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News and Events

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 1 month ago

 New directions for CAR-TL... is it time to change the way we work as a community of teacher librarian researchers?

Do we need to consider a different structure?  What do you think?


 

 

At our research day in October it was decided to "go public" with our wiki so that people might be made more aware of our community and the support it offers for those undertaking research in their schools.  We will endeavour to contact you all individually be email before changing the wiki's privacy setting to 'public' on January 1st 2009, should you wish to remove any of your posts.

 

 

 

 

 


October Retreat   

What a great day we had with Ross Todd (October 11) as we explored the various projects we had started or were thinking about starting.  The day moved rapidly and importantly, we came to a new horizon for CAR-TL.

 

Our research community has broadened to become the Community of Active Researchers - Teacher Librarians with the emphasis on Active.  As a number of projects lend themselves to different methodologies, it was deemed approproate to widen our brief and work as a support base for any teacher actively involved in practitioner research.  We agreed that we could work to connect teachers to other teachers or researchers, to stimulate discussion on a member's project, to offer dinner talks and one day research retreats, Skype discussions and to assist in helping colleagues to publish their ideas or indeed consider presenting at conferences.

 

Thank you Ross for your guidance and your patience on what was a really good day.  A few comments by some of the participants follows:

 

'...inspirational day for CARTL. ...really enjoyed listening to the diversity of interests of the others ... especially sharing the problems and challenges that we face as novice researchers. Ross Todd's encouragement was infectious ...it was particularly rewarding to be able to share his wisdom ...’

 

'It’s good to hear what issues other people are wrestling with. ... I achieved some clarity with my research, the topic was so big I was overwhelmed until I talked to Ross. He has suggested a way of doing some initial research that is manageable. I am going to follow the example given by Smith ... going to look at user generated tags and SCIS tags for non fiction... Will let everyone know more on the Wiki when I have clarified it further. I also liked Jill's idea of attending the conference in Perth next September. I would like to be considered if you think the research I am doing is worth presenting. I also like the idea of changing the word action to active as this will probably encourage more people to feel they can join'.

 

'...day was extremely useful. Without it, I may not have been able to continue my project as I felt I had hit a brick wall. Ross, in his typical clear manner managed to steer me in the right direction and put it into perspective... general session in the morning was great. I returned home feeling refreshed and with added commitment to CAR-TL’.

 


 Update on Research Retreat

For those of you who have registered for this upcoming Retreat, you will have received an email asking if Friday October 10 is a possible. Other CAR-TL members who might like to consider joining us, you are most welcome.  Again let Linda know for catering purposes and to update Ross.   Looking over  the different projects, it will be a great day of sharing and learning. 

 


 

Dr Ross ToddOctober Research Retreat with Ross Todd

 

Things have been quiet lately, but we’re still here.  Linda and I adopted a watching brief over the last couple of months, partly due to some heavy commitments and partly due to the fact that we wanted to let you “run your own race” for a while. Hopefully you are still travelling well and if not actually engaged in some research, you have a plan forming.

 

Here is the outline for our workshop on Saturday 11th October with Researcher-in-Residence, Ross Todd.

 

The workshop, to be held in the Centre for Leadership & Learning at The King’s School, will commence at 10am and finish at 3pm.  Lunch and morning tea will be provided. Before lunch we will have a "show and tell" session where people can discuss their intended or current research project.  Ross will also talk about methodologies/ data collection techniques that are appropriate for these projects.  After lunch, Ross will work with individuals and teams on their respective projects.

 

Those coming are requested to bring something with them that can be shared with the group.  It need not be a finished project, but might be your research proposal (there is a proforma on the wiki), a literature review, a data collection instrument (survey, focus group questions), preliminary analysis of results etc. Also if you have any other resources to share, please bring them along.  At the conclusion of the workshop, we’d like to spend a little time discussing future directions for CARTL.

 

NB… this workshop is on the day prior to the start of the National Boys’ Education Conference at The King’s School. So why not come to the retreat and just stay on!

 


Action Research PowerPoint

At the Research retreat I mentioned the PowerPoint I had used at the State Library Day. Feel free to use all or part of it with your staff if you would like to give them an overview of action research. Action Research.ppt 

 


Research Retreat...we finally got there!

 

 

It took a little while, but our Research Retreat (albeit a somewhat shortened one) with Kirsty Williamson finally happened. And what a fantastic time it was!  Kirsty, if you are reading this, thank you sooooo much for working with some of us today. There was a wonderful sense of community as we shared and built ideas in such a positive environment.  After sharing thoughts on each others' research plans, Kirsty spent some time discussing the importance of ethical research and then z on eroed in on the use of focus groups as a technique for data collection.

 

If anyone who was at the retreat would like to add more to this comment, please feel free to hit the 'Edit page' button and go for it. (30.3.08) I am currently having trouble uploading the recording of Kirsty's piece on focus groups ( a large file) ... stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Skype Chat

It was great to catch up with some of you in the Skype chat and learn a bit more about your research interests and projects.  Some really useful suggestions came out of the shared space.  I'm sure we'll repeat the exercise in the future, so between now and then we'll try and sort out a few technical difficulties that a number of people experienced. Shortly we'll put a summary of the chat up so that all of us can see what others are doing.  If you weren't able to join us, you might like to add a comment to this summary and tell us very briefly about how you are going. (13.2.08)

 

 


 

Merry Christmas

 

It's time we all had a well-earned break. Have a great Christmas and New Year everyone.

