The High School Library as Learning Commons

Natalie SapkarovEPS 411

Dr. BurbulesSpring 2009

Sapkarov

INTRODUCTION

When I decided to pursue a career in education, I knew that it would

not be an easy path to follow. It certainly would not bring me riches, and it

would require an enormous amount of hard work and dedication not to

mention resistance from family and condescension from anyone who

undervalues education. Teachers are seldom appreciated for what they do

and are more often criticized for what they cannot do. All of this I knew when

I started my undergraduate coursework in elementary education. After an

enlightening student teaching experience, I chose to continue my education

in a related field, library and information science, where I could still pursue

my aspirations of becoming a teacher but in the library rather than the

classroom. Still I knew that continuing on the K-12 track would not release

me from negative stereotypes of teachers and ignorance of those who are

not in the education field. I was surprised to find, however, the stereotypes

within the education community about teacher-librarians, thought of as

simply library workers who shelve books and shush students. Because of

these false perceptions of teacher-librarians, I have kept a realistic position

about my future in a high school where I will be the minority as a teacher-

librarian. I have thought about the changes that must occur within the school

community in order to modify those dated views of the librarian, the ways

that I could market myself and the library as essential aspects of the school

that promote student learning and success. Using this practical approach,

there are many small changes that I could make in order to prove my worth

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in the school and help students and teachers achieve their educational goals.

Practical is what I do every day and is what makes the most sense especially

when entering an already established educational community of teachers

and administrators, but I do not necessarily think that practical is my only

option. It’s the easy option. For this assignment, I dare to venture into the

ideal, to propose a different way of thinking about the high school as an

educational space, to enhance the roles of teachers and teacher-librarians,

and to provide a modified educational experience in the current social

context.

Before I alter the status quo, I would like to first illuminate the ways in

which it functions (or does not): what does the average American high school

look like today? For the most part, teachers are subject specialists, focusing

only on their area of study. Students move throughout the school, period by

period, getting their 45-50 minutes of core and elective subjects. Classrooms

are self-contained in that collaboration between teachers is virtually non-

existent. Students are required to compartmentalize their knowledge as

connections between content areas are rarely ever made explicitly. Trips to

the library are also a rare occurrence as the library is not seen as a vital

aspect of daily school life. The library contains resources such as

encyclopedias and perhaps books that aid students in their research, or at

least would aid students in their research if they actually came to the library.

For the most part, if the library has computers, it is used as a computer lab,

rarely involving the teacher-librarian in any instruction or collaboration.

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Teachers may not be aware that teacher-librarians are qualified to teach or

available as resources for their particular classes. Students are also not

aware that teacher-librarians are teachers and do not solicit them for help in

their research or any other reason, such as recreational reading options or

technology advice. The library itself is uninviting, a quiet place with musty

old books and hardly any seating. It is not a place of instruction, unless a

content area teacher schedules the space for a class. Separation is the

theme of most high schools—you teach your subject, and I’ll teach mine.

While this may instill in students the content knowledge necessary to pass

standardized tests, it does not prepare them for life outside the confines of

high school. It is not relevant in their everyday lives and does not teach them

anything about the social world around them. If the ultimate goal of the

American high school is to produce students who can achieve well on

standardized tests, then the current model will suffice. But if we seek to

educate our students more fully, to teach content knowledge, yes, but to

also develop socially and globally aware students who will actively and

creatively engage in society as responsible and educated adults committed

to lifelong learning, then we need to rethink the way our high schools work in

order to make them more socially relevant to students.

