Praise the Lord - I have passed my ETL501 assignment!!!

It was worth 70% of my final grade, and earlier in the semester I failed the assignment that was worth 30%, so I really, really, really needed to pass it!

Hooray! Lecturer says it was a big improvement on my first assignment, but that I still have the tendency to stray off task...

Now I can get onto final preparations for the music recital I am holding this afternoon. There are twelve items, including both vocal and instrumental performances; solos, duets, and even a mini choir! The youngest performer is my niece Darcy, the oldest are two guitar-playing Dads that are getting in on the act. I am encouraging a family-friendly, fun and relaxed celebration of music. (And we are all going out for dinner - table for 27! - afterwards.)

Will post tomorrow to let you know how it all went.

Doing the Happy Dance!

Hooray! I have submitted my ETL501 pathfinder-and-critical-analysis assignment.

Now I have to get my head back into ETL504 to finish off my Portfolio (sounds fancy, but it's really just a multi-part assignment).

While flicking through yesterday's (Sunday) paper over lunch, I was reading my favourite column, Sarah Wilson's This Week I... in which she describes her ongoing experimental journey, trying anything and everything to make life more meaningful, happier, sweeter. I really enjoy her column, because I too want to make my life more meaningful, happier and sweeter. And a lot of the things that she tries are things that I might like to try too.

Anyway, for a while now I've been wishing that she blogged, because I think her blog would be one I'd like to read, and voila! Follow this link to check it out.

It's nice when something that you wish for happens!

As for ETL504, I'm getting my head around development in leadership theory, and how they might relate to the role of the teacher librarian. There's plenty to get my teeth stuck into!

The Collaborative Role of the Teacher Librarian in the Provision of Information Services

Whew! What a mouthful. Topic 7 of ETL501 concerns the importance of aligning information services to information needs, using collaboration with teachers to accurately identify these needs. We are focusing mainly on the provision by teacher librarians of mediated and annotated information resources in print and electronic form to teachers and students. Now that schools have websites and intranets, and often school libraries have their own websites, or at least a page or two on the school website and/or intranet, teacher librarians have the perfect platform on which to present information resources.

This can be achieved in a few different ways.

1. Lists of resources/Dewey numbers can be provided for particular topics.
2. Online reference sources (databases, encyclopaedies, dictionaries...) can be gathered on one page for easy access.
3. Lists of links to web sites can be provided for particular topics.
4. Pathfinders can be written for topics, combining lists of print resources with links to online reference sources and web sites.
5. Webquests can be written for topics, which take the student on an interactive adventure in which a particular task (the quest) is undertaken.

For the purposes of this subject, we are concentrating on Pathfinders, and have to write one for a topic of our choice as our next assignment.

There are plenty of example pathfinders and webquests (which contain a similar combination of resources) already on the net, as well as websites designed to provide teachers and students with lists of resources by topic. Why re-invent the wheel, when you can get great ideas and links from others? It's just a matter of finding them...I'm now a fairly experienced internet searcher; I know to try different search (or meta-search) engines, use Boolean logic, quotation marks and the like! So I'm finding that I can lose hours and hours hopping from site to site checking out possible resources for my pathfinder. There's so much out there, and you can only really evaluate any resource's usefulness by looking at it. As well as electronic resources, I must include print ones too. I have been trawling through library catalogues and bookstore websites, but often the sort abstract or review provided is just not enough to help me to decide whether or not to list the resource. So I've also been visiting libraries and bookstores in person. Very time-consuming.

A little voice inside me is wondering whether I'm supposed to be so thorough? Is everyone taking pains to make sure that the books and websites that they list are helpful and relevant? At first glance the obvious answer is YES, but I'm not so sure...let me explain...

Topic I have chosen is from the Stage 4 (Years 7 & 8) Science Syllabus, and concerns the water cycle etc. Now I am not a science teacher. We can expect that not a lot of teacher librarians are science teachers. But in completing this assignment, I am educating myself on the water cycle enough that I can make an educated assessment of the value of resources. I need to know what must be covered in order to know whether or not the resource covers it. Now is everyone going to such pains? (Or have they chosen topics that they already know like the back of their hands? Or are they just assuming that their general knowledge is enough?)

I think that this issue raises a very important point about the necessity for collaboration between teachers and teacher librarians. Unless they work together, the results will not be satisfactory. Heaven help the teacher librarian that is creating a pathfinder for Stage 6 (Years 11 & 12) physics students on wave mechanics! They will certainly not have enough time in their day to educate themselves to the point where they can adequately select resources. The teacher's input will be vital.

The problem for me, in terms of this assignment, is that I don't have a science teacher to collaborate with! I think this highlights a bigger problem - that I'm trying to learn how to be a teacher librarian without being in a school (or a library). Challenging! I think it's why I tend to do better with my more theoretical assignments rather than the practical ones. (Either that, or I'm just a bit strange, and prefer thinking about things to actually doing them!)

So, if the teacher is a vital component to the making of a topic specific pathfinder, what does the teacher librarian bring to the table? Firstly, the librarian can make sure that information literacy skills are integrated into the pathfinder. Secondly, the librarian can coordinate pathfinders from all the different subjects and stages in the school, making sure that they have a consistent format, and are easily accessible to students. Thirdly, they can make sure that they regularly check pathfinders for dead links, and update the lists of electronic and print resources as needed.

Avoiding work with...more work.

Needing a break from my ETL504 assignment, I've started working on my second ETL501 assignment. Yes, I am a bit weird!

For ETL501 I have to create an electronic pathfinder - "a tool used by teacher librarians to create an annotated list of relevant, mediated resources for a specified group of students on a curriculum related topic". I also need to write a critical reflection of the process of creating the pathfinder. So prepare to hear a lot about how I'm going with my pathfinder!

