Final Post

The tide of information and change is powerful and unstoppable. We will always be searching for answers to our questions.

But the process of searching for these answers has changed. And the "answers" are often shifting even as we become aware of what they might be.

How we approach the tide of change and how comfortable we are with change are directly connected to our potential effectiveness as teachers and teacher-librarians.

As I contemplate the picture I selected for my profile and the picture that I selected for my final post, I realize the metaphor that I unconsciously created reflects my learning journey. Together in this setting of rapid change, we can move forward in a purposeful way. Through this course I have learned ways to adapt to the tide of information. Here are some closing thoughts.

1. Responding to change is best done collectively rather than in isolation. One way is through blogging and following the blogs of others who are respected in the field. We can also build our own credibility through effective use of blogs and Web 2.0.

2. Information/articles should be triangulated with articles/information from other sources and perspectives.

3. Information literacy is a basic 21st century need and related skills can and should be taught systematically amd explicitly with skill-building integrated in resource-based projects by collaborative educators. There are models to follow :o)

4. Indexes are delightful as long as the school has access to the resources mentioned!

5. There are A LOT of online resources. There is also an "invisible web" of resources. All resources need to be verified and compared with other perspectives.

6. Evaluation of resources should be approached systematically looking at content scope, Accuracy, Authority and Bias, Arrangement and Presentation, relation to Similar works, timeliness and Permanence and Cost.

7. The success of a reference interview is related as much or more to the feelings of support that the seeker of information has than to the actual answer found or not.

8. Reference interviews are a science and an art that can be learned and refined.

9. It is essential for teacher-librarians to develop relationships and connections within the school population and staff, enabling maximum input on information needs by communities within the school

10. Responding to change effectively requires constant vigilance, constantly dealing with uncertainty, and constantly learning and growing.

Lorraine

Information Boom

This video looks at changes to how information is found, stored, created, critiqued, and shared. information.

http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/video/672799:Video:26851

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html

This university site recommends a Wikipedia article for information on the Invisible Web.

It includes excellent Internet Search resources.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Handouts.html

Online atlases

Misty and others have mentioned these great sites for all levels of students and their educators. I have posted the links here for easy accessibility. I have come to see the blog as a tool that I can use as part of my practice.

The Canadian Atlas Online
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/intro.aspx?lang=En

The Canadian Atlas Online Learning Centre

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/learningtools.aspx?lang=En#

Canadian Geographic Kids Atlas Online

http://www.cgkids.ca/cgkidsatlas/


The Atlas of Canada

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/index.html

Lesson plans for the Atlas of Canada

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/learningresources/lesson_plans

Reference for Classical Information and more

Thank you to Marilyn for bringing this site to my attention. It has a wealth of useful links that I will be exploring in the months ahead.

http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/classics/

Some thoughts

Riedling (2005) stated (in part) that to be successful, the teacher-librarian has to have knowledge of the collection and skills to evaluate resources to meet students' needs (page 4).

Now I am thinking that the collection is so vast with all the resource possibilities, that it is critical, while being open to possibilities, to have a toolbox ready with resources that have been vetted and are tried and true. But a teacher-librarian should always be evaluating even these resources. We must continually develop and hone our own critical thinking skills.

Here are some of my favourite spoof sites.

Satire of newshttp://www.thehammer.ca

Research shows that cats avoid bearded menhttp://www.sree.net/stories/feline.html

Gives benefits of the chemical H2Ohttp://www.dhmo.org/

This site has pictures of the endangered Tree octopushttp://www.lakelandschools.org/EDTECH/webdetechtor/SaveThePacificNorthwestTreeOctopus.htm


We have had quite a lot of discussion on Wikipedia. I am thinking that whether it is Wikipedia or some other resource, we must constantly be vigilant and evaluate and re-evaluate. The need to be so vigilant has been my major learning from this course. That and just trying to wrap my head around the best approach to the information that is available. Truly this is a lifelong learning endeavour.

Databases

I decided to take a look at the Student Resource Center Gold, which is part of the EBSCO package. The opening page is user-friendly with clear divisions, colourful graphics, hot links with popular topics, which, I think, invite the reader to go exploring. There is a help option along with other options (print, previous searches, etc) at the top. The bottom of the page includes contact and copyright information. The divisions are Culture, Geography, Literature, Science, US History, World History. I wish that the division Canadian History was included instead of or in addition to US History. Literature links included Authors, Literary Works, Literary Topics, Genres and Movements (no graphics or popular topics). At the bottom of the page “Discovery Education steaming” was offered. When I tried it some sort of problem was logged. I think this option may be an additional service that can be purchased.

Seeing as my Grade 10’s are studying Romeo and Juliet now, I decided to see what I could discover.

There are several search options on the home page: Basic, Subject Guide, Publication, Curriculum Standards and Topic Trees. I decided to choose Basic.

For a basic search of Romeo and Juliet, I got 29 hits. When I limited my search to those with images, my 32 hits were dance and theatre reviews. For an advanced search I had 129 hits and started to feel overwhelmed. I decided to go back to the basic search and look at one article. Picture icons on the left marked the articles as audio, picture or plot summary or critical essay. I picked the first article, which was full text, included graphics, and included instructions for citation: plot summary with a picture icon. The article was from “Exploring Shakespeare” the online edition. Information and options were given for generating a citation. I could also mark the article for future reference. The article was from 2003. There were also suggested readings and multimedia links and a translation (Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese) engine.

The bottom of the article included links with video and audio files. I watched a presentation of the Prologue, which was accurate. I thought I would listen to Queen Mab’s speech but to do so I would have had to download Shockwave from Norton (I do not like Norton and do not want to be inundated with spams from Norton). This decision prevented me from listening to the any of the audio files. When I went to another audio file I did not have the option to reconsider downloading Shockwave.

The article included plot summaries and key quotations from Romeo and Juliet. Key words are displayed in red. Links to the multimedia files were also embedded in the article.

Overall I found the article useful and I intend to share the resource with my students. There appears to be ample in-depth information for any Shakespearean project on this database.