The Swiss Army Knife Approach 

Head for the Edge, May/June 2013

Doug Johnson <doug0077@gmail.com> 

For as long as I can remember I have carried a small Swiss Army knife in my pocket along with my change. It has a blade less than an inch and a half long, a screwdriver, a scissors, a toothpick, and tweezers. I’ve heard that members of the Swiss Army can use such a knife to stop an enemy in a dozen different ways, but I use mine primarily for opening boxes, trimming my finger nails, and cutting tags off things.

None of the knife’s tools is as good as having a dedicated tool. The scissors are small; the screwdriver is hard to use; the tweezers are flimsy. But each tool can do the job - and the tool is actually there, in my pocket, when I need it.

My point? I’ve marveled over the past three years at the rate iPads and other tablets have been adopted by both teachers and students. These marvelous devices seem to be the “Swiss Army knives” of educational technology, with a lot of “tools” packed into a small package.

When I read about tablet use in libraries, most commentators “ooh” and “aah” about library specific apps. And there is no denying that database specific (AccessMyLibrary, Article Search) apps, reference apps (Dictionary - Merriam Webster, Wikipedia), catalog access apps, and e-book reader apps (GoodReader, iBooks, Kindle, Nook) are very cool. It’s easy to imagine handing students iPads instead of having them sitting at terminals in our libraries.

But it is the Swiss Army knife abilities of the table that will have far-reaching consequences as libraries and schools adopt tablets. Yes, one can consume information in a wide range of formats - print, video, and audio, but users also create new content with the built-in camera(s), text editors and audio recorders, compete with a vast array of recreational and educational games, and communicate using e-mail, text, video conferencing and telephony applications. And this wide array of tools and functions, while none is extremely powerful, may be powerful enough to change the library and classroom technology device landscape.

For example, my guess is that your library has a few still and video digital cameras for check out. Why, when every phone and nearly every tablet has at least one camera? Yes, the high school photography class can justify using digital SLR cameras. A camera that can be used outdoors under extreme conditions might come in handy. But to have third graders shoot examples of symmetry in nature; for middle school students to snap scenes of economic problems in the community for a slideshow; or for high school kids to create a video demonstrating a cooking technique - for 99.9% of the uses we ask kids to make of cameras and photography -  the camera in the tablet works great. It is simple to use. And it’s always there.

Libraries should be asking themselves why they should spend resources on a camera that only shoots digital stills and video and requires another device, a computer, to edit the images, when for a few dollars more, they can purchase a tablet that not only takes pictures and video, but edits them, and serves a multitude of other functions as well? Just how many megapixels does that fifth grader need?

Tablets are on the verge of replacing not just cameras but interactive whiteboards, student response systems, audio recorders, document cameras, calculators, and laptop carts. Unless one is writing a book, who really needs a full-sized keyboard or a full-fledged word processing program? (List three features in Word that you’d miss if you only used GoogleDocs.)

And the thing is, a lot of kids already have these devices, know how to use them, and will happily bring them to school if allowed to do so. Schools can focus tech spending on devices for kids whose families can’t afford them. Kids get to use what they personally know and like. Are we selling kids short by offering them a “Swiss Army knife” approach to educational technology? Replacing those high-powered devices that are difficult to use and to access for lots and lots of ubiquitous, multi-function, easy-to-use devices is a no-brainer. Go for access.

As a librarian, what is your role as tablets become more common in your school? Will you help select and manage educational “apps?” Will your library be the place staff and students go to get assistance learning how to use both the devices and the programs? Are the electronic resources your library offers “tablet-friendly?” Certainly your library is the place to use one’s tablet, given its comfortable seating, robust wireless access, and welcoming atmosphere.

Envision the library as the “Swiss Army Knife” of educational programs - services, resources, and support for every individual in your school. It’s an “appy” future for us.

Most of these columns, updated and edited, can be found in my book School Libraries Head for the Edge. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.

The neglected side of intellectual freedom

Head for the Edge, March/April 2013

Doug Johnson <doug0077@gmail.com>

High school student Emily is increasingly concerned over environmental issues in her community and plans to write her senior thesis on this topic . There is an active “green” movement organization in her community that uses Facebook to communicate. Her school blocks Facebook.

Seventh-grader Juan and his friends are having a great time using the iPad to create and edit videos. They think their last production about school bullying would be helpful to other students, but their school blocks YouTube.

Ms. Spenser’s latest professional journal included an article about peer review as a powerful means of helping writers improve their work. But when she inquired about getting GoogleDocs for her fifth grade class to facilitate sharing and commenting on documents online, she was told that GoogleApps was blocked at the elementary level.

