fyi : back issues
Summer 2002-Online challenges
The library network and curriculum support
By Susan Boyce
Much has been written about the new order of communications and school
libraries, but from my position at one library site in a multi campus
school, the most influential aspect of this new order has been the advent
of our school intranet which connects all campuses within one information
flow. Known as the Intranet, it has made the delivery of library information
services possible in new and different ways. Like many other school librarians
we have capitalised on our local area network (the Intranet) and web page
software to establish online Library and Information Services. Our space
on the Intranet distributes hyperlinked access to our catalogues, our
subscribed data bases and other specialist services.
My focus in this article, however, moves on a little further in time to
the process we have undertaken to use these communications resources to
support the delivery of curriculum. More recently, our activities in this
area have expanded to the point of merging curriculum and information
in what might be described as an online curriculum/information service.
Online curriculum/information products published by our Library are located
on the Intranet where students and teachers have ready access to them.
At first...
Initially, our work in this area replicated traditional subject pathfinders,
drawing together a variety of resources, print and digital, in and out
of the Library to create a digital version of the conventional print pathfinder,
or a virtual 'resource box'. As our understanding of the potential of
networked space developed, so did our use of web page software to customise
these services into a more attractive and user-friendly interface. The
page below was produced in support of a Geography unit of work on Global
Warming (Figs.1 and 2). The underlined links on this page offer a number
of Internet sites selected for their relevance and validity. The links
in the navigation frame at the left of the page direct users to subscribed
databases and information about print resources available within the library
Fig 1
Fig. 2
One of the benefits of publishing information services on the Intranet
in this way are evident in this particular example. Produced in support
of a Geography unit on global warming, the page has also served other
units of work, across a number of year levels as well as across campuses,
in Science, International Studies, Commerce and English. Locating resources
for a specific need on the Intranet in this way has taken us into another
dimension. The result is something like a virtual vertical file containing
information in a variety of media formats: print texts, hypertexts, still
and animated images, sound. The file is further enhanced in that each
link has been chosen for its relevance and usefulness, guaranteeing immediate
and efficient connections for users.
There is another aspect to this work which has featured significantly
for our community.
The Intranet environment
has proved to be a very likely space for teacher and librarian work to
come together. Working with teaching staff to support curriculum, we have
discovered that library services often stray beyond the confines of the
Library's space on the Intranet. For example, the English faculty enlisted
Library services to create a page that charted all the in-house online
resources supporting texts studied across years 7-12. Strictly utilitarian
in design, the following page (Fig.3) came into shape as both English
and Library staff gathered and posted supporting texts and information.
Each title listed on this page is a hyperlink to a number of resources:
scanned documents converted into PDF files, Internet sites or specifically
constructed web pages which combine curriculum course material with information
resources. The page is an ongoing project supported mutually by both faculties.
Fig 3
It wasn't long before our work in delivering information services in this
way took a new turn. In collaboration with the year 8 Science teachers,
the Adaptation page (Fig.4a) was developed for a year 8 unit of work.
Fig 4a
This page was used as a reference platform in the classroom where Library
staff worked with teachers and students. Our association with this exercise
was especially significant because several key understandings emerged
from the experience. The first related to the fact that when we searched
within our print resources on animal and plant adaptation, we found only
one or two pages within each of the three books which were appropriate
to year 8 reading levels. Rather than listing these resources on our pathfinder
and placing the texts on Reserve, the relevant pages were scanned, annotated
with their relevant bibliographic details and saved as PDF files. These
were hyperlinked to the Adaptation pathfinder, so that any number of students
could access them at any time. With one hundred and fifty students and
a limited time period for the unit of work, this means of integrating
print and digital resources and delivering them across the Intranet proved
to be a very apt solution (Fig.4b). Copyright had not been breached as
the number of pages copied was well below what was permitted, and their
distribution on a closed local area network was not broadcast or accessible
beyond the school network. That the Adaptations page was recycled and
given a second airing by one of our Primary classes was further evidence
of the advantage of publishing curriculum online.
Fig 4b
The second, and probably the most significant understanding however, came
about as a result of library staff working with teachers and students
on this unit. Although the Adaptations page had been prepared as a pathfinder,
it did in fact exploit the potential for blending information and curriculum
so seamlessly within the medium of web editing software and a networked
environment, that we realised how closely it verged on being a piece of
online curriculum.
At about the same time, the idea of using these means for merging information
services with curriculum delivery was further developed through collaboration
with a History teacher. Together we published the History of Revolutions
page (Fig 5).
Fig 5
From this page students have access to a compilation of information about
the course including task descriptions and the structure of assessment
as well as to a comprehensive coverage of resources: links to bibliographies,
the catalogues of local libraries, educational indexes, document delivery
services and Internet sites.
Moving on ...
