Editorial
School Library Monthly/Volume XXVI, Number 2/October 2009
A Good Reminder…Who Are Your Students?
By Deborah D. Levitov
Every year Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, offers a Mind Set List "as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation" (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/). It is a great resource to help educators from K-12 through college gain perspective in terms of the students in their classrooms, realizing they were born in the years 1991 to 2006.
Items on the list most relevant for the school librarian to think about with regard to these students are:
- They have never used a card catalog.
- Text has always been hyper.
- They have never had to "shake down" an oral thermometer.
- State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.
- Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
- They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
- There have always been flat screen televisions.
- Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News.
- There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
- CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.
- Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos, and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/).
And, I would add… the use of technology for social networking is commonplace—far beyond land-line telephones. Today’s students do not know what an LP is, it is not natural to read time on a clock with hands, and "long hand" sounds like a sci-fi movie.
The world for students in 2009 is different from the world their teachers experienced as youth. The tools they use for communicating and learning are increasingly linked to technology, available 24/7. This reality makes it essential that school librarians (and all educators) embrace and keep up with the changing times and tools of technology while making it relevant to education. After all, the mantra of school librarians is lifelong learning.