Media+Specialist

= Media Specialists & School Leaders  =

How Can School Library Media Specialists and School Leaders Promote the Use of Digital Comics?

The School Library Media Specialist is expected to perform a variety of tasks in keeping students involved with various technologies that exist. Connecting technology to texts, other classes, and to the students themselves should not be added on at the last second as an afterthought, instead, school library media specialists need to integrate technology as one of the key features of student projects and work in school.

From the National Board Certification Library Media Standards Standard 10: Leadership, Advocacy, and Community Partnerships, it reads: "Accomplished library media specialists advocate within and beyond the confines of the school, strengthening library media programs by taking on the responsibilities of professional leadership. In fulfilling their leadership responsibilities, accomplished library media specialists focus on the importance of the connections among the library media program, the school curriculum, trends in education and industry, and the greater community. They seek initiatives designed to build family and community partnerships and increase student achievement."



School Library Media Specialists need to take this standard into account when designing instruction across the curriculum, because they have the responsibility of acting as leader in the school. Additionally, other school leaders need to heed this standard as well because the important connections to make are the ones between student work and 1) the curriculum 2) educational and technological trends and 3) the outside world. Shead (2011) outlines the five most important leadership traits/qualities as being: honest, forward-looking, competent, inspiring, and intelligent. Below are some project-based suggestions, activities, and ideas for School Library Media Specialists and other school leaders to incorporate comics and making comics into lesson plans; they also connect to Shead's five leadership traits with a justification statement for each at the beginning. There is another category to consider as well when discussing a leader. There is the fun factor, or the // wow! // factor. Students need to see real-world examples, have fun with the subject of technology, and have the incentive to pursue it. This additional leadership trait/quality will be labeled: fun.


 * **Competent, because of cross-curricular teaching efforts.** Students work with a comic creator program or web site to create a biography on a historical figure. This could be the choice of a literary figure (English/language arts class), a historical figure (for history/social studies/civics class), a scientist (for science class), or athlete/artist/musician (physical education, art, and music class).
 * **Forward-looking, because you are acknowledging that technology is always changing and you are not all-knowing.** Teachers can attend conferences like the ISTE Conference and attend sessions that deal with comics integration. Teachers can then take what they learn at the conference and utilize it in the classroom.
 * **Honest, because you acknowledge that student time and resources are limited.** School Library Media Specialists can set aside a specific block of time within their instructional period to allow students access to computers to make comics. They can also hold special tutorials or write online tutorials for students in comics creation.
 * **Inspiring, because you seek alternate ways to accomplish the same goal without sacrificing integrity.** School leaders can encourage students to "think outside the box" and use comics as a medium for final or as additional components of papers or oral presentations.
 * **Forward-looking and competent, because you know what's coming around the corner and you prepare your students for it.** School leaders can encourage high school students can include digital comics creations in their art portfolios for application to art school.
 * **Intelligent, because you gather the best minds you can about a subject.** Graphic artists and comic book creators can be invited to speak at career day, to individual classrooms, or to the school as a whole.
 * **Fun, because you realize that all this learning needs to be contextualized in a real-world setting and application.** Field trips can be arranged by school leaders and media specialists to museums that specialize in comics, or hold artifacts that relate to comics (in Baltimore there is [|Geppi's Entertainment Museum], and there are over a dozen museums and centers in and around DC affiliated with the [|Smithsonian].

Above all, comics creation is an important part of the Web 2.0 collection of tools. Comics should not be dismissed as an inferior art form or way of creating content in schools. School leaders and media specialists need to be aware of comics, educate themselves, promote the use of comics in schools, and be an advocate for comics creation itself and/or for students who want to utilize comics creation.

Final Thoughts/Takeaways

Comics can do something as simple as illustrate what a metaphor is to students:

And on another hand, comics can accomplish something that the written word alone cannot:

Comics can be a unique way for students to exercise their creativity, while at the same time making connections to text, themselves, and others.

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