Although the Revolutions page approximated our budding ideas of how we
might support online curriculum, it didn't fit with the notions we had
begun to entertain about including far more active, or interactive elements
into the design of our curriculum/information pages. Earlier, within the
scope of our information literacy work we had incorporated generic pages,
which were interactive to the degree that students could write to these
pages and then e-mail them to their teachers. Whilst pondering how to
further progress the potential we had sensed in the Adaptations experience,
we encountered the notion of 'clickable' worksheets as promoted on a number
of educational Internet sites.
The format of the 'clickable worksheet' came even closer to our idea of
an online information/curriculum product in that it enabled us to not
only tailor information services, but to simultaneously embed other literacy
processes and pedagogical outcomes as well. Added to that, clickable worksheets
allowed considerable interaction on the part of the learner. The Ancient
Rome page (Fig.6) below, is an example of our first efforts in this genre.
It was developed jointly between teaching and library staff for year 7
SOSE.
Fig6
The work between teacher and librarian involved decisions about design,
content, and literacy outcomes. It was planned as a complementary extension
to the students' textbook unit. As such, students could select whichever
topic they preferred. The page was not designed with a sequential logic
in mind, but as an open invitation for students to engage with the topics
and activities that appealed most to their particular learning styles.
Hyperlinks at the top of the page lead students to the topic box of their
choice within which further links refer to a diverse range of print and
digital resources. In terms of integrating information with curriculum
and communication literacies, the topics offer a spectrum of learning
approaches, skills activities - and fun. Following the success of Ancient
Rome, further pages addressing other ancient civilisations have been added
to complete the year 7 SOSE suite in the Library/Curriculum spaces on
the school Intranet.
And further on ...
Useful as the clickable format proved to be, working in conjunction with
teachers and students in the everyday, down-to-earth experience of the
classroom has, not unexpectedly, widened our understanding of the scope
for different genres which integrate information services with curriculum
support. The following instances provide two examples of the range of
experience we have encountered and their outcomes:
The Novice Practitioner
The first involved a computer shy teacher who wanted to be otherwise.
This teacher approached us with the planned unit of work which revolved
around two Internet sites. The written outline of the unit was carefully
planned in a sequential manner, including precise instructions about manual
note taking and paper requirements. It was obvious that the teacher envisaged
the students using computers in the classroom as a reference tool, something
like a an alternative textbook.
In helping to translate this print worksheet into a web page worksheet
for the students, our dilemma lay in finding a way which lent itself to
the medium in which we were working, but which maintained the integrity
of the teacher's work. In the event, a sensitive compromise (Figs.7a and
b) was arrived at which seemed satisfactory.
Fig 7a
Fig.7b
The real learning for teacher and librarian lay in observing the students
at work with this page in the classroom. They assessed what was required,
reading between the lines rather than following the lines of instruction
to the letter. Understanding that their note-taking was to ultimately
resource a presentation of some sort, they proceeded to open whichever
software application they had decided on for their presentation. They
proceeded to draught their work, with an eye to assessment criteria, and
build resource files of whatever might be useful for their purposes along
the way. Like ducks to water, they had translated the task into their
own cultural interpretation of what was required in terms of text and
information. Their engagement simultaneously registered conventional literacies
of reading and writing alongside the components of information, critical,
visual and computer literacies. The students' approach differed considerably
from how the teacher envisaged their work style, but nobody was complaining.
The Experienced Practitioner
The Holocaust page (Fig.8) illustrates the second instance. By comparison,
this example was the product of an experienced web page writer, a Library
staff member who was also a History teacher. If we compare the design
of this page with that of Slavery in Modern Times, (Figs.7a and 7b) the
difference in planning and designing in print and webpage formats is evident.
But I make the comparison here only to make the point that writing in
a new medium is a new experience requiring time and familiarity.
Fig 8
The Holocaust page was posted online at the beginning of semester to accompany
the Teacher Librarian's unit of work. It served as a dynamic resource,
ready to hand as students addressed the set work. Links to documents,
visuals and primary sources weave a historical and cultural context in
support of the units of work and the assessment tasks. The format of the
page offers opportunities for students to use the pages for their own
ends and to explore resources and issues beyond the set tasks.
So that now ...
Information and information technologies are sometimes more comfortably
located within library territory, but information is also an integral
part of curriculum and teacher practice, just as digital technologies
are an integral part of our communication processes. I have described
how we have worked towards merging information services and curriculum
within the technologies of our networked environment and our vision of
information services. Most particularly, I have noted that this process
involves the gainful merging of teacher and librarian work, of library
and classroom. Amongst the members of any school community there exists
a range of technological expertise, computer literacies and practical
strategies for incorporating information services into curriculum practices.
So now, not only have we explored the potential for delivering information
services differently, we have also come to understand some important aspects
about allowing ownership of learning, about the culture of learning in
a new communications environment, and about tuning our services to the
best advantage of all members of our community.
Susan Boyce is Head of Library Caulfield Grammar School, Caulfield
Campus