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The Reading Culture Trailer

In our new podcast, The Reading Culture, host Jordan Lloyd Bookey will bring you along as we connect with diverse authors about their own journeys as readers and storytellers, as well as what experiences along the way motivated them to read more. Authors will share their perspectives on the cultural climate in children's and young adult literature. And get excited for each guest's unique, themed reading challenge for students and readers of all ages. Coming this fall.

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I love following @maistorybooklibrary on Instagram because she curates a diverse collection of books across languages, races, abilities, family types, etc. She's a great resource to ensure my library collection is a mirror and window for my students.

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 Maya Lê - MaiStoryBook on Instagram: "Celebrate Multilingualism

❤️ I am glad to see a move away from the treatment of bilingualism and multilingualism as a hinder to speaking English, and movement towards valuing speaking multi languages as a powerful skill to connect and communicate .

⭐️ Speaking more than one language is more than just an asset, it can also be a way to connect to your culture, family, and homeland, and a way to meld difference facets of your identity. Mai dream is to sometime in the future move to Vietnam to live there for at least a year with the littles, and for them (and me and husband) to learn the language and become fluent. For now, I practice what words I know the Mai Little Love, and his Ba Ngoai speaks to him almost exclusively in Vietnamese.

🧡 In this featured story a young girl admires her mother’s superpower: her ability speak two languages, Malayalam and English, and to switch between them at lightning speed. She recounts in awe how her mother migrated from India and how she came to speak two languages. Even though her mama only has *one* tongue, it is as if she has two as she switches back and forth effortlessly between languages, sometimes even combining both. It is as if her two different languages or now woven together like a beautiful cloth. 

✨ The multi-media illustrations underscore the textile and weaving metaphors throughout the story, and I love how the illustrator portrays spoken language~ as a mix of words and swirls. 

➡️ Swipe right for a cove closeup and illustration sneak peeks. 

‼️ Comment LINK and I’ll send a link to this book straight to your DMs ‼️

📚 Featuring *My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages* by Uma Menon , Illustrated by @rahele_studio
. Thank you to @candlewickpress for sharing this one with me."

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1,573 likes, 64 comments - maistorybooklibrary on January 26, 2024: "Celebrate Multilingualism

❤️ I am glad to see a move away from the treatment of bilingualism..."

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A post shared by Maya Lê - MaiStoryBook (@maistorybooklibrary)

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I started following Cicely Lewis on Instagram after attending two of her sessions at GaETC. She's a strong advocate for intellectual freedom and diversity. She is a champion for literacy and the forgotten children in schools. She's a current high school media specialist who is great at thinking outside the box.

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Canva Librarians and Teachers - Facebook Group

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Canva Librarians and Teachers - Facebook Group

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This is a closed Facebook group that allows librarians and teachers to share Canva ideas for library displays and interactive activities.

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Future Ready Librarians® are facing uncertainty as they return to learning. Join Future Ready Advisor, Shannon Miller @shannonmiller for our newest podcast series, Leading through the Library. Shannon and her weekly guest will share stories of how they are tackling the unique issues that are facing…

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School Librarians United with Amy Hermon

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School Librarians United with Amy Hermon

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School Librarians United with Amy Hermon

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Tune in as Amy Hermon tackles the issues and challenges school librarians face everyday.

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Staying Cool in the Library - A place for school librarians to learn and grow together

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Blog for school librarians, media specialists, and teachers. Find school library lesson plans, great ideas, activities, FREE resources, digital downloads, and more. Features library skills and picture book activities. Your Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classroom or home school students will love everything here. Technology teachers too.

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Our StickTogether webinar on September 21 was so much fun! Brianna and I welcome our friends, Zee Ann and Connie, to talk about Bringing Literacy, Learning and Creativity to Life With STEAM.

You will find the recording of the webinar here in the StickTogether YouTube Channel.

And the webinar Google Slides can be found here.

You will love what they shared and gain so many ideas to take back to your classrooms, libraries and school communities.

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A library and education blog and place to be heard through creating, technology, connecting, reading, collaborating and noise.

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Courtney Pentland, AASL President 2023-2024

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Knowledge Quest provides news from the American Association of School Librarians and thought-provoking blog posts, with opportunities for community discussion.

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American Association of School Librarians

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The American Association of School Librarians empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

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In a talk that ranged from her Mississippi roots to her personal influences, including a certain young reader who inspires her today, author Angie Thomas delivered a forceful keynote at School Library Journal's Day of Dialog.

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Educational technology for K-16 educators

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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Follett Aspen®

Fundamentals
This training gives users an introductory glimpse of Follett Aspen ® Student Information System. It is important before attending any other training that users understand how Follett Aspen ® SIS is configured and are comfortable with the layout of the application and familiar with navigating the system and the core tools available throughout the application.

Master Schedule Management
Prerequisite: Follett Aspen® Fundamentals
This session presents the processes for making changes to the school's Master Schedule. Topics covered include understanding the Follett Aspen ® schedule structure, managing and adding courses to the Master Schedule, and modifying section data. For this session, it is expected that the schedule has been converted into Aspen from a legacy system.

