"Imagine

1
"Imagine You may say I'm a dreamer,but Im not
the only one," The school library and
information centre at the heart of the learning
process and as an integral part of the learning
environment.

Lennon, John
Imagine, 1971

• Helen Boelens,
• Kalsbeek College, Woerden. The Netherlands
• Presented on 15 March 2007 in Milan, Italy

2
What kind of school is the Kalsbeek College?

• It is an ordinary secondary school
• It is located in an ordinary Dutch town
• Pupils come from all different levels of Dutch
  (multicultural) society
• It is a public school, funded by the Dutch
  government. It has normal funding. It is not a
  selective school.

3
Democratic process within the school

• School policy
• Historical background
• Democracy within the school
• Discussion at the regular meetings of team
  leaders

4
An informal parliament

• The following staff members take part in the
  regular meetings of team leaders.
• Important decisions regarding the school policy
  are discussed at these meetings.
• Membership
• 1 director from the central Board of Directors
• 1 director, upper school, Schilderspark location
• 1 director, lower school, Schilderspart location
• 4 team leaders - upper school
• 4 team leaders - lower school
• 1 team leader - sport and gym
• 1 or 2 representatives from each faculty group
  (depending on the size of the faculty
• The school information specialist (representative
  of the school library and information centre
  (SLIC)

5
What does the school want to achieve?

• Experience has taught us that learning in the
  21ste century is a combination of traditional and
  new concepts of learning.
• The school wants to find a successful way to link
  traditional concepts of learning with the new
  concepts and opportunities.

6
Discussions about the school policy statement.

• Important factors
• Educational aims for
• Personnel
• Pupils and parents
• Organisation
• Atmosphere and ambience within the school

7
How do we approach this?

• Respect for traditional concepts of learning.
• At the same time, make use of new concepts of
  learning. Some new concepts of learning are made
  possible due to the use of ICT within the school.
• Integration of ICT throughout the entire school
• Technical use of ICT
• Administrative use of ICT
• Using ICT as a source of, and to store
  educational content and resources.
• Instruction in ICT skills for all teachers and
  pupils
• Technical skills
• Administrative skills (for personnel)
• Information literacy skills

8
Educational Matrix

• Important factors
• Vertical
• co-operation between all subject groups within
  the same school year. This requires consistent
  supervision, adaptation and adjustment. Specific
  staff members have been appointed to carry out
  this supervision
• Horizontal
• alignment of the educational programme and
  connections between the different subject groups,
  e.g.
• co-ordination of the teaching programme and the
  content
• co-ordination of skills which need to be learned
  who teaches which skills (especially general
  skills, which are used by pupils for different
  subjects)
• co-operation between two or more subject groups,
  during the course of the academic year and during
  special project weeks interdisciplinary,
  project-based education.

9
The importance of information literacy skills

• School policy places great importance on the
  teaching of information literacy skills to
  teachers and pupils.
• This was discussed and confirmed by a democratic
  process (please refer to previous slide).
• This fact is described in the school policy
  statement.
• It is also mentioned in the school information
  book, for pupils and parents.

10
Discussions and conclusions

• De school library and information centre (SLIC)
  combines traditional forms of learning with new
  theories of learning.
• Instruction which takes place in the SLIC is
  interdisciplinary.
• It becomes the heart of the learning environment
  and plays an essential part in the learning
  process.

11
A new school library and information centre
(SLIC) Background information.

• A new school library and information centre
  (SLIC)
• A new building (location)
• Aims of the School Library and Information Centre
• List of requirements
• Communication
• Success factors
• Co-operation between the SLIC and the teachers
• A fully qualified, capable and competent school
  librarian (teaching librarian) or school
  information specialist
• Use of educational information throughout the
  entire school (traditional and digital)
• Quality of the collection
• Quality of the personnel.
• Results up until now
• Improvement in academic results (better marks and
  higher quality of assignments)
• Borrowing of traditional information and books
  has increased by 17 in one calendar year.
• The study desks and PCs are nearly always
  completely occupied (approximately 100 pupils
  are present in the SLIC at any one time)

12
What is the KILM?
13
Kalsbeek Information Literacy Matrix (KILM)

• A combination of
• Organisation
• Methodology
• By making use of the KILM, it is possible to give
  structured instruction in interdisciplinary
  information literacy skills to pupils and
  teachers throughout the entire school (in all
  different types of schools)

14
KILM

• The KILM is a sub-matrix of the educational
  matrix
• Document How to write a paper
• Citation of resources, references or bibliography
  one rule for the whole school
• General decisions at directorate level.
• Co-ordinating committee (which advises the Board
  of Directors)
• ICT (technical) co-operation and co-ordination
  of
• ELO (Electronic Learning Environment),
  plagiarism, administrative programmes entering
  marks into the administrative programme
  (Magister)
• ICT (content) co-operation and co-ordination
  of
• Information literacy instruction throughout the
  entire school. Attendance at instruction lessons
  is compulsory for all teachers and pupils. It is
  NOT voluntary.
• KILM (Kalsbeek information Literacy Matrix)
• Plagiarism.

15
The most important factors in the development of
the KILM

• The vision and integrity of the school
  leadership.
• Communication and co-operation throughout the
  school
• A modern school with good facilities

16
Instructions which take place within the scope of
the KILM

• Basic instruction per class per school year
• Compulsory instruction for all teachers
• Extra instruction related to the Project Week and
  other projects
• Instruction related to specific tasks
• Extra challenges for talented pupil
• Extra instruction for pupils with learning
  difficulties
• Use of the ELO (Electronic learning environment)

17
The KILM Curriculum

• Clear definition of information literacy
• ALA standards Information literacy is a set of
  abilities requiring individuals to "recognise
  when information is needed and have the ability
  to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the
  needed information."
• http//www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informat
  ionliteracycompetency.htm
• Structure used during information literacy
  instruction
• Constant repetition of the information literacy
  rules (learnt in instruction lessons and applied
  to different assignments)
• A reminder (prompt) in the form of a bookmark
• Instruction sheets are placed in the ELO
  (sometimes with homework)

18
Last but not least

• Top of the iceberg
• Reactions from pupils who have received
  instruction using the KILM
• It was fun and we also learnt something new
• We would like to have some more instruction
• Pupils made suggestions for new kinds of
  information literacy instruction which they would
  like to have.
• Reactions from teachers who have received
  instruction using the KILM and who have
  co-operated with the SLIC
• Very useful
• We would like to co-operate more often with the
  SLIC
• General remarks
• Statistics show that the use of the SLIC has
  increased and that marks for assignments have
  increased. The quality of papers has improved.

19
References

• A large part of this presentation is based on the
  following academic publication and articles,
  written by Helen Boelens
• BOELENS, Helen. A new kind of information
  specialist for a new kind of learning
• BOELENS, Helen. Filters make it more difficult
  for pupils to find information Instruction in
• specific information literacy skills, in several
  different languages, for final examination pupils
• BOELENS, Helen. Specific information literacy
  skills, in several different languages, for
  pupils studying for university entrance
  examinations.
• BOELENS, Helen. Paradise. Newsletter for IFLA,
  School libraries and Resource Centres Section
  (Section Nr. 11), Issue 43, December 2006.
• These articles can be found as pdf-files on the
  ENSIL website www.ensil.eu .