachers, staff and school administrators need to position themselves as open and ready to listen and support students who are being cyberbullied. Forming relationships is key to this point. Knowing what the warning signs are for bullying is also important. Staff can observe dramatic changes in social circles, behaviors and friend relationships and reach out if they sense danger. In that same video, it shows a friendly teacher noticing that the student has changed and is sitting alone, and she sits down to see if he’s ok. But she doesn’t linger, and moves on. 

Students themselves can get involved in shutting down cyberbullying. If they do not tolerate bullying online, it will only help other students. Perhaps they don’t think of forwarding messages or lightly teasing “friends” online is bullying. But students don’t always know the total story of how often it is happening to someone. 

Many of the videos for this week’s module were flash mob style anti-bullying dances, or produced dramatic re-enactments of school bullying or cyberbullying. An amazing example of this is the Cypress Ranch High School Anti-Bullying Lip Dub “Who Do U Think U R?” (2012). It seemed to be the least cringe-worthy one, and had an uplifting feel to it. I think the value of these videos and the scenes they portray is not really in their replay value, but rather in the feelings and conversations they helped create in the students creating them. In other words, I don’t necessarily see the value in showing these videos to an audience outside of the community in which they were made. I think the value is in the making of them. So if a particular school felt the need to address bullying or cyberbullying in its own community, I think a lot can be gained in the scripting, casting, acting and production of content, as this would take time and care and involve many students in thinking about the topic. Self-reflection is what the takeaway should be - as in, “what am I doing to stop bullying at my school?”

Librarians and media technology teachers can perform the important role of delivering presentations about cyberbullying that give both empathy and solutions to students. From the Cyberbullying Research Center, “(presentations) need clear, specific strategies that are age-appropriate and will actually work.” (n.d.) Some of these strategies are (Cyberbullying Research Center, 2014):

• bystanders can carefully document what happened and then take the details to an adult they trust will respond appropriately

• bystanders might also take the target aside to tell her that what happened was not cool and he is there and available to help make the problem go away

• bystanders could also organize her friends to condemn the behavior without doing anything directly

Resources

ChildNet. (2008, May 3). Let’s fight it together. [YouTube video]. https://youtu.be/dubA2vhIlrg

Cyberbullying Research Center (n.d.). What the best bullying and cyberbullying assembly speakers do https://cyberbullying.org/best-bullying-cyberbullying-assembly-speakers

Cyberbullying Research Center (2014, July 18). Empower bystanders to improve school climate https://cyberbullying.org/empower-bystanders-to-improve-school-climate

Kaitlyn K. (2012, Mar 30). Cypress Ranch High School Anti-Bullying Lip Dub “Who Do U Think U R?” [YouTube video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBJnX6cEKE&t=325s

HHS (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). (2021, August 17). Digital Awareness for Parents. https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/digital-awareness-for-parents

NFB Digital Studio Vancouver. (n.d.). I trolled someone on Ask.fm http://sins.nfb.ca/#/Wrath/27

The Power of Social Media for the School Library

I know as a future librarian I need to be the first in a line of front line advocates for my library. As Dr. Green states in her presentation, “Frontline advocates talk to others - colleagues, friends, neighbors, relatives and acquaintances - about their school library media center’s value to its students, teachers, families and community.” Social media can be a powerful tool in my quiver to instruct, communicate and advocate. 

As I look at the social media platforms that are popularly available to me to use professionally, I am not heartened, and to be quite honest, a bit afraid. As a GenXer, a parent of two school-aged children, and someone who works in both middle and high schools, I have various reasons for not wanting to openly embrace any of the social media outlets. They are as follows:

Twitter scares me with its tendency toward negativity. Elon Musk scares me with his new-found control over his definition of free speech. There is the promise of a future paid subscription fee which I would not likely pay myself or be budgeted for.

Tiktok scares me with its dancing. I know that’s not all there is to it, but it seems more geared toward a (much) younger crowd. But I know there is BookTok where teens get many book recommendations. But I feel like BookTok is also “for teens, by teens”. I could be wrong; convince me.

Snapchat scares me with its impermanence. Do librarians even use this platform? I feel like it would be a bit “cringey” for me to use it (to borrow a phrase from my teenager’s lingo). I question whether teens would follow me there.

Facebook is for old people, like me! There is talk of a future paid subscription via Meta, at which point I would likely drop it. So is it worth starting up now? I do like the idea of using it for amplification of my message for parents and administration. I also like Facebook’s ability to hive-mind with other librarians and professional networking/sharing. I see a lot of librarians sharing ideas via Facebook.

Instagram is currently used by teens AND old people. It combines the ease of a single picture with informative text and hashtags. I like the idea of tagging other school accounts (art, administration) as well as current authors, literacy experts, BookTok-ers. I love the idea of an account takeover by a student for a day to give them some agency. Nicki Robertson says, “We need to make a concerted effort to meet our varied audience where they are, instead of expecting to meet them in the location most convenient to us.” (2017, pg 26)

So that all said, I think that the two platforms that float to the top for me are Instagram and Facebook. I use them both personally, though not in a very active sense, more passively. So those are what I chose to pursue initially for this project. I know that some people use the platforms in a joint fashion, as in, they post to Instagram and it gets posted to Facebook, or they post to TikTok, and it shows up on Instagram or YouTube. So I think it might be fun and productive to have both a professional Facebook page and a school library Instagram account. Here is a link to Instagram instructions to make that happen.

I created an Instagram with my USC email, but will have to pretend to be a librarian, as I am not currently in that position. My name is YorkHighSchoolLibrary, and I will have a Facebook account that will amplify my messages there to parents, administrators and other librarians.

When I think about what my goals are for using social media, it would mimic the reasons I want to become a librarian: to get students in the library door so I can help them and host them, to get students interested in reading, to create a safe space for everyone, and to elevate students’ and staff’s levels of information literacy. Some posts I can see creating are:

new book display pictures or reels

special subject display introduction and explanation

pictures of the media center space

re-posts from favorite authors

occasional “teachable moments” from classes I am teaching in the library

Molly Wetta has a lot of relatable ideas in her recent article, “Instagram Now”. She makes using Instagram seem very easy. “Get creative and

take inspiration from other book lovers’ accounts—and don’t be

afraid to highlight music, movies, videogames, and more.” In other words, meet the students where they are. (2016)

I would hope that I can accomplish instruction, communication and advocacy with my use of Instagram as a non-invasive use of my precious teacher-librarian time. As Nikki Robertson states in her book, “Telling the stories of our school libraries isn’t bragging— it’s a celebration of the learning that is taking place in our schools. The stories are proof that an active, appropriately funded library with a certified school librarian is vital to our school communities.” (Robertson, 2017)

References

Green. (n.d.). SLIS 761 Harnessing the Power of Social Media to Advocate for the School Library [Google Slides]. iSchool, University of South Carolina. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rswnwL_QA16SjO3gE5KzLH26OeReTFxdJkJ3_xz8uYk/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_00

Robertson, N.D. (2017). Connected librarians: tap social media to enhance professional development and student learning. International Society for Technology in Education. ProQuest Ebook Central. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/southcarolina/detail.action?docID=5880813.

Created from southcarolina on 2023-03-02 18:00:35.

Wetta, C. (February, 2016). Instagram now: engage young users with the image based social media tool. School Library Journal, 62(2), 30-32.