I've called this a "beta test" before. The project has kinks -- not all of it was a success (Great Philosophical Crisis of '14, anyone?), and there are things that need my immediate attention before we get started again for next semester.
But that's just it: I want to keep this going.
I'm also wondering what else we could do on similar platforms; I have all of the students join Goodreads at the beginning of every semester, so they have a sort of "reader's social network." What if we switched our library blog (whose traffic has been pitiful this semester) over to a wiki, using something like Weebly? SMA's could post book reviews, book trailers...all kinds of cool stuff.
I'm also wondering about whether or not we should leave old pages up; before, I mentioned that Weebly didn't seem to have a page limit for sites, but eventually, if we don't weed some of them out, it's going to be unwieldy...and that's on the off chance that we don't reach a limit for pages. Would we keep everything, then, and find a way to organize sites and sources? I like the idea of keeping a digital archive, like Dewey Browse...but I also wonder about things like link maintenance. We could have students fill out a broken link report form, and have SMA's find replacement sites for any that suddenly don't work... it's a thought.
Over all, the beta test taught us a lot about what needs to be happening in the RRS, and in the library. So. in order to keep the RRS going, we're going to have to adapt and learn from our success and failures.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Hindsight is 20/20.
Looking back on the RRS, the survey results, the Great Philosphical Crisis of '14... there are a lot of things we should do differently next go 'round.
1. Sources. A goal for the coming months is to beef up our existing collection with better texts and/or periodicals. To ensure that we get what we need, I think I'm going to try and survey teachers, particularly senior project teachers. I want to know what topics they see over and over again, what topics we really need to address in our collection -- (I've mentioned welding before; it's pretty popular, and we have absolutely zilch on the subject).
2. Better thesis help from SMA's. I've got to find a way to better educate the SMA's, so that they, in turn, can assist with reference interviews.
3. Better grading system for the SMA's. I need more specific requirements for the SMA's; maybe everyone should be in charge of turning in an RRS portfolio at the end of the semester, where they help at least three patrons and complete a set amount of paperwork (web eval forms, reflections, possibly keep a blog on the process, etc.).
4. START EARLIER. We are GOING to make this work for the senior project next semester, I am DETERMINED.
1. Sources. A goal for the coming months is to beef up our existing collection with better texts and/or periodicals. To ensure that we get what we need, I think I'm going to try and survey teachers, particularly senior project teachers. I want to know what topics they see over and over again, what topics we really need to address in our collection -- (I've mentioned welding before; it's pretty popular, and we have absolutely zilch on the subject).
2. Better thesis help from SMA's. I've got to find a way to better educate the SMA's, so that they, in turn, can assist with reference interviews.
3. Better grading system for the SMA's. I need more specific requirements for the SMA's; maybe everyone should be in charge of turning in an RRS portfolio at the end of the semester, where they help at least three patrons and complete a set amount of paperwork (web eval forms, reflections, possibly keep a blog on the process, etc.).
4. START EARLIER. We are GOING to make this work for the senior project next semester, I am DETERMINED.
Survey Says...
Survey results are in.
Here was the breakdown:
Question 1: How would you rank the resources you received through the RRS?
Not helpful at all: 17.65%
Only Slightly Helpful: 5.88%
Somewhat Helpful: 35.29%
Helpful, but could be better: 23.53%
Very Helpful: 17.65%
As expected, we need to work on our resources. Partly, I think this was because of the lack of vocational sources. Partly, though, I think it's because kids don't realize that just because we're finding sources for them doesn't mean that they are exempt from reading. There was a disconnect with some students; reading is a HUGE struggle for some kids, and handing them a book on ancient Rome in general when their topic was on ancient Roman technology meant that they were actually going to have to read to find information.
Question 2: How would you rate the thesis help you received through the RRS?
Not helpful at all: 5.88%
Only slightly helpful: 5.88%
Somewhat helpful: 35.29%
Orange: Helpful, but could be better: 35.39%
Very Helpful: 17.65%
Better results on this one, probably because there was a lot of one-on-one thesis help going on here. Still not perfect.
Question 3: Suggestion box! How can we make the RRS better?
Mixed response here. Some kids wanted more print resources, some more web resources. One wanted me to find a way to outlaw essays altogether. If the survey weren't anonymous, I would tell him/her sorry, no can do.
Question 4: Would you use the RRS again in the future, and/or recommend it to someone else?
Near universal on this one. Not sure what we did to wrong the one who said no, but not everyone left comments, either, so....who knows?
Here was the breakdown:
Question 1: How would you rank the resources you received through the RRS?