We are in a golden age of self-publishing. The tools for sharing ideas and creative efforts through text, photos, movies, and sound have never been easier or more powerful. Unless one is Emily Dickinson, most of us who create want to share our work and get reactions to it. Studies show that the broader the audience, the higher the level of concern students have about the quality of their productions.

Henry Jenkins and others use the term “participatory culture” and express a concern that students who do not master collaboration-enabling technologies will not be able to fully engage in modern cultural and political life. Jenkins writes:

Our goals should be to encourage youth to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in contemporary culture. … A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these forms of participatory culture, including opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, a changed attitude toward intellectual property, the diversification of cultural expression, the development of skills valued in the modern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship. 1

Yet as the examples above suggest, many schools make great efforts to keep students (and staff) from sharing their ideas online. Blocking blogs, wikis, social networking venues, and photo/video sharing tools is considered necessary if children are to be “protected.”

My concern is that in our professional efforts to prevent censorship, we are focusing so completely on assuring access to the ideas of others that we neglect the other side of intellectual freedom: the right for all to express their own ideas, information, and art.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. 2  Intellectual freedom includes having the right to create and disseminate information and opinions as well as having the right to access the intellectual products of others.

Given the difficulty and exclusivity of publishing in print (primarily books, newspapers, and magazines) prior to online publishing, the expressive side of the intellectual freedom coin has been largely ignored by school librarians and teachers. But given the increased importance of social networking, the availability of Web 2.0 tools, the realization that knowledge creation is a valuable skill, and the growing recognition of creativity as a primary means of securing a place in the contemporary workforce, all educators (especially librarians) should be advocating for students’ rights to be read, heard, and viewed.

Much of the fear associated with today’s Internet is less about what students will find on it and more about what students will post to it. To some degree these concerns are justified - contact with dangerous strangers, cyberbullying, and online reputation damage are all negative consequences of the ignorant or malicious placement of information, ideas and opinions online. Digital citizenship training needs to address these safety issues.

But there is also a genuine, if not as immediate or well-publicized, danger in preventing students from accessing the tools needed to build and share digital portfolios of original work, to participate in collaborative online learning experiences, to communicate with global experts and fellow students, and to use Web2.0 tools to do primary data collection as a part of research projects. The modern learner needs to share his or her ideas, receive feedback about them, participate in discussions surrounding school topics, and use online tools for collaboration. Schools that block or limit the tools that make publication and communication possible for students are also blocking and limiting educational opportunities.

The library profession is slowly acknowledging that our battle over student rights to access to digital information sources is as important as our battle over student rights to access print resources. (AASL now has a Banned Websites Awareness Day.) But the battle ground is shifting again.

Librarians, are we ready to fight for students’ rights not just to access information, but to produce it as well? Get ready - this will be the real intellectual freedom battle for our kids this decade.

1. Jenkins, Henry. “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture” MacArthur Foundation, 2006 <http://tinyurl.com/jenkinspc>

2. Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_freedom>

Most of these columns, updated and edited, can be found in my book School Libraries Head for the Edge. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.

Doug Johnson <doug0077@gmail.com>

ENTREPRENEUR: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise <m-w.com>

When reading the comics, I often wonder how Dagwood, Beetle Bailey, and Dibert’s co-worker Wally stay employed. Aren’t slackers an anachronism in today’s high-productivity and high-unemployment economy? Nor is it just the lazy who risk losing a paycheck; it’s also those whose positions have become irrelevant due to changes in the technologies, in the economies, and in the missions of their organizations. Even people who work very hard, but are doing things deemed unimportant to the success of their employer, are being shown the door.

One of the terms that is getting a lot of play in educational circles is entrepreneurship. When applied to business, as the definition above suggests, the entrepreneur starts a new enterprise, accepting the risk and responsibilities that accompany it. In education, it is used to describe private individuals or groups offering new, often commercial, systems of learning - charter schools, for-profit schools, or online schools.

But increasingly, the concepts of entrepreneurship are being used by individuals within traditional schools trying new educational approaches - ones that will keep them from becoming obsolete.  For librarians, I’d define entrepreneurship as actively searching for unfilled needs in a school and helping meet them, adding value to one’s position in the organization.

My sense is that good librarians have always had an entrepreneurial streak. The librarians in our district have become webmasters, network managers, book fair organizers, online teaching materials selectors, volunteer coordinators, and PTO liaisons - none of which are really traditional “library” jobs, but all which are appreciated - and essential. In July 2012, members of the LM_Net mailing list shared their entrepreneurial tasks. Some of them included

Literature and reading related jobs of

• Book fair and book swap organizer for their schools, helping students build personal collections
• Reading tutor for students with special needs
• Organizer of building-wide reading promotions and contests that build enthusiasm for reading
• One book/one community organizers, often working in collaboration with public librarians or other community groups
• Annual literacy night sponsor for those whose districts host such events

Technology related jobs of

• School webmaster, organizing and troubleshooting the content of other staff members
• Building based technology contact - answering software and technical questions, organizing, maintaining, creating, and disseminating “how-to” instruction sheets for various programs
• “Flipped classroom” and online learning support provider for programs like Moodle and Edmodo
• Distance learning coordinator for students who use instructional television or online courses to supplement their face-to-face classes
• Videographer of school programs and events: shooting, editing and distributing these films
• Technology committee member, leading school efforts in making good policies, budgets and plans.

