A+ Education was my next database to explore and by this stage I am now becoming a much more efficient and much less frustrated 'information seeker.' After locating this database through searching educational journals in the QUT Library Homepage, I began my searching in the same way as I did via pro Quest.
I started my advanced searching with the term 'Inquiry Based Learning,' however I set some limits from the beginning, by limiting my searching to Full Text Records Only and Date Range 1990 - 2010. After starting with this search, there were 175 results in comparison to 394 when I did the same search via Pro Quest. So, at this point I can see the benefits of setting limits from the beginning of the searching process in order to become a much speedier searcher.
To refine the searching, I once again added 'not science' and this narrowed the results to 91. I then once again added 'and researching' this narrowed the documents found to six, however none of them were relevant. At this point, I changed the 'and researching' to 'and information literacy' and this gave me 12 documents, three of which were relevant and useful.
After using both Pro Quest and A+ Education, I preferred the layout and navigation of Pro Quest, as well as the marking documents function. When marking documents in A+ Education, they were not as easy to locate, in comparison to having the My Research Folder in Pro Quest. However, A+ Education seemed to refine the documents more explicitly and efficiently and gave you options in how you wanted the documents found displayed. I selected the newest to oldest function, to ensure the data being read was the most up to date and relevant.
When seeking information in the future, both of these databases will become well-used tools in my researching kit!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
A little more 'Information Searching' via Pro Quest
After some much needed feedback from Mandy, it was time to extend my 'Information Searching' via the University Databases. To start this process, I began with Pro Quest - what an amazing collection of resources! A wide, wide world beyond Google and school-based search engines!
To begin this process, I located the Pro Quest Educational Journals and started my advanced searching. I really like the way this database is set up with the advanced search boxes and drop down menus featuring boolean terms to refine your searching.
I began the searching with the broad term 'Inquiry Based Learning' to see where it lead me and I ended up with 763 documents found. This was definately a much lower number than when searching the same term via Google, however there were still too many documents with a science focus and too many to scroll through. To refine this searching I used the 'and not' drop down button and added 'science.'
This quickly refined my results to 394 and after scrolling through the first few pages, I started to mark some documents, adding them to My Research Folder. I really love this function of the Pro Quest databases, as you are able to scan through a number of documents, add the relevant ones into your folder and continue searching, then you can return to your folder and read through the selected documents thoroughly at a later date. This function is similar to the Questia Bookshelf.
It was at this stage of my searching, I found a few of supportive journal articles for my topic, including an article written by Kuhlthau in January this year, which supports her other work, however extends the discussion relating to the importance of Teacher-Librarains. I also located an article by Spronken-Smith entitled 'Can inquiry-based learning strengthen the links between teaching and disciplinary research?' and an article by Savolainen which explores how time is a major factor in the context of information seeking and IBL. All of these articles become important references in my Final Report.
Finally, I added the term 'and' 'researching' to my advanced search and this narrowed my results down to six documents. It was in these six I found the article 'The Problem of Teaching for Transfer: Taking the Low Road or the High Road?' by Jeffrey Wilhelm, this article explores the teacher as a co-reseracher with the students and how to effectively incorporate reflective teaching and learning into the classroom. When I located this article it was like 'Jackpot!'
Pro Quest database definately expanded my understanding of the importance of using University databases and made my researching so much easier! At times throughout this unit I have felt like it was an uphill battle, however knowing where to and how to search and knowing how to refine this searching, can point you in the right direction, so much quicker! Ahhh - thank you Pro Quest!
To begin this process, I located the Pro Quest Educational Journals and started my advanced searching. I really like the way this database is set up with the advanced search boxes and drop down menus featuring boolean terms to refine your searching.
I began the searching with the broad term 'Inquiry Based Learning' to see where it lead me and I ended up with 763 documents found. This was definately a much lower number than when searching the same term via Google, however there were still too many documents with a science focus and too many to scroll through. To refine this searching I used the 'and not' drop down button and added 'science.'
This quickly refined my results to 394 and after scrolling through the first few pages, I started to mark some documents, adding them to My Research Folder. I really love this function of the Pro Quest databases, as you are able to scan through a number of documents, add the relevant ones into your folder and continue searching, then you can return to your folder and read through the selected documents thoroughly at a later date. This function is similar to the Questia Bookshelf.
