Category Archives: ETL501

ETL501: Critical Reflection

Posted on by
Reply

I undertook ETL501 in order to understand more about effective design choices. My school is currently modernising our library space (Hahn, 2021, July 3). Assessment 1 allowed me to identify solutions to the pain points. Main changes now planned are the creation of distinct zones and use of half-height shelving to delineate those spaces and to act as traffic-management devices. Nicole Bolden (Bolden, 2021, September 21) suggested that signage should be prioritised: a solid idea because, not only does it allow library users to locate the resources they need, but the process of creating it also assists the new TL to become more familiar with the collection – a vital understanding to develop, teamed with an understanding of the needs of the school community.

Resource selection for my Library Resource Guide needed to be teamed with presentation. I needed to consider how to present content in a way that is open enough to encourage emerging independent inquiry skills, but structured enough to provide quality, engaging resources for content learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015). In order to achieve desired depth of understanding, I needed to significantly narrow my scope of content. Some students would have limited independent reading skill. This presented significant challenge. Using the readability tester from Webfx, I was repeatedly reminded that, often, texts present more challenge to students than expected, highlighting the difficulty students have in negotiating the online (and print) environment, underscoring the importance of digital curation in the role of TL (Cherrstrom & Boden, 2020). By including commentary on difficulty, expected content and suggestions for integration of new knowledge into existing schemas, skills of source selection, analysis and critical thinking were developed.

While inquiry learning aims to develop skills for independent and lifelong learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015), most students in Stage 2 could be expected to need significant teacher support. Consequently, I chose to create my Library Resource Guide to include information for teachers and to present sources that would provoke discussions, allowing the teacher and TL to model and explicitly teach needed skills. Scaffolding and developing information literacy skills is a vital component of the role of the TL (Aisah et al, 2018) and so, as well as narrowing the content focus of my Guide, I also narrowed the information literacy skills taught to allow students to deepen their understanding and familiarisation with each skill in order to overcome the superficial use digital resources described by Coombes (2019).

Creating digital learning resources is an important aspect of the work of a TL. In the Module 5.2 forum, I commented that specialised and nuanced subject knowledge required to create effective research guides for secondary libraries is different to primary school libraries, where the subject content is less technical. This is not, as Jodie Lednor (Lednor, 2021, October 1) suggested, to say that secondary TLs cannot or should not create such resources, rather articulate the importance of collaboration with subject specialists. One of my 2022 learning goals is to develop my skill in reference interviews. I believe these techniques could establish exactly what a teacher requires students to do and understand as a result of their inquiry, and therefore guide the development of resources. Ross et al (2019) offer guidance on this topic and I look forward to implementing their strategies and learning others during ETL507.

References

Aisah, M. A., Abrizah, A., Idaya Aspura, M. K. Y., & Wan Dollah, W. A. K. (2018). Development of an information literate school community: Perceived roles and practices of teacher librarians. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 23(2), 63–75. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.22452/mjlis.vol23no2.4

 

Bolden, N. (2021, Spetember 21). Effective Information Service. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241160_1&message_id=_3804327_1

 

Cherrstrom, C. A. & Boden, C. J. (2020). Expanding role and potential of curation in education: A systematic review of the literature. The Reference Librarian, 61(2), 113-132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1080/02763877.2020.1776191

 

Coombes, B. (2009). Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? Synergy, 7(1), 31–40. https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/10.3316/aeipt.178236

 

Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century, 2nd Edition . Libraries Unlimited.

 

Lednor, J. (2021, October 1). Re: Creating Resources. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241159_1&message_id=_3808932_1

Ross, C. S., Nilsen, K. & Radford, M. L. (2019) Conducting the reference interview: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians, 3rd edition. ALA Neal-Schuman. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=5850100