• Technology fair organizer and host, helping showcase student work

School-community-related jobs of

• Building parent-teacher association liaison
• Building public relations director working with local media outlets on school stories
• School newsletter editor
• School news video program director, assisting students in producing a regular newscast
• Organizer of information for parents and community about school’s extracurricular offerings
• School blogger, school Tweeter, and school Facebook page author

And other important jobs of

• Career guidance support provider including “career of the month presentation” organizer
• Ongoing SAT preparation hosted in the library
• Advisory program homeroom teacher
• Special events/programs planner including campus-wide celebrations
• School grant writer
• Fall school picture day organizer
• School yearbook sponsor
• Field trip chaperone
• Chief information officer (CIO) to principal and staff
• Professional development coordinator, arranging training for staff by experts
• Academic teams advisor
• Skype and virtual field trip facilitator
• Database expert for needed building record keeping functions
• Textbook manager
• Credit recovery teacher

An effective entrepreneur finds ways to learn about building needs by serving on building leadership teams, listening carefully to staff members during lunch, and attending all faculty meetings. An effective entrepreneur recognizes his/her personal talents when selecting project on which to work. An effective entrepreneur accepts and even relishes the risks and unknowns of trying new ways to help staff and students.

College library Andy Burkhardt suggests “human systems grow in the direction of their persistent questions” <http://tinyurl.com/burkhardtrq>.  He warns librarians that by asking “How can libraries avoid obsolescence?”, we are focusing on our fears, rather than providing value. Instead, we should be asking  “How can we create amazing experiences everyday for our users?” and “How can we make our libraries invaluable and irreplaceable in our communities?”

Amazing, invaluable and irreplaceable librarians are those who are entrepreneurial - willing to step outside the roles prescribed to us by professional standards, personal histories, and social norms. Instead of asking “How do I improve my library?”, those librarians are asking “How do I improve my school by employing my skills wherever they are needed.”

Ban the phrase “But that’s not my job,” from your thoughts.

Most of these columns, updated and edited, can be found in my book School Libraries Head for the Edge. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.

21 Dangerous Statements Librarians Make
Doug Johnson
Head for the Edge, November 2012

I shudder when I hear librarians utter these statements because what is said is often not is what is heard:

1. But the school has to have a librarian and a library.
   (Subtext: I don’t have to worry about my job.)
2. The research proves that libraries improve student achievement.
   (Subtext: So I don’t have to.)
3. Kids can’t come into the library…
   1. because I have work to do.
   2. because I might need to step out and they would be unsupervised.
   3. because it is my library and what I say, goes.
   4. because I need four weeks in the fall and spring to get it ready and shut it down
      (Subtext: Because what I need is more important than what students and teachers need.)
4. I can’t create a good program because I am in a fixed schedule.
   (Subtext: I’m not a real teacher.)
5. Having a study hall in the library is out of the question.
   (Subtext: The library program is more important than the needs of the school.)
6. That’s the technician’s job .
   (Subtext: My professional image is more important than others’ emergencies.)
7. Correct bibliographic format is absolutely critical.
   (Subtext: Form is more important than content.)
8. I can’t work with a teacher who does not give at least X days/weeks/months advance notice.
   (Subtext: I am inflexible.)
9. The library catalog information has to conform to AACR standards and I will spend all my discretionary time cataloging until it is.
   (Subtext: Following a rigid set of rapidly obsolete standards is more important than working with people.)
10. Computers and the Internet are the bane of reading and rational thought. I refuse to learn about them.
    (Subtext: I am unwilling to change or even consider new ideas.)
11. Wikipedia, blogs, and Twitter are not an acceptable source of information.
    (Subtext: I don’t acknowledge that crowd-sourced information has any value.)
12. If only the principal/teachers/parents knew what I do they’d appreciate me!
    (Subtext: People should know what I do without my having to communicate it to them.)
13. It’s my job to read so if I read on the job others can just think what they want.
    (Subtext: Appearances don’t matter.)
14. But ALA/AASL Standards say _____________.
    (Subtext: All schools need exactly the same kind of library program.)
15. That kid has shown he can’t be responsible so he’ll never check anything out from this library again.
    (Subtext: Materials are more important than human beings.)
16. Computer games in my library?
    (Subtext: It would just bring kids into the library I have to supervise.)
17. I can advocate for my own program. I don’t need anyone else vocally supporting it.
    (Subtext: I don’t need to build relationships by offering a program of vital importance to others.)
18. My expertise in children’s and young adult literature makes me indispensable to my school.
    (Subtext: I don’t need to make the connection between what I do and improving reading abilities.)
19. I don’t need to collect data about my program. My principal loves me.
    (Subtext: Personal relationships trump accountability.)
20. I don’t teach “computer skills.”
    (Subtext: Students can be information literate without having technology skills.)
21. The right job title (librarian, media specialist, teacher-librarian, etc.) will make my position more secure
    (Subtext: What I am called is more important than my role in the school.)

