Notes on The New Learning Commons: Where Learners Win! Ch. 1-3

The New Learning Commons: Where Learners Win! by David V. Loertscher, Carol Koechlin, and Sandi Zwaan. Chapters 1-3.

"A move to client-side information systems is often stalled because of a great deal of fear and suspicion about users: 'If you let them on the Internet, they will instantly stray away from their purpose and possibly encounter predators.' Thus, systems are filtered heavily in response not only to those fears, but also because of federal laws and the threat of lawsuits."

This is exactly where many schools seem to be today. Too often fear and ignorance are causing decision makers to cut off access which leads to student confusion (if the goal is education why can't we get information ourselves) and resentment (our school allows me to leave classes early for games but I can't play a game after school on a computer in the library?!)

"We posit that both adults and young people need to learn to build their own information spaces and to learn to be responsible for their actions in those spaces."

I think this is an important statement as information technology changes so quickly. I see decision makers spending time on hardware and even the selection of software but virtually no time on how to teach people to use these tools. We have spent too much money and too little time on our information spaces.

I am beginning to understand this new vision for school libraries. The idea of a learning commons (both real and virtual) and the experimental learning center are definitely radical changes to the common understanding of the school library. This means no longer paying lip service to "The library is the heart and center of the school" but actually making that a reality. I love and admire the idea. I also believe that to realize this vision will take a sea-change in the perception most people have about school libraries. Perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves is how can we school librarians most quickly and effectively change the stereotypical thinking of not only administrators, but of parents and students.

"The space [learning commons] runs on its own calendar to avoid chaos and overcrowding."

I'm not sure I understand how running on its own calendar will avoid overcrowding and chaos. I get the idea that if you don't have scheduled times that you avoid classes needing to use the library resources at the same time, but I already have a problem with overcrowding after school and having a calendar or not doesn't seem like a solution to me. . .

The experimental learning center idea is also exciting and insightful. Faculty have often voiced a feeling of isolation in classrooms and feeling like they wanted to know what was working for other teachers. Loertscher, Koechlin, and Zwaan describe a workable solution. But when I think about making these changes, I again run into the perception problem. How does the teacher-librarian go from being treated as "support personnel or slaves" to leaders that make "collaboration and school improvement work." And more importantly how does the teacher librarian do this without stepping on any one's toes since this is very clearly a shift in the dynamics of power at a school?

I was thinking about the scenarios that the learning leadership team could take on:

A Major Decision: The process described could be applied to our "Enrichment Week" a special program in which teachers and students take a week out of their normal studies to try a more diverse range of learning opportunities. Students could take a more active role in the creation of these courses.

A Big, Big Think: I would love to see everyone in our school community thinking together to solve the problem of making our school environmentally sustainable and responsible.

Action: I don't have an immediate application for this but the problem of competing agendas is very familiar and I was impressed by how this particular situation was handled! I will be sharing this example with our administration.