What have I done so far? My first step was to choose a curriculum related topic. My background is as a mathematics teacher, so for my earlier assignment I evaluated mathematics websites related to graphing. For the record, I believe that maths teachers rely far to heavily on the old "chalk and talk" and the good old textbook. Far fewer people would say "I'm no good at maths" or "I hate maths" if we broadened the range of resources and teaching and learning activities for maths. But for this assignment I'd like to try working with a different subject area.

I've been looking at the Science syllabus for Stages 4 and 5 (Years 7 - 10). I'd like to try something related to either 4.9.3 the structure of the Earth, 4.9.4 the atmosphere, 4.9.5 the hydrosphere, or 4.9.6 the lithosphere. It sounds interesting to me, and I can see the potential for relating the content to current environmental issues. I did a quick search using the keyword "earth science" on the NSW State Library online catalogue, and there seem to be plenty of print resources with potential. I've also found Geology.com , which seems like a good place to start in terms of electronic resources. So I'm on my way!

Secondly, I had to decide on a platform to use to create my pathfinder. I've started something on pbworks, but don't get too excited. So far all it has is a heading. My pathfinder will be a wiki - perfect for a teacher librarian wanting to work collaboratively with teachers.

So that's as far as I've gotten so far, and if you know of any fabulous resources relating to earth sciences, then let me know!

School Library Websites

Topic 6 of ETL501 is concerned with the provision of information services to the school community through the school library website. There are many benefits to developing a school library website. In short:

• A school library website provides access to the catalogue and online reference sources from anywhere within the school and from outside the school.
• A website provides a venue for improved communication between the library and the school community.
• A website provides an opportunity for easy access to a variety of learning tools including pathfinders and scaffolds.
• A website can act as a virtual filing cabinet for teaching and learning materials and can be used to showcase student work.

Silvennoinen, A. (2005). Virtual St Mary's: A journey to cyberspace. Access 19(3), 19-22.

Silvennoinen says that the greatest benefit of having a school library website is that it is a library without walls or constraints, extending the use of the library to 24 hours a day every day of the year. She also notes the encouragement of computer and information literacy skills, and the appeal to the modern technology-oriented teenager. And the fact that the website is a great marketing tool for the library's services!

A WebQuest About School Library Websites by Joyce Valenza is a fabulous resource for evaluating school library websites, or to use when designing your own. It is extremely thorough, considering both content and design aspects of the website. I won't even try to summarise it here - you just have to go and see it for yourself!

Best practices in school library website design by David Walbert also provides some very good practical help for librarians venturing into website design. He recommends focusing on what your clients need, and how to best serve them, while keeping the actual website uncomplicated. According to Walbert, accessibility is number one, and every effort should be made to ensure maximum accessibility by using images sparingly, always providing alternate (text) content, and making sure that the font and font size are readable. He also recommends making sure that your website functions as expected, and that navigation is clearly labelled so that it is clear which links are internal and which are external to the library website. Keeping design and navigation consistent across all web pages also helps avoid confusion. Considering the intended audience of the website is also important. All in all, content is king, design should be clean and simple, and everything should be ORGANISED!

Walbert recommends using a blog for your school library website! The blog and hosting are free, the design is already done for you, and site navigation and contents are created automatically for you. You can post and edit content, and there are plenty of opportunities for customising and creating labels etc. Keeping a blog also helps you to learn some basic HTML, which you could use later to build your own website.

I must say, reading all this has caused me to think about my blog as a website, and to consider whether or not it is effectively doing what I want it to do.

Even more on Information Services

Continuing on with ETL501 Topic 5, what are the key information services that teacher librarian's should prioritise? SLASA and Learning for the Future make some suggestions, from which I have chosen:

1. Select resources to meet the information needs of the staff and students.
2. Ensure the maximum use and access of resources.
3. Make the library a multi-functional environment which is a focal point for learning.
4. Instruct students in information tools and processes.

What are the information needs of the students and staff? One way of finding our more about the students is to profile the local community. Another issue is special needs. For example, some students need Learning Support ESL (English as a Second Language). These students may need resources for extra literacy support and/or opportunities to read in their first language. Their teachers may need resources to support teaching of these students.

As well as providing information services, teacher librarians must also provide information literacy support. Students need instant reminders at the point of need (in the library), to help them to find and use information effectively. The school library should display labels and signs that facilitate ease of information retrieval. Posters can remind students of key steps in information skills processes. The school intranet home page or library webpage should have reminders about internet search techniques and the evaluation of the reliability of internet sources. When students approach the librarian with a reference question, they could be given a handout with a few quick questions to answer to help them to focus on the exact information that they need.

The Massachusetts School Library Media Association provides Model School Rubrics, available at http://www.mslma.org/whoweare/rubric.pdf . The only problem with meeting the "Exemplary" standard for school libraries is having the staffing and finance to manage it! Having the school library open before and after school, having sufficient space and appropriate furniture, up to date technology, an excellent collection, and allowing students to use the library as often as needed all sounds great! But can the budget and staff manage it?

I've finally come to the end of Topic 5! Whew!

More about Information Services

CMIS, part of the Western Australian Department of Education, provides set of guidelines and indicators for the evaluation of school library services at http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/library/domains/index.htm

These indicators cover "Learners and Learning", "Teachers and Teaching" and "Providing Access to Information". They include such guidelines as "School-wide programs address the skills of information literacy through resource-based inquiry learning", "Teachers are provided with reference and inquiry services to support the curriculum" and "The retrieval of information is facilitated by clear and and inviting labeling and signposting".

Firstly, I think it's great to have these indicators in black and white. It makes sense to have a document which clearly outlines the standards to which the library aspires, and it is wonderful to have something to point colleagues and leadership within the school to, in case they're not sure about the full extent of the library's services.