Basic Gradebook (Attendance and Grade Reporting)
As a shortened form of the full teacher grade book training, this session gives teachers the knowledge they need to effectively begin using the system's basic functionality. This course is very common at the Elementary school level.

Full Teacher Gradebook
In this workshop session, teachers learn all the aspects of using the Gradebook. The training begins with the topics of basic navigation and taking attendance. Then, working in the Gradebook, teachers will learn how to create seating charts, create categories and assignments, post term grades, and personalize the Gradebook. This course is very common at the Secondary school level.

Teacher Gradebook (with Standards-Based Grades)
In this session, teachers learn all the aspects of using the Gradebook. The training begins with the Basic Navigation and Taking Attendance topics. Then, working in the Gradebook, teachers will learn how to create seating charts, categories, and assignments; align standards to assignments; track student progress against standards; and post term grades.

Advanced Gradebook
Prerequisite: Full Teacher Gradebook or Standards-Based Gradebook
Going beyond the required functionality to maintain a gradebook, this training dives deeper into the tools available in the Gradebook to provide more usage efficiencies for teachers.

Health Administration
In this session, district and school healthcare managers and system administrators learn how to configure and manage the Health view to streamline daily student health care procedures and improve efficiency for school nurses. Attendees will learn how to manage health codes, reference tables, district and school communications, and also create new filters and field sets. System administrators will learn how to create customized complaint-specific templates - embedded templates that prompt nurses to collect precise symptom data.

Health Management
Through the Health view, school districts are able to track an enormous amount of data relating to the health of their students. In this training, users will learn how to enter information about health visits, health conditions, immunizations, and medications. Users will also learn the Aspen processes and reports that will help streamline health information tracking within your district.

Aspen IMS Curriculum Director
Prerequisite: Follett Aspen® Fundamentals
This session provides the tools needed to create and manage curriculum maps and associated lesson plans in Follett Aspen ® Instructional Management System.

Aspen IMS Teacher
Prerequisite: Full Teacher Gradebook or Standards-Based Gradebook
This session will introduce classroom teachers to the unique features in Aspen IMS.

Special Education
This session addresses the logistics of forms management, and IEP production and tracking in the Special Education module. Workflows the tools at the center of the Special Education module, are reviewed and users learn how workflows can be used to map out the stages of the Special Education process and track students as they move through the program.

Special Education Management
In this session, users learn how to use the Special Education view to manage students enrolled in Special Education. Users are introduced to looking up students' IEPs, updating Draft IEPs, adding goals and services to an IEP, understanding workflows, and creating Progress Reports.

Contact us to build your own on-site professional development day based on your needs!

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Professional Product Training Courses | Follett School Solutions

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Follett Aspen® Fundamentals This training gives users an introductory glimpse of Follett Aspen ® Student Information System. It is important before attending any other training that users understand how Follett Aspen ® SIS is configured and are comfortable with the layout of the application and familiar with navigating the system and the core tools available throughout the application.

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From The Mixed Up Files of Dr. Ken Bort PhD: The Newsletter for The #DigitalDetectiveSquad

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Rhode Island PBS Weekly - Library Feature Episode

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Rhode Island PBS Weekly - Library Feature Episode

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Video: Rhode Island PBS Weekly 12/23/2020 | Watch Rhode Island PBS Weekly Online | PBS Video

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My blog, SuperLibraryMarketing.com, offers #LibraryMarketing tips for libraries everywhere! I work as Manager of Engagement and Marketing for NoveList, and am available as a speaker on marketing topics for staff development days, events, and conferences.

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 Lindsay Cesari on Instagram: "Do I like the current climate surrounding libraries and books? No. Did I love having to revamp my display because of that political climate? No. But am I happy to have a job where I’m supported and respected, and a position that allows me to advocate from within the system? Yes. #bannedbooks #librariansofinstagram #teachersofinstagram"

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24 likes, 4 comments - beeinthelibrary on September 23, 2023: "Do I like the current climate surrounding libraries and books? No. Did I love having to revamp my..."

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lindsay Cesari (@beeinthelibrary)

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 Andrew Davies on Instagram: "Here is a website/cheatsheet you can share with your teacher friends! 

I put together a quick inventory of a few of my favorites. I will add more as I go (even this evening), but I wanted to make the live link available to you 👊🏻.

Have any suggestions on tools or edits, let me know!

Feel free to tag a teacher who could use this! 

Find it in my Bio OR let me know in the comments “Teacher Ai” and I will send you a link :). 

#teachergram #teachersofinstagram #edtech #ai #aiforteachers #edutok #free"

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124 likes, 82 comments - edutechwizard on January 28, 2024: "Here is a website/cheatsheet you can share with your teacher friends! 

I put together a quick in..."

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrew Davies (@edutechwizard)

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 Emily Anderson Karst on Instagram: "i’m blown away that I didn’t know about this. My toddler will freak out. 
#techtip #toddlermom #momlife #ai #teacherlife"

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1,079 likes, 30 comments - joyfulnoiseteaching on January 31, 2024: "i’m blown away that I didn’t know about this. My toddler will freak out. 
#techtip #toddlermo..."