It was at this stage of my searching, I found a few of supportive journal articles for my topic, including an article written by Kuhlthau in January this year, which supports her other work, however extends the discussion relating to the importance of Teacher-Librarains. I also located an article by Spronken-Smith entitled 'Can inquiry-based learning strengthen the links between teaching and disciplinary research?' and an article by Savolainen which explores how time is a major factor in the context of information seeking and IBL. All of these articles become important references in my Final Report.
Finally, I added the term 'and' 'researching' to my advanced search and this narrowed my results down to six documents. It was in these six I found the article 'The Problem of Teaching for Transfer: Taking the Low Road or the High Road?' by Jeffrey Wilhelm, this article explores the teacher as a co-reseracher with the students and how to effectively incorporate reflective teaching and learning into the classroom. When I located this article it was like 'Jackpot!'
Pro Quest database definately expanded my understanding of the importance of using University databases and made my researching so much easier! At times throughout this unit I have felt like it was an uphill battle, however knowing where to and how to search and knowing how to refine this searching, can point you in the right direction, so much quicker! Ahhh - thank you Pro Quest!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Final Reflection...
1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.
My knowledge of Inquiry Based Learning started off at ‘quite a bit’, however I feel as though it has grown to ‘a great deal.’ At the beginning of this learning I was very familiar with and competent at using the Information Model by Capra and Ryan. This is a model I have been referring to since the beginning of my teaching career and I have used across all year levels from Year 3 - Year 10.
I then became familiar with Kuhlthau’s ISP earlier this year during the Learning Hubs subject and have started to incorporate this model into my teaching and learning. Reflection plays a huge role in my current teaching pedagogy, however after researching this unit and ILA, I can really see it’s importance and have found a range of new ways to incorporate it more effectively. Reflection, feelings and thoughts are such a vital role within the inquiry process, no matter what model you are basing your teaching pedagogy on.
What is Inquiry Based Learning to me?
- Students undertaken their own journey
- Levels of facilitation and guidance
- Posing questions
- Collaborating with others
- Interviewing others
- Independence
- Scaffolding
- Gaining new information
- Gaining new skills
- Seeking
- Real life learning - authentic
- Making connections
- Reflection
- Feelings and attitudes
- Active learning
- Analysing - data analysis
- Synthesising
- Lifelong learning
- Critical thinking
2. How interested are you in this topic? Circle the answer that best matches your interest.
Not at all not much quite a bit a great deal
3. How much do you know about this topic? Circle the answer that best matches how much you know.
Nothing not much quite a bit a great deal
4. Thinking back on your project, what did you find find easy to do? Please list as many things as you like.
The easiest part of this task was working with the students and classroom teacher on the ILA. The students started off slowly and found the task of researching quite difficult, however the longer the students participated in learning experience, the more excited they were about the individual projects. The students were not use to having so much freedom and making decisions on their own, so watching them grow through the inquiry process was very rewarding.
Towards the end of creating the blog, I really started to enjoy creating and reflecting via this presentation method. In the beginning, I found the blod to be quite daunting and I viewed it as an extra, however the longer it went on, the more I started to enjoy it and I was keen to explore the multiple functions of blogging. After viewing my finished project, I can see that I started to embrace it after my first couple of entries. I also really enjoyed reading through other people’s blogs and I can now see how blogging is such an effective learning tool for all learners - children and adults.
5. Thinking back on your project, what did you find most difficult to do? Please list as many things as you like.
- Starting the task
- Time management - with full time work
- Breaking down the information
- Synthesising the information - I had an information overload!
- Defining Part A - I did not synthesis enough in this part of the task, I did more of a basic literature review
- The Blog - in the beginning
6. What did you learn in doing this research project? Please list as many things as you like.
- A greater understanding of Kuhlthau’s ISP
- A greater understanding and knowledge of ‘inquiry’
- How to create a Blog
- How to screen dump on a Mac
- How to attach You Tube clips to a Blog
- The vital role of incorporating reflection into students learning
- How to use the questionaire results to guide future learning
- How to use the SLIM toolkit
- How to narrow boolean search terms
- How to use Google Scholar and Boolify
- How to use the topic sentence structure at the beginning of writing
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Let's get Graphic!
This diagram displays the importance of the balance between lecturing the learners versus them teaching each other and practicing their learning by actually doing. It gives a clear visual to teachers about the retention rate of learners and therefore we are required to adapt out teaching and learning methods to accommodate this. Love this visual!