Not helpful at all: 17.65%
Only Slightly Helpful: 5.88%
Somewhat Helpful: 35.29%
Helpful, but could be better: 23.53%
Very Helpful: 17.65%
As expected, we need to work on our resources. Partly, I think this was because of the lack of vocational sources. Partly, though, I think it's because kids don't realize that just because we're finding sources for them doesn't mean that they are exempt from reading. There was a disconnect with some students; reading is a HUGE struggle for some kids, and handing them a book on ancient Rome in general when their topic was on ancient Roman technology meant that they were actually going to have to read to find information.
Question 2: How would you rate the thesis help you received through the RRS?
Not helpful at all: 5.88%
Only slightly helpful: 5.88%
Somewhat helpful: 35.29%
Orange: Helpful, but could be better: 35.39%
Very Helpful: 17.65%
Better results on this one, probably because there was a lot of one-on-one thesis help going on here. Still not perfect.
Question 3: Suggestion box! How can we make the RRS better?
Mixed response here. Some kids wanted more print resources, some more web resources. One wanted me to find a way to outlaw essays altogether. If the survey weren't anonymous, I would tell him/her sorry, no can do.
Question 4: Would you use the RRS again in the future, and/or recommend it to someone else?
Near universal on this one. Not sure what we did to wrong the one who said no, but not everyone left comments, either, so....who knows?
The Survey
Evaluating projects like this is always a bit hard. Verbal feedback is well and good, but surveys, I think, are the way to go. That way, feedback (and the project's successes and failures) are a bit more quantifiable.
The survey is based on four questions.
1. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being very helpful, how would you rate the sources provided to you by the RRS?
The idea here is to quantify how successful we were in finding students useful sources. Hopefully, the good stuff we found for them will inspire them to move on to better their own research skills in the future.
The idea here is to quantify how successful we were in finding students useful sources. Hopefully, the good stuff we found for them will inspire them to move on to better their own research skills in the future.
2. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being very helpful, how would you rate the thesis help you received through the RRS?
Since I did most of the thesis help stuff, I'm now wondering how to add that to the next phase of the project -- how do I easily create a teaching tool for SMA's to bear some of the thesis help burden, and make them better thesis-writers in the process?
Since I did most of the thesis help stuff, I'm now wondering how to add that to the next phase of the project -- how do I easily create a teaching tool for SMA's to bear some of the thesis help burden, and make them better thesis-writers in the process?
3. Would you consider using the RRS again in the future, and/or recommending it to someone else?
If kids hated it, thought it was a massive waste of time, I want to know. That way, I can overhaul it and/or scrap it for something better.
4. Give us a suggestion on how we could improve the RRS.
Oh, how high school students love open-ended questions!
If kids hated it, thought it was a massive waste of time, I want to know. That way, I can overhaul it and/or scrap it for something better.
4. Give us a suggestion on how we could improve the RRS.
Oh, how high school students love open-ended questions!
To Turn In or Not To Turn In?
When we did the website evaluation lesson, the students breezed through the quiz like nobody's business, and answered questions appropriately. One of the requirements for website evaluation, if it didn't meet obvious criteria (reputable/well known media outlet/museum, etc.) was to fill out a checklist (put together by the ITS and myself) adapted from Kathy Schrock's guide to website evaluation. What I can't decide is whether or not the students should turn it in every time they fill one out.
The checklist is pretty comprehensive; hopefully, it will very efficiently weed out the bad websites. However, we have a LOT going on in the library, and I'm not sure if it defeats the purpose of having the SMA's do this project to grade the website evaluation checklist every time they have to use it.
For example: the whole point here was to get kids to be better researchers AND to save time by educating the SMA's to be examples of good research -- to have them work as my own team of research-librarian minions. If I have to go behind them and check on everything they do, individually, that's going to be a pile of paperwork, particularly after the lack of guaranteed-reliable resources discovered during the Great Philosophical Crisis of '14. However, I don't want students to make a massive mistake and pass it on to other students under the guise of reliability -- I have to remember that the SMA's are, after all, students. They are not professional reference librarians.
Maybe a compromise could be reached? Instead of a full-on thorough grading of the checklist, I could just require they turn one in and keep it on file for every website evaluated?
It's a consideration.
The checklist is pretty comprehensive; hopefully, it will very efficiently weed out the bad websites. However, we have a LOT going on in the library, and I'm not sure if it defeats the purpose of having the SMA's do this project to grade the website evaluation checklist every time they have to use it.
For example: the whole point here was to get kids to be better researchers AND to save time by educating the SMA's to be examples of good research -- to have them work as my own team of research-librarian minions. If I have to go behind them and check on everything they do, individually, that's going to be a pile of paperwork, particularly after the lack of guaranteed-reliable resources discovered during the Great Philosophical Crisis of '14. However, I don't want students to make a massive mistake and pass it on to other students under the guise of reliability -- I have to remember that the SMA's are, after all, students. They are not professional reference librarians.