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emily Anderson Karst (@joyfulnoiseteaching)

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Six school librarians share strategies for using AI to work smarter, not harder.

Kristina Holzweiss, 2015 School Librarian of the Year; educational technology enrichment specialist, Syosset (NY) Senior High School
Canva's Magic Studio makes designing social media posts easy. You start with an idea, whether it's an upcoming book fair, an author visit, a contest, or showcasing new books. Features like Magic Designcreate professional-looking social media posts based on a description or uploaded images and videos. You can change formats, translate posts, and adapt dimensions for different social media platforms using Magic Switch. The Magic Media Text-to-Image feature helps create images based on your prompts. For privacy compliance, there's Magic Eraser to mask students' faces in images. Plan and schedule posts in advance using Canva's Content Planner for a consistent online presence.

Recently, I stumbled upon AudioPen, a simple tool that turns voice notes into ready-to-publish text. Hit "record," and you can brainstorm ideas for a conference proposal, a grant application to make your library more inclusive, or an elevator pitch for your principal or supervisor. AudioPen transcribes and refines your speech into clear text. It offers various writing styles, output lengths, and language options. I'm planning to use AudioPen to help with blog posts for my websites and emails to my subscribers.

I've streamlined the college recommendation process with ChatGPT. I rely on the information students provide, and my firsthand experience with them in the classroom or the library. Recently, a colleague created a Google form that prompts students to furnish essential details like their name, intended major, and school they aspire to join. Students share information about their involvement in sports, extracurriculars, volunteer work, honors, awards, etc. Pasting from here into ChatGPT, I can generate a comprehensive recommendation letter that reflects the student's unique qualities and achievements.

Also Read: "What Will It Take to Fix AI's Bias Problem? | Opinion"

Elissa Malespina, teacher librarian, Union (NJ) High School
Here are some of my go-to tools I use and how I use them:

ChatGPT to help come up with brief biographies and people to highlight on social media for different commemorative months, such as Hispanic Heritage Month.

Canva Text to Image to create posters, social media posts, and more for the library.

Curipod to generate slides and discussion questions.

Google AI features while emailing to help me compose more professional-sounding correspondence.

I have had my students use ChatGPT and/or Bard to help them generate ideas and outlines for college essays and for help with their resumes.

I enjoy all the lesson ideas from ISTE around AI and recommend them to a lot of teachers and school librarians. I especially like the Ethical Guides. I look forward to ISTE Stretch AI, a chatbot that will help educators learn about the ISTE Standards and ASCD's research-based pedagogical practices.
Shelly Sanchez Terrell, educator, author, and d igital innovator
AI can help motivate students to write and engage with literature. Tools like TextFX can assist students in writing similes or learn about alliteration and point of view with the rapper Lupe Fiasco.

DebateAI walks students through an intellectual argument about any topic with famous people, from Hellen Keller to the President of the United States.

AI image-creation tools such as Bing Image Creator and Ideogram can help students visualize settings. Students can work in pairs to list key information about the setting (geography, time, buildings, year, location, weather) then add these elements in the prompt to create images they can use in future projects or to simply visualize a time period or place they've never visited.

Jennifer Sweat, media specialist, Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, Lawrenceville, GA
ChatGPT can be a student's best friend when they're conducting research, especially when it comes to scholarly research articles. Students can ask it to summarize complex scientific topics students are researching elsewhere or use it to understand data and statistics. After finding an article, they can paste sections of the text into ChatGPT and have it explained at their reading level.

ChatGPT is also great for helping students see different viewpoints. We have used it when students write argumentative research papers. They can ask ChatGPT to explain different sides of the argument or even have a debate. This is a great way to find holes in your argument and to see potential ways to address counterarguments.

Prompts matter. Students need to develop the skill of writing them to make ChatGPT give the best results. Instead of simply asking a question, students can prompt it to respond in bullet points, in the voice of a character or historical figure, or have a brainstorming session.

I tell them that ChatGPT is a liar. The data that it uses stops at 2021, and it doesn't always tell you if it doesn't know something. It will make things up. We have it cite articles related to students' research topics, and then students search for the articles. Most of the time, the articles don't exist; ChatGPT makes them up, along with the people who wrote them.

If students are confused about the appropriate use of AI, encourage them to treat it like they would a teacher. For example, they could ask their teacher for help clarifying what symbolism is, or understanding the historical context of The Scarlet Letter, but they wouldn't ask their teacher to write their outline for them, so they shouldn't ask ChatGPT.

Joni Gilman, library media specialist, Seckinger High School, Buford, GA
I recently taught all my freshmen language arts classes a lesson on finding credible sources in preparation for research podcast projects. We explored AI technologies like deepfake videos and AI-generated images to emphasize the need for students to stay vigilant when researching in this age of synthetic reality. We delved into topics like bias and misinformation and introduced AI tools for source citation. This lesson persuaded the students to use our online databases as a credible source hub.