A balanced collection

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s module asks whether our school library has a balanced collection. A balanced collection means that there are sufficient items in the catalogue that cover all curriculum levels and offer a variety of types. For example, it needs maps, posters, kits, professional resources, fiction, non-fiction, junior fiction (all sufficiently diverse), web-based resources and AV resources, but could also include games and toys, construction equipment and such. In terms of fiction, our library has a relatively large collection that is slowly being updated and diversified. The junior fiction section houses picture books and simple chapter books. Many of the simple chapter books do need updating and diversifying. It is a challenge to find such resources that feature diverse characters without being “preachy” or overly contrived. I would not say that it is balanced at the moment, but it is a work in progress and is certainly closer to being so than it was 2 years ago. The fiction section contains a good number of print items, mostly realistic fiction and fantasy. I am working to build our collection of other genres, especially graphic novels. Until 2020 our school library did not hold any graphic novels or manga at all. Now it is easily the most popular collection, but it is never on the shelf so I think it still needs augmenting. The challenge with manga and graphic novels is the inclusion of socially appropriate content. Many hold story lines that are appropriate, but artwork that is not or vice versa. Again, this is a work in progress.The non-fiction section needs a lot of work at the moment. Many resources are out of date or uninspiring and unattractive. It is more difficult to sources resources on some subjects than others because they are outdated so quickly – subjects like technology and geography are quickly out of date. This subject has reminded me of the value of almanacs for this purpose. I think this is an area I would like to explore more fully in the fullness of time. It is also an area in which I think a digital collection could be very useful. It is much easier and cheaper to update websites and links than it is to update the print collection.

Our digital collection is almost non-existent at this point, though I have recently been successful in gaining approval for an ebook subscription trial through Wheelers. The next stage of this trial is to recruit some students to evaluate it. I like that it is accessible from any device – iOS, Android or browser based. I like that there are collections that have been curated already to start us off and that we can add other titles over time as we have a chance to review them. Another method of enhancing the digital collection is by including in Oliver web-based resources. I will begin by looking through the SCIS database as there is a plethora of resources and suggestions available there. I must create some method of regularly checking that the links are still active. I will include this as a task in the annual stocktake but perhaps more regular checking will be important, as I alluded to in my post about Scootle recently. Perhaps I can teach the students how to use the “send resource” function to alert me to any issues they discover, thus harnessing the people power of our 900 students, and hopefully offering another way of interacting with the library.

The collection of items such as kits is fairly small in the school library at the moment as this has been under the perview of subject coordinators at my school. Science resources are kept in the science store, for example and are not part of the library collection. I think this needs to change as it is not very effective. Nothing is catalogued, the storeroom is a bombsite and noone knows what is there or how to find it. In the fullness of time, this is a project I would like to take on, but at the moment it is a longer term plan. Visual items, such as maps, posters and AV resources, has, in my opinion become less vital in recent years with the advent of technology that can access these items on an as-needed basis and the items are more likely to be up-to-date. This is always supposing that the digital collection is up to scratch to assist teachers and students to find such quality resources. This is not the case at the moment.

Learning Objects

Posted on by
Reply

Learning objects are reusable items, often, though not essentially, digital, that support technology-enriched learning. Today I have viewed a number of learning objects available through ESA . The first thing I noticed was the number of resources that were unavailable, moved or no longer supported. Of the first 8 resources I attempted to look at, 7 were no longer available. This was very disappointing and served to underline the importance of keeping resources updated, checking the live status of links on a regular basis and ensuring that bookmarks are regularly reviewed. It would be easy for a school library patron to discredit the library as an out-of-date, irrelevant institution if resources promised can not be delivered on such a regular basis. Regular maintenance of such repositories would have a three pronged impact: ensuring links are current and active, locating and potentially adding (or removing) new titles to ensure all learning areas are addressed, and promoting teacher librarian familiarity with the digital catalogue, allowing them to assist members of the school community to identify and locate resources at point of need.

Despite my initial lack of success, I did not give up. I looked for resources to support areas of the HSIE curriculum, looking at the places strand in the geography syllabus. For Early stage 1, I found a unit of work from The State Library of NSW: People live in places. Important places – Homes which is a mini unit of work based around a collection of photographs of homes in Australia during different time periods. Students learn about features of homes and how they have changed and stayed the same over time and consider how we look after homes. The inclusion of teachers’ notes along with all resources needed makes this a simple but effective activity for Kindergarten. Teachers can direct students’ attention to the fact that the State Library is a reliable source and discuss the value of photographs as primary sources. The inclusion of metadata with each item allows both class teachers and teacher librarians to attribute ownership and show students why it is important to do so.