However, I can imagine some barriers that would prevent teacher librarians from undertaking an evaluation of their services using this document. School libraries are often under-staffed and under-financed. It may be difficult to spare the time and resources needed to evaluate comprehensively. But an even more difficult situation is when the teacher librarian finds her or himself in a school in which their role is undervalued or not supported. The school leadership may have a hard time accepting the validity of some of the indicators, and may not support any attempt by the teacher librarian to expand their services in line with these guidelines.

For example, "Time is allocated within the timetable for teachers to work cooperatively with the teacher librarian in the development of resource-based units of work". Some principals may find this hard to swallow, and may wonder how they are expected to find this time to allocate. They may therefore not be very open to hearing the results of an evaluation which point out this problem.

The next issue that ETL501 Topic 5 addresses is "the reference interview". It sounds very special, but basically just means the process by which the librarian gets as much information as possible about what help the client needs. What do they want to know? What depth of information do they need? Do they need instruction or guidance in information searching techniques? Even if the tools change (think digital reference desks), communication between the client and the librarian is essential to a successful outcome.

The concept of a school or public library is a wonderful thing. A freely available resource, with access to information and professional help for all! I think the communication between client and librarian has been successful when: the client feels happy that they have been heard, the librarian feels happy that they have "enough to go on", and the client ends up learning something (either about the question itself, or about searching for the answers).

Do school libraries have the budget and staff to provide satisfactory reference services to their clients? Suppose the school library decided to provide a digital reference service. Would it be feasible? Would students use it?

There's more to this topic, but I'm going to stop here for now. (This is a big topic!)

Some reflections on information services and group work assignments.

I have been working through Topic 5 of ETL501 Information Services to Staff and Students. There hasn't been much action on the forum yet, but I want to put my thoughts down 'on paper' before they fall out of my head!

In the introduction of the topic was a very depressing statement: "But TLs know that the demand for their services can never be met, particularly in a school where the TL is the only information professional available and this can lead to frustration." You think???

I'm not sure if I want to do a job that is impossible! A job where it is impossible to succeed, if you want to measure success as providing the service that you are employed to provide. I don't think my personality is very well suited to doing a job where I can never meet demand. I know in my heart that I would be in danger of working harder and harder thinking that somehow, if I just worked hard enough, I'd be able to do it.

The first question that I am asked to consider is to list three key factors which a teacher librarian needs to take into account before offering information services.

1. What does the school hope/expect to get from the library? What services will fit with the school's agenda?

2. What resources do you have to play with (including time, staff and money)?

3. Are there any special considerations in terms of the particular school context that need to be taken into account?

The next question is in regard to a particular service that the teacher librarian might provide - pathfinders. These are lists of resources for particular topics, a bit like annotated bibliographies. Valenza, at http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com/Ten+reasons+why+your+next+pathfinder+should+be+a+wiki

discusses why she thinks wikis are the way to go. I can sum up her argument for you: Because wikis can be edited. They are flexible ("splendidly organic") and can be collaborative ("Imagine all the people, building pathfinders together. You may say I'm a dreamer...").

Another service that the librarian might provide is "selective disseminated information" or "current awareness". This is the process by which the librarian keeps on top of all new literature and developments in education, and circulates relevant information to teachers. It's starting to be very clear why the teacher librarian is so frustrated - one teeny tiny part of their job involves staying abreast of all new literature and developments in education, for the benefit of their colleagues.

I'll save the rest of Topic 5 for another day...

So - how's my group work assignment going - I hear you wondering! Good. It's finally coming together, and not a moment too soon, as it's due on Monday! We have all, separately and collectively, worked hard and made good contributions. Now we just have to pull it all together to be ready for submission.

My group members have been easy to work with - no complaints there. I've started doing some reading on factors that make for successful teamwork and collaboration, in preparation for the second part of the assignment. (I know - as if it wasn't enough to produce a powerpoint presentation on a proposed professional article, we also have to write an annotated bibliography with at least eight references that heavily influenced our presentation, and rate our performance as a communicator, collaborator and team member using authentic criteria that we have written after considering the professional literature!) Something that keeps coming up is the fact that the task needs to be well designed, and there must be support and leadership shown by the instructor who has set the task. Interesting...

I don't think our task was well defined, and the goal posts seemed to keep moving day by day as new emails were sent out by the lecturers giving new requirements. Suddenly there were specific word limits and font sizes for slides, could we site six references or more?, did we have to say which journal we were writing for or not?, what exactly constitutes a professional reference?, and by the way - you have to submit a log of your collaboration efforts with the assignment. Totally exhausting! There doesn't seem to be a section in the assignment for evaluating the perfomance of the teaching staff though, what a pity!

1. Tai chi for dummies

I went to my regular tai chi class today, and managed to drag along a friend to watch (I'm trying to convince her to join). I think it would be great for her because she has health issues and also tends to let stress get the better of her. Listen to me! I've been letting stress get the better of me this week, when I should have been practising my tai chi. Sometimes I'm a bit of a slow learner!

Tai chi reminds me to breathe deeply, to stand or sit comfortably with my weight balanced evenly, and to relax my shoulders. It reminds me of my connection to the universe, and the energy that is pulsing through everything. It reminds me to be mindful of what I am doing right now. When I get stressed, I tend to be "too busy" to practise. This is, of course, when I really need to practise most!

2. All about information services

Topic 5 of ETL501 is called "Information services to staff and students", one of the core activities of the teacher librarian. Some issues I will be grappling with include the key factors that the TL must consider before offering an information service, the use of pathfinders, how to evaluate the effectivenss of the information services that you provide, how to conduct a reference interview, likely problems if offering a digital reference service, the key areas of information services and their order of importance, particular or special needs, and providing students with help regarding information literacy skills.