I'm eager to experiment with AI tools such as QuestionWell and Conker.ai to generate review questions for my ActiveFloor game. Additionally, I'm considering using AI tools like Synthesia to co-teach some classes and illustrate how easily deepfakes can be created, while also capturing students' attention when they start to zone out during research lessons. A Language Arts teacher recently used Speechify to make Snoop Dogg read poetry to her class and they were instantly engaged; she also used FakeYou for another reading passage which uses AI deep fake technology to make reading of texts more engaging through the use of favorite characters.

Some teachers are contemplating using AI presentation tools like Gamma, which would enable students to focus more on the content and mastering the standards in their subject rather than perfecting the aesthetics of their projects. I plan to find new AI tools to make my presentations more engaging, which I'll then highlight as an option for students to use in their own work.

Mylie James, M.Ed, School Library Media Specialist at Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Fort Worth, TX
I've begun utilizing AI for everyday tasks so that I can focus on the things that are the most important such as building relationships with our students.

Booktalks: AI can give me a jumping-off point. By asking for specific information such as information about the title and author, an example of an exciting part of the book, and how students might relate to it, I can quickly create a book talk to captivate students without needing to have read the entire book myself.

Booklists: Once a student finds a book they love, they'll often ask for similar ones. By having AI generate a list of 10 books with similar themes and subject matter, I can have those discussions with students in the moment. That ensures we don't lose momentum on captivating budding readers.

Social media posts: I struggle to produce captions for social media posts that don't sound the same as every other post my campus produces. By having AI help, I can garner attention to the happenings in my library without a lot of repeated information.Recommendation letters: Senior students often work as aides in my library. While this is fantastic on a day-to-day basis, it also means many requests for recommendations for college and scholarships. After I input the parameters of the specific student's needs, AI gives me a starting point so I don't have to write each one from scratch.

Décor Ideas: When changing the theme of the library or a book display, AI is incredibly helpful. I have had it give me ideas for tabletop displays, interactive bulletin boards, and things to hang in my windows. This saves me from having to spiral down online searches.

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Six school librarians share tips and tools to work smarter, not harder.

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Librarians Can Play a Key Role Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Schools

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Librarians Can Play a Key Role Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Schools

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Illustration and SLJ October 2023 Cover by James Yang

"In a realm where knowledge meets innovation, school libraries are embracing the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to reimagine the educational landscape and empower students in unprecedented ways."

That quote isn't from a teacher or a librarian or an expert in the field, although it does come directly from the source. It was written by ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot that has captured imaginations-and stoked fears-over the impact machines that seemingly can think for themselves might have on the future of just about everything, including education.

Most readers would be hard-pressed to discern whether that first sentence was written by a human or AI. So perhaps it's understandable why so many school leaders had an initial knee-jerk response.

"It was a very fearful reaction of like, 'Oh no, everybody is going to cheat,'" says Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education. "But what has happened as the educator and librarian community has really started to explore the possibilities is that this has huge potential for education. This isn't just a cool new website. This is a real tool."

That response has played out at the macrolevel. Almost as soon as it appeared, some of the largest school districts in the country, including Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City, banned access to ChatGPT, citing fears over the ease with which students could cheat.

Some districts have already reversed their decisions. In New York City, Department of Education chancellor David C. Banks wrote that the city's initial response "overlooked the potential of generative AI to support students and teachers."

"If you play around with it, you're like, is this thing alive? It truly seems to be understanding and manipulating language," says Maya Bialik, who teaches seventh-grade science outside of Boston.

Before moving to the classroom, Bialik was a researcher at the educational nonprofit Center for Curriculum Redesign, where she literally wrote the book on artificial intelligence in education, so she's not surprised by the initial reaction of many educators. "Definitely at first there's fear. A teacher even asked me, 'Should I be afraid?" I showed her how to use it and she became a total power user."

AI is certainly complicated. It's a powerful tool that is seemingly advancing by the day, and while some teachers and librarians might fear it, there's no hiding from the impact it will have on learning.

Clearing up misconceptions

Overcoming fear starts with understanding, and there's a lot to unpack when it comes to artificial intelligence.

First, while ChatGPT is new, AI is not. The idea of machines that can think for themselves was first proposed in 1950 by the British mathematician Alan Turing. AI was popularized in science fiction, most notably in the murderous form of HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey . But reality proved far less scary in the form of IBM's computer chess AI program, Deep Blue, which defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997.

At its most basic, AI is an advanced computer system that can process vast amounts of data to solve problems. ChatGPT and others like it are a special type of AI called large language models that are trained through exposure to huge quantities of text-billions of pages collected from websites, tweets, news stories, and more-and utilize natural language processing not only to understand human words and phrases but to generate human-like responses.

These new generative AI programs can create almost anything an individual can think of, and text is only the tip of the iceberg. There are already AI-powered tools that make artwork, photorealistic images, video, and music, all from a simple prompt.

Culatta says he recently worked with students using a tool called Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image AI program. "Students were working on a project creating a city of the future. I said, go in and have Stable Diffusion generate the image of what you're creating." The results wowed kids and adults alike.