Next I looked at Aboriginal understandings of weather and seasons. This interactive map shows the various traditions and beliefs from different areas of Australia. This is an interesting resource for year 1 as it combines understandings from both the Science and Geography syllabuses and makes clear the differences between the First Nations peoples. However, it is quite text heavy and would require teacher assistance to be useful for this age group. It would be interesting to pair with a study of Cooee Mittigar by Jasmine Seymour and Leanne Mulgo Watson.

Following on that theme for stage 2, I searched for a learning object for stage 2 about significant places in Australia. This site, https://storyspheres.com/uluru/​ takes viewers on a virtual tour of Uluru. At each place of interest, a recording of Aboriginal elders explaining the significance of what can be seen is available. The site is quite graphics and sound heavy and so is a little slow to load, however, it is a rich source of information gathered from a primary source and is accessible to all students due to its highly visual and auditory nature. This site is useful from a digital literacy perspective because the options available to the user do not become apparent unless the look for them. They need to use the 3D interface to notice details and look over the whole landscape before choosing where to go or what to listen to. The provides opportunities for discussion around examining all parts of a source rather than jumping in a focusing only on the obvious.

The final learning object I found for stage 3 involves comparing how people live in various parts of the world. Dollar Street allows users to compare the daily lives and activities of families from all over the world in all income brackets. Students in stage 3 can learn about ways in which they are similar and different to people all over the world, but also identify poverty as a significant issue in the well-being of people. This could be a very good resource to use in the initial stages of an inquiry unit and presents opportunities to look at how the families were selected, who is represented and, importantly, who is not represented. This video (Ted, 2018, January), a Ted talk by the creator explains it very well.

Ted. (2018, January). Anna Rosling Ronnllund: See how the rest of the world lives, organized by income

. YouTube. https://youtu.be/u4L130DkdOw

Learning so far

Posted on by
Reply

ETL501 has so far been a very interesting subject. I am, by now, used to the online learning model and I appreciate the advantages that it has over face-to-face learning. I can access the content at a time that suits my other commitments. I have all the content logically laid out and collected in one place. I can read the thoughts of others, including the instructor, on the content in the discussion forum, though, I can not easily or quickly get them to expand on, deepen or explain their ideas to explore further. On the other hand, the comments that are left are usually carefully considered and articulated clearly, the exploration taken up by those further down the thread.

I had not considered when I started this subject that the content would be so interrelated as it is. I expected that the physical environment and the online environment would be quite separate topics but in fact I have come to see the connecting threads: resources, whether physical or digital, must be fit for purpose. The purpose behind the resource/object/item/choice must be the driving factor. That is, that the teacher librarian must have an idea in mind of the learning they wish to take place and select the appropriate tool for the job. A physical library that looks amazing and colourful and exciting and innovative is of absolutely no use to anyone if the students can not learn there. If it is too noisy, too distracting, too uncomfortable, students will not engage. Group collaborations happen much more readily in informal seating arrangements than in rows in a lecture hall. Similarly, the teacher librarian must select digital tools to use that match the purpose and audience of the lesson. Students must be taught how to use and interact with the resources (physical or digital) to their advantage, develop their lifelong learning skills by learning to select the appropriate tool for the job.

The flipped classroom is a concept many teachers are becoming intimately acquainted with during home learning in 2021. Classes have been forced online and teachers and students both have had to learn quickly how to use the available tools. There have been some stumbling blocks that very few predicted in terms of equity of access even in affluent areas. Motivation in an online environment has been very difficult for some students (and some teachers, no doubt). A key feature of my own kids’ experience is that their lack of literacy (they are 4 and 6) prevents their accessing much of the content their teachers provide and so they have needed almost constant guidance and assistance. I have observed online classes in several grades and several different teachers in two different schools and a clear observation is that those teachers who have taken the time to teach the students how to use the tools and technology (both practically and in terms of etiquette) have had a more successful outcome. Presenting content in a 5 minute video and then following up in a Zoom class (a flipped classroom model as described by Teachings in Education (2017) and Earp (2016)) seems an effective strategy for these students. Yet there is still a group of students who do not engage at all. For some, time outside the classroom is not for school work. There are other commitments they attend to even in non-covid times. One of the considerations for implementing a flipped classroom that teachers and teacher librarians alike need to consider is whether it is likely the target student audience will or should engage outside of class time.