Whew! I received a lovely compliment from my friend Kathryn the other day. She said I seemed to be "interrogating the topics with passion" and "engaging with the issues". Awesome! I have my reading material ready to get stuck into it.

3. TrueBlood vs the books

I have been participating in the Sookie Stackhouse reading challenge (go to Beth Fish Reads and click on the Sookie tab at the top of the page for more info). At the moment I'm about half way through book four, Dead to the World, which is just as much fun as the first three were!

What's not to love? A lovable heroine, more than enough choice in love interests, action, the supernatural... These books don't take themselves too seriously. They don't pretend to be anything more than a bit of fun!

The TrueBlood series, in contrast, seems darker and more serious. To me, it has a completely different tone. Some of this is because the series doesn't have the first person narrative like the books. We don't see everything from Sookie's quirky point of view. But some of it, I think, is because the TV producers thought they'd make more money from something seriously scary and seriously sexy, so moved away from the tongue-in-cheek style of author Charlaine Harris.

But what do I know? This is my opinion, I'd love to hear yours...

Yippee!

This little lamb is jumping for joy because I've finished writing my first assignment for the semester. I've finished writing it, but I haven't submitted it yet because I still need to make sure I'm happy with it. I've gone a little left of centre with it, I'm either a genius or heading for a very disappointing mark, I'm not sure which.

The assignment required me to critically evaluate two sets of website evaluation criteria. The problem I had was that there was so much similarity between different sets of criteria. Unless I purposely chose a really hopeless set of criteria so that I had a lot of things to criticise, I found I was saying pretty much the same thing about both sets of criteria. Very boring. Now you may be thinking that there's nothing wrong with an academic paper being boring! But by boring, I mean repetitive, and not really allowing me to demonstrate much critical thinking.

So what did I do? I found an interesting article in my pile of academic reading that described a different approach to evaluating websites. Instead of using a checklist of criteria, this method evaluates the website by observing use of it in practice. So I wrote about one 'regular' set of criteria, and also this other approach.

So what will the marker think about this turn of events? Maybe something like, "Wow, this student is exceptional! She has gone 'above and beyond' when thinking about this subject!". Or maybe something like, "Oh dear, this student has let herself down by straying from the expectations." I'm voting for number one!

The second part of the assignment required me to actually undertake an evaluation of four websites, two using my first criteria and two using my second. So that part won't be quite what they're expecting either. Part of me is happy with what I've written, and happy to stand out from the crowd. The other part is thinking, 'Oh no, what have I done???".

I'll keep you posted....

Must.Write.My.Assignment.

My ETL501 Assignment is due on Monday 7th September. Less than two weeks away. I must

1. Critically evaluate 2 sets of website evaluation criteria.
2. Critically evaluate 4 websites in relation to a specified topic.

Topic 4 (of ETL501) is titled Critical Evaluation of Print and Electronic Resources, and it's where most of the information needed for the assignment is.

Herring (my lecturer, and author of our text the internet and information skills: a guide for teachers and school librarians) suggests that when evaluating websites, we need to consider

• technical criteria (does it work?)
• reliability criteria (can we trust it?)
• educational criteria (is it suitable for our purpose and audience?)

In The ABC's of Website Evaluation, Kathy Schrock (guru of website evaluation) discusses many aspects of the website that should be assessed, including:

authority, bias, citations, dates, efficiency, fallacy, graphics, information availability, links, navigability, ...

The difficulty is that both these authoritative sources of information about website evaluation are written in prose form, albeit with dot points included. When comparing other sets of website evaluation criteria with these sources, we must read and consider carefully, as there is no quick checklist to consult.

In fact, the whole first part of the assignment can become a bit of a circular argument: we have a set of criteria for website evaluation that we are evaluating, and what criteria are we using for our evaluation, and have we evaluated the criteria that we are using to evaluate the criteria...

There are lots and lots of sets of website evaluation criteria out there. Finding a couple of sets to evaluate is not a problem. Making sure that my evaluation is clear and concise is the issue.

For the second part of the assignment, I am going to consider a topic from the Stage 5 (Years 9 and 10) Mathematics syllabus (NSW). Mathematics!!! (I hear you gasp!) Yes, folks, maths. I am a maths teacher, and the section of the course that I'm thinking about is PAS5.3.4 'Draws and interprets a variety of graphs including parabolas, cubics, exponentials and circles and applies coordinate geometry techniques to solve problems.'

This topic can be time-consuming and difficult to teach. It involves a lot of graphs, which, if hand drawn, take a long time and are prone to errors. The syllabus itself advises 'Graphics calculators and various computer programs facilitate the investigation of the shapes of curves and the effect on the equation of multiplying by, or adding, a constant.' That is mathematics speak for "A good website/computer application can make graphing quick and easy. The results are right before your eyes! A lot of different equations can be graphed in a short amount of time, and their similarities, differences and any patterns can be investigated. The effect on the graph of changing certain parts of the equation can be seen quickly."

So what I am looking for is some websites that provide opportunities for students to graph equations. But more than that, I'm looking for websites that provide some sort of structured investigation, have an interactive component, and a certain level of animation! But what I have to remember is that the point of the assignment is NOT to find 4 wonderful websites that meet my needs. The point of the assignment is to use website evaluation criteria to evaluate 4 websites that I do find.

Wish me luck, and any suggestions for websites can be left in the comments and will be very much appreciated!

Internet Searching 101

What do you do if you need information? Google it.

Topic 3 of ETL501 is titled 'Effective Search Strategies', and is all about how teacher librarians can:

1. Become experts at using information retrieval tools and techniques to find information for teachers and students.
2. Help teachers and students to improve their own internet search strategies.

