ALA Midwinter 2006 Current Topics
Meeting the Instructional Needs of Today’s Education Student
Moderated by Kathy Dobda, Instruction for Educators Committee
Recorded by Laura Koltutsky, Instruction for Educators Committee
Print Resources introduced:
• EBSS Current Topics Discussion Handout – Lesson Planning websites and general bibliography.
• ERIC handout
• Education Research – Statistics
What resources do our students use/need?
Lesson Planning Websites
Initial list from Kathy – EBSS Current Topics Discussion Handout
Question: Do professors encourage the use of lesson plans found on the web?
Responses:
• Professors ask students to take lesson plans and revise them to meet the applicable state standards. Common activity.
• Grade levels are frequently rough estimates, New York Times website uses grades 6-8 and 9-12 on almost every lesson. This may be more important with the earlier grades as students are still in developmental learning stages.
• Evaluation of the websites should be done – prescreening process? Rubrics could be used to evaluate information on websites.
• ENC.org now a subscription, is it worth the price. Some schools have purchased it as it is used by students. Faculty have also requested the product.
Resources:
goENC.com
now available as a subscription
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education
http://www.goenc.com/
Educators Desk Reference
Information Institute of Syracuse
http://eduref.org/
GEM – Gateway to 21st Century Skills
National Library of Education – there were reports that access is patchy and that it was not accessible several times.
http://www.thegateway.org/
Yale-New Haven Teacher’s Institute
Yale University/New Haven Public Schools Collaboration
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/
IDEAS – Interactive Dialogue with Educators from Across the State
University of Wisconsin-System/University of Wisconsin – Extension
http://www.ideas.wisconsin.edu/
Marco Polo
MCI Foundation
http://www.marcopolo-education.org/home.aspx
Teacher Certification
Question: How many schools work with the No Child Left Behind Highly Qualified Teacher Program?
Responses:
• Ohio uses a proficiency test
• Texas uses subject proficiency exams
• National Board Certification – costly for students to gain on their own
Some schools use it in coordination with their Masters programs
• Other states use graduation and praxis tests
• Some faculty ask that certification materials be addressed in library instruction.
Resources:
Learning Express Library
Test materials, GRE, Teacher Certification (CBEST and Praxis 1)
http://learningexpresslibrary.com
Achieve.org
Translates state standards
http://www.achieve.org/
McREL - Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning
McREL by Topic
http://www.mcrel.org/topics/index.asp
Statistics
Question: How are education students using statistics for their research? What statistics resources do you use with students?
Responses:
• How do we help students who are less sophisticated (sometimes) users of statistical information?
• How far do we go in assisting them? Personal knowledge is a limit/boundary.
• Are there other resources on campus that deal with statistical information (ie. Institutional Research, Quantitative Skills Center)
• Statistical software like SPSS may require assistance of information technology groups on campus.
• Information Commons model has technology support/experts available to help students.
• One institution had to develop boundaries related to assistance with related technology. Did receive faculty support in doing so.
• Developed a wiki that gave information about statistical software.
• Having specialists or trained librarians very helpful but burden shouldn’t fall to them whenever technology looms.
• Imperative to build collaborative relationships with other campus units.
Resources:
Handout - Education Research – Statistics
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Project
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
NCES
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/
Learning Objects
Question: Do you use learning objects? If so, how?
Responses:
• When collaborating with faculty.
• Use Camtasia, developed basic tutorial in two hours, easy to learn.
• Helps when faculty incorporate library instruction into assessment scheme.
• Having all students use online tutorials before coming for library instruction enables the library instructor to teach higher level skills.
• Helps to involve people with instructional design (ie. just because we can doesn’t mean we should) to ensure that tutorial is effective.
• Faculty can allow librarians to log-in to courseware and participate at the course instructor level.
• Many schools have some sort of Teaching Center for faculty, use their expertise.
• Take care to ensure that online tutorials address different learning styles.
• Online tutorials need to be ADA compliant.
• Frequent changes to electronic products by vendors make it difficult to develop projects that will exist long-term.
• Courseware allows for assessment tools to be built into the research process. (Pre-tests, post-tests)
• Can create a presence in the courseware by being available for chat sessions or as a guest instructor.
• There is sometimes resistance from Information Technology or Instructional Designers in allowing librarians to become participants.
• Some schools provide online training like Computer Based Training (CBT’s) courses for staff, students, and faculty. Raise awareness of these tools.
Resources:
Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online Database (PRIMO)
Includes quick sections on scholarly journals, search strategies, etc…
Camtasia
Free 30 day trial available
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
Literature Reviews
Question: How do you approach teaching graduate students about literature reviews?
Responses:
• Need to define the librarian’s role in process by talking to faculty.
• Is it universally understood what is expected in an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral level literature review? Who defines this?
• Must have faculty input into the level/depth of instruction in using citation searching, more advanced techniques for it to be effective.
Resources:
Boote, D.N. & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3-15.