OK, those are twenty-one fast ones off the top of my head. And they were probably easy for me to list since I’ve uttered more than a few of these phrases myself in my career as a librarian and library supervisor.

I made a whole mass of librarians shudder about a year ago when I suggested during a panel that our profession could use a good pruning. Yes, some good people will be removed along with the dead wood, but what remains of the profession will be vibrant, growing, and healthy.

Too many in our professional still regard the library as a sacred institution that all schools must have instead of a dynamic, flexible set of services that exist to serve the entire school. Too many in our profession don’t seek new ways to become valuable as the needs of our schools change. Too many of us are constrained by the traditional role of the librarian - a children’s and young adult literature expert and research coach.

I am not convinced that the profession as a whole is in a crisis. But I suspect a lot of librarians (who aren’t reading this column anyway) may be. And rightfully so. And the rest of us who are transforming ourselves into modern librarians should be concerned. The old expression that we are known by the company we keep is true professionally as well as personally. Librarians who fail to change; who have grown complacent; and who don’t put the needs of their patrons first reflect badly on all of us. Principals and superintendents who have had a bad experience with a librarian will hard to convince that libraries and librarians can be important components of an effective school.

And one of them might be your next supervisor.

Most of these columns, updated and edited, can be found in my book School Libraries Head for the Edge. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.

BYOD to the library

Doug Johnson

Head for the Edge, LMC August/September 2012

When I leave my smart phone at home, it feels like I’m operating with only half my brain all day. And heaven knows, I have little brain power to spare. My ubiquitous access to e-mail, contacts, and calendar are gone when my phone plays hooky. But so is my ability check the weather, read an e-book, and find information online.

I am not alone. These small, powerful, increasingly affordable devices are the outboard brains for a growing number of people, including our students. In just a few years, we will look back and wonder how people ever got along without continuous connectivity to the Internet.

Schools that recognize the necessity of this connectivity for students are looking for creative means of supplying it. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is a popular buzzword in technology circles.  BYOD programs don’t just allow, but encourage, students to bring and use their personally-owned computing gizmos in school. This approach is appealing to schools that choose not to support 1:1 computer to student programs but still want to increase kids’ ready access to digital resources.

As the prices of tablets, netbooks, laptops, e-book readers, and smart phones fall, an ever greater number of families can afford these machines.  Adding such devices to a school supply list becomes feasible when they don’t cost much more than a graphing calculator.

My district has a BYOD project we call ELF-Tech (Extending Learning Forever with Technology). Its goals include:

• increasing motivation and engagement in the classroom
• supporting differentiated instruction efforts
• increasing student access to school provided e-books, e-textbooks, and Moodle units
• supporting online collaborative work in the classroom
• developing workable rules and skills for classroom teachers in managing student-owned technologies

We’ve let parents know what capabilities they should be looking for as they purchase personal technologies for their children: wi-fi, a long battery life, and a web browser that allows access to GoogleApps for Education, our student information system student portal, Moodle, the state’s content databases, and our district’s library catalog, and other online resources.

So what does this have to do with libraries? Indispensable librarians and vital library programs are integral to the technology efforts in schools - or should be. This is true once again as schools and teachers expend efforts to make student-owned computing devices productive learning tools.

Here are some things all librarians should be asking themselves if their schools are figuring out ways of giving all students continuous access to online resources, whether through student or school owned devices:

1. Do my library rules help students take advantage of their mobile computing devices? If your library bans student-owned devices and does not have wireless access for students, think again. As students use these tools to access information, educational resources, and e-text books, your library will need to be not just the place where they can connect, but where connectivity is the best! Oh, is the library the best place in the school to charge your batteries?

2. Can students and staff get knowledgeable support in my library when they have problems or questions? If students are having problems connecting to the network, logging in to an online program, or finding or using a digital resource, the library needs to be the first place students (and teachers) consider when going for help. Student library volunteers can compliment the professional staff in doing this work.