How 'COOL' is 'BOOL'IFY?
I have heard some many great reports about Boolify, however I had not used it until starting my research for the ILA - it is now going to be a regular tool in my library lessons with the students and teachers, as well as in my own learning! It is such a fantastic resource for those who are visual learners, and a wonderful way for younger students to build their boolean search terms.
http://www.boolify.org
In my own Boolify searching, I built the terms - "Researching" and "Countries" and "Primary school" and "Inquiry Based Learning" and "Geography"
As I began the searching, I received hundreds of thousands of results, however with each new search term added, I could see the results narrowing into a much more user-friendly amount. I love this feature within Boolify, as it would allow the students to also see their searches narrowing and therefore becoming more managable. I ended up with 191 results and from here I was able to sift through and bookmark sites that looked relevant.
One site I found through this searching was http://www.primaryschool.com.au.
It provides free sites, lesson plans, software, text, videos and teacher reference materials for all key learning areas, housed in the appropriate year levels.
http://www.boolify.org
In my own Boolify searching, I built the terms - "Researching" and "Countries" and "Primary school" and "Inquiry Based Learning" and "Geography"
As I began the searching, I received hundreds of thousands of results, however with each new search term added, I could see the results narrowing into a much more user-friendly amount. I love this feature within Boolify, as it would allow the students to also see their searches narrowing and therefore becoming more managable. I ended up with 191 results and from here I was able to sift through and bookmark sites that looked relevant.
One site I found through this searching was http://www.primaryschool.com.au.
It provides free sites, lesson plans, software, text, videos and teacher reference materials for all key learning areas, housed in the appropriate year levels.
The Quest on Questia
Questia is (apparently) the world's largest online library, which provides access to academic resources including books, encyclopedias, articles and journals. It was purchased by our College at the beginning of this year for all Year 6 - 12 students as a subscription, so all students had access to a more 'academic' bank of resources.
This extensive database certainly meets the demand of academic materials required for our Senior Years students, however it is most certainly not useful for the younger years. After almost completing my research for the ILA, I thought Questia may provide some resources to aid my own learning at tertiary level.
http://www.questiaschool.com
The school subscription for this database gives all staff their own logon and password and hosts such features as searching the library, creating bookshelves to store resources for personal use and student access, housing lessons plans and assessments, managing and checking student access, using lexiles and creating citations.
Questia is searched through in much the same manner as Google and Google Scholar, using Boolean search terms in quotation marks.
I began my searching with the broad term - "Guided Inquiry"- This search led me to over 35,000 resources - eeek!
I then moved onto the search terms - "Inquiry in education" - This once again led me to far too many results to sift through (48,876)
From here I narrowed my boolean search terms to "Inquiry Learning" and "Primary Education" - This result gave me 144 results (books, articles and journals), however the when reading through these resources they tended to still remain quite broad, general and philosophical.
Finally, I used the terms "Inquiry Learning" and "Primary Teaching" - This gave me 17 results, three of which I added to my Learning Nexus Bookshelf, to be read through in more detail, in preparation for Part B of the ILA Task.
I would highly recommended a subscription to this database for Teacher-Librarians in a secondary or tertiary setting. The resources available provide the users with a broad academic range of resources to access in their full text (as opposed to snippets) whilst not having to physically visit a public/state library. It is a wonderful resource for schools and universities in remote areas or with limited funding.
This extensive database certainly meets the demand of academic materials required for our Senior Years students, however it is most certainly not useful for the younger years. After almost completing my research for the ILA, I thought Questia may provide some resources to aid my own learning at tertiary level.
http://www.questiaschool.com
The school subscription for this database gives all staff their own logon and password and hosts such features as searching the library, creating bookshelves to store resources for personal use and student access, housing lessons plans and assessments, managing and checking student access, using lexiles and creating citations.
Questia is searched through in much the same manner as Google and Google Scholar, using Boolean search terms in quotation marks.
I began my searching with the broad term - "Guided Inquiry"- This search led me to over 35,000 resources - eeek!
I then moved onto the search terms - "Inquiry in education" - This once again led me to far too many results to sift through (48,876)
From here I narrowed my boolean search terms to "Inquiry Learning" and "Primary Education" - This result gave me 144 results (books, articles and journals), however the when reading through these resources they tended to still remain quite broad, general and philosophical.
