Written by I knew I wanted my Cohort 21 action plan to focus on something to do with planning and organization, perhaps looking at paper vs online planning (I am a paper planner, but do see the huge benefits of an online calendar), or how students use paper vs online calendars (and why we as a school distribute paper agendas to our students in 2015). However, front of mind at the moment is the library schedule, and how we keep track of physical, human and technology resources.
Here in the Lassonde Library, we need to track the following:
- two teaching spaces in the library
- two seminar rooms (one of which has a regularly scheduled class in)
- two librarians
- 40 chromebooks
- 30 ipads
This is what the library schedule looks like for this week:
There’s lots to juggle, plus some things we need to schedule are dependent on others. For example, if I teach a grade 10 class, I only need a few chromebooks for my class, because most grade 10s bring their own devices (we have an open and flexible BYOD program). However, if grade 6 are coming in, I need a full class set of chromebooks for them to use. Additionally, demand for technology means our chromebooks are often booked for use outside the library.
But I *love* my paper calendar. I’ve used a paper booking schedule for every one of my thirteen years at SCS. Looking back through them is like looking at a professional archive. And the thing I love most about my paper calendar is the opportunity it brings for collaboration. Whenever a teacher wants to book library time, they head to the library, and we have a conversation about what resources they need, the direction of their assignment, and how we can best teach research and library skills to students through the project.
Many other facilities and services at SCS are booked through online calendars (and, in fact, our iPad booking and seminar room booking is online too). Is it time to digitize the library booking system, and potentially lose the collaboration piece? Do we need a new kind of solution altogether?