3. Am I selecting library resources with mobile computing devices in mind? Consider how your digital library resources work on a spectrum of devices, some with smaller screens. E-books should be chosen in formats that can be read on as many different e-readers, tablets, and smart phones as possible, not just a single platform. (Circulating e-readers is an expensive, unsupportable plan that will fast be eclipsed by students’ wanting e-books that can be read on their personal devices.)

4. In my role as instructional leader, am I using best practices that take advantage of a ubiquitous technology environment - and helping my teachers do so as well? When teaching information literacy skills, you should be having students use their own technologies to engage with the material. Online programs like Socrative allow students to respond to questions using a variety of devices instead of dedicated student response systems. Your guides, templates, and other instructional materials should be in GoogleDocs  or a similar online program.

5. Do I exemplify a learner who takes advantage of having continuous access to the Internet? Take your own device to meetings and use it for note taking and finding information. Replace those paper agendas and other documents with electronic versions. Call on your peeps for help using Twitter. When you run meetings, encourage those attending to use their own devices.

If your school is going 1:1 or BYOD, you as a librarian need to be supporting the effort. If we as a profession don’t figure out how to be a vital part of these initiatives, we may not be BYOD but DOA.

Most of my Head for the Edge columns, updated and edited, can be found in my latest book. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.

And then his teacher announced that she did not allow props, costumes or narrative reporting. Thud. Good thing his grandfather lives seven hours away. We just might have had an impromptu (grand)parent/teacher conference.

Thankfully, most teachers, parents, and organizations recognize the growing need for today’s successful people to be creative. (See my article “Developing Creativity in Every Learner” in this issue.) But creativity doesn’t just happen. It needs to be cultivated. Here are a few everyday things librarians can do to make their programs ones that encourage creative behaviors in kids - and maybe even teachers.

1. Ban clip art - in all assignments. I know, I know, clip art is quick, easy, and readily available in many programs. But don’t let kids use it. They should be creating their own visuals for their projects. Scanned original drawings, illustrations created with graphics programs, and student-taken photographs are all ready sources of visual information we haven’t seen dozens of times. Let’s put those cameras, KidPix, and scanners to positive use.
2. Ask for information to be shared in at least two media formats. Even if the primary requirement of an assignment is a piece of writing, we should be asking that the same information be conveyed as a graphic, an audio-recording, a drama, a cartoon, or a poster. Using multiple media requires the learner to think about the contents in two different ways and encourages new approaches to delivering a message.
3. Encourage the narrative voice in writing and oral presentations. Good assignments help teach not just content, but learning processes as well. Ask students not just to tell the answer to a research question, but to tell the story about how they found the information, what challenges they faced, and what new tricks they acquired. Make research a journey, not just a destination, and ask students to tell that story - emphasizing creative problem-solving strategies.
4. Ask for multiple possible answers to questions or multiple possible solutions to problems. Most adults who read the paper, have political opinions, or have encountered puzzling events, recognize there is rarely if ever a single viewpoint on an issue or just one solution to a problem. By asking kids for two or three “right” answers, not only do they need to be more creative, but perhaps more empathetic as well.
5. Give points for “design” on all assignments. OK, neatness counts. It always did and always will. But today’s effective communicator needs to know some design skills as well. Oh, you say you don’t have them yourself? Read Robin Williams’s wonderful little book The Non-Designer’s Design Book (Peachpit Press, 2008)  In it she demonstrates four simple design rules that everyone can master. - proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast. You own materials will never look so good - and you can pass your secrets on to you students.
6. Instead of simply telling a student his or her  response is “wrong,” ask for a reason why the answer was given. In one of my favorite children’s books, Miriam Cohen’s First Grade Takes a Test (Star Bright Books, 2006), poor George when answering a standardized test question about what rabbits eat, had to draw in a carrot since he assumed the test creators did not know the “right” answer. By asking students why they gave the answer they did, misunderstandings can certainly be cleared-up, but often a refreshingly new approach to a problem emerges.
7. Take advantage of free online tools that encourage creativity. I’ve long sensed that kids like technology because its use in schools is too often the only chance they get to be creative. Even if it just selecting the background of slide show or the font of a paper, kids at least get some choices. Online tools have opened the door to not just allowing, but encouraging creativity. Simple programs like Big Huge Lab’s “Motivator,” Animoto, and Wordle don’t require artistic “ability,” just a little imagination to make some very cool visuals.
8. Ask students to help formulate classroom rules, modify procedures, and solve issues. Students can and should demonstrate their creativity in areas other than the arts. Are you having a problem writing a library policy that everyone can buy into? Turn the problem over to your primary library users for their creative solutions. Is there conflict or tension in a class? I’ll bet you’ve got kids who have creative interpersonal skills who can suggest a new approach. Try it and see what happens.
9. Honor students’ personal interests and unique talents when teaching skills. In order for students to think hard, think broadly, and think creatively about a subject, they must have enough interest in that subject to care about it. Combining a personal interest with a mandated research topic can lead to creativity. Required content + personal interest = success and originality.
10. Seek out the creative ideas of other educators. Keep your eyes open for innovative and effective projects and practices of other librarians and teachers. Use other’s creative approaches and make them your own. It’s not just music that can be remixed

