School Libraries in New Zealand as Technology Hubs: Enablers and Barriers to School Librarians Becoming Technology Leaders
IntroductionThe rollout of broadband in New Zealand was facilitated in large part by the government's UltraFast Broadband Initiative (UFBI) a public private partnership to create a fibre optic network delivering download speeds of up to 100Mbps (megabits per second) and in some areas up to 1000Mbps (New Zealand. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2015) Schools were given a high priority in the UFBI, but because fast cables to the front gate are useless unless there is a way of bringing that capacity into the school itself, the government's Schools Network Upgrade Project (SNUP) gave subsidies to upgrade schools' internal data and cabling infrastructures to enable the use of ultra fast broadband. By May 2015 the government had spent over NZ$165 through SNUP and over 1,500 schools had received network upgrades (New Zealand, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2015).The impact of the SNUP and the greater bandwidth available through the UFBI was one of several points discussed in a report on the changing landscape in schools by the 21st Century Learning Reference Group (2014) An underlying belief in this investigation is that the thoughtful application of digital technologies incorporated into teaching activities can improve learning outcomes. The report's recommendations include some relevant to school libraries, including the development of regional networks to build local capability that would 'leverage the knowledge and expertise of many practitioners who are leading the way in future focussed teaching and learning' (recommendation 15) While the emphasis is plainly upon teachers, it allows for other staff, including librarians, to contribute. The report specifically states at one point the government should start "supporting school librarians and teachers in charge of libraries to take a stronger leadership role in using digital technology to target achievement outcomes for at risk students" (p. 16) though it isn't obvious why this was limited only to at risk students when all students could benefit.Review of LiteratureAround the world many teenagers carry portable devices with them at all times. In parallel with the spread of devices, the use of social media has boomed. In New Zealand 71% of teenagers say they use Facebook, over 50% use Instagram, 33% say they use Twitter, the same percentage use Google+ and 24% use Vine (Miners, 2015) This high permeation of social media into the everyday lives of teenagers suggests that students must learn how to use technology to find, retrieve, evaluate and ultimately to use information (e.g. Asselin Dorion, 2008; Burnett, 2014).The need for schools to teach digital literacy is very clear. There are some indications that classroom use of IT is, at least to some extent, correlated with better academic performance (Jarnieson Proctor, Watson, Finger, Grimbeek Burnett, 2007; Spieza, 2010) Students cannot be expected to benefit from new technology in schools if their teachers are not comfortable using it, and the exploratory study of Shear, Koh, Patel, Trinidad, Chen Kee and Png (2014) suggests that teachers' understanding of IT and pedagogy has a considerable influence on students' educational attainment.The library has potential to be one of the most technology rich spaces in the school. In the 21st century, authors have made the case for school librarians to take a greater role introducing new technology into schools and then facilitating its effective use for teaching and learning, commonly within an adapted curriculum (e.g. Everhart Dresang, 2007; Hanson Baldauf Hughes Hassell, 2009) One key point is that librarians can interact with the whole school (Smith, 2010, p. 621) However, some educators have a limited vision of the school library and ignore the leadership role it could play in a transformative pedagogy (Leander, 2007) and this myopia will be a barrier to developing the place of the school library until it has been replaced by a more positive attitude.