Although this change may and has taken various shapes and forms in

high schools across the country, I propose to bring the teacher-librarian to

the forefront of this process as a leader in transforming the library and

subsequently the high school environment into a learning commons. The

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term “learning commons” in this context has a very specific meaning,

described by David V. Loertscher, Carol Koechlin, and Sandi Zwaan:

…the showcase for high-quality teaching and learning—a place to develop and demonstrate exemplary educational practices. It will serve as the professional development center for the entire school—a place to learn, experiment with, assess, and then widely adopt improved instructional programs. It is the keystone of literacy and technological programs of the school and the place where classroom teachers can collaboratively design, build, implement, and assess knowledge building learning activities.1

These three educators have elaborated and described in detail their concept

for the transformation of the school library into a learning commons in their

book The New Learning Commons Where Learners Win.2 I would like to

extrapolate two main points of their idea to serve as a basis for the change I

am proposing: 1. The learning commons as a physical and virtual space, and

2. School-wide collaboration.

1A. THE LEARNING COMMONS AS A PHYSICAL SPACE

The high school library of today as a space is unappealing, isolated,

and boring—this is not breaking news. A stroll into most high school libraries

in central Illinois will validate this assertion. Tall bookshelves occupy most of

the library’s space, with perhaps a small computer lab inside or attached to

the library. There are usually few tables for students to work at, with minimal

comfortable seating. A large circulation desk is strategically placed next to

1 David V. Loertscher, Carol Koechlin, and Sandi Zwaan, “The Time is Now: Transform Your School Library into a Learning Commons,” Teacher Librarian 36, no. 1 (October 2008): 10. 2 —, The New Learning Commons Where Learners Win!: Reinventing School Libraries and Computer Labs (Salt Lake City, UT: Hi Willow Research & Publishing, 2008).

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the door with security gates at the entrance. As for atmosphere, the lighting

and wall color are usually just as dismal as any other classroom in the

school. When it comes to creating inviting, colorful, vibrant spaces, high

school teachers are generally unconcerned with decorations, focusing

instead on the content of their curriculum. High school libraries too have had

a tradition of simplicity in their décor, focusing more on the content and

quality of their collections. But if the high school library is to serve as the hub

of educational activities, it must be renovated in such a way that reflects the

goals of the learning commons, creating an open space for students and

teachers to learn as well as an “experimental” space for engaging with new

technologies.3

The Open Learning Commons

In order to create an open space that is inviting to students, teachers,

and staff and conducive to a variety of educational activities, the high school

library must push aside its bookshelves and make room for flexible and

comfortable seating. Clustered lightweight tables and chairs provide for a

collaborative working environment. Diner-style booths and lounge chairs are

better suited for recreational reading and book discussions. A combination of

both of these suggestions allows the teacher-librarian to fulfill both purposes

of the library curriculum—to promote personal growth and information

literacy—while still maintaining a much broader purpose in serving as the

3 David Loertscher, “School Libraries Need a Revolution, Not Evolution,” School Library Journal 54, no. 11 (November 2008), 47.

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meeting place for all educational endeavors in the school. The physical

layout of a space is important in determining its usefulness, so by creating

specific areas in the new learning commons where collaboration and group

work is encouraged with additional space for individual learning activities,

the new learning commons becomes a valued space in the school. Students

will come in just to hang out. Teachers will spend their free periods there.

Students can work together on homework or read in a comfy chair. This

space, designed as such, will also become the new meeting place for faculty

in-service days and professional development workshops. Professional

learning communities can use this space as their own too. The entire school

community is welcome and encouraged to utilize this space to further their

educational goals. Transforming the physical space of the library is one step

in changing the social culture of the school, one step in creating the learning

commons.

The Experimental Learning Commons

Teacher-librarians are skilled in the context of information, all types of

information coming from all sorts of media. Teacher-librarians are not only

concerned with the domain of books, even though it is still a crucial part of

the information world, but they are also savvy users of all types of

technology, from online article databases to YouTube to e-book readers, etc.

Aside from the technology specialist (if a school is fortunate to have one),

the teacher-librarian is usually the most technologically adept adult in the

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school. This is important to note because most high school students today

are digital natives—they live in a multimedia world and are mass consumers

and creators of information. In the classroom, however, students are

generally denied the opportunity to engage with information using various

types of media (e.g. websites, blogs, videos, podcasts, etc.) because the

technology is not present or because the teacher believes in a more

traditional approach to education. Whatever the reason, students who are

living in a read-write culture of active participation and engagement with

media and are creating and remixing information are not afforded the

opportunity to express themselves in the traditional classroom and library

setting.4 If we are to preserve the roles of teacher and student as separate

and unequal with the teacher as the bearer of information and the student as

the sponge of this content, then we do not need to change our environment.