When thinking about providing library services, it seems to me that teacher librarians should keep the above in mind. Some students will want to engage in learning and need access to resources outside of when they are actually in the library. Some will not. Some will be able to read and learn from a screen. Others prefer print copies. Providing a mixture of both approaches allows the teacher librarian to meet the learning needs of students in both situations. Similarly, in order for students to be able to access resources and learning from the library program, teacher librarians must teach them how to access, use and apply the available tools.

Earp, J. (2016, February 3). Homework culture key to flipped learning success. Teacher. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/homework-culture-key-to-flipped-learning-success

Teachings in Education. (2017, June 20). Flipped classroom model: Why, how and overview [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/BCIxikOq73Q

Note taking

Posted on by
Reply

I see no need to limit students to one form of note-taking. Different forms serve different purposes. The point is that students record the information they find in a way that they can locate information later, and then, over time, they transform those notes to serve as repetition and reinforcement of the ideas.

Some key strategies are:

Cornell system for recording prose notes

Concept mapping to visualise the main ideas and how they are connected

diagramming or making notes visual.

In all cases, it is the transformation of the notes that leaves the lasting impression. Holland (2017) recommends a variety of techniques and thinking routines to help students synthesize their notes and the concepts involved.

I believe that it is necessary to teach a variety of techniques to students and to point out not only how to use them, but when and for what purpose, and then to give them lots of opportunities for practise in real situations.

 

Holland, B. (2017, August 17). Digital note taking strategies that deepen student thinking. KQED: MindShift. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/48902/digital-note-taking-strategies-that-deepen-student-thinking

Blogs in the Library

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s module task ask me to think how a blog could be used in the school library. There are the obvious ideas that spring immediately to mind: a journal of book recommendations and reviews, possibly of new titles into the library. Perhaps reflections on class activities, students could jointly construct posts about the target information literacy concept from the day’s lesson. Students could contribute content on reading recommendations, polls about whether the content on a particular site is reliable or suitable for academic work. Articles could promote upcoming events in the library or the school more widely. Posts about transferable academic skills, such debating, referencing, writing skills etc, could assist students and families at certain times but would need to be searchable and set in categories so students can find what they need asynchronously.

One of the ideas suggested by Morris (February 11, 2020) is to use the school blog as a way to engage families and the wider school community. Offering updates about programs running in the school, school events, tips to help at home, parenting information and so on, schools can encourage families to be involved in the life and education offered at the school. Morris goes on to suggest that a class blog can be used as an organisational agenda for the school day. I have used one in kindergarten in this way where, at the end of lessons, the students and I would jointly construct a report for parents about what we learned, incorporating the WALT statements and photographs or videos showing how they met the success criteria. This acted not only to engage the parents, but also to solidify and reflect on learning for the students. It does take time, but was a good way to teach students about interacting appropriately in an online environment.

 

An important consideration with any project being undertaken in the library or classroom is an analysis of the benefit against the amount of work involved in maintaining it. Creating an maintaining an online presence as described above is an important part of the role of the TL, but it is not without a time commitment. Students can be recruited to help, especially older students, but they need training and supervision also. This time needs to be factored in to the workflow of the library team.

 

Morris, K. ( 2020, February 11). The top 10 ways blogs and WordPress are used in schools. The Edublogger. https://www.theedublogger.com/blogs-wordpress-schools/ 

Web 2.0 and 3.0 and constructivist learning

Posted on by
Reply

In order to place web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies within the realm of constructivist learning, it is necessary to first establish what exactly is meant by each of those terms.