Doug Johnson

Creativity has been getting a lot of attention lately. Popular authors Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind,  Richard Florida in The Rise of the Creative Class, and Sir Ken Robinson in The Element all stress that creative ability is essential for both economic and personal fulfillment. The most recent revision of Benjamin Bloom’s popular taxonomy of educational objectives places creativity at the top of the cognitive domain.  Every “21st Century Skill” list I’ve seen includes creativity as one of those necessary abilities tomorrow’s most productive workers will need - ISTE’s NET-S and AASL’s Standards for the 21st Century Learner among them.

Yet schools aren’t doing a very good job of developing creativity in students. One report (Bronson, 2010) indicates that creativity scores had been steadily rising, as had IQ scores until 1990. But since then, creativity scores have consistently fallen.  —“It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is most serious.”

While we in education are tasked with producing creative graduates, this responsibility may be something to which we are simply paying lip service. We like to think we encourage creativity in students — but only to a safe limit. Too much creativity makes us a little nervous, and the less creative student is often the less challenging student - and may not perform as well on tests.. (See “Why Robots Make the Best Students” side bar.) As a result, creativity gets short shrift, despite its growing importance to the student and worker.
I have some concerns about creativity as the term is commonly viewed in schools, teaching, and technology use. How might we as librarians personally develop, encourage, and measure creativity when working with students?  Let’s expose some myths of creativity to see if we can find some answers.

 
Myth 1. Creative work does not belong in basic subjects like math, science, social studies, English or “core” skill sets like information and technology literacy. Educators too often pigeon-hole creativity into arts classes - fine arts, music, theater, and dance. Of course creativity is an important part of these disciplines.

Yet I value creative problem-solvers as much as I appreciate those folks who are creative in a more artistic sense. Perhaps we need to extend the definition of “art” to dealing with people and situations in new and effective ways. The creativity I admire most, especially in my staff, is simply figuring out a way of accomplishing a task in a better way. Or dealing effectively with a problem — mechanical or human. We must never narrow what constitutes a “creative” endeavor.
How exactly do human beings demonstrate creativity?

• As writers, presenters and storytellers

• As numeric problem-solvers

• As graphic artists through drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, and designing.

• As athletes and dancers kinesthetically

• As musicians creating new works, performing, and conducting

• As humorists in all media

• As team-builders and collaborators

• As problem-solvers

• As inventors and systems innovators

• As leaders who organize, motivate and inspire

• As excuse-makers (as any editor who has worked with me can attest)

Why do we restrict creativity to the art room and creative writing class when it should be in every class, unit, and activity? Librarians, let’s address creativity in projects in all subjects.

 
Myth 2. Creativity does not require learning or discipline. When many of us look at a Jackson Pollock painting, we usually think something like, “Gee whiz, give a) a monkey, b) a little kid, or c) me a can of paint and I can make a painting like that.” We’d be wrong. Even abstract artists understand balance and tone, and exhibit great craftsmanship and technical skills. The most original written ideas in the world are inaccessible when locked behind faulty grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization. Digital music composition programs like GarageBand will not cure a tin ear. Some of the most creative poetry follows the strict structures of the sonnet, villanelle, or haiku.

Too many students think that sufficient creativity will overcome a lack of skill or need for discipline or necessity for practice. Creativity unaccompanied by drive, self-discipline, or just hard work and practice isn’t worth much. Do we ask students to be both creative and disciplined? Do we set some parameters to the creative activity?

Jim Moulton writes about “freedom within a structure” - that only by setting some limits do students become truly creative. (Moulton, 2009) Students need to be able to use concrete skills within the context of a larger creative endeavor:

Good assessment guides like rubrics and checklists often have fairly specific indicators of “quality”:

• —Your slide show must have uniform background color and font.

• Your essay must use 80% of the words on this week’s vocabulary list.

• —You must have at least five supporting examples for your argument.

• —Your budget may not exceed $500 for this project.

Such parameters do not restrict creativity, but can help focus and enhance it.