But if we are to act as co-learners, as facilitators to learning, and allow

students the chance to share their knowledge with us and to show us more

authentic ways of engaging with the content, then we need the space for this

to happen, a space that is more familiar to these digital natives.

The experimental space in the learning commons is the place devoted

to technology. It does not need to be cornered off or separated from the

space entirely, but it does need to occupy its own space for its own

functions. A reasonable addition to this space is a computer lab of some sort

4 Larry Lessig, How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law (TED, March 2007), 18 min, 56 sec., MP4, http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html (accessed May 10, 2009).

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—Mac or PC, desktop or laptop, whatever works for the particular school—

with at least a small subset of computers devoted to multimedia activities

such as audio and video production. Many high schools already have these

technologies in their school libraries, but they are not using them to their

fullest extent. The reason for placing a computer lab inside the learning

commons is so that the whole range of learning activities can take place

inside this space where the teacher-librarian can be available to assist

students and teachers in their use. While students may use the internet at

home for personal purposes, they may not know how to transfer that

knowledge of social networking and multimedia tools to the educational

setting. Teacher-librarians in collaboration with content area teachers can

work together with students in this space to make that connection between

technologies that students are familiar with and educational content. These

technologies can also be used to experiment new methods of teaching or try

out new lessons in an environment supportive of such innovation with

specialists at hand to provide the needed assistance. In practice, I have seen

teachers use this type of space to edit videos of their teaching in order to get

their National Board certification; students piece together still images and

add audio tracks to create book trailers; and the whole educational

community test out a new netbook to decide whether or not to buy a

classroom set. In this space, technology is valued for the positive impact it

can have on educational experiences and the sheer necessity of it in some

situations.

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1B. THE LEARNING COMMONS AS VIRTUAL SPACE

While the physical space that is now called the learning commons is

the place where teachers, students and staff use during the school day,

there should also be a virtual space where the learning experiences may

continue at all hours of the day on any day. This is customarily manifest as

the library’s website, a portal to subscription databases and hand-selected

websites of interest to students, teachers, and parents. This website is

maintained by the teacher-librarian who selects all content that is included

on it. Although the library’s website may be filled with important information

and links for students, this method of transmission is dated and one-sided. In

order for students to be consumers of this information, they must feel like

they are also producers, that they have a say in what gets published and

what is shared on the library’s website. When this website becomes a

collaborative effort between all members of the educational community,

overseen by the teacher-librarian, then the learning commons will also

achieve a virtual space.

While I do not want to go into the logistics of how this may be

accomplished, I do want to offer some ideas of how this virtual space will

enhance educational experiences. For example, at the high school where I

work, I create research guides for students working on a specific project. I

gather resources (e.g. subject headings to use when searching the library

catalog, databases the library subscribes to, websites with quality content,

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etc.) that I think are appropriate for the project and for the students to use,

and I publish this guide on the library’s website.5 Recently, I have published

these guides as wikis so that students are able to edit and add resources,

which has actually increased the interest and use of these guides, thus

increasing the quality of their work. Other ways that the learning commons

can go virtual include having a chat room-like or virtual conferencing space

for collaboration, spaces to highlight student work, news feeds, student and

staff blogs, etc. This space should focus on the educational goals of the

school, and it should include opportunities for those goals to be met. It can

also serve the experimental purpose of the learning commons as it can be a

place to test-drive new technologies and ideas. Perhaps a teacher is thinking

about creating a blog for students to post their assignments to so that they

can comment on each other’s work—the teacher may seek out the teacher-

librarian to help with this innovative idea and to brainstorm ways to make it

work, thus embedding it on the learning commons’ website. This site

becomes a one-stop shop for all classroom activities as well as professional

development opportunities for teachers and staff. A private network can be

created for teachers to share their ideas with each other and receive

feedback in real time rather than having to wait to have a face-to-face

conversation with a colleague. This has been made easier through e-mail,

but a private network (like a Ning6) housed on the learning commons’

website allows for all faculty and staff to communicate with one another, if

5 University Laboratory High School Library, “Class Projects,” http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/classprojects/index.php 6 Ning, “Ning: About,” http://www.ning.com/

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they so choose. These are just a few ways that the learning commons could

be transferred to virtual space so that its mission can be furthered outside

the confines of the physical space and time constraints of the school day.

