A Future Vision for the ISC

On the 24th March I was very privileged to be able to attend the SLAV's "Creating Collaborative Learning Spaces" conference held at the VUT Conference Centre, Melbourne.The focus of the day was literacy and learning in the 21st century and the vision school libraries need to have if thay are to match their students' needs and adequately prepare them for their future.

The day was introduced by Joseph Gerassi,Principal of Bialik College who oversaw the building of an elearning centre at his school in Melbourne.It was certainly a space to inspire a culture of learning and the centrepiece of Bialik. It catered for different learning styles by providing noisy spaces, quiet spaces and studio spaces that enhanced social interaction,collaboration and reflection. I particularly loved their outdoor courtyard which could accommodate a range of learning activities, including performances and I also loved their NewsCafe.

Keynote speaker was Erica McWilliam who is well known for her educational reform and its relationship to "over the horizon" living, learning and earning.Her most recent book is "The Creative Workforce:How to launch young people into high flying futures"She spoke about the changing nature of professional work in all jobs.She saw networks as being all important in the future with the disconnected person being at risk.Her mantra is "I link therefore I am".She believes our skills and competencies must be embedded in networks of social and cultural capital and our highest achievers are not necessarily our best learners but our best networkers.Erica was certainly inspirational and gave us lots to think about.

Lyn Hay,a lecturer in Teacher Librarianship at the Charles Sturt University also spoke about an exciting new concept for school libraries called the iCentre.What is an iCentre?It is a central facility within the school where information,technology,learning and teaching needs are supported by qualified information and learning technology specialists.It provides students and teachers with a "one-stop shop" for all resourcing,technology and learning needs on a daily basis.The efficiency of this concept makes sense to me and I would love to see the ISC evolving into this in the future. Here is Lyn's slideshare from the conference below.

rethink – rebuild - rebrand: think iCentre

View more presentations from Lyn Hay