Going Back to Middle School!

Technology is awesome. It’s a major theme of my blog because of my course about integrating technology into the curriculum, and I’ve been able to preview and use so many great new web 2.0 tools for education.

However, my graduate courses have also been able to connect me back to something I used to love, and that is YA fiction.

When I began my course track in school library and media studies, I was immediately leaning toward elementary library. I love elementary students and the fact that they are still kids. I love showing young kids cool things for the first time, and helping them to figure out what this big world is all about.

But, after having observed in Middle School LMCs, I’m realizing that middle school students are still in that discovery period. Even better, they are starting to gain a sense of who they are and how they fit into this world. That’s a really exciting time. It’s a hard time, too, and there’s even more we as educators can do for them.

Because they are slightly older and have developed higher order thinking skills, middle school students are able to really start using some of the cool new web 2.0 creation tools in elaborate ways.

PLUS, bringing it back to YA fiction, there are some really great books out there to help them through adolescence.

This semester, I have had the opportunity to read such a great handful of books geared toward teens that span a wide range of themes, genres, and target audiences. For my final project, I wrote a bibliographic essay on YA dystopian novels and why (or why not) young adults should read them. Several of the books were geared toward high school students, but there are some great books out there for middle-aged kids, too.

Absorbing myself in the books that kids are reading just really brought me back home and reminded me that even without all the jazzy new tech tools, adolescence can be an exciting time for learning and discovery and thought-provoking discussions.

One of the great things about recent teen dystopias is that so many of them focus on the dangers of technology in terms of privacy and future problems, such as over population. Since technology is SO ingrained in kids’ lives today, literature can be a great way to have them think critically about the whole picture.

So, while I’ve made final decisions, I think my courses and observations have really changed my mind about the future that I see for myself as an LMS. I might be ready to do something that I NEVER thought I’d want to do…and that is go back to Middle School!

-LB

Making the future, one video-gamer at a time.

"I have seen am making the future." - Jane McGonical and the Institute for the Future.

I grew up thinking video games were bad. They were a fun way to waste time, but they ultimately caused children to go numb with stupidity and a lack of awareness for their surroundings. They could be played completely stationary, allowing a child to exert little-to-no energy, save for the twiddling of their thumbs. They could be played alone, isolating a child from friends and family. And...they seemed to be the number one way to procrastinate doing homework.

All things bad.

There was and still is a stigma tagged to video-game-playing-children (assigned mostly by the mothers of their non-video-game-playing friends) that seems to say you're not good at many things, are you? Not good at school, not good at sports, probably not very good at playing with other kids, either.

My older brother is a gamer. He has gamer friends. And, over the years, I've watched him become engrossed in one game and then another, coming down for dinner only after reaching the coveted "save point," doing homework assignments only during mandatory game breaks, and taking little interest in things like "books," unless they are filled with game strategies and cheats.

I'm not going to lie to you...I was unimpressed. I was the little sister, the one who always did well in school. The one who could be found studying or at an extra-curricular event, pulling all-nighters even in high school. The one who, save for a Super Mario game here and there, had little interest in (nor talent for) video games. So when Older Brother used to peep into my room to congratulate me for a good report card and express how he wished he could do as well as me in school, there was little sympathy on my end.

What does this nostalgic look at video games have to do with my journey into the world of library? Well...two things have recently forced me to take a different look at video games and the gamers who play them. Nay, conquer them.