2. SCHOOL-WIDE COLLABORATION

Changing the library space is only one small step to changing the

entire high school culture from one of isolationism to that of collaboration.

The library cannot move into its role as a learning commons unless people

move with this idea as well and embrace their new roles too. This change

involves the entire school community and must be supported by such, as the

teacher-librarian alone cannot institute this change. This, in itself, must be a

collaborative effort first backed by teachers, staff, and administrators. While

the teacher-librarian may serve as the leader in organizing and

accomplishing this change, every person in the school will be affected.

Teachers must agree to rethink their daily lessons to provide room for some

collaboration, some way to expose their students to the learning commons in

authentic and meaningful ways related to their content areas. This is not

simply about using the technology and the space just for the sake of using it,

but rather, it is about realizing that the educational experiences of students

should involve the “real world” that they live and participate in and should

utilize the technologies that they are already using. Collaboration between

teachers is essential in accomplishing this task because using technology in

an instructional setting is more volatile than a straightforward lecture—the

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multimedia world that our students occupy is largely unknown to us as

teachers, and we need the extra support in order to navigate it effectively.

Staffing the Learning Commons

In current practice, the high school library is usually staffed by a

teacher-librarian and a library aide, more or less depending on the size and

budget of the school. Many high school libraries depend on parent and

student volunteers to keep their libraries running smoothly. Because a

teacher-librarian’s job is three-fold—teacher, librarian, and administrator—

there is always work to be done, and the load may be overwhelming. In the

new learning commons, the teacher-librarian would be surrounded by a

support group of school specialists with whom to collaborate. The daily

functions of the library itself (e.g. checking books in and out, shelving,

processing new materials, etc.) would be administered by the library aide so

that the teacher-librarian may focus on the educational goals of the school

and work with school counselors, literacy coaches, special education

teachers and other school specialists who are often left out of the loop when

it comes to the daily learning activities in the school. By bringing all of these

specialists together in one space, the learning commons, the school is able

to physically show that these staff members are valued in the educational

community, so much that they occupy the focal point of the school. Also, by

housing school specialists in the learning commons, the teacher-librarian has

daily opportunities to support and collaborate with these members of the

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school community, a feat left unaccomplished in current high schools. While

this may mean a drastic renovation of the current library’s physical space,

this change is necessary if school-wide collaboration is to take place.

Collaboration between Content Area Teachers and the Teacher-

Librarian

Collaboration between content area teachers and teacher-librarians is

crucial to the success of the learning commons and more importantly, the

success of students. The library literature is saturated with stories of how

one teacher/teacher-librarian duo worked together to create an amazing

learning experience for students that produced much better results than the

standard lecture/test method because the collaboration allowed for creativity

and the use of technology in new and meaningful ways (see bibliography).

These stories are inspiring to read, but they may not be enough for

administrators looking for statistical evidence of improved student

achievement. For this group, there are books and studies written entirely

about the benefits of teacher/teacher-librarian collaborations, including an

emphasis on standards-based instruction that yields measurable results of

student learning (see bibliography). Collaboration amongst teachers is not a

new idea to the education field, but it is difficult to accomplish in the high

school setting. Because teachers are partitioned into departments, there is

little opportunity for interdisciplinary teaching to take place, especially given

the time restraints of the school day. Collaboration becomes easier with the

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introduction of the learning commons because it provides a neutral and

central meeting ground for teachers to be utilized at any time during the

day. Since it is generally open before and after school as the traditional

school library is, this also provides teachers with more opportunities to

physically meet, not to mention the anytime/anywhere accessibility of the

virtual learning commons. Most high schools do not have a dedicated space

for teachers to share ideas and work toward common educational goals, so

the learning commons can fill this need.

