Tag Archives: digital resource

Learning Objects

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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 It would be easy for a school library patron to discredit the library as an out-of-date, irrelevant institution if resources promised can not be delivered on such a regular basis.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

Selecting format: hardcopy or ebook

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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 Criteria

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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

ETL501 – Module 2.1 – print vs digital reference materials

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In her article Why libraries should retain a core print reference collection (Lederer, 2016), Lederer makes several points regarding the value of print reference materials. Many of her points relate to convenience and the longevity of print reference resources. How to these points relate to the primary school context? In the usual course of events, there are very few primary students learning only online and needing access to online only resources (though during the current pandemic, this is different) and so they usually have access to the print collection as easily or more easily than the online collection. Primary students, especially in the junior years may have difficulty being able to log in to the computer at all, let alone navigate to and through an online environment.

The level of detail and currency required for curriculum activities is less demanding than in Lederer’s academic library context. Many primary students who are still developing literacy and computer skills may have a good deal of difficulty accessing digital reference materials independently. Often they cannot read the results they find, if they manage to find the articles, though if the source uses assistive technology such as immersive readers, audio and video content, they can access the information more readily. Primary students require more generalised resources with much lower reading levels and more reliance on visual content, yet they are still learning to interpret that visual content. Having the teacher librarian available to conduct regular lessons on how to access and use reference materials is vital.  Also, seeing the print resources on the shelf during lunchtime or independent reading times means many students choose to explore these texts by flipping through, not looking for specific information but becoming familiar with the form and composition of the text.

Digital resources are much more difficult to navigate and explore when the user doesn’t have a specific question in mind. Primary students may not have any basic understandings of topics they are asked to investigate, whereas students in a high school or academic library usually have at least some context or background knowledge around what they are investigating. Reference materials are perfect for users who need to gain a general understanding of the their topic.

Lederer, N. (2016). Why libraries should retain a core print reference collection. The Reference Librarian, 57(4), 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2016.1145093

WTL501 – Module 2.1 – Reference Materials

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Farmer (2014) provides a guide to the development of the reference collection in American schools. It is clear that the information is specifically targeted towards American schools, however it is still relevant to Australian school librarians. Farmer suggests that librarians should be careful to select materials that contain American spellings and measurements, which is also true of Australian librarians, though, of course, including English spellings and decimal measurements.
Farmer points out the necessity of keeping the collection current and the fact that many reference titles are quickly out-of-date. Many school libraries do not have the funds to be updating these volumes every year, if, in fact a print update is available. While it is important to provide current reference materials, this is not an indication that older versions are not useful in a school for purposes other than locating factual information. Primary school libraries provide materials used to teach students about textual features such as indexes, contents pages, bibliographies, directories etc and this does not always require up-to-the-minute accuracy and currency, though it would be an added bonus if this was also the case. This has to be balanced against the competing needs of other curriculum areas the budget must cover. Recently in my school library we attempted to purchase class sets of updated atlases of the world. The most up-to-date edition we could buy in print form was from 2009 and contains suggestions to readers that they consult the online version for updates. We decided to purchase them anyway as it is deemed important to provide class sets of print copies for the purpose of teaching map-reading skills as well as textual features of atlases and reference books more generally.
Farmer suggests that it is important to consider hardware and software requirements when selecting digital reference materials. While this is certainly a concern, it is one that needs to be addressed not only from the point of view of the library computers, but also the universal usage by library users at home who may be using any number of different operating systems, old or new hardware with varying amounts of processing oe display power. In recent times, many reference material publishers have made their products available on a number of platforms and in a variety of formats such as websites, mobile or responsive websites, apps, cloud-based streaming services etc, that do not necessarily rely on the user having the most up-to-date technology available. This is important for patrons accessing content remotely, but also means that these services are in direct competition for student attention with sites such as Wikipedia, meaning that the educational programs offered by the library need to be on point in this regard.
In addition to the resources listed by Farmer and Alderman (2014), Australian school libraries might consider providing syllabus documents and professional readings collections in the teachers’ reference collection and conversion charts of common measurements and spelling differences between traditional English and American English. They might consider language references for First Nations languages and cultural materials.
A thought occurs that, as print-based materials are out-dated so quickly, digital resources should have an advantage. Perhaps signage and advertisements for these digital materials should be displayed in the reference area of the library. Perhaps teacher librarians should be including specific lessons about how these materials can and should be used in the library program, especially in primary schools where more students are likely to experience regular contact with the library through the RFF program.
Farmer, L. S. J. (2014). Introduction to reference and information services in today’s school library. Rowman & Littlefield.
Alderman, J. (2014). What is a reference collection? LIS1001 Beginning Library Information Systems & Strategies. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=bliss

Transliteracy

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Kalogeras (2014) describes media convergence as the flow of content across multiple media platforms. Transliteracy is the ability to combine information from these multiple platforms into an integrated whole. My school library has done this well in the non-fiction domain, offering platforms such as the print collection, internet access, subscriptions to World Book Online and the creation of digital pathfinders for various units of work that incorporate primary sources, video and audio content, artwork etc for use by students and class teachers in their studies, mainly within HSIE.

