Not All Who Wander Are Lost

My New Job

For the last five years I've been a Media Specialist here at NMH, running a media center, teaching classes (first in Video Production and Theater, later in Media Literacy, Mass Media Messages, and Web Design), and working with faculty in and out of their classrooms to help them think about best practice pedagogy in the context of digital tools and technologies -- in addition, of course, to all the usual dorm residency and advising responsibilities commensurate with prep school teaching at its finest and most exhausting.

Next year, things are going to be different. I still get to teach my favorite courses -- media literacy, mass media messages, and an advanced web designer's workshop -- in the afternoons, but as seminars with no homework to grade; more importantly, my mandate has become much higher-end, my expected audience has broadened to include the entire curriculum, and I will actually be expected to produce the kinds of position papers and case studies that I love to write and publish but haven't had time for in a year or two. Check out the job description I was handed today, note that information literacy is interpreted broadly here at NMH to be inclusive of media literacy, epistemology, semiotics, and other constructivist approaches that make explicit the nature of knowledge-sharing and knowledge-creation in a variety of settings and with a variety of tools, and then congratulate me, because this is my dream job, and I seem to have earned it without even realizing it.

Northfield Mount Hermon School
Position Description:

Information Literacy/Academic Technology Coordinator

The coordinator works closely with the Directors of Academic Resources and Information Technology to help teachers integrate principles of information literacy and best technology practices into their classroom activity planning. This work involves a combination of faculty development, training, curriculum planning, assessment, teaching, and departmental planning.

Responsibilities
1. Assist teachers to develop lesson plans that achieve curricular goals associated with information literacy.
2. Work with instructional librarians to develop instructional modules that achieve curricualr goals associated with information literacy.
3. Assist teachers and administration using educational technology resources and media resources.
4. Assist the directors of academic resources and information technology to set goals and to allocate information and electronic resources to teachers and facilities.
5. Be present in assigned media and library facilities on a regular basis to assist with effective use of those facilities and create connections that promote the integration of information literacy into the school's curriculum. A portion of this work will be on evenings and weekends.
6. Assess the effectiveness of teachers' classroom activities that incorporate information literacy components or educational technology.
7. Serve as a member of the educational technology group.
8. Teach minor courses in relevant topics as needed.
9. Assist librarians in collection development.
10. Perform house and advising duties as assigned.
11. Report progress towards information literacy and technology integration goals regularly.
12. Other tasks as assigned by supervisor.