ETL 501 The Dynamic Learning Environment. Assessment 2 Part 2: Critical Reflection

Throughout studying ETL 501 ‘The Dynamic Information Environment’, I have established a greater understanding of the importance of developing an effective online resource, searching, locating, selecting, organising and evaluating a range of online, digital and print resources to enhance the teaching and learning of students. Prior to studying this subject my knowledge of web evaluation tools, search strategies and use of search engines how to attain and evaluate these resources was quite limited

One of the most influential learnings that I reflect on is that students’ needs come first and should be the primary influence when delivering curriculum content, acquisitioning print and digital resources and developing educational resources. Furthermore, from initial subject content, previous posts (Edwards, 2016) and readings, I believe scaffolding work using the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Loose, 2016) while delivering curriculum content, modelling best practice and implementing instructional practices based on Constructivist and Behaviourist educational theories (Pardoe, 2009; Pritchard, 2009; Johnson, Cooper & Johnson. 2009) will develop student self-efficacy, self-esteem and self-regulation, developing intrinsic learners, equipping them to thrive not just survive in the 21^st century.

My knowledge has extended to recognise that searching for information has become paradoxically simpler and more complex for everyone, as you don’t know what you don’t know (Zickuhr, 2014, p. 35). I found that during my search for resources for my selection criteria, website evaluation model and electronic pathfinder there were many quality resources but it required me to explore and develop my skills and search strategies as I attempted to complete these tasks. As I would expect my students to do, I used information literacy skills to skim read, analyse and evaluate online resources, highlighting the great opportunity for Teacher Librarians to teach students of all ages to navigate print, online and digital resources (Pinkham, Wintle, Silvernail, & University of Southern Maine 2008, p. 3).

While creating the electronic pathfinder and working through the subject content and further readings, it was highlighted that web based resources are the most common way for teachers, Teacher Librarians and students to access information (Herring, 2011a, p. 36; Warlick, 2007, p. 3, Hay, & Todd, 2010, p. 10, Pulver & Adcock, 2009, p. 18, Herring, 2011b, p. 22). Furthermore, student research methods are changing, it’s now a fast paced process where students are gaining just enough information to complete tasks or assignments, diminishing their ability to think critically. (Purcell, Rainie, Heaps, Buchanan, Friedrich, Jacklin, & Zickuhr, 2013, p. 13). This highlights the need for the development of a search strategy, selection criteria, web site evaluation model and the acquisition or development of quality online resources to enhance the teaching and learning of students.

Completing this pathfinder allowed me to further develop a search strategy to locate information I required. It was developed for a year 9 HSIE mixed ability class consisting of boys and girls with the best intentions to cater for the various cognitive abilities, different learning styles and information search preferences used by this cohort of students.

Through conversations with the staff of the HSIE faculty it was decided that they would benefit from an electronic pathfinder focusing on the depth study of World War 1 (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2016a). This pathfinder required students to move from resources that provided overviews of World War 1 topics to progressively more specific and pertinent resources (Crow, Nancy & Lori 2011, p. 34).

This pathfinder combined with the Information Search Process (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007) requires students to build on prior knowledge, explore and evaluate a variety of resources and develop critical and creative thinking skills by questioning historical data and the reliability of resources, particularly online resources within the subject context World War 1, and apply literacy skills of reading to understand, skim reading and scanning for key words, terms, dates and people to extract information they required. (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2016b).

The developing and evolving search strategy I incorporated to obtain these quality resources consisted of many key aspects from Boswell (2016), and key learnings from developing a selection criteria and web evaluation model in assignment 1.

I used Google and DuckDuckGo search engines using the advanced search option where possible. To search for key terms I utilised the school’s membership to SCIS Web (School Catalogue Information Services, 2016), discovering that typing the terms such as’ War 1914-1918’ followed by a specific topic such as ‘Conscription’ into search engines delivered the best results. I also used authority collection sites such as Scootle to search for quality resources. The selection criteria I developed in assignment 1 and many of Schrock’s (2001; 2002 & 2014) ideas for evaluating websites were also used to obtain what I believe to be quality resources for this student cohort.

I believe that this pathfinder will enhance the students’ use of informational literacy skills by reducing the time to search for reliable source allowing for more opportunities to extend on prior knowledge, guide and expose students to quality resources modelling best practice and initiating the development of their own search strategy.

While developing this pathfinder I found it very difficult to write annotations for the student cohort that were at their reading level. I used the online resource Readability Score (2016), to determine if the annotations for the resources allowed for the scope of this student cohort. This is a great reminder of the importance to differentiate the resource and content I deliver in the classes and how students need to be taught and guided on how to select analyse and evaluate print and online (Jin Soo & Neuman, 2007, p. 1508).

Students learn differently and teachers teach differently. Analysing how your students learn, evaluating the effectiveness of educational resources and reflecting on teaching practices to gauge the success of your instructional approach will ultimately enhance the educational outcome of students providing them with the necessary skills to be lifelong learners and thrive in the 21^st century. 