Finally, I used the terms "Inquiry Learning" and "Primary Teaching" - This gave me 17 results, three of which I added to my Learning Nexus Bookshelf, to be read through in more detail, in preparation for Part B of the ILA Task.
I would highly recommended a subscription to this database for Teacher-Librarians in a secondary or tertiary setting. The resources available provide the users with a broad academic range of resources to access in their full text (as opposed to snippets) whilst not having to physically visit a public/state library. It is a wonderful resource for schools and universities in remote areas or with limited funding.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Getting Scholarly...
I just completed a lengthy post on the above topic only for it to disappear - urgh! Take Two on 'Getting Scholarly...'
After beginning my searching using more basic search terms within Google and Google Wonderwheel, it was time to tackle a more academic approach – with Google Scholar.
I begin this searching with the Boolean terms "guided inquiry" and "research."Unfortunately these search terms proved to be too broad and delivered many results on science inquiry. I then refined this searching with the terms "guided inquiry" and "primary." These terms proved to be much more successful.
Many of the results were either written by Kuhlthau or had links to Kuhlthau's work, however the journals and online books referenced in my results have provided me with an extended understanding of Kuhlthau's perspective. The results also provided me with a wonderful range of information I can draw upon as a comparison to my own ILA.
Below is a link to one of the resources saved and used as a component of my Part A Draft. This resource is a complete book written by Kuhlthau -
One useful tool I located was an extension to the regularly used ‘KWL’ This is something I use with my own students effectively, however I really like the extension to this common practice and I aim to embed this into my own pedagogy, it really provides students with the opportunity to extend their thinking.
I then refined my Boolean search terms even further, by using “guided inquiry” and “information seeking.” Through these terms, I located a great article by Limberg, which discussed at length the important things to consider when designing guided inquiry units and tasks. The article focused on shaping learning tasks, creating complex and real life tasks, ensuring there is opportunity for varying experiences, ensuring information seeking goes beyond fact finding into analysis, scrutiny and the understanding of complex issues, as well as relating information seeking to the learning outcomes.
The Limberg Reading hyperlinked below -
The link below is another associated with Kuhlthau’s work which explores the question – ‘ISP – Is the model still useful? This reading was valuable in assessing the relevance and efficiency of Kuhlthau’s ISP in our current learning settings and provides a great tool for comparison.
Finally, I located a PDF entitled – Grade 4 Student’s Development of Research Skills through Inquiry Based Learning Projects.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wonderwheel lead me to Webquest
After exploring my mind mapping branches from my Wonderwheel searching on "Inquiry" and "Research Country" I located a whole new range of websites I have never before used with students during library time or within my classroom teaching. These websites are perfect to extend the students' researching and information gathering techniques and I will be able to put together as a webquest for them.
Many of the students struggle with refining their internet searching, so this will give them an opportunity to go straight to some valuable and reliable sites.
The sites I found to be fantastic for the ILA are -
http://www.kidsnationalgeographic.com
http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org
http://www.kidinfo.com
http://www.countryreports.com
http://www.kids.yahoo.com/reference/world-factbook
I'm so excited with these findings, as they are great websites to show the teachers at school and add as links on our library home page for our younger students. Many of them have activities, stories, photos, pictures, interviews, videos and games - all linked with the SOSE/Geography content for my ILA.
Many of the students struggle with refining their internet searching, so this will give them an opportunity to go straight to some valuable and reliable sites.
The sites I found to be fantastic for the ILA are -
http://www.kidsnationalgeographic.com
http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org
http://www.kidinfo.com
http://www.countryreports.com
http://www.kids.yahoo.com/reference/world-factbook
I'm so excited with these findings, as they are great websites to show the teachers at school and add as links on our library home page for our younger students. Many of them have activities, stories, photos, pictures, interviews, videos and games - all linked with the SOSE/Geography content for my ILA.
Time to Reflect - Part 1
1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.
2. How interested are you in this topic? Circle the answer that best matches your interest.
Not at all not much quite a bit a great deal
3. How much do you know about this topic? Circle the answer that best matches how much you know.
Nothing not much quite a bit a great deal
4. When you do research, what do you generally find easy to do? Please list as many things as you like.
Reading and highlighting texts - I find I have to highlight and take notes when reading otherwise the information does not sink in, I enjoy reading from a text as opposed to a screen. I enjoy discussing the task with others to gain understanding and develop my interest and I enjoy working with a team on a research project. I find it easy to select the key points from texts and am able to speed read when looking for information.
