Elevator Speech for School Librarians
Teacher: Hello, there!
Librarian: Hi! How are you?
Teacher: Okay, I'm just getting frustrated from the quality of my students' work these days. I'd be much better if my students understood that cutting and pasting from the internet isn't appropriate for research papers.
Librarian: Oh no! You know, I'd be happy to have them come to the library to learn more about how to do effective online searches and evaluate internet resources.
Teacher: Really? I get so many papers that are just regurgitated Wikipedia articles. [sighs]
Librarian: There is a lot of less-than-stellar information out there, and it can be difficult for students to make choices about what materials is appropriate for research papers and other school projects. Moreover, when students only look up the facts on Wikipedia, they are missing out on opportunities for more substantial learning that is based in inquiry.
Teacher: Hmm. Well, I am looking for some new lesson plans.
Librarian: Great! If you would like, I would love to get together with you and we could develop some plans together for how students can become better users of online content. We can also develop a lesson plan series to address how to be good digital citizens--no plagiarism, no cyber-bullying, online privacy--all of it! We can tackle how students can become producers of digital content so that they understand better how resources like Wikipedia and blogs are created in the first place.
Teacher: Sounds good! I'll check my schedule and get back to you.
Inspired by: "New Literacies and Librarians" (Howard Rheingold) School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come ( http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/96705).
Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I could see this happening--you take a real problem a teacher would really complain about and work with the teacher. The teacher would probably be more willing to work with you, too, since you're asking to help her.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having students become "producers of digital content" so that they fully understand how sites like Wikipedia and blogs are made. I think you did a great job with this speech! It's friendly and informative without overwhelming the already frustrated teacher.
ReplyDeleteI like this! And it's a scenario that rings true!
ReplyDeleteyou really touched on a lot of issues in this elevator speech-- great job!
ReplyDelete