These tools can also make the lives of teachers and librarians a lot easier, turning tasks that usually take hours into minutes. There are programs to write lesson plans, make flashcards, and create tests. In addition to using AI tools in her classroom, Bialik has created her own, QuestionWell, which generates questions for everything from exit tickets to multiple-choice quizzes and creates multiple versions of a test for student retakes.

It's not only small developers bringing AI to classroom technology. In July, Khan Academy announced a partnership to integrate its AI student tutor and teaching assistant, Khanmigo, with Instructure's learning management system, Canvas. The tool is designed to offer personalized support to students and help teachers write lesson plans, create rubrics, and even provide feedback on student essays.

The possibilities are exciting-and overwhelming. And librarians can and should play an important role in figuring out how exactly this technology can enhance student learning.

Developing AI literacy

Joni Gilman is the media specialist at Seckinger High School in Gwinnett County, GA. Her school is part of a cluster where AI is being incorporated into all areas of learning, kindergarten through 12th grade.

Gilman says she views AI tools as collaborative partners, helping to make her job more streamlined. She's used ChatGPT to brainstorm lesson ideas and for help making reading suggestions.

"Students think we've read every book in our collection. But I can ask [AI] for an engaging summary of a book, or help creating different promotional things to grab student attention, whether it's a social media post idea or giving book recommendations," Gilman says.

Gilman is already imagining a library where AI could "help us create better collections when we're making book orders. AI can give us a diversity audit, tell us where we have holes in our collection, look at usage data to find emerging topics, and make better book orders. It can help us with weeding and resource allocation."

She's quick to add that "nothing is going to replace that human interaction when talking about books with an expert." In large part that's because AI isn't perfect. ChatGPT is only trained on data up to September 2021; a lot of its responses aren't current. Once, Gilman says, it recommended a book that didn't exist, an AI phenomenon called a hallucination.

Since ChatGPT and other AI tools aren't connected to the school's library system, recommendations aren't always available in the collection, but even that will change soon. Accessit, a library management system that Gilman's school uses, is planning to give customers access to a third-party AI tool called Talpa Search, an experimental program that can help students find a book they're looking for, even if they don't know the name of it.

"For example, the user might search for 'book about dragons with a red cover,' and Talpa would then search multiple databases to find options that fit this search," wrote Sarah Jordan, chief customer support officer at Accessit, in an email. "You can see which results are in your library that you can borrow, as well as other books which fit your search criteria."

AI will be more than just a tool, however. Schools will also need to consider how to teach students to be critical users and prepare them to live in a world where they will be learning and perhaps, one day, working alongside AI.

School librarians are perfectly suited for this new role.

"They have experience curating content, they have a creative, physical space to host kids and teachers to try things out, and, by the nature of their job, they interact with nearly every faculty member and every student," Culatta says. "It's the perfectly written job description for a person to help a school explore a new tech geared to creating content."

Much in the way librarians evolved from teaching traditional literacy to training students in media and digital literacy, the next step is AI literacy. Just like learning the skills to effectively search an online database, students will need to learn how to converse with AI to get the best research results and to distinguish between what's real and what's AI generated.

"There is so much out there that students will find that won't be true or will be fake," Gilman says. "It's going to be key for librarians to build that bridge and help students better understand what they are finding on the internet."

That's easier said than done. Teaching students how to critically assess where information comes from is a crucial part of information literacy, but almost an impossibility when it comes to AI. It's one of the reasons that make Sara Kelley-Mudie, a librarian and educational technology specialist at Beaver Country Day, an independent school in Newton, MA, anxious about the technology.

"How do we ask students to be ethical consumers of information when it's easier and easier to just get an answer and not actually be able to trace it to its origins?" she says. "I teach students how to investigate sources, trace claims and quotes, and that's really hard to do with generative AI, especially because it feels so authoritative."

Opportunities and challenges

Although fears that AI might overthrow humanity are overdramatic at this point, there are certainly areas for concern, especially when it comes to students and issues of privacy, bias, and cheating.

In terms of bias, Bialik acknowledges it is a worry. But she also points out that human beings can be just as problematic, if not worse. Bialik holds a master's in Mind, Brain, & Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and says she is consistently shocked to hear teachers make sweeping, biased statements about students.

"In psychology, you gather data and make sure it's not tainted. But in teaching, you don't have time for that, and there's a lot of shortcuts that are full of bias," she says.

"At least on systems, when it becomes codified, you can see the bias," Culatta adds. "When a teacher is making decisions that are biased, there's no way I can get an audit of that. When you have a system making recommendations with bias, at least in that case you can review and do something about it."

Even privacy concerns aren't so black and white. "It's easy to say all data should be private," Culatta says. "But then when you peel it back, what if a student is at risk? Or what if I can tell through an AI interaction that a student is struggling with a math concept and AI can alert a teacher about that and make sure they aren't lost? Understanding where protections should be is critical, but it's not binary, either completely private or completely open."

When it comes to cheating, anxiety has been particularly high within the humanities where, for the first time, students have access to what is essentially a calculator for natural language. Some educators are already using Winston, a detection tool that determines if student work was created via ChatGPT or other AI large language models. Meanwhile, other disciplines have been dealing with this issue for years-from students using Photomath (photomath.com/en) to solve algebra problems to completing world language assignments with the help of Google Translate.

