BREAKING BOUNDARIES

Outside our doors:
As much as educators feel that they are open-minded and support a wider world view, we often find ourselves constricted by curricular responsibilities, perceived or real deadlines or completion requirements. We espouse and teach students that having a compassionate world perception is important and may participate in a few ‘fund-raise and send’ campaigns, but when push comes to shove we revert to an insular practice and end up feeling less than productive with our efforts.
How can we reach out to other teacher librarians and their students in our own country whose resources fall short of their needs? If we are weeding books from our own libraries due to lack of use, copy age or significant wear and tear, are they appropriate donations for someone else’s use? Books are not like hand-me-down clothing despite the proliferation of used book stores. Most weeded books from our libraries and learning commons are beyond the age, condition or significance for another lending system. Their next best use would be for someone’s personal library. I know that I’ve found some great copies of beloved texts for my own personal use from used book sales!
The American Library Association uses this disclaimer on its International Donation and Shipment of Books link, “Be aware however, that most organizations only accept new books or books in good condition-these are not places to "book dump" unwanted literature. Books that are outdated, damaged, and worthless are going to be just as useless abroad. Make sure that the information is going to be useful to the schools or people receiving them and that the information is in a language that they can read and understand. Finally, the materials must be culturally appropriate for the audience that is going to receive them.” (ALA, 2006) and suggests that an alternate plan for books that are not appropriate to send overseas is to have a books sale and donate the proceeds to a program that helps with this process.
Now to find an appropriate program to support with these funds! I feel that CoEd has developed numerous opportunities to share information and research skills with less developed countries. The program that interests me most is Computer Centers, which is part of the Guatamala Literacy Project sponsored by Rotary partners. Rural students are able to learn skills which will be useful in finding jobs outside the declining agricultural-based industry. The program creates many opportunities for the communities it connects with and is a sustainable resource. Most importantly, this program provides literacy skills in the first language of the student! CoEd states that, “A 2015 internal study of program graduates from a sample of 22 Computer Centers showed that 95% of students go on to find employment or further their education.” (CoEd, 2017) North American Rotary clubs can help to make this connection, and many of our BC communities already have a local chapter.
Within our learning commons: 
Personal devices are welcomed for staff use, and guest internet is available in our school. We have a bell to bell policy regarding personal electronics in our school, however the grade seven classroom teachers have begun to allow usage during personal work time as many students prefer to listen to their own music while silent reading or focussing on their individual assignments. Just recently, students have been allowed to use personal devices for simple Google searches or dictionary or thesaurus access. I believe that this is a practice that requires a lot of trust between teacher and student, requiring the setting of virtual boundaries for accessing school appropriate music and websites.
 Our school is currently expanding our collection of iPads which can be considered mobile and useful for projects enhanced by video aspects. Students enjoy the ability to take this device and find a comfortable area for collaborative learning or personal study. A class set of iPads is ‘ready to roll’ on a mobile cart for whole class activities. Many teachers have recently been using the iPads for coding activities.
Personal devices can be used in learning commons to access the local resource search engines like Destiny, as well as a personal search for a resource they wish to request at a learning commons. Use of wifi in a local learning commons may help students who do not have home access to search websites for class projects or assignments, or make connections with collaborative partners.
In contrast to my interest in Computer Centers, I have some concerns about the content that is being accessed on the internet in developing countries. Abdulkafi Albirini has claimed in the article, “The Internet in developing countries: a medium of economic, cultural and political domination,” that access to internet has not had the most positive impact on its developing world users. The article states that the “shift to an information-based economy has necessitated new information-based domains and new markets. This explains the intense competition among major technology industries to extend their control over universities, schools, libraries and other public spheres. The ensuing information revolution has generated a dynamic economic sector, incorporating web-based companies, virtual universities, cyber-stores, and so on… Given its predominantly Western design and content, the Internet facilitates the proliferation of Western cultural patterns at the expense of the social experiences of the local cultures.”

Jaron Lanier in his April 2018 Ted Talk warns that we have made an error in the development of the internet using advertising as a source of revenue to make the information provided therein ‘free’. As a direct result, he feels that we have now created ‘behavior modification empires’ from our intended community networks. His dream is to have an internet where two people can communicate without having a third entity manipulate them (ie Google, Facebook). (Lanier, 2018).  Just image how deeply our western cultures are invested in these two entities and how easily we have fallen into this behaviour modification; how we must instruct our students on how to find the right type of sources for their research. Putting this unwieldy power into the hands of people who are unprepared to filter the information is frightening at best.
As developed world leaders, I feel that we must be cognizant that while we are supporting the access to computers and internet, we should also be prepared to assist the receiving cultural group in the development of databases and information which is culturally and historically correct and in their first language.

RESOURCES CITED:

• "International Donation and Shipment of Books", American Library Association, October 30, 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/iro/iroactivities/intlbookdonations (Accessed June 16, 2018) Document ID: 0e25ae5c-3d0e-9e64-15fa-04f346852636
• “Computer Centers: Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Guatamala”, Cooperative for Education, 1999-2017. Retrieved from: https://coeduc.org/programs/computers.html 
• Albirini, A. The Internet in developing countries: a medium of economic, cultural and political domination. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2008, Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 49-65.
• Lanier, J. (2018, April). Jaron Lanier: How we need to remake the internet [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/jaron_lanier_how_we_need_to_remake_the_internet#t-652124