When my children have a school project and use the internet to search for information, watching them makes me want to scream. In fact, I'd rather not be in the house at all when they're searching the internet for information.

Why?

They have only one option for searching for information - Google.

They have only one preferred site - Wikipedia.

They have unreasonable expectations i.e. that they can type a question into google and that it will spit out the answer, that their search will take a maximum of 5 minutes, and that the information they get will be easy to understand, interesting, and correct.

AAAAAAAAARRRGH!!!

You would think, having a wonderful mother like me, so knowledgable and helpful (!), they would enjoy searching for information on the internet. NOOOOO...

Anything I suggest is boring, too difficult, too time-consuming, or just plain WRONG.

The cries of "I don't get it!", "Why is it giving me this - it has nothing to do with what I'm looking for!", "There's nothing on it!" and "I can't find anything!" are enough to send me running in the opposite direction.

Interestingly enough, they seem to have no trouble finding what they want to look at on You Tube! Of course, I could explain to them that it's because they're actually using the right tool for the job, in the right way, and that they don't mind getting sidetracked by other, unrelated information, but why bother...they wouldn't listen to me anyway!

Enough raving...back to the topic at hand - effective search strategies.

I cannot tell you how fabulous I think Noodletools is! It has, among other things, a feature called 'Choose the best search'. It has links to many different search engines and directories, listed under headings like I need facts, I need opinions and perspectives, and I need help to define my topic.

As an exercise, I used Clusty to search using the terms volcanoes schools teaching. I had never seen or heard of Clusty before, but Noodletools suggests it as good for brainstorming topic ideas, narrowing a topic or uncovering buried sites. Results are displayed in clusters.

The idea of the exercise was to find sites suitable for a secondary school geography teacher to use (it did not say whether the teacher was using the sites for his/her own subject information, ideas for teaching strategies/lesson plans, or to suggest to students for their own research/learning activities).

The results list top ten found http://www.teach-nology.com/themes/science/volcano which would provide the teacher with some options to look at.

When I clicked on the 'science' cluster I also got http://www.erth.waikato.ac.nz/schools which is designed to provide assistance with the teaching of Earth Sciences.

When I clicked on the 'lesson, plan' cluster I also got http://geology.com/teacher which has a wide range of teacher resources.

This exercise highlighted for me a very important point. If a third party is looking for websites (for example, the teacher librarian looking for websites for the geography teacher), then the instructions on what is being looked for better be very clear and specific. The purpose of the information is especially critical, otherwise the teacher librarian may think they have come up with some wonderful websites, only to find out that they don't do what the teacher wants them to do. This is a similar problem to one I have when I'm helping my children. Inevitably when I get them to some websites that I think will be wonderful, they reply, "No, Mum, that's not what I want.". Do your own searching is a pretty good rule of thumb!

Apart from Noodletools, there are some other web-based helps for successful internet searching. AskScott bills itself as a 'virtual reference librarian', provides a service similar to Noodletools, and has an internet search tutorial.

The Seven Habits is a fount of knowledge! Links galore to articles galore about all aspects of internet searching. The most useful bits (in my opinion!):

• Use quotation marks around phrases to tell the search engine to only bring back pages that include the search terms exactly how you typed them in order.
• Get out of the habit of using one search engine for everything. Like Noodletools, this encourages asking yourself questions such as "Do I have a general search question that can be aked with a few key words?", "Do I need an answer quickly and don't want to search for it?" (My children - should use - Answers.com, BrainBoost, Factbites or Ask Jeeves.), "Do I need help narrowing or broadening my search?", "Do I need academic or research oriented results?", "Am I looking for multimedia?" etc.
• Get some tricks up your sleeve, like using inurl: , boolean logic, and site: .
• Learn a bit about how things work so that you are using the right tool for the job.

As another exercise, I used Surfwax to search using the terms 'drought in NSW' causes effects. I had never used this metasearch engine before. The initial search gave me 388000 pages found, but I discovered an excellent feature that I could use to narrow my search focus. It provides 'sitesnap' which gives a snapshot of the site, followed by a list of 'focus words' used on the site. By adding the focus words 'drought problems' to the search I cut it down to 43 pages found, and adding 'causes big dry' I got just 10 good results. With more experience and practice, I think I could get good results from this tool.

The intention of the exercise was again to find sites suitable for a secondary school teacher. So I decided to try Librarian's Internet Index which is billed as 'websites you can trust'. My initial search using 'drought in NSW' causes effects got no results. Using just 'drought in NSW' was not successful either. Using just drought got 46 pages. On the positive side, there was an excellent description of the content of each page given. On the negative side, nothing found was suitable.

I also had a go at a Yahoo video search, thinking that the teacher might appreciate a documentary to show the class. Unfortunately, I was not successful at finding anything useful.

I'm sure that with practice and experience, I will be able to pull this all together to become a fabulously effective internet searcher. But will my children...???

What is 'reference' material, and other curly questions.

Topic 2 of ETL501 is called Print and Electronic Information Resources. The first issue it addresses is 'Exactly what is the definition of reference material in the age of electronic resources?'

My first thought, harking back to my school days, was the 'reference section' in my local public library. Located upstairs, it housed World Book, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, and various other dictionaries and atlases. The books could not be borrowed, so I used to either sit at one of the desks laboriously making notes, or carefully photocopy the pages that I needed (making sure I budgeted my money).

Now, of course, not being able to borrow a physical resource is not an issue! So what exactly constitutes a 'reference work'?

Katz, W.A. (2002). Reference librarians on the information highway. In Introduction to reference work: Volume 1 Basic Information Services (8th ed.) (pp. 3-38). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Katz lists bilbliographies, indices, encyclopaedias, yearbooks, almanacs, handbooks, directories, dictionaries, biographical sources e.g. Who's Who, atlases, guidebooks and dictionaries of place names as various reference sources. What distinguishes these sources?