Educators have had to rethink instruction with those tools in mind, says Kelley-Mudie. Now the rest of the field will have to do the same. Or as Culatta puts it, if there's a concern about cheating, the problem is not with the AI tool, but with the assessment.

For example, an assignment to write an essay about the American Revolution is easily answered with the help of ChatGPT. Strategically, a teacher could assign students to actually have ChatGPT write multiple essays about the American Revolution and then go through each one to critique, find mistakes, and fill in information that the AI program may have overlooked.

Another solution for teachers is to put the focus on how students document their process. For a research seminar she taught last spring, Kelley-Mudie had students include acknowledgements in addition to works cited. Alongside sources, students referenced all the things that inspired or helped them, including AI tools.

"Not in a gotcha way but in a reflective way," Kelley-Mudie says. "The final product is great, but we really should care about the steps they took to get there."

Gilman agrees that bringing AI into the open is the right way to make it a tool for learning rather than cheating. At her school, teachers are already talking with students about how ChatGPT can be a collaborative partner to provide feedback, removing any excuse for not turning in a revised essay.

But Gilman also recognizes other areas of concern. She says equity is going to become an important issue for student access when tools like ChatGPT, which are currently free, begin to charge a fee. She also says the ability to create lifelike deep fakes has the potential to be very harmful to students from a bullying perspective. Schools will need to have policies in place to address these kinds of hazards.

Despite the risks, Gilman still says that AI and "the benefits of it, the things that it can do, are just mind-blowing."

And what does ChatGPT have to say about it all?

"As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions or desires. The decision of whether to use AI models like ChatGPT in schools ultimately rests with educational institutions, policymakers, and educators. It is important to carefully consider the benefits, risks, and ethical considerations associated with AI implementation in educational settings. Open discussions, thorough evaluations, and informed decisions should guide any choices regarding the use of AI technology in schools."

A human couldn't have said it better.

Andrew Bauld is a freelance writer covering education.

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Librarians Can Play a Key Role Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Schools

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AI tools like ChatGPT are advancing by the day. Here's how librarians are using them, plus an overview of valuable AI tools and terms.

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LibGuides: ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence: AI and Schools

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This guide accompanies MLS continuing education opportunities about generative artificial intelligence. Resources for primary and secondary education professionals

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VAASL offers the following professional development activities for school librarians.

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Are you a new school librarian? Welcome to the best job on the planet! I will be entering my seventh year as a school librarian this year and I know from experience that while it is an extremely rewarding job, beginning the process can be quite daunting. Here are my top tips for getting started:
Have a Plan
What do you envision for your school library and for yourself professionally as a school librarian? Take a moment to create a list of goals you would like to accomplish in the next five years. No idea is too big or too small. Write each idea on a page in a notebook and list resources to help you accomplish these goals, as well as ideas for funding and tips from blogs and social media posts to help you get started. Review your goals, rank them in order of importance, and tackle them one by one. This notebook should be a working document, so it's okay to add items each year and cross a few things off. I did this my very first year. Not only did it help me to focus on my goals, but after five years, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment in seeing everything I was able to achieve.
Build Your Professional Learning Network (PLN)
Your biggest supporters are going to be the school librarians in your PLN. Joining your state and national organizations is a great way to meet other librarians from across the state and nation. Not only do these organizations offer support and resources, but they also often provide grant opportunities. After your first year, consider volunteering for a committee or two. The friendships I have made through committee work with AASL have been invaluable. Sometimes, it can be tough to fund membership fees. Consider asking your administration to fund your memberships for your first year. It never hurts to ask. Also be sure to utilize Twitter to build your PLN. Every single day I am in awe of the resources shared by school librarians on Twitter. Comment on other librarians' posts and make those connections!
Get to Know Your Collection
Before you make big changes to your shelves, get to know your library's collection. Spend time looking over your titles to discover what you have and what you are missing. Analyze your collection by uploading to a site like Titlewave or Mackin to identify deficits and consider a diversity audit. School librarian Kelsey Bogan offers some great advice about diversity audits on her blog . Survey your students on what books they'd like to see added to your collection, weed books that haven't been checked out since the turn of the century, and create a wishlist of titles you'd like to add. After getting to know my library's collection, and surveying my students, I decided to genrefy our library. It was a terrific decision for our library, but consider holding off on a big change like that until after your first year.
Building a Website and Social Media Presence
The best way to share the great things you are doing in your school library is through a website and social media. Websites are great ways to post announcements, tutorials, resources, and other important information for your students, teachers, and families. Start small and keep in mind that you don't have to build an award-winning website overnight. There are many free website-building platforms out there that are easy to use such as Wix, Weebly, and my favorite, Google Sites. Check out my free webinar comparing these website platforms if you need more information. Consider creating social media pages to share your school library with parents and the community. Social media is a free way to showcase the great things you are doing in your library and shows the community that a modern school library involves more than just books. Need ideas for posts? Check out our library's Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter pages.