Traditionally, high school teachers are subject specialists who teach

alone in their own classroom. Their educational goals are very specific—

students should learn X facts and demonstrate Y skills by the end of the

semester—and are driven by state standards for their content area and

grade levels. They work alone because that is just the way it is done and has

been done for as long as anyone can remember. Perhaps there is some

inherent resistance to change or to giving up complete control within a

teacher’s personality, but more likely is the fact that most teachers have not

considered collaborating with their colleagues because they have not had

the experience modeled for them. They do not know what it would look like,

how their lessons would change, and how this would enhance the learning

experiences of their students. If teachers are satisfied with their lessons and

their students are achieving the set educational goals, then they may not

feel that collaboration is a necessary part of their job. But collaboration is

essential because it does more than create a new lesson, which is a valuable

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outcome in itself; it creates a concrete example, a model for students who

are expected to work in groups and teams both in and out of school. If we

are to prepare students for life outside of school, we must show them that

teamwork is valued and that collaborations can be successful. We are living

in an increasingly isolated culture, where every student strives to outshine

the other, but we also live in a social world where collaboration is evident in

all types of workplaces and situations. In such a diverse culture, we should

also strive to provide students with diverse experiences, and collaboration

between teachers is one experience that is missing from many high schools.

Collaboration between content area teachers and teacher-librarians

has the potential to produce outstanding educational experiences for

students. It brings together two people who specialize in information in very

different ways—the teacher who has the “know” and the teacher-librarian

who has the “know how.” The teacher knows about the “stuff” that students

need to learn, and the teacher-librarian knows how to get to that “stuff” in

exciting and meaningful ways. Teachers hardly have the time to be

innovative with their lessons (though some do an excellent job of it) and are

generally not up to speed with the latest in technological advances—that’s

not their specialty. But teacher-librarians specialize in finding information

from a variety of sources, many of which are now online, where this

generation spends most of its time. Teacher-librarians are responsible for

staying current with information trends, which means that they are the first

to know when a new database is being launched or an organization publishes

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new educational materials or a new educational tool is being experimented.

They know about or at least can find online resources that can enhance

lessons and produce more telling student learning experiences.

For example, a U.S. History class is studying Westward expansion and

the traditional lesson consists of a lecture and reading from the textbook. If

the history teacher and teacher-librarian collaborate, the lesson may include

an exploration of the American Memory website,7 where students would find

primary source documents of this period, including letters written during the

journey West and photographs taken at this time. Students’ engagement

with the material in this case would be much more personal, allowing

students to make connections that may have seemed more distant in the

traditional lecture/reading setting. In this scenario, the teacher-librarian

would provide instruction in the use of this online archive, while the teacher

would serve as the content specialist, providing the context for these

primary sources. In this collaboration, both parties are still meeting their set

of content standards, but they are also enhancing students’ educational

experiences by providing meaningful connections to the material using

technologies with which students are already familiar and comfortable.

Teacher/teacher-librarian collaborations should always focus on a set of

educational objectives but do so in a way that integrates technology

seamlessly. Other ways to do this include students using social networking

tools such as blogs or wikis to create a product such as a collaborative

7 Library of Congress, “American Memory from the Library of Congress,” http://memory.loc.gov

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analysis of a book chapter in their literature class or a painting in their art

class; participating in a WebQuest about a certain topic such as global

warming or post-modern poetry;8 creating a podcast to demonstrate their

new content knowledge in a creative way in any content area; or using

subscription periodical databases to formulate a debate position on a current

event. In all of these examples, the teacher and teacher-librarian work

together toward a common goal while still focusing on their areas of

expertise.

Professional Development

The learning commons also allows for a myriad of professional

development activities to occur, which the library could not previously

support. Because the learning commons is primarily a learning environment

where collaboration is encouraged (which means that talking is allowed!) and

technology is present to serve a variety of purposes, professional

development can actually be a team effort rather than an isolated practice.

School in-service and faculty improvement days can be held in the learning

commons, where technology can both be used and demonstrated. This is a

prime opportunity for the teacher-librarian to promote library services and to

teach workshops on new databases or web tools of interest to teachers. As a

library administrator, the teacher-librarian should lead teachers in innovative

practices and uses of technology and information in education. The learning

8 Bernie Dodge, “WebQuest.Org,” Department of Educational Technology, San Diego State University, http://webquest.org/index.php

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commons space allows these professional development activities to occur in

the same environment that the future educational practices will take place,

thus easing the learning curve for some teachers.

