My pathfinder was designed to accommodate grade
9 students studying the History subject “The Making of the Modern World - World
War I (1914-1918)” the students topic question is ‘Discuss
the difficulties of trench warfare for Australians at Gallipoli and the Western
Front?.’
As 2014 is
the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1,
the investigation of this unit of work is appropriate in regards to the
information that will be presented to them by the media with the impending
commemorations.
Included in this critical analysis are the learning
outcomes achieved by students as well as the method used to acquire the selected
resources.
Incorporated in this reflection are the benefits
of how such a pathfinder will enhance students’ information literacy skills, as
well as a critical analysis of my detailing my learning during the process of creating
the Pathfinder.
Students are to examine specific aspects of Australian’s involvement and
experiences in World War I.
As they navigate and read texts from the presented sources,
it is expected that they will achieve literacy learning outcomes through their interpretation
and analyzing the information they find. The students will evaluate and compare
information from various sources for suitability. They will use ICT skills to locate,
document and convey their findings to others. Students will also appreciate the
concept of intellectual property of others through the creation of a
bibliography (ACARA, 2013).
Prior knowledge of how students learn, the age
groups involved and their different levels of ability, was advantageous in the
selection of suitable resources.
Presenting students with Metasearch
alternatives to ‘Google’ or ‘Wikipedia’, is essential, conversely most were too technical for grade 9 students. I used ‘Dogpile’ coupled with
the use of Boolean search phrases to build upon the students known (suspected) information
literacy knowledge. The majority of sites presented when searching within this
topic are ‘gov’ or ‘org’ sites, as these were generaly created with school education
as their purpose, only a minority returned inappropriate results, surprisingly,
World Book encyclopedia [online] produced the best results for students with a
choice of advanced or simple search options (Devine & Egger-Sider, 2009).
It is apparent
that the use of annotated curriclum related resources, such as Pathfinders, can
assist in directly guiding students to access, evaluate, analyse and integrate information from the various formats
provided. When these
resources are provided it cuts through the ‘Data smog’ that students perceive and allows them to focus on more realistic
expectations of web searching through the presented sources fostering information
literacy skills, rather than squandering time and enthusiasm n searching
unsuitable websites (ACRL, 2014; DeLano Davis, 2013; Thibault, 2013).
The purpose
of the Pathfinder is to shepherd students to age and ability appropriate resources, through an annotative directory.
The students themselves must consider critically, through the use of effective
search stratigies, the usefulness of the resource against the assignment
requirements and their information needs. My conception is
that the students are being shepherded into becoming web users and developing as web learners
through developing effective search stratigies (Hemmig, 2004; Herring,
2011; Kuntz, 2003).
I had to control my inclination and guide students
to, rather than provide students with resources to enhance their
learning. The layout
went through a number of trials, until the creation of a simple and uncluttered
model emerged built around essential links to resources.
This project
gave me an insight in evaluating the use of search engines and websites for the
operation of staff and students. I found considerable difficulty in presenting
the information on a level acceptable to grade nine students, this may be a
result of working with mature age students for a number of years (O’Connell, 2012).
Using my own
Libraries Pathfinder/StudyGuide format, required my adhering to preset
structure and style, the uniformity of this presentation is an advantage
students by creating a cohesive ‘McDonalds’ repetitiveness to each guide where
students studying different subjects will not need to learn new navigation with
a different subject guide as each guide follows a similar structure.
The creation of further Pathfinders will be easier and of greater use to students, because I now understand the rules of design and how they can support all student access to the web regardless of individual abilities (Ahnmed, 2013; Herring, 2011; lamb & Johnson, 2007).
I now
consider that the establishment and implementation of pathfinders to be one of
the most effective skills I could develop as a TL, as it positions the library
as an essential part of the classroom lesson, they can be an instrumental
tool of TL's by augmenting teaching and learning quality through providing assistance
to a variety of learning styles at a point of need to both staff and students.
Reference:
Association of College &
research Libraries (ACRL), (2014). Introduction
to
information literacy. Retrieved from
www.ala.org/acrl/issues/infolit/overview/intro
Ahmed, N. H. (2013). Design:
why is it important to get it right. In Dobbs, A.
W., Sitter, R. L.
& Cook, D. (Eds.), Using libguides to
enhance library services. (pp. 23-41). Chicago, ALA TechSource
DeLano Davis, S. (2013). Making the case campus-wide for purchasing
libguides.
In Dobbs, A. W.,
Sitter, R. L. & Cook, D. (Eds.), Using
libguides to enhance library services. (pp. 23-41). Chicago, ALA TechSource
Devine, J. & Egger-Sider, F. (2009). Going beyond Google: the invisible web in
learning
and teaching. London: Facet publishing.
Hayes, D. (2011). Pathfinders: life in the library.
Retrieved from
Hemmig, W. (2004). Online
pathfinders: Toward an experience-centred model.
Reference Services Review, 33(1), 66-87.
doi:
10.1108/00907320510581397
Herring, J. (2011). Improving students’ web use and information
literacy: A
guide for teachers and teacher librarians. London: Facet
Publishing.
Kuiper, E., Volman, M. and
Terwel, J. (2008) Students’ use of web literacy skills
and strategies: searching, reading and
evaluating web information. Information Research 13(3).
Mao, J. (2014). Social
media for learning: A mixed methods study on high school
students' technology affordances and
perspectives. Teacher Librarian, 40(4).
O’Connell, J. (2012).
Learning without frontiers: school libraries and meta-
literacy in action. Access,
26(1), 4-7. Retrieved from Ebsco.
Kuntz, K. (2003). Pathfinders: helping students find paths to
information.
Multimedia
Schools. 10(3), Retrieved from:
Lamb, A. & Johnson, L.
(2007). An information skills workout: wikis and
collaborative writing. Teacher Librarian, 34(5), 57. Retrieved from ProQuest database.
Thibault, M. (2013). The student pathfinder. Learn NC.
Retrieved from