If you'd like more advice for new school librarians, check out this webinar hosted by the Louisiana Association of School Librarians . Kim "Lovie" Howell , Matthew King , and I discussed our top advice for beginning your new adventure. Most importantly, take a deep breath and take it one step at a time. Remember the old adage that "Rome wasn't built in a day." You've got this!

Amanda is the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year, and a 21 year educator from Watson, LA. She's a teacher-librarian and certified reading specialist at a 5-6 grade middle school. She is Vice President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and is the 2019 AASL Social Media Superstar Program Pioneer. Amanda is an active member of several committees for AASL and is on the Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Awards Committee. Visit her library website at lomlibrary.org and/or find out more about her at http://librarianjones.com/.

Categories: Blog Topics, Collection Development, Community/Teacher Collaboration, Professional Development

Tags: diversity audit, new school librarian, PLN, school library website, social media

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Are you a new school librarian? Welcome to the best job on the planet! I will be entering my seventh year as a school librarian this year and I know from experience that while it is an extremely rewarding job, beginning the process can be quite daunting.

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Gearing Up for Back-to-School: A School Librarian’s To-do List

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Gearing Up for Back-to-School: A School Librarian’s To-do List

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Get students involved in back-to-school library preparations

I remember when I first began my career as an elementary Library Media Specialist. After years of studying and student teaching, I finally had my own library! Unfortunately, I wasn't efficiently using the days leading up to the start of the school year. I knew those precious days and the first few weeks of class were pivotal to setting up a welcoming, friendly space, but there were so many things that needed to get done. I didn't know how to prioritize.

In my bewilderment, I reached out to a colleague and asked, "How do I know what to do first?" Together, we created a list.

1. Familiarize myself with the catalog and the collection

2. Create a budget spreadsheet

3. Share my schedule with classroom teachers

4. Read district policies and procedures

She also suggested I find a useful, school library-specific planner. This really helped guide my year (and still does to this day).

The final piece of advice my colleague offered was encouraging me to think beyond the very specific, measurable goals and create a second to-do list called "Welcoming Environment." This list would include tasks I could do in partnership with students. This ended up being one of the best pieces of professional advice I ever received.

Now that I have seventeen years of professional library experience under my belt, I'd love to share some suggestions for creating a "Welcoming Environment" back-to-school list of your own. The items on this list will help you engage students and encourage their buy-in (which is every bit as valuable as a budget spreadsheet).

LABEL IT! Invite students to create labels for the different areas of the library. In both the fiction and nonfiction sections, students will love creating easy-to-read, illustrated signs they can slip into acrylic sign holders. Students will enjoy seeing their own work in the library whenever they visit and be proud to help guide other library users. This task also gives you an opportunity to get to know students. Ask them what their favorite animals, topics, authors, or themes are, and have them create labels for those areas as well.

ORGANIZE IT! Ask students to help you decide how they'd like to see materials organized. You might find yourself deciding between interfiling graphic novels and fiction or whether to separate one section into two (in my library we separated nonfiction beginning readers from the remainder of the nonfiction collection). Your main goal is to create a library that's easy for students to navigate. What better way to help you make organizational decisions than to ask those who use the library? These users may even have some brilliant ideas you haven't considered. Once decided, use bookshelf dividers to help students easily find their favorites or pique their interest in something new.

DISPLAY IT! Ask students to help you decide on display themes based around student interests, current events, or classroom project themes. Students can help you pull books for your display and set them up, decorate bulletin boards, and create props to add to book displays. Schedule regular changes throughout the year and use a calendar to plan out the best time to replace each display based on seasonality.

PICTURE IT! Make sure you have permission, then start taking photographs of students and staff reading and engaging with makerspace materials. Print these photos and display them around the library or use a digital picture frame. Change them out often so that every student has a chance to see themselves. Consider including them in a newsletter or making a contest out of "catching" them reading.

RECOMMEND IT! Invite students to recommend their favorite books to others. This can be as high-tech or low-tech as you'd like it to be. Use an online tool for sharing student videos, or supply paper (in the shape of speech bubbles if you'd like to get fancy) and have students write their reviews. Providing prompts is often helpful. Include spaces for each reviewer to write their name, the title of the book, the theme or genre, and a few highlights. Consider creating a display of books that have been recommended by other students.

DECORATE IT! Shelf markers are an effective, easy-to-use tool for keeping books organized. Students can use them to mark the place on the shelf where they removed a book that they're considering checking out. If they decide not to check it out, the book goes right back on the shelf where the marker is holding its space.Up your shelf marker game by offering students the opportunity to decorate them. Choose flexible, durable white shelf markers that can be colored with markers or crayons. If you have one shelf marker per child, encourage students to personalize them with their names. If shelf markers are shared, invite students to draw a crowd-pleasing design or graphic such as animals or your school mascot. Another idea is to have them write encouraging sayings or friendly reminders.

Regardless of which list items you choose to try first, you'll see your efforts pay off quickly. You'll notice enthusiastic, engaged students who are proud to show off the parts they play in the library. The mental lift of speculating what students might be interested in will be alleviated, and you can sit back and watch them enjoy their autonomy within the space.