5. When you do research, what do you generally find difficult to do? Please list as many things as you like.
I find it difficult to start tasks and I can procrastinate in the beginning until I have a complete/whole understanding of the task at hand. I find it difficult to complete drafts on the computer, I need to hand write my assignments in draft form, before transferring to the computer. It is much easier for me to read on paper than it is on a screen. This often means it takes me longer to complete my tasks.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
ILA, Boolean and Wonderful Wonderwheel!
ILA Information
My ILA is a Year 4/5 Researching task, using the FIFA World Cup 2010 as a stimulus. One of the Year 4/5 teachers has asked if I can support her classroom unit focus in the RC (Resource Centre), by extending the students’ researching skills – in print and online, critical thinking skills and general use of the RC. The students are required to choose a country that has their own World Cup Soccer Team and complete a range of questions and information searching. The students are then required to complete a broad range of Thinkers Keys tasks as an individual inquiry, to support their ILA even further. The ILA will then conclude with an evaluation.
The activity will be running for six weeks – as a homework assignment, during SOSE lessons and RC lessons
The range of information they will be required to search for –
Information on their chosen country, Continent information, Capital city information Mapping and Geographical facts, Climate, Flag, Language spoken, Food, Famous person from chosen country, Information about South Africa, World Cup Tournament information, Locating and using atlases, Locating and using search engines, Locating and using in print resources
Boolean!
To begin my searching on Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) within a SOSE (Studies of Society and Environment) setting, I began with Google and some Boolean searching.
My first Boolean search was "Inquiry Based Learning" and "Research a country"
This search came up with only 8 results, which I found extremely surprising. The first link on the list was www.circle.adventist.org and it housed a whole host of links to problem-based learning Webquests. I was excited upon entering, however unfortunately many of these links were both American content and needed to be paid for to view, so not very helpful for my needs.
The best link out of the narrow 8 hits, was -
The site called "MN Learning Loop" explored a broad range of units created by teachers who were completing an online learning course which explored cooperative learning, building learning communities and questioning strategies. The link above shows a video of Second graders using technology, a constructivist approach and IBL to explore their topic on travelling around the world. This video gave me a good comparison to my current ILA and some ideas for future learning tasks with primary aged students.
When using my next Boolean search of "inquiry" and "research country" I received 5,900 results. To narrow this down I played around with Google Wonderwheel. This gave me some good branch outs to further explore, including - project and research country, investigation and research country, enquiry and research country, report and research country, search and research country, information and research country. I am now in the process of exploring these branch outs in greater detail. Fingers crossed for some more successful responses than my initial searching.
Wonderful Wonderwheel
On another note, I have been using Google Wonderwheel and Google Timeline with my current Year 6 -Year 10s during Resource Centre Lessons. The students are really loving to use these functions and are becoming more efficient and accurate information locators and users. They often come into the RC to tell me about their searching and how much easier it has made locating information online for their assignments.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Let's get it started!
Welcome to my 'slow-start' blog for Information Learning Nexus. After two trips to Melbourne and one to Perth in the last month, I have now found some time to add my searching techniques and findings to The Blog. I have been keeping a diary of my searching during my travels, so here goes...
Prior to this unit, I would say I wasn't a 'novice' information explorer and user, however most definitely not an 'expert' in the field either, I sat and still sit somewhere in the middle. This is an area of current learning for me, both throughout this unit and within my role as a TL. I am currently working on a school-based project entitled - 'Resource Centre in a Digital Age' and many of the points discussed in the readings, by Mandy and via the Elluminate sessions reflect my learning objectives for the school-based project also.
So... Let's get it started!
Prior to this unit, I would say I wasn't a 'novice' information explorer and user, however most definitely not an 'expert' in the field either, I sat and still sit somewhere in the middle. This is an area of current learning for me, both throughout this unit and within my role as a TL. I am currently working on a school-based project entitled - 'Resource Centre in a Digital Age' and many of the points discussed in the readings, by Mandy and via the Elluminate sessions reflect my learning objectives for the school-based project also.
So... Let's get it started!
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