AASL or ISTE

As a new school librarian, I am more aware of the AASL standards than the ISTE standards because the district in which I work has opted to follow the AASL standards.  We will even be doing a book study of sorts of these new standards as the school year progresses. I am excited about this opportunity because there are quite a few veteran librarians who work in my district, and I look forward to learning from them as we process these standards together.  I am not as familiar with the ISTE standards, however, I have perused them for other courses in this program.

First librarians meeting where we discussed changes for this school year with our new Super Intendent. 

The AASL standards focus on 6 foundations which all of the other standards are rooted: inquire, include, collaborate, curate, explore, and engage.  As a new librarian, I appreciate how the AASL standards provide insight on what learners, school librarians, and libraries should accomplish throughout the year.  I also like how the AASL standards focus a lot on intellectual freedom, which is already something I have had to fight for this school year. When I walked into my “new” library, I was shocked to find that the entire library was leveled by Fountas and Pinnell.  No, I don’t mean that the books had the levels on them, I mean that the WHOLE library was organized by F&P. There was a shelf with all of the “A” level books and so on, and students have been encouraged to only check out from those shelves. I quickly went to the principal and presented research so that I could change the layout, and was approved to do so.  The library is now a much more inviting space where I feel the kids have more freedom to check out what they are interested in instead of being limited to a level.

In contrast to the AASL standards, the ISTE standards contain 7 key foundations: empowered learner, digital citizen, knowledge constructor, innovative designer, computational thinker, creative communicator, and global collaborator.  ISTE’s standards are more learner-centered and, to me, align themselves with the College and Career Readiness standards already adopted by South Carolina. There is a huge focus on technology and the skills associated with technology which are needed by today’s learners.  Personally, I will need to delve more deeply into the ISTE standards, especially since my district was recently chosen to be part of a pilot program from the Education Oversight Committee where we will become 1 to 1 thereby eliminating the need for weather makeup days because students will take the devices home daily.

No More Snow Days in Kershaw County

Both sets of standards have positive implications for students and the school library.  However, I will probably be more focused on the AASL standards simply because those have been selected as the focus for my district.  I am interested in learning more about the ISTE standards, and how they could aid in my district’s impending 1 to 1 initiative.