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016a). 7-10 History: Curriculum. Retrieved from

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016). General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/overview/learning-area-specific-advice

Boswell, W. (2016). Web Search Made Simple. Retrieved from http://websearch.about.com/od/searchingtheweb/tp/web_search_simple.htm

Crow, S., Thomas, N. & Franklin, L. (2011). Information Literacy and Information Skills Instruction. : ABC-CLIO. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au

Edwards, S. (2016, July 28). ETL Learnings 1 [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://scotttl.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/etl-501-learnings-1.html

Hay, L., & Todd, R. (2010). School libraries 21C: School library futures project. Report for New South Wales Department of Education & Training, Curriculum K–12 Directorate, School Libraries & Information Literacy Unit. Sydney: Curriculum K–12 Directorate, NSWDET. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/assets/pdf/21c_report.pdf

Herring, J. E. (2011a). Improving students’ web use and information literacy: A guide for teachers and teacher librarians. London: Facet Publishing.  

Herring, J. E. (2011b). Web site evaluation: A key role for the school librarian. School Librarian, 27(8), 22-23. Retrieved https://maureensresources.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/websiteevaluationlibrarian.pdf

Jin Soo, C., & Neuman, D. (2007). High school students' Information seeking and use for class projects. Journal of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 58(10), 1503-1517. doi:10.1002/asi.20637

Johnson, J., Cooper, R. & Johnson, A. (2009). Introduction to teaching: Helping students learn. Lanham MD: Rowan and Littlefield.

Loose, J. (2016) More than English: Teaching language and content to ELLs.  http://morethanenglish.edublogs.org/

New South Wales Department of Education and Training. (2007). Information Skills in the School. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/isp/

Pardoe, D. (2009). Towards successful learning: Introducing a model for supporting and guiding successful learning and teaching in schools. 2nd ed., London: Continuum International.

Pinkham, C., Wintle, S. E., Silvernail, D. L., & University of Southern Maine, C. E. (2008). 21st Century Teaching and Learning: An Assessment of Student Website Evaluation Skills. Center For Education Policy, Applied Research, And Evaluation.

Pritchard, A. (2009). Ways of learning: Learning theories and learning styles in the classroom. 2nd ed., Abingdon, Routledge.

Pulver, B. A., & Adcock, D. C. (2009). Evaluating information. Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library.

Purcell, K., Rainie, L., Heaps, A., Buchanan, J., Friedrich, L., Jacklin, A., & Zickuhr, K. (2013). How Teens Do Research in the Digital World. Education Digest, 78(6), 11-17.

Readability Score. (2016). Retrieved from https://readability-score.com/

School Catalogue Information Services. (2016). SCISWeb. Retrieved from http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/scisweb.html

Schrock, K. (2001). The 5W’s of Web Site Evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/5ws.pdf

Schrock, K. (2002). Teaching Media Literacy in the Age of the Internet: The ABCs of Website Evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.kathyschrock.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/weval_02.pdf

Schrock, K. (2014). Critical Evaluation of a Website. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/evalmidd.pdf

Warlick, D. (2007). Literacy in the new information landscape Library Media Connection, 26 (1), 20-21.

Zickuhr, K. (2014). Teens and Tech: What the Research Says. Young Adult Library Services, 12(2), 33-37.

ETL 501: Searching Smart

ETL 501: Searching Smart

As part of this blog the cohort of ETL 501 were asked to examine aspects of Google such as maps and advanced search options. Personally I know of a few of the aspects of Google that we were asked to examine and I particularly find Google Scholar to be a useful searching tool when looking for articles on specific topics which is encouragingly endorsed by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki on Triple J. Reflecting on my classroom practices I have neglected to guide my students through a lot of these tools as I thought being a junior campus that these skill were not necessary. I now realize that as part of an educator and reflecting on my learning’s through Teacher Librarianship studies that this is a massive oversight that I will endeavor to change and implement. The video recording on Google Advanced search provided great foundations and platform for additional material and class activities to be created to aid in the Information Literacy development of not only myself but my students as well.

References:

• David Rice Library. (2010). Google advanced search [videorecording]. Retrieved August, 2016.

Your thoughts on using Wikipedia in the classroom

Personally, I have never used Wikipedia as a resource in the classroom, however, I can see how Wikipedia can be used effectively. The major pitfall associated with Wikipedia appears to be that information is ‘crowd sourced’ leading to misinformation as the reliability and credibility of the author/s is ambiguous. What I can determine as its major pitfall, is the very reason Wikipedia could be used as an effective resource. Wikipedia can allow for information literacy skills to be developed as it can be a resource that is scrutinized, analyzed and evaluated to determine its credibility. Wikipedia can contain credible and reliable information with additional links to expand the search criteria of a particular topic and furthermore, Wikipedia can be used as a collaboration tool for students to complete team research tasks. While there are people that criticise the citation and use of Wikipedia who are by far more intelligent than me, I believe if used and modeled correctly, the positives of Wikipedia far outweigh the stand alone negative characteristics.

