It's Time for a Change
The following is a letter written to the administrators in my district about my belief that we need a hybrid digital literacy course for our incoming 7th graders.
As you know, the middle school library transitioned from a fixed to a truly flexible schedule several years ago, eliminating the library education class and allowing me to support all subject areas in the building. While this change allows me to participate in a wide variety of engaging, creative, and intellectually stimulating projects, it also means that when it comes time to deliver my own curriculum, I’m at the mercy of the schedules of other teachers. While the middle school teachers have been very accommodating, several constraints have arisen in the last few years that make it more challenging to provide comprehensive instruction in research skills and digital literacy to the 7th grade population. The increase in the amount of standardized testing and the removal of the research unit from the 7th grade language arts curriculum mean that there is less time and fewer authentic opportunities to blend library skills into classroom instruction.
As the 7th grade students arrive from five different elementary schools, they all have varying degrees of background knowledge when it comes to searching for, evaluating, and using information responsibly for research. In an effort to allow more flexibility for our learners, I have made class content available online via the library website, which has proved effective for students who need to catch up or refresh their learning. I would like to propose taking the online component of library education to the next step and creating a hybrid class in research skills and digital literacy for the 7th grade.
Digital literacy is seen as the intersection of technical, social-emotional, and cognitive learning. In a current study, nearly 51% of college freshman indicated having difficulty learning to use new online tools, and 43% have trouble making sense of information once they find sources. This lack of technical and cognitive literacy is a barrier to creating, collaborating, and communicating via digital technologies, critical skills for our students going forward. A hybrid class, which combines online and face to face learning, would help to address those literacies by giving students more experience learning how to independently navigate technology while receiving in-person support for their cognitive and social-emotional needs.
A 2014 study of several Pennsylvania school districts using hybrid classes showed that students in those classes outperformed their classmates in traditional classes on standardized tests, with nearly 94% of the districts reporting higher scores for students in hybrid classes. Additionally, nearly 63% of middle school students polled in the Project Tomorrow Speak Up survey believe that blended learning, or the combination of online and in-person learning, is an effective way for them to learn. A hybrid class would serve to effectively meet the needs of our students both in terms of content and method of delivery.
Currently, all of our 7th graders have a 30 minute team time period each day, which is used for team activities, remediation, study hall, reading, and recreational activities. I would like to propose that one period per six day cycle be made available per team for a hybrid class that covers the research skills and digital literacy portions of the 7th grade library curriculum. Online modules for topics such as source selection, effective search skills, evaluating online resources, and using the research management system would be created in-house, utilizing tools such as video, screencasts, and online quizzes. During that team period, students would utilize mobile lab carts, iPad carts, or the school computer labs to work through the online modules at their own pace. Once a month, each homebase would have class with me in the library during their scheduled team time period. During that time, students would apply the skills from the online modules to research being conducted either in their science or social studies classes. That time would allow students who have mastered the online content to move ahead with their research, while giving students who need remediation time to conference with and get one-on-one help from me.
In addition to being able to work on the online modules during team time, students will be able to access all course materials from home. Students who feel they need to reinforce their learning will have the ability to review class content outside of school. This allows us to expand student learning beyond the school day, and gives students control and ownership over the pace of their learning. It also allows us to spend valuable time in content area classes focusing on the creation and application of knowledge.
I believe that offering a hybrid digital literacy class would serve to solve several problems, namely finding effective ways to introduce and reinforce digital literacy skills to the 7th grade population without taking away valuable class time from subject area teachers, while at the same time engaging our students in a way that a traditional class cannot. Teaching digital literacy via an online platform will provide our students with skills that they need, both in school and beyond.
References
Dellicker Strategies. (2014, December). Hybrid learning program results: Summary report for academic year 2013-2014 [PDF]. Retrieved from http://www.pahli.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ HLI-Program-Results-2013-14-Summary-Report-12-3-141.pdf
Project Tomorrow. (2015). Digital learning 24/7: Understanding technology-enhanced learning in the lives of today's students [PDF]. Retrieved from http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU14StudentReport.pdf
