April 9

ETL503 Module 2.4 Activities and Reflections

Activity
Select a curriculum topic of interest.
Select one of the online communities or resource sharing services listed in this section, and spend some time searching for tags, hashtags, lists or communities of relevance to your topic.
Share a link to a relevant online resource found from that community in Forum 2.5 and discuss the pros and cons of this community as a recommendation source.
You might also like to browse some other curation tools to see which best suit your needs.

Curriculum area/topic: Technologies –

Online community: OZ_TLNet

Search process:
* put “technologies” into search bar
* Did not get much of any use
* Put in “computational thinking”
* Got one hit for a PD course
* Put in “food technology”
* Got nothing
* Gave up

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April 6

ETL503 Module 2.3 Activities and Reflections

Explore
If you are new to Scootle, watch the promotional video produced for a non-teacher audience.
Register and access Scootle:
  • Teachers within Australia should register for and access Scootle using their school email address.
  • If you do not have a school email address, you can register as a Charles Sturt University student.
  • Scootle is not available outside Australia. Can you identify an equivalent education repository from your jurisdiction?
Search Scootle for a resource related to critical thinking. In Forum 2.4 share the strategies you used to refine your search results.

* Scootle main search box used term: critical thinking
* On sidebar, deselected all but K-2 -> 53 results
* Deselected Teacher resource, Assessment Resource and Dataset, -> 6 results

Resource found:
Exploring traditional and contemporary Aboriginal Visual Arts – TLF ID M019567

http://www.artsedge.dca.wa.gov.au/resources/Pages/Visual-Arts.aspx DoE collection of links to resources

https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/education/ (a specific resource link)

I chose that resource as strengthening my resource base and skills in incorporating the Cross Curriculum priority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Histories and Cultures is something I would like to focus on in my personal development goals for this year.

An interesting side-note to be cautious about, though, is that the resource I found did not really focus on K-2 as I had requested in my search limitations.

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April 5

ETL503 Module 2.2 Activities and Reflections

2.2 The balanced collection
Content vs container
Read
“Developing collections” by Peggy Johnson (Chapter 4 in Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management).
This provides an overview of the broad range of resources published and how different libraries categorise these resources to facilitate selection and management.

Think about which categories are most relevant to school libraries now and in the future.

I think that the useful categories for school librarians to think about in terms of selection are: format, fiction/non-fiction, diversity of subjects and appropriate diversity of age levels. I think that looking at open source digital collaborations will be key to the school library going forward.

Read
“E-book acquisitions and devices” by Sue C. Kimmel (Chapter 7 in Developing collections to empower learners)

There were a number of good points raised by this chapter, but also much that was frustrating. I felt that the introduction was misleading in how it presented eResources – benefits were stated in a way that was not balanced or reflective of reality. For instance, the assertions that multiple people can access eBooks simultaneously and that free eBooks exist are not universally true. In the detailed sections later in the chapter, she does provide a more balanced view of these assertions, but encountering the bald assertions in the introduction had shaken my confidence in her credibility. The other assertion from the introduction that was never really addressed was her statement regarding the miraculous lack of wear and tear on eBooks. From my understanding, a major issue in current library and archival future-proofing concerns is the preservation of born digital resources. (Neal, 2015) The State Library New South Wales (SLNSW) suggests that degradation and corruption of digital materials can be a greater problem than with paper and ink materials. (SLNSW, 2015) Later in the chapter, when she argues for the consideration of eReader devices, she has a flawed argument. She equates the cost of devices to the cost of printed reference materials and mentions the reluctance of librarians to then circulate the devices. She argues for treating the devices like a circulating hardcover book because damage to the device only requires replacing the device, not the content. This argument avoids reality because reference books – and therefore devices – are typically more expensive than a standard hardcover book. Many libraries do not, in fact, circulate reference materials so her reasoning is flawed.

References

Neal, J. G. (2015, May 28). Preserving the born digital record: More questions than Answers [Blog post]. Retrieved from American Libraries Magazine The Scoop blog website: https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/05/28/preserving-the-born-digital-record/

State Library New South Wales. (2015, June 24) Digital preservation [Webpage]. Retrieved from State Library New South Wales website: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/public-library-services/digital-practice-guidelines-public-libraries/digital-preservation

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April 5

Review of Pymble Ladies College’s LibGuide

I was hoping to find an example of an Australian primary school library on LibGuides. Most of the libraries I found were private secondary schools, I suppose because most (if not all) NSW government primary schools use the Oliver System which gives similar functionality through the school portal.

I found Pymble Ladies College at http://pymblelc.libguides.com/condelibrary. The site has a lot of interesting features. There are many suggestion lists, relating to genres, authors and specific titles. There are feeds that show what others are reading. I was pleased to see links from the home page to other libraries, such as NLA, SLNSW and various public libraries in the local area. There are also subject and other specialty pages. I investigated the Year 6 set of pages as I was particularly interested in how this was being used at the primary level.

The home page for the Year 6 classes could have been utilised more effectively as it was completely blank. It merely provided access to the various Year 6 class tabs and the static sidebar options of “Quick Links” to the library catalogue, database and eBook catalogues and “About the Library” with basic contact and opening hours information. Two separate teachers had linked to a Year 6 Book recommendation pamphlet which I believe would have made a good home page display.

The various class tabs reflected a range of curation ideas. At least one teacher had nothing on the class page. Several had book recommendations with cover displays, reviews and links to the catalogue. Several teachers also had class-created content, such as review quotes, library search tips or class survey results linked to their class page.

I can see from my limited exploration of the main library site and more detailed exploration of the Year 6 sub-pages that LibGuides has a lot of potential as a curation site. It provides a way to share crowd-sourced and interest-based recommendation information and patron-created content as well as providing direct links to the library catalogue for accessibility – all key factors for a 21st century information management platform.

As a selection aid resource for external TLs there are limitations as some features require password access.

Category: ETL503, Module Activity, Review, Technology | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 12

ETL503 Module 2.1 Activities and Reflections

Module 2.1 Selection in the school context

Definitions of selection

Activity

Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners [ALA Editions version]. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=289075
Review the model (p. 34) developed by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005) – Chapter 4, Selecting resources for learning.

Note that it presents selection as a series of YES or NO decisions. In reality, many selection decisions are not this black and white, and involve a process of prioritising across a range of criteria.

Attempt to draft your own selection decision-making model or flowchart that considers a more complex set of choices and criteria.

My model:
Resource being considered —>

Test 1: Apply selection criteria regarding Curriculum Relevance and Authority and Fit —> 90 – 95% = hold for second look, < 90% = NO

> or = 95% on Test 1 —> Test 2: Apply selection criteria regarding resource fitting the needs of the learning community (fits program units/themes/priorities) —> 75 – 85% = hold, , 75% = NO

> or = 85% on Test 2 —> Test 3: Apply selection criteria regarding learner characteristics, reading levels, scope, appropriateness of language, illustration, etc. —> 85-90% = hold, <85% = NO

>or = 90% on Test 3 —> Test 4: Consult teachers regarding whether resource fits into their teaching-learning context, fitting pedagogical and methodological planned usage —> < 90% = NO

> or = 90% on Test 4 —> Test 5: Value and budget testing —> check cost relative to budget, compare with scores received by resource going through various tests and enthusiasm of teachers for resource… if within budget and rated well for value, recommend — if not, bring to committee for further comparison with other resources, if beyond budget or scored low along the testing for value and low on teacher enthusiasm = NO.

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