Myth 3. Creativity is fluff and we do not need to assess whether students can demonstrate it. If we ask students to demonstrate creativity or innovation, we need some tools to determine whether they have done so successfully. As much as I admire identifying creativity as a 21st century skills, I am not sure it is fair to hold students to account for mastering it if we can’t describe what it looks like, provide models, and be able to objectively determine whether a student has been creative.
Like pornography, I don’t think I can define creativity, but I think I know it when I see it. But that won’t cut it in the assessment world. In order for us to determine whether creativity has been shown in a project or during a task, we need to know what it is.

While there are over 200 definitions for creativity in the professional literature (Treffinger, 2002), nearly all are comprised of two components: originality and effectiveness. Any assessment of creativity will need to address both halves of this definition. Does the work have some element of newness, of innovation and does the new approach make the end product better, not just different.

One way to assess creativity is simply to ask students themselves about how they feel they have exhibited a creative approach to the assignment and how that approach made results better. Peer-evaluation of creativity may well be helpful. Is there a section of your rubric for creativity or a box on the check list for original thinking? There should be.

Myth 4. Only academically “gifted” children are creative. Sir Ken Robinson reminds educators that we should not be asking “if” a child is intelligent, but instead be asking “how” a child is intelligent. I would riff on that statement by adding that we should not be asking “if” a child is creative, but “how” a child is creative.
Business reports bear this out:

When students aren’t being creative, it may be because they don’t have enough interest in the project or subject - there is no intrinsic motivation for doing creative work. Studies also show that neither extrinsic rewards nor competition spur creativity.

 
Finding what most interests individuals may be the best way we can stimulate creativity. Linking a personal interest to a required area of study is one successful approach. If the student required to “write a report” about a historical time period, but his real interest is in automobiles, encourage a question like, “How did the Great Depression impact the development of the automobiles in the U.S.?”  

Myth 5. Technology use automatically assumes creativity. Anyone who has ever seen a slideshow with only large blocks of dry text and no graphic elements knows the fallacy of this assumption. A word-processed essay might be more legible, but not necessarily more interesting, exciting, or moving.
Many programs can, however, enhance the creative effort - if creativity is asked for by the teacher. Photo and video editing allows students to create work only professionals could do ten years ago. Simple online tools allow the formation word clouds, of text overlayed on graphics, and of slideshows set to music with exciting transitions. Seek out those programs - often free or low cost - that let students convey information in original ways.

Technology also allows students to share their creative work with audiences beyond the classroom, raising the level concern about the quality of the work shared - including just how creative it can be considered. When grandma’s looking at your presentation in Slideshare, you want her to be impressed.

Myth 6. Librarians and teachers themselves do not need to display creativity.  I’ve always felt students learn more from our examples than from our words. It’s difficult to ask others to be creative when we don’t exhibit (or inhibit) creativity in our daily work. If our own lessons are dull and uninspired, if our libraries are drab and lifeless, and if we don’t talk up the resources in our libraries that are models of creativity, students will know us for the hypocrites we are.

As professionals , we need learn more about creativity and the creative process.  This may be difficult with the “one-right-answer” test score mentality. Are any staff development efforts being diverted from “raising test scores” to “thinking outside the quadrilateral parallelogram?” This needs to be a personal effort, done in league with our professional learning networks.
I know that I have a lot more to learn about enhancing and supporting creativity in education.

Myth 7. Everyone want creative students. When I give a workshop on creativity, one of my slides shows a sculpture made out of what looks like a dog dropping. Small gasps can often be heard.

Creative people have a long history of making others nervous or upset. From Elvis’s gyrations, Monet’s abstractions, Job’s technologies, to Gandhi’s resistance - innovation is met with resistance. Our students (and teachers) who are truly creative just might rattle our preconceptions and our sense of taste. Genuinely new products just may take some getting used to. Recognize this and remember that not all people celebrate the creative spirit.

Albert Einstein famously said, “The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them.”  Think creatively about creativity in your library program, lessons, and students.

Bronson, Po and Ashely Merryman, The Creativity Crisi. Newsweek, July 2010
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html>
Breen, Bill. “The 6 Myths of Creativity,” Fastcompany.com, Dec 1, 2004. <http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/creativity.html>
“100 Simple Ways to be More Creative on the Job,” Heart of Innovation Blog
<http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2011/06/post_7.shtml>
Moulton, Jim. “It’s Time to Get Serious About Creativity in the Classroom,” Edutopia, August 21, 2009. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/freedom-structure-balance-classroom>
Treffinger, et al Assessing Creativity: A Guide for Educators. NCR G/T, 2002.
<http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm02170/rm02170.pdf>
Williams, Robin The Non-Designers Design Book 3rd edition, Berkley, CA: Peachpit Press 2008,

Sidebar: Why Robots Make the Best Students
When automation is written about in education, it’s usually the teacher whose tasks are off-loaded to the computer through programmed instruction. My suggestion is that if we were to replace human students with robots, teaching will a lot more effective!
Robots make terrific students because:

• They don’t challenge the teacher’s authority or subject expertise.

