I am busy reading articles and compiling my first essay of my course. But one thing that struck me is that in many of the articles the role of teacher librarian seems to be taking on the role of IT specialist in schools. Herring (2007) would argue that this is indeed a good thing, that it is part of the package that the Teacher Librarian needs to offer to be relevant in today's teaching and learning environment. But coming from being an IT specialist in schools, I worry that Teacher Librarians would spend too much time learning software and teaching IT skills rather than information literacy skills. If we talk about Teacher Librarians working in partnership with classroom teachers, then they shouldn't be taking on the roles of classroom teachers. They should be enablers not disenablers.
The implementation of VELS in Victoria has managed to all but wipe out the IT specialist in schools. What was once a noble profession within schools is now seen with distain as Curriculum Coordinators around the state cancel compulsory IT subjects and shuffle competent information professionals into teaching something else. Many of these teachers who had so much to offer have simply given up and have gone back to teaching a non-IT subject because of the hassle.
The compulsory IT subjects are an opportunity for both IT teachers and Teacher Librarians to work side by side to ensure that our students have not only good IT skills but also excellent information retrieval skills.
I agree with you. In the articles I've been reading it seems that TLs are torn between doing ICT stuff and the traditional literature stuff, to the point where the literacy/literature end suffers. I hope that the powers that be see the difference between a specialist that teaches ICT skills and one that teaches info literacy using ICT skills.
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