They provide definitive, authoritative information. They compile information for ease of reference. So we have now arrived at something of a definition: a reference work allows for quick, easy access to authoritative information.

The internet allows free access to many reference works including encyclopaedias, dictionaries, biographical sources, directories, bibliographies and indexes. However, some free to access sources on the internet lack the authority to be labelled reference works. The forum hosted quite a lot of debate on the subject of Wikipedia. Should we advise our students against using it? Encourage them to use it wisely?

Without training and help, our students are going to make a lot of mistakes and run into a lot of trouble when searching for information online. Accepting what's written on Wikipedia as gospel may be the least of their problems! Some of the pros of Wikipedia are: children can usually understand what they read, it is generally accurate on most matters, it is familiar, and easy to find. So as long as children understand the limitations (i.e. lack of authority), I think we can teach them to use Wikipedia as informed readers. Perhaps they can read the Wikipedia entry on a topic to get an overview, which will help them to identify keywords for further searching. Perhaps they can use the links provided to find more authoritative sources on the topic.

Follow this link http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/12/wikipedia-deletionist-inclusionist to read an article in The Guardian.

Unfortunately, many of the authoritative reference works online are available only by subscription or the payment of a fee.

I attempted to use Katz's criteria to evaluate Merriam-Webster Online The Language Center.

Purpose, Scope and Currency can be evaluated by accessing the "About Us" page and heading to "FAQ". It settles the fact that the information is directly from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and that the same publisher is responsible for the website and the dictionary itself. Check! That also covers Authority.

How about Audience? Merriam-Webster is an American dictionary, so not the first choice for Australian students. However, a closer look at the "About Us" page leads to some interesting information for potential advertisers. The page waxes lyrical about the well-educated, affluent users that frequent the Merriam-Webster site!

It's free, so that settles Cost. Check!

Now what about the Search experience, Navigational Aids, Logical and Practical Organisation, Graphics, Layout and Links? I've got one word for you: ADVERTISING!!! The brightest, most attention-getting things on the page are the ads. They distract. They get in the way. The actual search results are displayed with the minimum of fuss, but the page is so busy that children would find it difficult to navigate back to their search. And it links to other (subscription-based) Merriam-Webster products! Buh-Bow! (That is the sound of the contestant getting it very, very wrong!)

The last criteria is Objectivity. I'm at a loss as to what to say here. It's a dictionary, and I'm not sure how to evaluate objectivity.

Would I recommend Merriam-Webster to be used by my students? No.

My next little assignment was to head off to the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. I evaluated the information given on two prominent Australians, one past and one present.

For my present day Australian, I chose Jane Rutter, a virtuoso flautist. Unfortunately, she wasn't listed.

For the other I searched for Dame Nellie Melba. The information seemed thorough. Check! The article provided links to other articles within the site such as people named within her biography that were also listed. However it gave no links to more information about Dame Nellie Melba outside the site. And the language level? Too difficult for primary school students and probably more suitable for senior rather than junior high school students. So would I suggest using this site to my students? Perhaps...

Next I checked out the Commonwealth Government Online Directory. I searched 'Immigration', and got 120 results, linking me to different key people or offices, their responsibilites, and how to contact them. Useful for school students???

Lastly, a search of the Australian National Bibliographic Database Libraries Australia. This resource lists the copies of books, CDs, kits, and other physical resources that are available at every library in Australia. Great if you want to track a specific item down!

Whew! That's it for me and topic 2!

Grab your coffee!

You will need it to stay awake!

What follows it a bit of a summary of the second half of Loertscher's Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program.

As before, I'm trying to contain my comments to issues that concern the teaching and learning context. I'm also going to try to inject a bit of interest into it because, looking back over my previous posts of this nature, it can get a bit boring!

Collaboration

The goal is for teachers and teacher librarians to work together as partners. The TL will need to be aware of individual teacher's teaching styles in order to choose the best strategies to move from service and support to advice and alternatives to partnership.

If there is a strong constructivist model of learning being used we will also be colaborating with students.

It is important to know how often collaboration occurs, with which teachers or subject areas, and if there are organisational factors that either encourage or discourage collaboration.

It is also important to know what activities the facilities and technology of the library can support successfully.

Do library rules, facilities, organisation, technology and materials help or hinder students' progress?

How is the library and librarian's time scheduled? Priority should be given to activities with educational impact, rather than housekeeping or babysitting.

Building Power Readers

More books leads to more reading leads to better readers leads to other learning advantages.

Do the library rules and organisation allow plenty of access to books? Are there strategies in place to ensure that students read, read, read?

Enhancing Learning through Technology

What technology is available, and to whom? Technology can inject a new richness to teaching and learning experiences, but does the school have the appropriate tools and software? How is access and training technology organised?

Information Literacy

Does the school use an information process model for research? Information literacy skills are best taught when integrated into curriculum. Are there structures in place that allow the TL to work with teachers to link information literacy strategies with content?

Support

Are there any volunteers available to help with routine tasks in the library? Or perhaps to share expertise with students?

Are there any possible outside sources of funding?

The Information Infrastructure

Are there enough staff?

Are equipment and software upgraded as needed?

Is the library collection appropriate to the school's needs? Consist of various media? Changed or updated regularly?

How far has the library progressed in its digital collection?

New technology should be considered based on its contribution to learning/educational impact.

Evaluation

Are there procedures in place to evaluate the success of library programs?

I like my approach today better than previous similar posts. I think I have moved from simply summarising material to analysing and applying it! Hooray for me - I'm using higher order thinking skills!

Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program - considering teaching and learning context.