 

And while you've got a few spare moments over the next few weeks, why not update your page and tell us how you're going with your ideas or your project? 

 

 

We'd also like to hear any suggestions/ comments that you might have regarding the operation of CAR-TL - communication, events etc. (Linda and Di) 

 

 

 

 

Back to the Future?

 

Lyn Hay was reading her latest issue of Access and came across an account of the Research Retreat held in October.  Knowing that the event hadn't gone ahead, she messaged me to say it was a convincing report and asked if I'd had an out-of-body experience. She wondered if Linda and I had been sucked into a sequel of Back to the Future for teacher librarians. Now there's a thought!

 

Anyway, I thought I had just better reassure those of you who read the Buzz section of Access that the RR did not go ahead.  It's somewhat embarrasing that the report is there, but that is what happens when you have to write the article 3 months before the journal is published.  If I waited until events had actually passed, you'd be reading about them 6 months later - by which time we'd have all moved on. Not to worry, Lyn thought it was great PR and will have them stacked up against the doors for next year's retreat with Ross Todd. (Di 15.12.07)

 

 


 

 

 

Research Retreat postponed

 

Unfortunately we have had to postpone the Research Retreat at the Grange. Illness, work and family commitments all got the better of us.

 

We are now moving to have a CAR-TL session as part of the ASLA(NSW)/DET Conference - March 28/29 2008. Pencil it in your diary now!

 

The Conference will have a research strand which will be supported by CSTL (Centre for Studies in Teacher Librarianship - Charles Sturt University). On the Saturday there will be a keynote address focussed on action research and workshops with a research theme will be available in each concurrent session. We are hoping to continue the research conversation on Sunday morning (30th) with a session for CAR-TL that will allow members to discuss their projects and seek guidance from experienced researchers.

 

Hopefully this arrangement will allow all members of CARTL to get together (Margaret, Di and Fran - start flapping those wings). We also hope that the emphasis given during the conference to the importance of researching practice will bring more members into our community.

 

Please post a comment and let us know what you think about all of this and if you have any suggestions.


Tag it!

 

Great suggestion by Linda about creating a CAR-TL del.icio.us account. The URL for this account is now on the Delicious page. How about adding it to your network so that whenever you come across a site that might be of interest to all or some of use you can tag it for CAR-TL.  (5.10.07)

 


 

We've added a new page called The research proposal. Here you'll find an outline that might help you plan your project.


Just a short note to guide you to the Delicious page. I just love delicious... makes your favourites so accessible and it saves on all that pasting of links into emails. I hope to see you on my network soon! (Di L)


 

Register now for the Research Retreat

 

Great News    

 

Dr Kirsty Williamson will be our Researcher-in-Residence for our Research Retreat at The Grange, Mt Victoria, NSW October 26-28.  Kirsty is one of the finest researchers in our field with a tremendous strength in Methodology.  See Resources for her book.

 

 


 

 

'..day was extremely useful. Without it, I may not have been able to continue my project as I felt I had hit a brick wall. Ross, in his typical clear manner managed to steer me in the right direction and put it into perspective... general session in the morning was great. I returned home feeling refreshed and with added commitment to CAR-TL’.

 

 


Comments (7)

Anonymous said

at 2:17 pm on Aug 30, 2007

Why not make a CAR-TL Delicious page.... then we can save our websites to our single purose page. Just a thought.

Anonymous said

at 6:42 pm on Oct 29, 2007

I'm sorry you didn't get to meet over the weekend. I was logging in to look at your reports of what happened! I am picking up a new hat next year (Head of History) in addition to my current TL role. Benefit is I have convinced my Principal to employ a .5 TL to assist with the information management of the school. Downside is having to learn all about the Year 12 course. I suspect that March will see me going to History conferences! Will the Ross Todd weekend at this time of year still go ahead?

Anonymous said

at 4:39 pm on Oct 30, 2007

Hi Margaret.Yes we are still planning to have the Ross Todd weekend in Nov 2008. How about coming up for the ASLA(NSW)/DET conference in March... there will be a research strand and speakers will include Stephen Kemmis, Kirsty Williamson, Ross Todd & Lyn Hay. The conference will be Friday/Saturday and we are planning a CARTL session with Kirsty for the Sunday morning. We'd love to see you there.
Perhaps you'll be able to do some action research that straddles History and Library!

Anonymous said

at 6:28 pm on Oct 30, 2007

Hmm! I shall debate with myself at length. I will only be able to come to one of them and my feeling is the workshop with Ross would be better for me both timewise and in content. It would be nice to meet Lyn Hay: she was at CSU while I was finishing my MEd. See how we go!

Anonymous said

at 9:04 pm on Aug 16, 2008

Not sure this is the correct place to put this reponse, however it's just to let you know that I would like to attend the CARTL meeting with Ross Todd on Sat 11th October - not much 'action' from me, but plenty of enthusiasm! Margo Pickworth

Anonymous said

at 9:10 pm on Aug 16, 2008

Thanks Margo...we were getting worried that people did not receive a wiki alert about a new post re this event. We're about to send out an email to ensure everyone is aware of the workshop. You don't need to reply again; your reply is noted and we look forward to seeing you there!

Anonymous said

at 11:21 pm on Oct 9, 2008

Looking forward to meeting up on the 11th October, after a heavy week at a COGE week at GERRIC, UNSW.

Regards, Anne

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