The same, however, can not be said for the fiction collection. The only offering, aside from the print collection, is a subscription to Storybox Library. There are currently no audiobooks, ebooks, DVDs, games or websites included in the collection. This is an area which I would like to learn more about. I need to develop my knowledge of strategies to be leveraged, resources to be sought out and the best methods of making these available to the school community. Many of our students have ereaders – I have seen them use them for silent reading activities. I think we are missing an opportunity here. I hope that this module will provide some of the answers and suggest areas for further investigation in order to pitch to the TL and the school leadership.

 

Kalogeras, S. (2014)Transmedia storytelling and the new era of media convergence in higher education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1057/9781137388377

Book Apps and Ebooks

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How much do these define the story? How does this impact on my practise?

Book apps are constantly changing, needing updating, require available technology to use them and are of mixed quality. But they are available 24/7, multiple copies can be sought relatively cheaply and they can be highly engaging for students. So, how much does the format dictate the story? I would say that it is very much dependent on the story and the app producers working together. There is no doubt that the potential exists for book apps to be very high quality and there are criteria available (eg. Yokota & William, 2014) that teacher librarians can use to ensure quality is maintained and the resource adds value to the collection. In order for these to be used regularly in classrooms in my school, they would have to offer something valuable that is not available from print books. The appeal I can see would be mainly in the younger years, a time at which actually accessing and logging into devices available is such a phaff that it would be a fairly painful exercise. As such, the pay-off would have to be LARGE. I can definitely see appeal in these apps for reading for pleasure and I would love to be able to offer them to families for use after school and at weekends, but I am fairly confident that this is not possible as far as apps go, and sharing of the individually purchased copies of books within those apps. In fact, thinking about how that would logistically work given the constraints of the ET4L environment, using Windows only (not iOS or Android) one would have to be very careful about what one signed up for.

Ebooks, on the other hand, hold much more realistic value. For students to be able to download these in a browser based way to be read on a tablet/desktop/ereader depending on what they have access to, is a much more do-able proposition. One would have to be very careful about whether the ebooks available were worth the cost, and added something to the text that traditional print does not. Access to books, be they fiction or non-fiction, 24 hours/day and from any device would certain be an advantage. I can’t see it ever overtaking the print collection, but it could certainly augment it. This is something I would really like to look into further for my library.

 

Yokota, J. & William, H. T. (2014). Picture books in the digital world. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577-585. http://www.readingteacher.com/

ETL503 Assessment 2 Part B – Reflection

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One of the exciting yet challenging features of the school library is change. The speed of change. The pervasiveness of change. The digital revolution (O’Connell, Bales and Mitchell (2015) that has swept the world has transformed the information landscape and the people who inhabit it. Bringing new formats, digital content, changing publishing models, shrinking print collections, increasing digital collections. But it is still all for the same purpose. The school library still exists to help students find, create and explore ideas (Lamb 2015), to assist students to learn to navigate the information landscape confidently, critically and efficiently. Central to that purpose is the development of a comprehensive, balanced and accessible collection. And central to that is the collection development policy.

 

We all share the ultimate destination: we want students to be life-long learners. Capable, confident, efficient, ethical and flexible thinkers. While the end destination is the same for all schools, the scenery, route and landmarks are all different. Our approach to collection development and management must be reflective of the community in which we work and the goals and aspirations of that community. It is the responsibility of the teacher librarian to ensure that the library’s policies and procedures support and implement the mission of the school (ALIA and ASLA 2005).

 

The elements of a collection development policy allow teacher librarians to assess the state of the collection presently, posit the ideal state of the collection and formulate a plan to move towards that goal. I discussed collection evaluation strategies in my blog post, Collection Evaluation. One of the challenges faced by teacher librarians is developing a strong collection that supports the needs, wants, expectations and interests of the school community now and is also flexible enough to be useful as technology and pedagogy continue to develop. Loh and Sun (2019) argue that it is the preferences and interests of the readers themselves that determine whether print or digital resources are more effective. Print is heavy, not updated and takes up valuable shelf real estate, yet students prefer it in some circumstances (Copyright Agency, 2017; Johnston& Salaz, 2019). But what about picture books? Richter and Courage (2017) found that younger readers were more engaged in e-books than in print. It is therefore important for the school library to offer a variety of formats and delivery methods so that readers of all persuasions might access information in their preferred format. This should be reflected in the goals and selection criteria of the collection development policy.