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A School Librarian's To-do List - Ideas & Inspiration from Demco

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Getting back to school is challenging for everyone. Collaborate with students on a library to-do list and watch their engagement soar.

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AI and this moment in search technology history by Hannah Byrd Little

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AI and this moment in search technology history by Hannah Byrd Little

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A source?

While writing this blog post, I couldn't help but reflect on the ongoing debate surrounding citing AI as a source. This topic sparks much discussion among librarians and educators alike. I hope to communicate my perspective on AI without sounding rigid. It's important for me to explore analogies that can help clarify my opinion or perspective.

One example is a phrase that keeps coming to mind, "I found it on the Internet!" It reminds me of a time in early search engine history when students would cite the "Internet" as their source without specifying the actual website or author. Similarly, students now claim to have found their information through AI, often referring to it as their source. This raises questions about the credibility and reliability of AI-generated content.

I view AI as a tool rather than a source. It's akin to a search engine or a grammar correction app. I've never cited Google or Grammarly in my research, but I heavily rely on these tools for writing and information retrieval. AI should be seen as a powerful tool that aids search and enhances productivity rather than a direct source of information.

Is this a pivotal moment?

This moment in tech history feels significant, reminiscent of the emergence of big search engines like Yahoo! in 1995 and Google in 1998. Just as those search engines revolutionized how we access information, AI is now shaping the landscape of research and knowledge acquisition.

Learning

I attended several sessions at ALA LibLearnX in Baltimore to better understand AI's implications for libraries. Two sessions stood out to me in particular.

The first session was titled "Unleashing AI's Potential: A Design Sprint for Library Staff," facilitated by Linda W. Braun, a Learning Consultant from The LEO Group, and Juan Rubio, the Digital Media Learning Program Manager at The Seattle Public Library. This intensive and interactive three-hour session challenged me to think differently about the role of AI in library services. It provided insights into how AI can be harnessed to improve user experiences and enhance library operations.

The second session, led by Virginia Cononie, the Associate Librarian Coordinator of Research Services at USC Upstate Library, was a shorter 20-minute presentation titled "Enhancing Research Services: Leveraging the Power of Artificial Intelligence." She shared three strategies for leveraging AI to enhance research services in this engaging talk. These strategies included crafting complex assessment questions, conducting comparative analysis between AI and traditional librarian approaches, and optimizing service goals through AI suggestions. I left the session with a list of tech tools to explore and a renewed sense of how AI can enhance library services.

Conclusions

Attending these sessions at LibLearnX helped me stay informed about the latest developments in AI and its applications in the library field. It also affirmed my belief that AI should be embraced as a tool that complements librarians' expertise rather than replacing human knowledge and guidance. As school librarians, we must navigate this technological landscape with an open mind, continuously learning and adapting to provide our students with the best resources and services.

Reading and Resources

We may need to step out of our comfort zone. Reading more informal technology writing will help us keep up and understand the landscape. This is fast-moving technology; the moment anything is written in a book, it will be dated.

Stay tuned for a post about AI, ethics, and Art.

Categories: Technology

Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, Generative AI, Research, search

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AI and this moment in search technology history

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Just as search engines revolutionized the way we access information, AI is now shaping the landscape of research and knowledge acquisition.

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* Literacy instruction must be equitable and culturally relevant.

*Learning environments should be supportive and have integrated support systems.

* Every individual can benefit from explicit and systematic phonics instruction that is evidence-based.

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Virginia State Literacy Association - Home

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Literacy instruction must be equitable and culturally relevant. *Learning environments should be supportive and have integrated support systems. * Every individual can benefit from explicit and systematic phonics instruction that is evidence-based.

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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AASL eLearning is now on ALA eLearning! Browse AASL webinars and slidecasts from AASL’s National Conferences on this centralized web portal that brings together the most comprehensive digital collection of professional development for library professionals. Topics include collaboration, co-teaching, collection development, makerspaces, technology, coding, STEM/STEAM, social justice, media literacy, diversity, research, and more. Interested in sponsoring a Vendor Webinar? Click here for details or contact Allison Cline at acline@ala.org to discuss.

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The American Library Association (ALA) is proud to release the new podcast, "How I Library." Hosted by ALA Communications Manager Phil Morehart, this new monthly series will feature authors, filmmakers, musicians, scholars, thought leaders, and, of course, librarians discussing the importance of libraries, their favorite library memories, and issues facing the library world. Along the way, they'll share thoughts about their work, what inspires them, and so much more. The podcast is an extension of the #HowILibrary campaign that ALA launched last fall that asked authors "how they library": what the library means to them, how they use and have used the library, and how the library has impacted their lives.

HowILibrary's tracks

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The American Library Association (ALA) is proud to release the new podcast, "How I Library." Hosted by ALA Communications Manager Phil Morehart, this new monthly series will feature authors, filmmakers, musicians, scholars, thought leaders, and, of course, librarians discussing the importance of libraries, their favorite library memories, and issues facing the library world.