2015 Concern- Technology Integration Specialists

2015 Concern- Technology Integration Specialists

Concern: The perception is that school librarians are not technology integration specialists and as a result school librarians are being replaced with staff that only have an Educational Technology Certificate, or by technology integrators. These people are then called media specialists or library specialists, but they are none certified library professionals.

Action Requested: 

1. Review AASL's position statement on the instructional classification of school librarians for updating to include teaching and administering instructional technology and integration.  

2. Links on AASL’s website within the instructional classification toolkit are dead and/or out of date and are in need of updating.

3. We suggest reaching out to partner with ISTE to produce a whitepaper that will advocate and publicize the role of school librarians as information technology integrators.  An example would be The Marshall Memo.

Status: Both the Affiliate Assembly Coordinating Team and the Affiliate Assembly body approved this concern. It was sent to the AASL Board.  Executive Committee decided to establish a Technology Role Working Group to: 

1. review the position statement on instructional classification of school librarians for updating

2. review the links in the instructional classification toolkit 

3. look at existing whitepapers on the role of the school librarian for technology instruction and integration such as the Leading in and Beyond the Library by the Alliance for Excellence in Education, http://all4ed.org/reports-factsheets/leading-in-and-beyond-the-library/  

Concern: Information Power 2 needs to reflect the changing role of technology and the impact on school librarians' roles as instructional specialists and their traditional role in reading.

Action: The Affiliate Executive Committee did not approve this concern for submission to the Affiliate Assembly body.