 

Along with a diversity of formats, the collection development policy should reflect the desire to create a collection that represents a diversity of viewpoints (Disher, 2014). All students have the right to see themselves reflected in the characters, stories and problems they read about (Braxton, 2018). Recognising themselves in characters that face hardship and overcome challenges encourages them to do the same when they are experiencing difficulty. Seeing the world through many different lenses allows students to develop empathy and intercultural understanding (Brown, 2016; Veltze, 2004).

 

Are school libraries and teacher librarians to disappear as teachers and students access resources directly online? Finding reliable, accessible and authoritative information online can mean sifting through a lot of unreliable and irrelevant resources in order to find what is needed. I wrote about this in my discussion post in Forum 2.4b and in my comments in Forum 2.4a on the work of Michelle Wheeler. Strong selection criteria combined with reliable selection aids ensure that resources included in the collection are reliable, authoritative and relevant to the school community. Yet, to make sure resources selected meet the needs and interests as closely as possible, it is desirable to include the school community in decision making processes (Viner, 2016). I discussed some strategies for this in my blog post, With Whom the Buck Stops. Regular review of the collection development policy and the selection criteria is desirable in order to ensure the collection continues to meet the needs, wants, interests and expectations of the school community. I discussed this in my blog post, Selection and Deselection. Part of the review cycle should include an evaluation of the collection. Doing this regularly is especially important in a time of rapid change to curriculum such as has been seen since the introduction of the Australian Curriculum and the related state syllabus documents. Keeping abreast of changes in syllabus documents and pedagogical developments allows teacher librarians to ensure resources and services provided remain up-to-date.

 

Changes in technology available in schools has and will continue to be rapid (Domeny, 2017). This has implications for the teacher librarian in determining how the development of digital collections will proceed. Changing software and hardware can mean that resources quickly become unusable, for example, many devices can no longer access CD and DVD resources as they do not have the necessary drives. Software that is developed for older operating systems may not be compatible with newer versions. Resources that can be accessed by iPads may be inaccessible to Android devices and so on. This should be kept in mind when selecting resources and access patterns: what is cutting edge now will likely be obsolete in five years time. The changing technology space brings some exciting new tools and pedagogies but it also brings new safety concerns. Gillies (2017) argues that digital security is a major concern in schools that requires more the virus protection, firewalls and content filtering. She advocates placing greater attention on digital citizenship and cyber security. These are, arguably, part of learning to navigate the digital information environment safely and effectively. The challenge is to keep students safe from inappropriate content without straying into censorship (Rumberger, 2019). Here, too, we must be ever mindful of the context. What is appropriate in one school may be positioned just over the line in another. I considered this in my discussion post in forum 6.2.

 

Part B References

 

ALIA & ASLA. (2005). ALIA-ASLA policy on school library resource provision. Retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/alia-asla-policy-school-library-resource-provision

Brown, D. (2016). School libraries as power-houses of empathy: People for loan in the human library. International Association of School Librarianship.Selected Papers from the …Annual Conference, , 1-10. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1928619177?accountid=10344

Copyright Agency. (2017, February 28). Most teens prefer print books [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.copyright.com.au/2017/02/teens-prefer-print-books/

Domeny, J. V. (2017). The relationship between digital leadership and digital implementation in elementary schools (Order No. 10271817). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1896954900). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1896954900?accountid=10344

Disher, W. (2014). Crash course in collection development. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Gillies, A. (2017). Creating a healthy digital environment for 21st century learners. Independence, 42(2), 60-61.

Johnston, N., & Salaz, A. M. (2019). Exploring the reasons why university students prefer print over digital texts: An Australian perspective. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 68(2), 126-145.

Lamb, A. (2015). Makerspaces and the school library part 1: Where creativity blooms.

Loh, C. E., & Sun, B. (2019). “I’d still prefer to read the hard copy”: Adolescents’ print and digital reading habits. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(6), 663-672.

Oberg, D., & Schultz-Jones, B. (eds.). (2015). IFLA school library guidelines, 2nd revised edition. Den Haag, Netherlands: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Retrieved from https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/school-libraries-resource-centers/publications/ifla-school-library-guidelines.pdf

O’Connell, J., Bales, J., & Mitchell, P. (2015). [R]Evolution in reading cultures: 2020 vision for school libraries. The Australian Library Journal, 64(3), 194-208. doi:10.1080/00049670.2015.1048043

Richter, A. & Courage, M. L. (2017). Comparing electronic and paper storybooks for preschoolers: Attention, engagement, and recall. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 48, 92-102.

Rumberger, A. (2019). The elementary school library: Tensions between access and censorship. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(4), 409-421.

Veltze, L. (2004). Multicultural reading. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 20(9), 24-26,41. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/237132103?accountid=10344

Viner, J. (2016). Collaboration : school libraries. Synergy, 14(2).