The ongoing theme I found in response to my query was the importance of maintaining and/or expanding the role of the library as a central hub of the school regardless of the manner in which technology is used.
Jen Hendry of Dallastown Middle School shared “The library should be the center for all learning and innovation in the school. It can set the tone for the whole school in terms of updated resources and technologies. It can be the place where students have access to many different types of resources, including cutting edge online resources.”
Another colleague, Karey Killian, mirrored my thoughts on the advantages for library projects of not having to make do with just a few iPads and constantly trying to figure out which device had a particular student’s project when we have 100s of library students sharing 6, or 20, or 30 devices. Killian also mentions the potential ease of using products like Nearpod to deliver interactive content if we were in 1:1 environments.
Tamara Cox’s blog post Making Ourselves Indispensable discusses the opportunities a 1:1 environment would provide for changing the face of library services. And Brooke Mulartrick, a colleague who is an Instructional Coach and Staff Developer for an Intermediate Unit cautions against focusing on the device, reminding us that it is the learning, the outcomes, and the coaching that make for successful technology use in all school classrooms and environments.
image courtesy of Langwitches CC BY-NC-SA 2.0