The AASL standards provide a framework for student learning, school librarians, and school libraries. These standards are organized into six shared foundations: Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage. Within each shared foundation are four domains: Think, Create, Share, and Grow. The ISTE standards outline competencies for learning, teaching, and leading in the digital age. These standards can be used as a guide to help educators use technology for student learning. While the AASL standards focus on information literacy and the ISTE standards focus on digital literacy, they are similar in many ways. Both provide standards for collaboration, digital citizenship, and creative creation. For example, the AASL standards III.B.1 and III.B.2 are very similar to the ISTE standards 1c, 6a, and 7b for students (see graphic below). Both sets of standards require students to use various tools to connect to and communicate with other learners.
In the article, Now Serving…an Appealing Menu of Digital Literacy Tools and Resources, Mary Lou Caron O’Connor outlines how she incorporates digital literacy tools into her library lessons. This article presents an excellent example of how the AASL and ISTE standards can be used in the school library. O’Connor creates “menus” with various digital tools. During her library lessons, students select which tools or resources they used for the activity. In one example, the students had to research their favorite book and the author and then use digital creation tools to share their information with the class. For this lesson, they demonstrated their research skills using databases such as EBSCO and PebbleGo. The students created presentations using digital tools and collaborated with each other when sharing and providing feedback to one another. When AASL and ISTE standards are used together it can create dynamic library lessons that lead to digital and information literate students.
Citations:
Caron O’Connor, M. L. (2019). now serving AN APPEALING MENU OF DIGITAL LITERACY TOOLS & RESOURCES. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 16–21.
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National School Library Standards crosswalk with ISTE Standards for Students and Educators. Retrieved from American Association of School Librarians: https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf
