the library as learning commons

The library as learning

commons:

Key to graduation and college readiness?

Fall 2012

2Concept used in museums and libraries

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What is a commons?What is a Commons?

A set of resources maintained in the public sphere for the use and benefit of everyone

(from Imagining a Smithsonian Commons)

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What is a learning commons?

A learning commons must, therefore, in some sense be a place where a “set of [learning] resources [is] maintained in the public sphere for the use and benefit of everyone”

But what kind of resources? . . . and what kind of place?

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What in the world is a Learning Commons?– “A Learning Commons is a flexible

and responsive approach to helping schools focus on learning collaboratively. It expands the learning experience, taking students and educators into virtual spaces beyond the walls of a school.”• Home > Teacher Librarians >

What is a Learning Commons

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What’s so common about it?

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Partnership

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A related concept

Information commons– Taking its roots from simpler

times when communities shared communal land, the Information Commons is the modern academic equivalent of a common space used for the processes of information gathering and social collaboration. It is where enlightenment meets interaction. Knowledge fosters education.• What is Information Commons? To us, it is Intuitive.

03//22//2011 //Steve PryorAdvertising blog for Paragon school furniture

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Five Benefits of the Information Commons

1. The Commons puts students at the center

2. The Commons is built with student involvement

3. The Commons is a welcoming, useful gathering place

4. The Commons makes connections

5. The Commons is a relevant, required space on campus

– A “Commons” Experience: Five Benefits of the Information CommonsSubmitted by Michael Stephens on November 17, 2008

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http://murraylib601.org/LMCtoLearningCommons.pdf

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An expanded concept

The School Learning Commons Knowledge Building Center – What is a Knowledge Building

Center?• A knowledge building center is an online

presence of a particular learning experience that accomplishes a number of things that a simple online directive assignment does not usually do.

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A clearer definition What is a Knowledge Building Center?

– A Knowledge Building Center is a virtual and collaborative space where professors, teacher librarians, learning leaders, teacher technologists or other specialists are coaching learners in a project, problem, learning experience, learning community, etc.

They can be used with face to face instruction, blended learning, or totally online learning.• Knowledge Building Centers

Learning Commons Calgary 2012• Template is at:

https://sites.google.com/site/knowledgebuildingcenter/

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Knowledge comes to play Play as a motivator for learning

– Creating an educational system that will cultivate life-long learners calls for a novel approach. Reaching into the roots of human evolution, play--the historic medium of learning--emerges as a good fit in a world in constant flux.

– The learning commons provides an environment for activities that develop student intelligence. Through playful instructional design, learning commons promote inquiry and information seeking through which students’ inner resources are revealed and developed. In these ways and more, the learning commons is a playground for the mind where students discover and develop a love of learning that can last a lifetime.

• CROW, S., & ROBINS, J. (2012). Play in the Library. Teacher Librarian, 39(5), 36-43.

http://murraylib601.org/LibraryFlip.pdf

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A book by Loertscher, et al.

The New Learning Commons: Where Learners Win!– Loertscher, Koechlin, and Zwaan team

up in this book to rethink everything about the function and role of school libraries and computer labs. It is often a case of 180 degree reconsideration. What does this mean? The profession has been on a command and control model: If we build it, they will come.

– The turn-around suggested is to think about and construct a client-side organization built around the idea that: If THEY build it, THEY will use it. [Text from blurb for 1st edition]

• David V. Loertscher, Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan; ISBN: 978-1-933170-67-1; Hi Willow Research and Publishing; 2011

Collaboration is the key!