• They don’t ask questions that might not have a right or wrong answer.

• They all learn in same way, at the same pace.

• They stay in their seats with eyes straight ahead.

• They don’t go on vacations with their families during school time or skip school.

• They don’t need to learn to work in cooperative groups. Or need social skills. Or need conflict resolution abilities.

• They don’t need sex education, multicultural education, or physical education. The arts and literature are wasted on them. No field trips, no fire drills, no hot lunch.

• They never make the principal or teacher look bad (e.g. stupid, incompetent, clueless…).

• They follow the school dress code and never swear.

• They have no strongly held opinions or passions for which to fight.

• They always pass the state tests and they all read at grade level.

• They are always willing to do the homework no matter how meaningless.

• They don’t complain when lectured or given worksheets. Endlessly.

• They can all use the same textbook and they are all always on the same chapter.

• They make good robot employees.

• They don’t make us nervous by being creative.

Skills are important, and I think the best teachers teach discrete skills in ways that allow diverse learners to become successful. That is one of the easy parts, if there are any, to classroom teaching.

More difficult is to provide the deeper learning activities in which real creativity is nurtured and developed. These are activities that ask students to make use of their new skills to accomplish complex tasks. And the very best activities ask them to be creative in the application of their new-found skills.

https://dougjohnson.wikispaces.com/Facilities+planning

2012-13

“The Changing Role of the CTO” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, April, 2013

“Technology Skills Every Teacher Needs” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, March, 2013

“The Tablet Takeover” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, February, 2013

“Filtering Fallacies” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, December/January 2013

“Taking Charge of Online Learning” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, November, 2012

“Onboard with BYOD” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, October, 2012

“Electronic Feedback ” Power Up column, Educational Leadership, September, 2012

5. Secret Five: Transparency Rules

The first reason that transparency rules is that it’s going to, whether we like it or not. Easy access to information means that the public’s appetite for accountability cannot be thwarted.

The second reason it rules is that transparency is a good thing; in fact, it is essential to success. Yes, we all know that data can be misused. Public reporting of student results can lead to unfair or destructive actions. However, the alternatives—to keep information private or to refuse even to collect it—are neither acceptable nor useful.

Effective organizations embrace transparency. We know that people will cover up problems if the culture punishes them. So one thing we must do is develop cultures in which it is normal to experience problems and solve them as they occur. When data are precise, presented in a nonjudgmental way, considered by peers, and used for improvement as well as for external accountability, they serve to balance pressure and support.

Knowing that transparency is both inevitable and desirable for successful organizations makes it far less threatening.

How can school librarians develop a culture of transparency and build trust, helping insure the effectiveness and success of their programs? Let’s open some windows:

• Open budgets: Put your budget in an online spreadsheet that is available for anyone to read - teachers, administrators, parents and the community. The format does not have to be complicated: list the vendor, the purchase order number, the amount of the order, and a short description of what was acquired. Invite everyone to the budget making process.
• Open calendars: Put every library calendar online and share it. This is your personal calendar, your library calendar, your collaborative teaching calendar, and your computer lab calendars. The question might change from “What does she do with her time?” to “How does she manage to get everything done?”
• Open goals: You long-term goals and annual short term objectives should be available on-line with a means for your stakeholders to comment and discuss them. Again, transparency means letting others have a role in creating your vision, plans and goals as well.
• Open statistics: Don’t wait until the end of the year to file an “annual report.” Keep a running list of total numbers of items circulated, students using the library, classes you’ve taught, and other things that “count.” Make the numbers public - right on your library home page. If the statistics raise questions by other school staff, be open about finding the answers to them. “Our fiction circulation is down this year. What might be the reason?” Open up both the face-to-face and online conversations about such data.
• Open doors: Take every opportunity to have parents, administrators and teachers come into your library both during school hours and outside school hours. Let people watch you work; watch you teach; watch you assist students and teachers. Think of making your library walls transparent.
• Open opinions: People ought to know where you stand. If you think both kids and adults should have access to a divergent set of opinions about issues, say so. If you see that teachers and students are not taking advantage of fair use guidelines, say so. If you believe student reading test scores will improve if they are given more opportunities to read voluntarily materials of their own choice, share the research. If you are concerned the principal has made a choice that will harm students, tell him (privately). Trust is built when a person acts in a consistent, open manner. Our stakeholders may agree or disagree with us, but they should certainly know our fundamental beliefs.

I’ve always thought that if somebody is not going to like me, I’d like it to be for something I’ve actually done, not just something I’ve been suspected of doing.

Make increased transparency a goal of your library program and practice.

Most of my Head for the Edge columns, updated and edited, can be found in this book. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.