For example, the teacher-librarian may have recently subscribed to a

new reference database, containing hundreds of encyclopedias and other

reference works in full-text that the library could not even hope to afford to

buy in print. In order to promote this new database, a mini-workshop on its

content and use can be held in the learning commons where the teacher-

librarian could demonstrate sample searches and key features and teachers

can click along on their own computers, allowing time for them to explore

the source on their own. Even though this is a source primarily for student

use, it is important to educate teachers about it because they are the ones

who can better promote it to their students who they see on a daily basis.

Other ways to use this space for professional development include small

groups of teachers sharing their tech success stories with each other;

teachers pairing up to teach other about a new practice they have

incorporated or are thinking about doing in their classes; or teachers

participating in a virtual conference or webinar. The learning commons,

especially the experimental lab, will give the school community a concrete

space conducive to reviewing and rethinking best practices in education and

allowing for creative ideas to flourish.

OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME

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Creating a learning commons in the high school is a major undertaking

which must be met with support from the entire school community. This

change is not as simple as purchasing new technology or hiring a new school

specialist. It involves changing the school climate and selling teachers and

administrators on the idea of school-wide collaboration. Changing the

physical space of the library to accommodate the new learning commons

model is no easy task either and will be difficult to accomplish without the

proper support. Potential obstacles include resistance to change from both

teachers and administrators, the current obsession with standardized testing

and measurable student outcomes, and lack of funding.

Resistance to Change

Changing the way an entire organization, in this case the high school,

works is never easy. Some people are naturally resistant to change, and in a

high school where dozens of teachers have been teaching the same

curriculum in the same way for a decade, the resistance to change may be

quite high. But the first people who need to sign off on this change are the

administrators—the ones who will be supplying the funding (which is another

issue), overseeing the process, and justifying it to the school board. In order

to gain the support from administrators on this new idea, a solid case must

be presented to them that outlines the potential benefits of the learning

commons. One way to do this is to provide examples of schools who have

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already adopted this model and the success that it has brought them.9

Another way is to include the educational benefits of such a space and the

research that has been done to show that collaborative teaching positively

influences student learning.10

Getting teachers to rethink their ways of teaching and to be more open

to collaborative possibilities is also a challenge to creating the learning

commons. While most teachers will be glad to finally have a library that is

more in tune with the changing times, including a fully equipped technology

lab and comfortable space to work in away from their claustrophobic offices,

they may still be hesitant about modifying their lessons and collaborating

with the teacher-librarian and each other. After working alone for so long, it

can be difficult to give up control of the classroom and to try new things. This

teacher/teacher-librarian collaboration will not happen instantly and will have

to be paced slowly. If there is one willing teacher on the faculty who is open-

minded and ready to tackle this change, then that is a good enough start to

motivating the rest of the faculty. Once the initial collaboration has taken

place, it can serve as an example to the rest of the faculty because it will

undoubtedly result in success. At the very least, teachers should feel more

comfortable in consulting with the teacher-librarian when they are in need of

information and/or technology resources so that the lines of communication

may be open to future possibilities of collaboration. Again, this may take

9 Valerie Diggs, “From Library to Learning Commons, A Metamorphosis,” Teacher Librarian 36, no. 4, (April 2009), 32-3810 Keith Curry Lance, Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell, “Powerful Libraries Make Powerful Learners: The Illinois Study,” Illinois School Library Media Association, 2005, http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/IllinoisStudy/TheStudy.pdf

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several baby steps, but the goal is to achieve a collaborative environment

where teachers feel that they are welcome to share new ideas and

experiment with new technologies to achieve their educational goals. The

teacher-librarian should lead this effort by continually communicating with

teachers, asking for feedback, offering support in their content areas, and

suggesting collaborative possibilities.