Taxonomy - division into ordered groups or categories (check out the complete definition at dictionary.com)

This book:

Loertscher, D. (2000). Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program (2nd ed.). San Jose: Hi Willow Research and Publications.

was also 'recommended reading' for topic 1 of ETL501 'The learning and teaching context of information resource provision'.

As with Improving Learning, this book has a lot to say on the topic of leadership, which is pertinent to ETL504. It is also due back at the uni library on Wednesday. For now, I'm going to confine my comments to things relevant to the teaching and learning context.

1. Pressures on teachers include:

• teach more content in less time
• teach in such a way that students score high on achievement tests
• improve student learning by matching resources totheir learning styles and abilities
• provide opportunities for students to develop independent learning and problem solving skills
• provide a variety of methods for classroom teaching and learning activities
• stimulate students' creativity and experimentation

1. Teachers tend to use either mainly behaviourist or mainly constructivist styles of teaching.
2. Teachers vary in their use of the library, its resources and the teacher librarian:

• self-contained teaching (no use of library)
• teaching with a borrowed or electronically accessible collection (independent use of library for resources)
• using the library staff as an idea resource
• using the library staff and resources for enrichment of a unit of work
• using the library staff and resources as an integral part of a unit of work
• the teacher and TL experiment with partnerships in teaching and learning
• teacher/TL partnerships become a natural part of teaching and learning
• teachers involve the TL in curriculum development

1. The TL can use various strategies to help teachers to make better use of the library:

• Reading - TL can suggest that teachers have a rotating collection of high-interest materials moved from the library into the classroom, read aloud to students and schedule time for silent reading, let students choose from a wide variety of materials when completing assignments, and role model reading to the students.
• Technology - TL can suggest to teachers ways to inject technology into learning, perhaps by changing the nature of the final product required.
• Information literacy - TL can help teachers to integrate information literacy skills into all units of instruction.
• Resource-based teaching and learning units - TL can work to establish collaboration with teachers.

1. Students should be able to gain many benefits from the library, but vary in the use of its staff and resources:

• no involvement
• spontaneous involvement (just pops in occasionally for something)
• gets assistance with information, materials or technology for specific needs
• gets involved with specific campaigns run by the library (e.g. book week)
• building skills for utilising all the resources of the library
• is involved in planned, structured activities in the library
• the student becomes a 'power reader' (more later)
• the student becomes a 'power learner' (more later)
• the student is equipped for lifelong library use.

1. The level of principal support effects the success of the library:

• ambivalence or neglect of the library
• makes an effort to understand the role of the modern TL in a world of information technology
• attracts a TL to head the program who has the vision and energy to creat and maintain a solid program
• creates a partnership with the TL and places that person on the leadership team of the school
• creates an organisational structure that allows the library program to succeed
• provides leadership in building financial support over the long term
• expects TL to be involved with collaboration, reading, enhancing learning through technology and information literacy
• assesses the impact of the library program on the academic achievement of the students

So far, we have seen that the principal, the teachers and the students all have an impact on the learning and teaching context that the teacher librarian and library are working within. More to follow...

Improving Learning - considering learning and teaching context.

Topic 1 of ETL501 is called The learning and teaching context of information resource provision. The recommended reading included

Glover, D., & Law, S. (2002). Improving Learning: Professional Practice in Secondary Schools. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Interestingly enough, though this book was set as reading for ETL501, it also has a lot to say about leadership, and is pertinent to ETL504 as well. Unfortunately it's due back at the library on Wednesday, so I'm trying to make as many notes about it as possible.

For this post, I'm only considering content of the book that is relevant to learning and teaching context.

• Teachers and schools face many pressures such as trying to meet educational standards, improve (external) test results, innovation overload and socio-economic issues.
• Some of the factors which impact the success of classroom learning are physical environment, teaching styles, teacher/student relationships and the relevance and difficulty of material/tasks.
• Resources and equipment must support the school's priorities for improvement.
• Effective teaching and learning requires clear, positive expectations, task differentiation, a range of teaching strategies and assessment of progress and understanding.
• It can be difficult and time-consuming to prepare learning programs that take into account individual preferred learning styles. Group work and ICT can be used to vary learning experiences.
• The move towards constructivist models of learning puts pressure on teachers who need to prepare students to sit external tests.
• Some techniques that can be used include carefully constructed homework, use of questioning, opportunities to exercise higher order cognitive skills and well-planned lessons that include connecting new knowledge to previous work.
• Schools can build up a 'bank' of materials for different abilities and styles which can be used and modified year after year.
• Different school cultures effect approaches to both relationships and teaching, consider in particular approaches to behaviour management and assessment.
• There are tensions in the curriculum caused by differing expectations: are we preparing students for work, for further study, or for life?
• 'Key skills' are communication, application of number, information technology, improving one's own learning, problem solving and working with others.
• Particular issues are the integration of key skills across the curriculum, discussion of the relevance of topics and the importance of revision.
• Boys and girls tend to differ in preferred learning styles, and some teaching, behaviour management and assessment strategies might favour one over the other.
• All students could benefit from more positive interactions with teachers and more pastoral support.
• External factors include resourcing, classroom limitations and curriculum demands.
• Professional development for teachers should include beliefs, knowledge and understanding as well as competencies.

So, how do all these points impact the role of the teacher librarian in resourcing?

1. The TL needs to be aware of all the competing pressures that the teachers face in their particular school context.
2. The TL must be well-versed in the mission of the school and its current goals, so that resources match priorities.
3. Teachers need resources that will support them to improve teaching and learning by expanding their range of teaching strategies, taking into account various preferred learning styles and encouraging higher order thinking skills.
4. The TL can facilitate the storage and sharing of learning and teaching materials.
5. The TL can provide teachers will information regarding alternatives to behaviour management and assessment.
6. The TL can provide teachers with material to support their overall professional development, but particularly in regard to the particular challenges of the school context.