Maybe a compromise could be reached? Instead of a full-on thorough grading of the checklist, I could just require they turn one in and keep it on file for every website evaluated?
It's a consideration.
Battle of the Wiki Sites: Weebly vs. Wikispaces
When we got all of this started, I opted for Wikispaces to host our RRS wiki. I've used it before, in my classroom, and my experiences have more or less been positive.
The kids kind of shot this idea out of the sky.
When I used wikispaces last year for a collaborative project with an art teacher, we had students a.) create awesome digital posters b.) embed them onto their own page on the project wiki c.) create a QR code advertising the site. The reason I had them create digital posters? Wikispaces allowed me to add several editors to the wiki (the students who were participating), but it wasn't pretty. The site had the barest of bare-bones formatting; basic text, basic image uploads, no flashy templates. Making digital posters (using Glogster, Smore, etc.) and embedding them was one way to circumvent the general blandness Wikispaces' pages.
The students this go 'round, however, had been using Weebly in various classes instead. I had only a base knowledge of Weebly and how it worked, and I was under the impression that it was a way to build really attractive websites, but with only one editor and a limited number of pages. The kids proved me wrong in seconds flat.
First off, Weebly is most definitely prettier than Wikispaces -- it has dozens of eye-catching templates and several different options for pages within those templates (for the RRS wiki, I chose one with a stock-image of a hiker in the mountains -- perfect for a former Boonie's pathfinder page). Second, I was wrong about pages; as far as we can tell, the pages are unlimited. We can add as many as we want. And third, perhaps most importantly, I can invite as many editors as I need to -- just like Wikispaces.
Sorry, Wikispaces. Looks like Weebly won this round.
The kids kind of shot this idea out of the sky.
When I used wikispaces last year for a collaborative project with an art teacher, we had students a.) create awesome digital posters b.) embed them onto their own page on the project wiki c.) create a QR code advertising the site. The reason I had them create digital posters? Wikispaces allowed me to add several editors to the wiki (the students who were participating), but it wasn't pretty. The site had the barest of bare-bones formatting; basic text, basic image uploads, no flashy templates. Making digital posters (using Glogster, Smore, etc.) and embedding them was one way to circumvent the general blandness Wikispaces' pages.
The students this go 'round, however, had been using Weebly in various classes instead. I had only a base knowledge of Weebly and how it worked, and I was under the impression that it was a way to build really attractive websites, but with only one editor and a limited number of pages. The kids proved me wrong in seconds flat.
First off, Weebly is most definitely prettier than Wikispaces -- it has dozens of eye-catching templates and several different options for pages within those templates (for the RRS wiki, I chose one with a stock-image of a hiker in the mountains -- perfect for a former Boonie's pathfinder page). Second, I was wrong about pages; as far as we can tell, the pages are unlimited. We can add as many as we want. And third, perhaps most importantly, I can invite as many editors as I need to -- just like Wikispaces.
Sorry, Wikispaces. Looks like Weebly won this round.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Thesis Help Is Hard.
Well, it is.
Fortunately, I knew this already, and it was not a surprise. But...as the Great Philosophical Crisis of '14 denotes, I had a hard time striking the balance between getting students to rewrite their thesis statements... and conceding that their statements were fine and our collection was where things were amiss. One of the articles I read during my exploration phase described a class of students who changed their topics completely (drastic changes -- one, if memory serves, switched from "music's physical and emotional effects" to "Mexican food") simply because of the lack of resources.
With the internet at our disposal, in everything from online encyclopedias to ordering print books, it seems ridiculous that that student couldn't just amend or refine his/her thesis -- keep it in the general area, but perhaps make the research/paper-writing process a bit easier for everyone.
This is harder than it sounds.
As a result, the vast majority of thesis help in our reference interviews has gone straight to me -- the SMA's, many of whom are concerned with their own senior projects, had a hard time refining/writing their own thesis statements, and so it is left to the English-teacher-come-librarian.
Fortunately, I knew this already, and it was not a surprise. But...as the Great Philosophical Crisis of '14 denotes, I had a hard time striking the balance between getting students to rewrite their thesis statements... and conceding that their statements were fine and our collection was where things were amiss. One of the articles I read during my exploration phase described a class of students who changed their topics completely (drastic changes -- one, if memory serves, switched from "music's physical and emotional effects" to "Mexican food") simply because of the lack of resources.
With the internet at our disposal, in everything from online encyclopedias to ordering print books, it seems ridiculous that that student couldn't just amend or refine his/her thesis -- keep it in the general area, but perhaps make the research/paper-writing process a bit easier for everyone.
This is harder than it sounds.
As a result, the vast majority of thesis help in our reference interviews has gone straight to me -- the SMA's, many of whom are concerned with their own senior projects, had a hard time refining/writing their own thesis statements, and so it is left to the English-teacher-come-librarian.
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