CSLA 2009

This morning I discovered that my proposal to present at CSLA 2009 in Ontario had been accepted. The title: "Teacher Your Library Aides Online: Develop an online course in Moodle."

I am pleased that it was accepted. The presentation is an out-growth of a course that I developed for my district that is now being piloted at a number of schools and of a presentation that I gave at our local CUE Conference.

I will be talking about free ways to be able to design such courses. I don't envision this course as the sole way that you teach library service students, but as a supplement to what you normally do. For me, some days I have vast amounts of work for the students and other days, less so. On those other days, it gives the students an opportunity to improve their skills.

Also and importantly, it gives you a quantifiable way to grade the students.

Teach your library service students online

As part of my graduate work at Fresno Pacific University, I have been developing an online library service course. This course is a series of ten lessons that combines a total of thirty assignments. I have developed it in Moodle and it is a work in progress.

The interesting thing for me is that I will be offering it to my district for adoption for all of our secondary schools. Unlike in the past, where all of our schools are doing different things, we now offer some of the same resources, use the same circulation system, and are purchasing some of the materials.

Because my district does not currently have access to Moodle or Blackboard, FPU has agreed to host it for the time being. Yet one more reason to respect what is going on over there! I am awaiting a response from the district as we speak.

I presented it to my class today and one student suggested that I consider submitting a presentation for CSLA next year and show others how to create a course like this one. Hard to think that far in advance, but it is an idea.