Themes, trends, interests.

My attention has been pulled in multiple directions lately.  I have managed to get two of my five abstracts written (although the 2nd one clearly needs some revision--apparently when you don't clearly understand all of an article your abstract won't make a lot of sense--shocking, that).  I've been doing a lot of reading on tween Internet use for my resources for tweens class, and some of that is kind-of-sort-of related here.  I've also been thinking about the direction I want to take in my research methods course and where I want to focus.

Here are some thoughts:

• Integrating technology (and web 2.0 tools) in curriculum as a teacher librarian/serving as a site technology leader, etc.  Basically, anything focused on teacher librarians and technology in a way that enhances teaching and learning.
• The teacher librarian as a teacher leader.  This would allow me to incorporate things like technology but also focus on more traditional information seeking skills and processes, building common terminology across the curriculum, etc.
• Teacher Librarian "best practices."  This is kind of a cop-out focus area since it really just lets me choose anything I am interested in regarding teacher librarianship.  OR it could serve as a useful tool and force me to identify specific areas of teacher librarianship (probably pulled from the state standards) and investigate each of them.  And it would include things previously mentioned.  Is it too broad?

On a related topic, but not really an area I could use for my course, is the need for peer-reviewed research papers focused on middle school and elementary students and information seeking, technology use, etc.  A lot of what I found when looking for information for my tweens class was just something written by a teacher based on anecdotal information or what works for them.  When I tried to find peer-reviewed articles on what tweens are doing online, etc., there weren't many.  And very rarely did these less formal articles list their sources.  Why do teachers (specifically) do this?  Do doctors publish non-peer-reviewed "I did this with my patient and it worked, you should try it" type of articles?  I highly doubt it.