Your Library Is the Answer: Demonstrating Relevance to Tech-Savvy Learners

Today's tech-savvy and digitally connected students present a new challenge for today's school librarians. This book offers the 21st-century tools and know-how necessary for educators to appeal to and challenge students to learn―and to want to learn.

What are the best ways to motivate students to become engaged and develop a passion for learning? Can appealing to their desire for socialization and constant communication―attributes of their lives outside of education―via the integration of cutting-edge technologies and "new media" in the library or classroom serve to ignite creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking? This book shows how you can make use of non-traditional tools such as popular social networks, collaborative technologies, and cloud computing to teach information and communications technologies integrated with the school curriculum to improve student learning―and demonstrates how these same technologies can help you measure skills and mastery learning.

The book provides an easy-to-follow blueprint for using collaborative techniques, innovation, and teaching for creativity to achieve the new learning paradigm of self-directed learning, such as flipping the classroom or library. Readers of this book will find concrete, step-by-step examples of proven lesson plans, collaborative models, and time-saving strategies for the successful integration of American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards. The authors―both award-winning teachers―explain the quantitatively and qualitatively measurable educational value of using these technologies for core curricular and information and communications technologies instruction, showing that they both enhance student learning outcomes and provide data for measuring their impact on learning.

Christina T. Russo, MLS, is the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) librarian at the New Canaan High School, New Canaan, CT.

Cathy Swan is a Google Certified Teacher and world language consultant. She was formerly technology integration and world language teacher at New Canaan Public Schools, New Canaan, CT.