LIBE 477 Final Vision Post & Reflection

 Final Vision Artifact

    For the Final Vision Project for LIBE 477 I knew that I wanted to create an artifact that would help teachers (and by extension students) utilize the e-resources that are already acquired and curated by the District Learning Commons (DLC). It has weighed on me for a little while that the excellent e-resources that are available are unknown to teachers, staff, and students. Additionally, I get many requests for quality sources of information that pertains to the curriculum all of the time. For example, at one of my two schools students do at least one in-depth country study per year. I promote and demonstrate the e-resource "CultureGrams" a couple of times a year to staff (as it requires students to access it through the DLC site and enter a password) so that they can use that for country research and yet it is still not being used. I feel that the barriers for use are:

1.  Out of sight, out of mind

2. Going through the DLC page adds an extra step that cause many not to use it

3. The time it takes to explore resources to determine if any of the information is valuable to the class/project can seem overwhelming. 

    The e-resources that we have access to in our district could benefit many students in their various research projects. They are secure, closed sites with relevant and accurate information. Additionally, the majority of our e-resources are also great assets for teachers when it comes to the planning and teaching of curriculum. There are so many resources on these sites that I would have been happy to use. When I taught grade 6/7 I spent hours searching for images, passages, or video clips that were exactly on topic, age appropriate, interesting, and contemporary to spice up dry units/lessons. These resources would have saved me hours of prep time. 

    Going through the planning of this project I came to the conclusion that I would make a resource for teaching staff that mapped the links between the curriculum and the e-resources available. Originally I had planned to demonstrate the curricular links in some fashion and create log-in pages that showed in depth what the resource looked like and what was available. I was painstakingly going through the National Geographic Kids site screen-shotting as I went along when I realized that the DLC had already made login guides (see the left hand panel of the website here ). I had seen them once before but forgotten all about them. Additionally, they don't actually have most of the passwords as we are not allowed to post those publically online so they simply serve to provide another hoop for teachers to jump through. Once I was done kicking myself for the wasted time, I downloaded them and added the correct login information to the documents I will share with staff. 

DLC Info Sheet

My Screenshots that were going to explain how students could search a topic and then find/use both video and book resources through the site.

    

    In the end, it is probably a good thing that I did not have to make the login papers as well because creating the curriculum link maps for Grade 6 & 7 Science and Social Studies took a long time. The end result, an easy to read chart, looks deceptively simple and empty. However, I went through each resource topic by topic searching variations of wording and looking at each of the results to determine if they were: on topic/relevant, contemporary, age/reading level appropriate, and useful to the user. If there were more than 2 hits that matched that criteria then I put a star in the box. 

        These quick guide reference charts are both on the cover of, and at the front of  the duo tang resources I made. I printed these charts and the modified login sheets and put them into a duo tang. I wanted to have a more flashy, techy resource at the end of this project, but the school buildings and communities that I am in are not using the technology that we have. Information on how to use these e-resources have been around and promoted and they still are not used. I am hoping that by having a clear graphic that illustrated the usefulness of these items will cause an uptake in their use. 

    This is an ongoing project. I was only able to make it through two subjects for two grade levels. I would like to create resource packages for all teaching levels that contain all core subjects. Additionally, I may include a page for each resource that outlines the curricular appropriate information in greater depth, but I worry that will make the resource too bulky and overwhelming. I also plan on making exploring e-resources a focus of my job next year. I plan to showcase and demo a new resource every staff meeting (just for a minute or two). Teachers are constantly asking me for good online resources and I think that these e-resources fill a lot of their needs.

    Another large part of this initiative is to link some of the e-resources that are good for student independent use directly to icons on the student desktops. These will include Bookflix, Tumble Books, Tumble Math, National Geographic Kids, World Book (Kids, Student), and CultureGrams. I believe that by eliminating the need to navigate students to the DLC website for access will increase class usage of these resources. Unfortunately in order to make that happen I have to go through Tech Support and am currently waiting for our tech to come talk to me about it. 

Final Vision Reflection

    Looking back, I can see that this is not a flashy project. It is not exciting and cutting edge. However, I do believe that it fits the needs of my school community and I believe that it will increase teacher knowledge and comfort level with the e-resources available. The four teachers that I have shared my 6/7 booklets with have reacted positively so far. I wish that I could have gotten more done before this post was due, but the promotion and usage of e-resources will be an ongoing focus for my and my Library Learning Commons.