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Use of Instagram in an elementary school library...

 

Hey, Readers!

I have created a fake school library account for a ISCI 761 class. My fake school name is Blue Hill Elementary School. I named it Blue Hill because I have a dog that is an Australian Blue Heeler named Jed. I love him so much, so I decided to make him my mascot and name the school Blue Hill Elementary. I thought about naming it Blue Heel Elementary since the mascot is a blue heeler, but I thought more about it, and I liked Blue Hill better.  Below are pictures of the school logo and the school library banner I made with Canva. The picture is of my actual dog that is an Australian Blue Heeler named Jed.  

 



(School Logo created in Canva; Jed’s drawing created in LunaPic)

 



(School Library Banner created by Canva;

Jed’s drawing created in LunaPic)

When picking a social media account platform, I thought about the children I teach right now.  Just the other day I was talking about social media, and they could not quit talking about Instagram. They all seem to have an account or knew someone who did.  Taking this information into account, I decided to choose Instagram for my social media account for my fake elementary school. As Lucas John Jensen stated in the article Integrating Social Media into Online Education, “The most important thing to consider is that social media, while it has its own unique challenges and peculiarities, must still be approached like any educational technology tool: choose the best tool for the task” (Jensen, 2019, p. 30).  Therefore, I chose Instagram to create an account for my social media page for my elementary school.  

 I want the account to be welcoming to the school community.  I want it to be a place for them to be able to come see what is happening in the library, participate in activities in the library, and ask or answer questions about information needs through pictures, videos, and more.  Below is a picture of the account I have created:

 



As Jan Wilson states in her article called Make Your Library More Visible: Boost your profile with tips from SLJ’s 2017 Hero of Collaboration by Jan Wilson, the author states, “Keep it professional by posting photographs and information to promote the incredible happenings in your library, and try to post every week” (Wilson, 2017, p. 16). To aid in instruction/collaboration, communication, and advocacy, I plan to post pictures of the important things that are going on in the library so that the school community will want to visit the library. When the school community knows what is going on in the library, it promotes teachers wanting to collaborate and students wanting to participate in the wonderful events that are happening in the library.

Thank you for stopping by this week.

Sincerely,

Courtland Smith

 

References

Jensen, L. J. (2019). Integrating social media into online education. Library
     Technology Reports, 27-30.

Wilson, J. (2017). Make your library more visible: Boost your profile with tips
     from SLJ's 2017 hero of collaboration, Jan Wilson. School Library Journal, 16-17.

 

 

Comments

  1. Jennifer BrownMarch 5, 2023 at 4:41 PM

    Thanks Courtland! I love that you incorporated your dog into your post. I also agree with you that visibility is a must for libraries. There is a false idea that libraries are no longer necessary because of the availability of the internet. Communicating all that we do with our communities is vital to providing evidence of the essential role of libraries!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amanda MyersMarch 5, 2023 at 8:22 PM

    Courtland, I like how you chose a platform that your students use regularly. Since you are going to be posting things like activities and want to promote a place to ask questions, I think that Instagram is the perfect place for those things to happen! Communication is key for all that we do! I also love your logo and your doggy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Melissa WhiteMarch 6, 2023 at 12:54 PM

    Hi Courtland! First, your dog is adorable, and I love that you used him as your mascot! I think Instagram will be visually appealing and engaging for elementary students. Also, I like your plan to post pictures in order to promote the library and aid in teacher collaboration. I have similar plans that I'm excited to implement. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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