Shifting with the Standards - A Look at AASL & ISTE Standards in a COVID World

If we did not already know it was true before COVID, we definitely know it to be true now that we live in a world where information gleaned from the digital, electronic, technological, and online sphere is more important than ever.  Throughout my library studies, I have read a fair bit of lamentation from those who care about books and libraries that the digital world and its content may displace the primacy of printed books.  As Gorman (2015) notes in his preface to the updated Our Enduring Values, the profession of librarianship has “been rocked, socked, shaken, and stirred by all these societal, economic, and technological changes” (p. xii). 

Certainly, as I move forward with my library studies and library work in these COVID times, I have spent a good bit of time thinking about what it means to be a librarian without a library.  Of course, I have a library (and it is brand spanking new and gorgeous and filled with an updated, curated selection of books that I think my students will love), but my students are home learning from my immensely patient and innovative teacher colleagues via Zoom and Google classroom, and they are not visiting my library. 

Thankfully, Dr. Jenna Spiering, in her 2019 article looking at the updated standards from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) reminds me that “’adolescent literacies’ refers to a shift from recognizing literacy as reading and writing school-sanctioned texts toward an acknowledgment of the myriad ways that young people make sense of text, images, and other media in many different contexts in their everyday and (often) online lives” (p. 46).  It is not so much that the print and digital worlds are in competition but that, increasingly, they are being used in combination.  They are, in a very real sense for our students, merging, and effective school librarians therefore need not only a baseline understanding of the current AASL standards that Spiering (2019) helpfully explicates but also a firm grounding in the standards related to using technology in learning, like those offered by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). 

COVID certainly brings home the importance of librarians keeping things relevant through the use of new technologies.  (I will not say “through technology” because, really, aren’t books a form of technology, just not a particularly new form?)  If students cannot access the print books in our collections (either fully or at all), how do we make sure that they nonetheless access information and “evaluate … [it] for accuracy, purpose, bias, etc.” (Spiering, 2019, p. 47)?  How do we shift from building collections to creating connections (Cromartie & Burns, 2019, p. 81)?

The AASL’s National School Library Standards crosswalkwith ISTE Standards for Students and Educators (2018) helps with navigating the shift that Spiering (2019) references, especially during the current global pandemic.  This helpful chart matches up the AASL’s six shared foundations (inquire, include, collaborate, curate, explore, and engage) with ISTE’s standards across the four AASL domains (think, create, share, and grow) (AASL, 2018). 

Two crossovers stand out to me as examples of how we navigate the shift (Spiering, 2019) in a world where COVID pushes us firmly into the digital context.  We can implement the AASL standards that apply to us as librarians, traditionally in a brick-and-mortar context, through adherence to the ISTE standards in a digital context as well.

1.       Under the shared foundation “Inquire,” the AASL standards for school librarians call for librarians to “design systems that promote flexible and collaborative teaching and learning” (American Library Association, 2018).  The ISTE Standards for Educators call for educators to “foster culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings” (n.d., para. 6a) and to “provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and reflect on their learning using technology” (n.d., para. 7a).  Librarians, as educators, can play an important role simply by making sure that our students have access to the resources they need for successful inquiry.  In an online learning setting, this could include setting up a bitmoji classroom with links to key resources, creating an online request form for students to seek help with finding learning-supportive materials, assisting with efforts to distribute computers or tablets to students, or doing curbside pick-up of requested physical books, if your school and district permit.

2.     Learning online is hard.  No lie.  Even for students we all too often view as “digital natives,” learning online is not the same as learning in a brick and mortar classroom with a physically present teacher!  The Include shared foundation encourages librarians to help students develop an awareness of a global online learning community and to develop and exhibit empathy and tolerance within that community (AASL, 2018).  ISTE standards connect in with a reminder that we can use technology to “build networks and customize their learning environments … use digital tools to connect with learners …” and to “make positive, socially responsible contributions and exhibit empathetic behavior online that build relationships and community” (AASL, 2018).  As librarians, we can prepare digital citizenship lessons that can be shared with students online via school YouTube channels or Google Classrooms.  We can host meet-ups online for our students via Zoom, Google Meet, or WhatsApp so that students can connect and develop and maintain relationships within the school community.

I offer these two examples as food for thought.  The AASL standards and ISTE standards provide many more opportunities for addressing our students’ needs to develop as learners and for navigating the shift from pure textual literacy to a multiplicity of literacies across a variety of texts – traditional print, digital, visual, and more.  I welcome your contributions to this effort!

 

 

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National School Library Standards crosswalk with ISTE Standards for Students and Educators [PDF]. AASL.org. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf

American Library Association. (2018).  Shared foundations: Inquire [Infographic].  AASL.org. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SharedFoundations_Inquire_2017.pdf

Gorman, M. (2015). Our enduring values revisited: Librarianship in an ever-changing world. ALA Editions.

International Society for Technology in Education. (n.d.). ISTE standards for educators. ISTE.org. https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

Spiering, J. (2019). Engaging adolescent literacies with the standards. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 44-49.