In her article, “Implementing Technology
and Gaming Lessons in a School Library,” school librarian Khalida Mashriqi
identifies several of the ways that she incorporates technology into her school
library. Mashriqi specifically
focuses on gaming and interactive lessons and notes the value in using these
tools as a way of differentiating for students with different learning styles
and of different abilities.
Mashriqi states that, “Using technology is like breathing for many
students” and so must be incorporating into the modern classroom, and in the
modern school library in order to keep students engaged in their learning. Mashriqi also notes that, “the school
librarian’s main responsibility is to promote the love of reading and learning. Gaming and technology are simply great
vehicles for achieving this.” Mashriqi
explains that when she incorporates technology into her lessons, she
differentiates in two particular ways, by teaching the lesson in a variety of
ways and by providing a scope of varying levels of accompanying activities.
Throughout the article Mashriqi details
several of technologically based activities that she uses in her school
library. One of the things that
she explained that she uses often, particularly with younger students, is the
interactive whiteboard. Because students
can manipulate the visuals on the whiteboard, it becomes a sort of game for
them when they use it as a learning tool.
Mashriqi uses the white board to teach students about library
procedures, practice vocabulary and to enhance learning in particular subject
matters. She also sets up games
for older students to learn Boolean search terms and then provides for them
laptops so that they may explore using the terms on their own. Mashriqi also finds specific content
area games that support core curriculum and links to them on the library’s
website. She also teaches through
the use of instructional videos and encourages student use of technology by
allowing students to create their own movies about things that they have
learned using the library’s Flip cameras.
Just like Mashriqi, I feel that
technology should be an integral part of a modern students’ learning
experience. As modern librarians,
one of our key charges is in finding ways to implement new technologies in
schools as a way of enhancing student learning. In my school library, I would do many of the things
mentioned in Mashriqi’s article. I
would definitely utilize a white board in order to make any kind of lesson an
instant interactive game and I also think it is very smart to seek out and link
to games that can enhance student learning of the various content areas. In addition, I would have purposeful
lessons with students who enter my library about how they can integrate
technology into their own learning.
For example, I would showcase interesting sites such as Wordle,
BrainPop, Animoto, Glogster and ComicLife, and would provide ideas on how they
could incorporate those sites into their studies or projects in their
classes. In addition, I would love
to teach lessons on how to create and produce movies and podcasts about things
they are learning. When it comes
to technology, the sky is the limit!
Mashriqi, Khalida. (2011). Implementing technology and gaming lessons in a school library. Knowledge Quest, 40(1), 24-28.