Standardized Testing and Measurable Student Outcomes

The current state of high school libraries is dismal. They are not used

to their full potential in schools, and this is a problem that teachers and

administrators do not acknowledge. Instead, the dominant thought is that

the school library is merely a supplemental resource and not a vital part of

the school. If students and teachers are not using the school library, it must

be because it’s not useful. But this is not true! One of the benefits to

transforming the school library into the learning commons is that it gets

more bodies into the space—a space that will still be dedicated to the

traditional roles and responsibilities of the school library with the addition of

the new learning commons goals. Because the school library will still

maintain its purpose and function, it can finally start to prove its worth to the

school community as more people arrive to use its many resources, including

books, databases, physical technology, and most importantly the teacher-

librarian. For administrators and teachers who are overly concerned with

standardized testing and measurable student outcomes, the learning

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commons can only have positive effects, especially since the school library

will be highlighted. These effects are documented in much of the library

literature (see bibliography), most notably in the third edition of School

Libraries Work!,11 which shows that school libraries do have a positive impact

on student achievement. The learning commons will in fact support teachers

in their efforts to meet standards and measure student success.

Funding

Another challenging obstacle in the way of creating the learning

commons is the funding required to physically transform the school library.

This transformation will look different in every high school because each high

school’s library is unique. Some possibilities include completely remodeling

the space—tearing down walls, building new offices and labs, retrofitting

electrical outlets, buying new furniture and bookshelves, etc.—if the old one

is beyond repair; purchasing more comfortable and moveable furniture to

place in the space along with modern décor to spruce up the atmosphere;

moving or purchasing new bookshelves to open up the space; adding an

attached technology lab if there is not room inside the library itself to house

it; or simply rearranging the old space to better reflect the goals of the new

one. Any of these situations could be costly, and the funding may be scarce

if not non-existent.

The first step to overcoming this obstacle is to present the school

administrators with a rationale for the change and a proposed budget for the

11 Scholastic, “School Libraries Work!,” Scholastic Research & Results, 2008, http://www2.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/s/slw3_2008.pdf

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work that needs to be done. By specifying exactly what is needed in terms of

funding and where the money will be spent, it is more likely that

administrators, including the school board, will be receptive to funding this

idea. If the funding is denied, however, even though administrators may be

in favor of the idea itself, because some schools just do not have the extra

money to spend, then it is possible to apply for grants that will support such

a change. Specifically, the LSTA grant is very supportive of these types of

changes in the library and may be a viable solution to this problem.12 The

bottom line is that lack of funding should never be an excuse to not pursuing

such a strong educational initiative. Even if a makeshift learning commons

must exist before funding is raised for the physical changes to take place,

the most important aspect of this change is in the collaboration of teachers

and openness of the space—the changed culture of the library from a quiet,

stifling room to a bustling, creative area where students and teachers can

pursue a variety of learning experiences.

CONCLUSION

The goal of this paper was to describe a change that “schools need to

make to respond effectively to the changing social and technological

context” of our current times.13 By converting the high school library into the

learning commons, schools can provide better educational experiences that

12 Illinois State Library, “Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA),” http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/what_we_do/servicestechnologygrant.html13 Nicholas C. Burbules, Syllabus, EPS 411: School and Society, Spring 2009, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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engage students in this social and technological context. By instituting this

change, we are validating students’ everyday lives by bringing the same

technologies they use in their personal lives into their educational lives,

connecting the real world to the school world. By collaborating with teachers,

we are acting as role models, as examples of successful teamwork, a “real

world” skill that students will need in their futures in this increasingly

connected social world. Most of all, creating the learning commons provides

a tangible social network, where collaboration is encouraged and

emphasized because it is already such a significant part of teens’ lives.

These changes ultimately are necessary in the high school if we want to

modify the mission of the school itself—from one of inculcating students with

massive amounts of content to be regurgitated and later forgotten to one of

providing students with the tools and skills necessary to be responsible and

creative citizens who actively participate in the world around them. This

mission is not unlike many mission statements found on high schools’

websites, but it is one that is often not realized in those same high schools. If

we are to move past this era of fear of not meeting expectations on

standardized tests, then we must change the way we view the high school

environment and the way it currently functions. I am confident that high

schools who adopt the learning commons as their new school library will be

pleased with the results.

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