Reaping New Harvests: Collaboration and Communication through Field Experiences

Created under the auspices of the field experience offices at two public, four-year institutions of higher education, and in conjunction with a local urban school district, the Teaching and Learning Collaborative (TLC) and Communities of Practice (COMPRAC) were constructed to support a year-long experience (practicum and student teaching) at the undergraduate and postbaccalaureate levels. These programs, structured to help preservice teachers junction effectively in an urban classroom, included clustering groups in the same school and providing additional support through course work, seminars, and interactive small and whole-group meetings. What began as two separate programs evolved into a reconceptualization of a model for field experiences that has transferability to any type of school district. Multiple face-to-face and electronic communication fora within and across triad roles are proposed for creating a community for professional development that celebrates talking about issues germane to teaching and learning

Systems thinking: an approach for advancing workplace information literacy

As the importance of information literacy has gained increased recognition, so too have academic library professionals intensified their efforts to champion, activate, and advance these capabilities in others. To date, however, little attention has focused on advancing these essential competencies amongst practitioner advocates. This paper helps redress the paucity of professional literature on the topic of workplace information literacy among library professionals

Establishing a learner identity: Young digital citizens and the pursuit of a democratic and empowering Early Childhood Education.

As the 21st century progresses, there is an ever-growing population of digital tech-nology users. For many, this use begins in their early childhood years with oppor-tunities to access and experience digital technologies in their home and wider world. These experiences are the foundations for children’s socially and culturally mediated digital funds of knowledge. Digital funds of knowledge can include dis-positions, skills and experiences in the use of digital technologies in meaningful, valued and responsible ways that reflects a digital citizenship. For these digital funds of knowledge to be useful, others in the young child’s world need to be aware of and validate the children through a democratic lens. This includes seeing and treating the child as a valued and capable learner who is able, and should be entitled to, direct and participate with others in their learning encounters. In the context of early childhood education (ECE), it requires teachers and the learning environment to be democratic by being receptive and responsive to young chil-dren’s learning capability and that can include their digital funds of knowledge. In this chapter, the teacher’s ability to be receptive and responsive to children’s digi-tal funds of knowledge is regarded as a digital pedagogy that invites and supports children’s growth as digital citizens by promoting principles of digital fluency. This chapter draws on case studies undertaken with young children, their families and teachers in their ECE settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. The findings demon-strate the importance of a digital pedagogy and its implications for democratic teaching and learning