Earlier this month, author Alan November presented a keynote address for everyone at a “students as researchers” workshop for library media specialists at Bayside High School.

It was a welcomed speaker for attendees since many LMSs as well as all the VBCPS computer resource specialists had participated in an online book discussion on Edmodo all about November’s book, Who Owns the Learning?

In his book, November uses his Digital Learning Farm model to show teachers how technology allows students to take ownership of their learning, create their own learning tools and participate in meaningful work. In his model, every student is a teacher and a global publisher.

During his time at Bayside, November presented the concepts of placing easy-to-use digital tools in the hands of our students that can result in creative solutions that help classmates learn, encouraging students to contribute to their learning community as a powerful and effective way to improve achievement, and web literacy, critical thinking and the grammar of the Internet.

In the online discussion of his book, computer resource and library media specialists discussed ways that teachers in their schools can create and incorporate student contributions through the specific jobs November discusses in the book, including those of tutorial designer, student scribe, student researcher, and global communicator and collaborator.  They also brainstormed what kinds of contributions students can make to add value to the learning community in their school and the possible barriers teachers may encounter in guiding their students in making these contributions.

Both sessions were recorded by VBTV and will be made available on The Stream at a later date.