In the begining,  websites were static; created by experts in their fields and designed to convey information and data. Later, websites began to offer users the opportunity to interact both with each other and with the website. Users were now creators as well as consumers. This was known as web 2.o. A further development in web technology saw the technology trying to understand the intention of the user and act to facilitate the task they are trying to achieve. An example of this is semantic searching, or “Did you mean…”, “People also ask…”, “Displaying results for…”. Machines try to understand and react to natural speech and information needs. They tailor search and information results to the individual user with the idea that this will be more likely to suit their needs. This is web 3.0. The next generation, web 4.0, suggests Spivack (2007), will involve distributed searching and intelligent personal agents. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence that can act as an online personal assistant is a direction in which Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant have already travelled. The danger of allowing technology to tailor responses to our usual needs is that we may miss out on unexpected results when we attempt to find information or complete tasks that are not within our usual paradigm. Searching for information showing an alternate point of view becomes more difficult. Students who engage significantly with this technology through social media may be led to believe that opinions and world views that are different or opposing to their own simply don’t exist. A dangerous position indeed for a constructivist. A constructivist learner makes their own meaning by gathering information and evidence from their own experiences. If technology that is designed to increase our access to information is actually acting to limit easy access to information that agrees with that which we have already engaged with, we, as learners and teachers, need to be purposefully engaged in seeking information and perspectives of others in order to widen our world view. This is not an easy task, and one that many students, at least in my experience, resist. Here in lies one of the most important jobs of the teacher librarian. Exposure to information and stories about the experiences of others, teaching students to search for, find and analyse other perspectives is our bread and butter, our schtick, our reason for being.

 

Spivack, N. (2007, October 4). Web 3.0: The best official definition imaginable.

Selecting format: hardcopy or ebook

Posted on by
Reply

Myrberg and Wiberg (2015) suggest that ebooks and print books both have advantages and disadvantages depending on the task, the preferences of the user and the technology used to access them. They suggest that readers who prefer print books, once they get used to ebooks, use them just as efficiently, but also suggest that ebooks that are born digital – ie were designed for electronic use and take advantage of the various tools such as integrated dictionaries, placing questions next to the relevant parts of the text etc, are superior to ebooks that have been converted from print to digital media with minimal changes or utilisation of the ereader’s facilities. Meanwhile, Du Temple (2020) suggests that some of the key advantages of ebooks are the anonymity of the reader – they can be accessed privately without peers or teachers knowing what has been selected – and their accessibility – they can be accessed at any time of the day or night and in almost any location. This, she argues means that teens, particularly, are more likely to explore and seek help for social-emotional or mental health issues they may be dealing with. Gray (2017) raises issues around equity of access – ebooks are only available to students whose families can afford to buy them an ereader or tablet/phone. He also discusses the problem of cross-platform access – some resources are only available on certain devices. This problem has largely been solved by apps such as Libby which allow readers to access materials from subscribed libraries regardless of the platform they use.  There are also issues around whether the library is spending its limited budget acquiring titles permanently in the collection, or just providing access for a time. What happens if that access is no longer able to be included in the annual budget?

What, then, are the implications for my primary school library? Currently my library does not provide access to any ebooks or audiobooks at all. Should they be added to the collection and in what form? I believe that both hard and softcopies are useful to different people in different ways and the ideal scenario would see all titles available in both formats. Of course, budgets do not allow for this. Perhaps this is an opportunity for student-led selection. I don’t believe that there will ever be an excuse to do away entirely with the print collection, however, I do think that ebooks could play an important part in areas of the collection that are quickly outdated such as technology, international politics and scientific advancements. Many reference materials might be included in the electronic collection, some, such as encyclopedias, in place of print copies and some, such as dictionaries and thesauruses, in addition to it. This is always assuming that the teacher librarian has included in the selection criteria for the digital materials the frequency of update available for the ebook and the pattern this takes. If a digital book automatically provides access to the most recent update when accessed by a student, this is ideal. If on the otherhand, a digital file must be checked regularly for updates and these downloaded individually, this needs to be factored in to the library staff workflow and is, from a practical perspective, unlikely to be possible.

One must consider whether it is necessary or desirable for fiction and non-fiction, and indeed junior fiction titles to be included in the digital collection. Many junior students at our school do not have the technology skills to access ebooks readily, but many older students seem much happier to read fiction than non-fiction in electronic format. I suspect that this is because linear reading styles typical of fiction books are more easily navigated on an ereader than the dip in and out style of non-fiction texts.

Another spanner in the works is the recent extraordinary times we find ourselves in. During lockdown for the Covid-19 pandemic, students are not able to access any of our library titles. If they were available in a digital collection, at least they could get some use out of them. As it is, though, the print collection sits on shelves in a deserted building, gathering dust.

