ILEAD USA Maine Instructor Information

ILEAD instructors are essential to the success of the ILEAD program. Each brings his or her expertise to the program, sharing their knowledge with the ILEAD teams and empowering them to achieve their goals. By participating, instructors get to take an active role in this exciting program, meeting with many awesome librarians throughout the state and fostering their own personal and professional development in doing so. It’s also a great opportunity to step into a new experience, something far removed from a normal day-to-day activity.

What is the instructor’s role?

  • Work as a part of the instructor corps to refine curriculum by identifying relevant curricula and weaving these pieces together to present a strong foundation for the ILEAD teams
  • Present course content at in-person sessions and the virtual meetings
  • Contribute and share course materials.  All sessions are recorded and archived so materials used must be free of copyright..
  • Require participants to periodically query their community representative, asking these users for opinions, assessments and to experiment with technology.
  • Be open to dialog with participants
  • Focus on learning skills rather than specific tools.
  • Participate in Steering Committee meetings
  • Contribute in the evaluation

What skills are needed?

We are looking for instructors to help librarians implement web technologies that foster community participation as well as inspire leadership, innovation and positive change. 

Examples of participatory technology tools include:
Blogging tools Social bookmarking
Digital audio/podcasting Social networking
Digital photography Tagging
Digital video Videoconferencing
Gaming Virtual reference
Instant messaging Virtual worlds
Photo sharing sites Web conferencing
RSS Wikis

What are the Learning Objectives?

Desired outcomes/expected results: 

  • ILEADers will be proactive about using participatory technology tools to address community needs;
  • ILEADers will learn how to evaluate new technology and match user needs to the appropriate tools;
  • ILEADers will learn how to implement needs assessments, manage projects, and assert leadership skills
  • ILEADers will mentor others in the profession on skills learned in Project ILEAD U
  • the library staff and end users will engage in conversations, services and programs in innovative ways
  • library users will be better positioned to direct and optimize their library experience
  • ILEADers will have at least one community member to be a conduit for feedback
  • ILEADers will network with other library staff to foster future collaboration and sustainability.

Learning outcomes include a strong knowledge of:

  • terms associated with participatory technology as well as the tools
  • obstacles associated with implementation
  • strategies for overcoming obstacles and explaining issues to administration
  • components of a basic community survey
  • creation, analysis, and follow-up of a survey in order to design an appropriate project to benefit the community
  • components of project design, coordination, and implementation
  • successful/unsuccessful models of library adoption
  • methods to improve implementation/adoption
  • teaching skills vis-à-vis technology tools
  • ability to put evaluative plans in place
  • ability to form a plan to disseminate information about the team product
  • how to keep a project up to date 
  • when to adapt a project
  • when to discontinue a project

If you have appropriate expertise to the outcomes/expected results listed and are willing and able to teach and lead others, please fill out the application to be involved as an instructor in this exciting project.