So Who Cares?

After ripping the Manitoba Literacy with ICT document in my capping paper as a document that doesn’t do enough to help our students obtain 21^st century information literacy skills, I had the opportunity to meet many of the people who wrote the document.  As a member of the Manitoba School Library Association Executive, I was offered the opportunity to sit on the Literacy with ICT Advisory Committee for the province of Manitoba.  This committee is made up of various stakeholders interested in ICT Literacy in our province and the committee consists of representatives from many areas of education in our province (MTS, MASS, MAST, MSLA, ManACE, MERLIN, Man Ed., U of W, etc.). 

Sitting on the committee are also many people who were involved in the initial writing of the document and after attending a single meeting I have a renewed respect for them and their vision, and a new found hope in the realization that we DO HAVE great people in our education system in Manitoba who share my beliefs about getting students those 21^st century skills they so desperately need.  We just need to get the politicians to listen and to FUND EDUCATION BETTER!!!! Thus I have a renewed desire to continue my own advocacy for the work of Teacher-Librarians in Manitoba schools! YAY!

I also attended the first Adolescent Literacy Summit in Manitoba on April 14 & 15, 2011, and was again reinvigorated by the people and the topics discussed.  Although I felt that much of what they were talking about needing to put in place to alleviate illiteracy in Manitoba could be accomplished through the work of high quality Teacher-Librarians in schools, there were few of US at the summit!!  And when I voiced my ideas about 21^st century literacy and information literacy being an umbrella term that will encompass all forms of literacy in the 21^st century, I was not exactly taken seriously!!  (This will sound a bit hoity-toity, but I really think they misunderstood what I was saying and that they immediately linked information literacy to computers, a common mistake in my province.  But WE know that is not the case!! Information literacy= critical literacy, media literacy, computer literacy, reading & writing, and SO MUCH MORE!!! READ MY CAPPING PAPER FOR MORE ON THIS!!!) Even so, I was able to participate in a recommendation building session in which I DID get my voice heard about the work of Teacher-Librarians and DID get some people hearing what I was saying about how WE CAN INCREASE STUDENT SUCCESS, LITEARCY AND ACHEIVEMENT!!! 

In fact a few people from Manitoba Education actually came up to me and asked if they could contact me later and if they could read my capping paper!! Interesting.  Glad I took my Instructor’s advice and reworded my “strongly worded” reflection section, since it looks like people will actually read my capping paper!!!!