 

Du Temple, T, (2020). The positive potential of ebooks within school libraries. SCIS Connections, (113). https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-113/the-positive-potential-of-ebooks-within-school-libraries
Gray, M. (2017). Ebooks: To subscribe, or not to subscribe? SCIS Connections (101). https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-101/ebooks-to-subscribe-or-not-to-subscribe
Myrberg, C., & Wiberg, N. (2015). Screen vs. paper: what is the difference for reading and learning?. Insights, 28(2), 49–54. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.236

Website evaluation tools

Posted on by
Reply

Tonight I read a number of articles in Module 2.3 about teaching students and teachers the importance of and the skills of website evaluation. A number of models were presented, including Shrock’s (2009) 5Ws, Duke’s (2016) WWWDOT test, and the CRAP test, presented by Pru Mitchell (2017). I found the 5Ws to be a comprehensive guide that covers all the necessary elements, but I fear that the mnemonic may not be as memorable as one might wish in this context, after all who, what, where, when, how and why are used in other contexts too, possibly leading to confusion for younger students. The CRAP test I have found is quite memorable for my students. The WWWDOT method I had not read about before. I do not find this an easy model to use or mnemonic to remember. Duke (2016) relates that only a small percentage of students in her study were able to independently implement this test and I can see why.

The models presented above all cover roughly the same ground, just using slightly different language. It is up to the teacher librarian to select which model is most memorable and impactful for their particular cohort of students. Oddone (2016), on the other hand, presents some online tools that were completely new to me. These are tools I do not think are usually necessary for primary aged students, but would be very useful to high school and university students and the population at large. They are tools that I want to remember and return to at another time for further investigation and I highly recommend this article for other teacher librarians.

 

Duke, N. K. (2016). Evaluating websites as information sources. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/evaluating-websites-as-information-sources-nell-k-duke
Mitchell, P. (2017, January 15). Critical thinking tool – the CRAP test. Teacher. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/critical-thinking-tools-the-crap-test
Oddone, K. (2016).  Information and critical literacy on the web. SCIS Connections, (96). https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-96/information-and-critical-literacy-on-the-web
Schrock. K. (2009). The 5W’s of website evaluation. http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/5ws.pdf

Website Evaluation Criteria

Posted on by
Reply

Evaluating the quality of information presented on a website is a skill targeted by teacher librarians in their information literacy programs, starting from the early years. As students develop the ability to distinguish between fact and fiction, begin to be able to identify the purpose of an article and learn to find and use information, it becomes increasingly important that they learn to evaluate the content they encounter. In a primary school setting, teacher librarians need a model for evaluation of content that is simple enough for students to remember and implement, but also effective. Below are some thoughts on what such a model could look like.

 

C Current/complete Is the date of publication shown? (not just today’s date)
Is the date recent?
Have big changes happened since the article was written?
Does the article show the whole picture?
L Language Is there emotive language?
Is there exaggeration or sweeping statements?
Is technical language used to help or hinder?
A Author Is the author identified?
Is the publisher identified?
Is the sponsor identified?
Can you contact the author for clarification?
P Proof Are facts backed up with trusted sources?
Are claims supported by evidence?
Are other perspectives acknowledged?
Do other articles agree or disagree?
Are further readings linked?
Do other trusted sources link to this article?
Do links work?

 

Technical criteria

In addition to criteria considered by students in evaluating online content, there are technical considerations for teacher librarians looking to recommend online resources to the school community. Teacher librarians should consider accessibility requirements as well as layout, usability, relevance to the curriculum, reading and cognitive level, balance between text and images and appropriateness to the context.

However, some technical aspects such as downloading speed, avoidance of Flash, responsiveness, adaptability to different browsers, whether information is held behind paywalls or require user accounts to view, should be considered. Cumbrowski (2018) suggests many other issues for consideration, however, many of these aspects are beyond the needs of most teacher librarians and are more relevant for web developers looking to have their sites indexed more readily by search engines.

Cumbrowski, C. (2018, March 22). 50 questions to evaluate the quality of your website. Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/evaluate-website-quality/233555/#close