ETL 501 Learnings 1

Reading the prescribed readings has highlighted a few things as I reflect on my profession as a teacher in the context of the school that I am currently teaching in and as a novice parent of two boys under the age of three.   

Firstly, The description Loose (2016) provides of the revised taxonomy was very thought provoking working through the taxonomy, simplifying its process.  Prichard (2009, p. 11) mentions that the  learning theory Behaviourism, allows for learning to occur without fully understanding a concept challenging my initial thought that Bloom's Taxonony was a lineal process.  

Secondly, some concepts covered by Pardoe, Pritchard and Johnson allowed me to reflect on some of the teaching strategies and programs currently being implemented in the school I work in. The significance of self-esteem and its positive effect on a student’s achievement (Pardoe, 2000, p. 55) is an area of action for the DEC as they are currently implementing the 'Well Being Framework' centered on the wellbeing of students. This concept raises issues of content driven curriculum or the welfare of students. Working in a low socio economically disadvantage school that caters for students of varying abilities I believe balancing a student’s welfare while meeting the educational needs being a major challenge that exists and previously existed. The behaviouralist approach alone is not en effective teaching practice as extrinsically motivating students can lead to students taking shortcuts in their learning (Pardoe, 2009, p. 54). PB4L is a program deeply ingrained in the school I work in. Pardoe's statement question my belief of the program as this program is based on rewarding students for their positive behaviour. I understand that students need to learn correct behaviours, and school is doing this well as it has high expectations of appropriate school behaviours and respect for the school, other students and teachers and perhaps this is a stepping stone to eventually encouraging intrinsic motivation and self-regulation (constructivist theory) regarding a student’s studies, particularly throughout stage 6 studies. Currently an AVID program is running in the school and I see the constructivist approach with student reflection and active engagement through group work and Cornell Note taking practices implemented throughout the delivery of content. 

  

Fourthly, as a parent and teacher, I was very interested in the reasons that could hinder a child/students language and communication development present by Pardoe (2008, p. 19). TV, gaming and eating in isolation attribute to poorer communication skills, a skill identified as an essential skill for future success. Through modelling effective language in the classroom and home I hope to attribute to the success of current and future students as well as my own children. Furthermore, through observing the type of game students play during their recess and lunch break, it was evident that most of the games follow the behaviourist approach based loosely on Skinner's step  by step process known as frame, where the learner progresses to the next stage based on correct answers. Students playing games are subject to this type of learning where they receive immediate feedback and only progress to the next level when the achieve outcomes or get the correct answer (Pritchard, 2009, p. 12) 

  

Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed the analogy used in the prescribed text by Pardoe (2009, p. 93) for  self efficacy and self regulation, a Constructivist approach. Pushing a child on a bike without the stabilisers, the teacher initially doing a lot of work, then letting them ride by themselves falling (learning) while the student is doing the work for themselves. 

ETL 501 Reference Resources activity.

I don’t believe the notion of abandoning reference material, the library at the school I currently work in has two reference sections, resources available for students and a ‘Teacher Reference’ section only available for teachers. Although these sections are diminishing in their physical form some digital resources are being added to these section on the library cataloguing system such as Online Britannica. Perhaps this term should be kept for non-borrowable resources as this also provides security for rare resources such as ‘The Abo Call’ located in library ‘Teacher Reference’ section at my school.

My definition

Digital and print resources used as an initial point of investigation providing users with specific points of interest, enabling further analysis.

Additional:

I spoke to the teacher librarian at my school today about reference material in the library. Our discussion focused more on the ability or inability of students and teachers borrowing reference resources. The TL provided the reason for reference resources not being borrowed, “not allowing reference resource to be borrowed and their location in the library allows for readily accessible and easily available resources”. Interesting.

ETL 501The Dynamic Learning Environment. Bloom's Taxonomy Activity

Revisiting Bloom’s Taxonomy and reading the revised Bloom’s taxonomy was a worthwhile activity as I found the information about “Google Proofing” questions or tasks for students to be a pivotal learning point for myself. Creating and implementing questioning through tasks or class discussion that follow this cognitive process I believe will benefit my students. 

While completing the activity I was easily drawn to the tools Google provide as I currently use some of these tools, however, I consciously sought other tools from sites such as ‘Cool tools for School’ and ‘Web 2.0 Guru’, trying to break the Google habit. The school I currently work in (7-10) implements ALARM, A Learning and Responding Matrix. This Matrix is introduced to stage 4 students with a scaffolding template using verbs similar to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy verbs. With each yearly progress parts of the scaffolding are removed with the expectation that students will implement this scaffolding throughout their stage 6 assessment where applicable, offering reason for the learning level stage 4 and 5 placed in this activity. Further resources could be added with the refinement of my search abilities and better management of my time.