Post Script on Teacher-Librarian Collaboration and MIL Workshop for ALLPI

Dear ALLPI,

It's been a week since our workshop on Teacher and Librarian Collaboration and Media and Information Literacy. Thank you very much for making the workshop a meaningful experience for me. As always, I learned from the experience as well. Your presence and cooperation pushes me to improve my training module and the approach I can use the next time I get to do a similar workshop.

Among the many insights I gained from our workshop last week, it is the concept that MIL is a process - something we can work on together in steps and in progression. And while you may be connecting the dots on what you gained from the workshop with actual practice, I am sending these links your way to further enhance, enrich or support your understanding and competencies in MIL.

Read on! Take note. Write down your questions or what struck you along the way.

If you are new to assessment and the tools necessary to undergo diagnoses of skills and competencies, I recommend this PPT by Marjorie Pappas (2009). In her presentation, she explains the different kinds of assessments and the tools that are appropriate for each one. I particularly like the strategies and graphic organizers she identified for self-assessment not only on IL skills, but on creative and critical thinking skills applied in communication arts.

For specific rubrics and criterion based assessment tool on IL, here are three websites and links to each of them.

Information Literacy Skills Assessment for Students 
This assessment on IL is a free online assessment tool designed by the Kent State University Libraries. All you need is to get an account, verify it and you can use the assessment tool, known as TRAILS, for one-on-one, small group or class sessions.

Information Literacy Value Rubric for Projects and Finished Research Work - 
This is a PDF of an IL rubric to assess students' achievement on IL skills applied in creating and communicating a project or a research work. The PDF can be downloaded for free.

RAILS Rubric Assessment of Information Literacy Skills is list of assessment tools on IL skills and its sub-skills. You need to log in to get free rubrics and even contribute your own. Of the three, this is may favorite because, I am able to choose which is applicable for my students, my workshop participants and colleagues who need my help and assistance.

That's it for now. Do give me feedback or ask questions on the links I recommended.

A Day With Librarians of Laguna Province

My seminar-workshop on teacher-librarian collaboration in designing and implementing a Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Program with the Association of Librarians of Laguna Province Inc (ALLPI) was a success! There were 25 participants excluding the officers of ALLPI who came from private schools, public schools and colleges in the cities and towns of Laguna. Majority of the participants are first timers in a seminar-workshop on media and information literacy. This gave them reason to listen very well to my lecture and to follow the activities of the workshop. I felt their eagerness and enthusiasm in understanding the supportive roles they play to teachers and school leaders in the learning community. I think I gave a good introduction on this topic as well as presenting to them the basic concepts of MIL.

A few hours after my workshop, my Facebook feed received notifications of posts and tags on photos of the workshop. I did my own posting and I was happy to get a message from one participant saying that, "she always learn something new every time she attends my workshop." That is actually one of my goals in every workshop I do. One participant sent me messages over at Messenger today asking questions to clarify some points and concepts on MIL. Another' asked for my slide presentation and list of sources. Of course, ALLPI did an evaluation of the entire workshop but it is the direct feedback from participants that interests me more.

I do hope this is not the last MIL workshop I would do for ALLPI. In fact, I hinted on doing a part two. Let's see how things go because these things take time to grow and develop. Since MIL is a process oriented activity, something that can't be learned over night, I sure hope that there will be a follow up activity to the training.

The seminar-workshop was held at the Toyota Motor School of Technology in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.