If the students and the teachers are both empowered, both meeting their full potential, of course it will save money. Simply providing more support to teachers will save tons of money. David mentions teacher turnover due to their isolation. Remove the isolation, provide support and maybe the average career of teachers will be longer than five years. Just think of how much money school districts will save on new teacher training.

I like the idea of the learning commons as a center for all school-wide initiatives, especially fundraisers. I recently learned about Barnes and Noble book fairs at night, which can be a big event, possibly incorporating the school band or choir (thanks to Valerie Diggs for the idea). Also, something like a coffee house can help make the learning commons the "hub." Also, I think that addressing staffing needs is vital, which is addressed in chapter 7, "multiple professionals, support personnel, and volunteers vs. single adult consultant" pushes us toward opportunity (p. 65).

On-Demand Technology Assistance (pg 67) sounds like a dream come true. What a concept! Using the expertise of some to help others struggling with technology is brilliant. How many times do questions arise that have simple solutions that get caught up in work orders and frustration. Or, more complex problems that could be solved by someone who is fluent in another area of expertise. The effectiveness of this idea must be far-reaching and ecomomically sound and great modeling for student future reference. I was also impressed with the idea of a help center site that users can transfer to their own information space. We all know of times where questions go unanswered because someone has difficulty approaching the "professional" or doesn't want to bother anyone. This idea presents itself as more of a shared experience as the questioner might also have solutions for another.

Many of the building blocks for creating a learning commons appeal to me. Particularly, I like that the often forgotten and neglected are included: the first year teacher would have a “home” to go to for support, and the typical and even slacker (I think Loertscher also says “hacker!) students should be included on the Leadership Teams. Reading Chapter 7 got me to wondering, though: Can the Learning Commons be slowly built over time, or must it be all at once or nothing? It seems that so many of the LC’s goals can be achieved even before there is systemic or financial support.

On page 65, Dr. Loertscher discusses the discrepancy between the supposed academic freedom a teacher has and the school’s need for the teacher to adhere to “minimal level of achievement” for the students. I wonder that giving teachers full academic freedom truly limits student achievement as opposed to requiring teachers to follow a strict curriculum that is taught in a certain way. These new-fangled ideas of having students build their own learning commons could very well apply to teachers as well.
When I taught for Anchorage School District, I had almost nothing to work with and no guidance. My principal told me to make sure I covered a few key concepts with my Social Studies class, and that was the only requirement he had of me. For all he knew, I could have been teaching math the rest of the year. I worked my butt off to give my students the education I thought they should have. I researched like crazy and borrowed from my old college textbooks to create a curriculum. I constantly adjusted my lesson plans as I got “better ideas.” On the other hand, I currently work for a school that is very controlling of its academic program. After some lost battles with my principal over what I wanted to include in my curriculum, I kick back and relax. I definitely don’t spend the time I used to to bring my students a better education. Making sure my students receive a minimal level of achievement has made my life and career much simpler. On the other hand, I am bored and frustrated and, like many other fifth year teachers, looking for a career change.

One thing I liked about this chapter is that it was specific in what a learning commons might look like. Teacher-librarians are blessed with a job that we can take initiative and create projects, programs, and activities that we build or help build. But this can be daunting...coming from teaching English with a state-adopted textbook, rubrics, timeline...it was an adjustment. Although our library media center has many elements that are "fixed" , this chapter gave me some different ideas as to how to arrange fixed space for client-learners.

I don't know if choosing betwen Macs and PCs is as important as learning internet skills. When kids have jobs they'll hopefully be able to buy what they want - until then let's teach them to use computers in general and just trust that they'll figure out how to use both types eventually.

My school district in Orange County has all Macs because years ago Macs were donated. My library system is a PC which I prefer, but I have to shift from Macs (helping the students) to a PC throughout the day. Many people I know love their Macs but I still prefer PCs. I also purchase equipment and supplies for my school and Apple's exclusivity and incompatability with other systems really bothers me.

The initial cost of "converting" the library to a learning commons may be high, but the long term benefits, such as a center that evolves with the times, will be worth it. I do not have library budget experience, but I am willing to bet that the long term costs will be lower than with an old fashioned setup. I can see where it may be tempting to go with the offers for help with "strings attached"-- especially if one works in a reluctant school district-- but it is important for the school to be an advertisement free zone. This reminds me of my own school experience when Apple provided computers to schools in the S.F. Bay Area. While they did not overtly advertise the product, they pretty much insured a lot of students going into college as Mac users. Although the free computer ride is over, are schools inadvertently doing this themselves by choosing to go with one platform over the other today? I wonder if many schools give even choice between Mac and PC for student use. The schools I have worked in have been solely PC. Are there other areas where schools do not give students a chance to develop their own preference for materials?

I agree completely about vendor monopolies. Thank you so much for mentioning this. I was absolutely amazed at the onslaught of materials from companies and the insistence of the vendor that I just follow along with my predecssors who bought materials that were never used by the student body. I've been a teacher for close to twenty years but I could never presume to know everything students need without consulting them first.

The easy part of building a learning commons is adding all the bell and whistles' the links and ooohs. The largest challenge is opening up the process to collaboration and devoting the time and thought necessary to create something of value in which students have ownership. The level of communication (especially at a site with over 4300 students) is extremely daunting and I know that we can't just do it in a year and sit back and relax.

I really liked the evolving notion of what a collection is in the Learning Commons. There are some time-honored policies and approaches to collections that have to be rethought in this model. What are the criteria by which we select?

I was very happy to see the mention of resisting commercial vendor monopolies on p. 63. The powerful tools that some companies offer for selecting materials are amazing - and yet at times I think that convenience gets in the way not only of financial responsibility but also of making well-informed selection decisions that may be off the beaten path or outside the (dialog) box. This evolving notion of what the collection is and what it is for (and who gets to decide those things) will hopefully counteract some of these issues.

At the school where I work at we are very slowly trying to shift toward the client side structure but we still have a long way to go. There are several teachers who have their own web page and who encourage students to use it. Also there is one teacher in particular who has been using a wiki for the past three years and who is sharing her ideas with the staff and describing her success. Unfortunately we still have a long way to go because our two technology teachers seem to be overwhelmed with the amount of work which they have. We are starting slowly by trying to update the school website but it is an uphill battle because in the last three years we have had a very high turnaround rate for teachers. Althought we have a long way to go I believe in the near future we can try to structure the school toward the client (which will be our students).