Resourcing the Teaching Context

A teacher librarian can provide information to teachers to meet many different needs:

• To add to their subject knowledge.
• To add to their repertoire of teaching methods.
• To identify teaching resources which can be adapted for their specific needs.
• To find information sources which students can use to help them learn.

Teachers with different approaches, or styles, will often require different information resources.

Bloom's Taxonomy in Action.

Topic 1 in ETL501 considers the learning and teaching context of information resource provision. That's a bit of a mouthful, but basically it is concerned with the fact that if you're a librarian in a school, you have to consider the information needs of your clientele (students and teachers) in terms of the teaching and learning that is going on.

The way that students learn may differ, as may the teaching approaches of different teachers.

Module 1 of our online study material considers learning in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy. (You can see a graphic representation of it at the top of this post.) We were asked to consider the different sorts of resources students would require when tackling questions at each level of the taxonomy. For example, when asked for a simple definition of a term (Knowledge), a dictionary may be sufficient, but when asked to make an assessment on a complex issue (Evaluate), they will need multiple sources of information including encyclopaedia/reference, primary sources, diagrams/graphics, news/magazine articles, journal articles, TV/DVD programs, websites, relevant government agencies or special interest groups, pamphlets/fact sheets and statistics (such as scientific data).

My fellow students have had a lot of interesting things to say on our forum. Three points interest me particularly:

1. Linda Blake points out that often literature can provide a new perspective on various issues, and can make them more accessible for some students.
2. Judy Bolton points out that using different resources provides opportunities for students to learn different skills. For instance, when using texts, encyclopaedias and reference books, attention can be paid to using the glossary, index and table of contents. When using human primary sources the skills of interviewing, notetaking and summarising may be brought to the fore.
3. Judy also mentions that when students are working at the stages of Analyse and Evaluate, databases such as Opposing Viewpoints, Newstext and Aust/NZ Ref. Centre will be useful.

If you would like to know a little more about using Bloom's Taxonomy when teaching, head to http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm to get some ideas.

Developing an Instructional Website

Chapter 8 of Herring's the internet and information skills is all about instructional websites; in other words websites that have been designed by teachers or teacher librarians, are related to the curriculum, and contain links and/or multimedia features and/or interactive features. These websites have a very specific purpose and audience.

Dreamweaver and FrontPage can be used to design quite sophisticated sites.

An example of part of an instructional website for students of the Hewett School, UK.

An example of a science task for Year 7 students at Cornwallis School, Kent, UK.

Advice to students studying Hamlet from the SCORE Project in California, USA.

An instructional website on New Lanark.

Adobe Photoshop can be used to manipulate graphics.

Free graphics available from web include Design Gallery Live and Classroom Clipart.

Filamentality is a feature of the Blue Web'n subject gateway and allows teachers and TL's to create simple instructional websites. An example for Year 9 students at Dixons City Technology College, West Yorkshire, UK.

A guide to designing WebQuests.

Community High School District 99 Designing Teacher Websites.

Gardner, D.'s Tips for developing the geography department website.

March, T.'s Why WebQuests?

If you've ever designed an instructional/educational website, leave me a comment with a link to it, or just let me know anything you learnt from the process that would be useful for me.

Later in the semester I have an assignment in which I must design an electronic pathfinder either as a website or a wiki. It must clearly state its audience and purpose, provide 15 annotated resources including search engines, print and web resources, and advice to students on information literacy skills.

School Websites

Sorry folks, more uni stuff!

I'll start by letting you know a bit about what else is going on in my life.

The kids had their school athletics carnival yesterday and I went and watched. They both had a great time, competed in lots of events, and had pretty good results. They made their respective finals for the 100m sprint, but neither placed high enough to move on to the zone athletics carnival. Josh also ran in his house's junior boys 100m relay team, which won. So he might attend the zone after all to compete in the relay, I'm not sure. Both also ran the 200m and 800m (I'm not sure why, but primary school carnivals never run the 400m???) but neither placed. They both did Long Jump, coming 2nd (Joshua) and 4th (Alana) so Josh will probably go to zone but not Alana (they only take 1st and 2nd). Alana also came 4th in Discus. Overall a successful and fun day with beautiful sunny winter weather.

Alana's ballet teacher has decided that she is ready for pointe shoes. She and the other lucky (?) girls deemed to be strong enough are going on a shopping expedition on Saturday week. Lucky me, I get to pay for them!

OK, down to business now. Chapter 7 of James Herring's the internet and information skills deals with developing a school website. Though most Australian schools do have websites, some are very basic, and probably only a minority are well designed, have a clear purpose, and meet their potential.

Herring provides links to some examples of school websites:

Wood Green School, Oxfordshire, UK.

Westminster School, London, UK.

Cramlington Community High School, Northumbria, UK.

UK Education Website Awards.

Cool School Awards.

IASL/Concorde Awards.

Also school library web pages and examples of how information skills are presented on school library websites:

Springfield Township High School (I'm not sure if this is a real school or just an example site).

Student Guides at St Joseph's Nudgee College, Australia.

Research Process Checklist from Melbourne High School, Australia.

Herring also discusses elements of design to be considered, and provides the following links:

Example of Storyboarding.

Xenu's Link Sleuth can be used to check links.

Royal National Institute for the Blind's Accessible Web Design.

Dreamweaver or FrontPage can be used to create more complex school websites.

HTML Tutorial can help school librarians to learn html code.

Bellingham Public Schools Designing School Homepages.

McKenzie, J.'s Home Sweet Home: creating WWW pages that deliver.

Web Style Guide

If you know of a school with a fantastic web page, please leave a link to it in your comment.