SLIM Pickings + Assignment # 3 - Revenge of the Bernie

Librarian's Tip #2: BOOKS DON"T BITE, but Librarians do!

No I haven't lost my mind, at least not yet (feeling a bit like the person in the picture!).

Have started coding using the SLIM, though I've jumped the gun and started doing it all by myself - just learnt that we'll be splitting up the task as a group, which is a relief as it's very tricky. I can see how the SLIM process would be extremely beneficial in regards to compiling useful data, it's a pity there isn't a more streamlined process (as in easier process!), though I guess if you did it a few times you'd get the knack and then it wouldn't be so hard.

READ ABOUT SLIM SCORING PROCESS HERE IN THIS SCROLL BOX!!!!!

The first stage of developing the findings is coding the student responses collected through the various instruments. The scoring sheets (appendixes B & C of SLIM Toolkit) should be used for the actual scoring and creating your tallies. The tallies will enable you to make some comparisons between the first, second and third writing sheets to show the changes in knowledge. 

 

The general coding process for each of the questions is:

1. Read through the student reply.

2. Code the student reply according to the coding instructions provided for each question separately in the SLIM handbook.

3. Fill out the scoring sheets provided for coding each individual question. The scoring sheets for all the questionnaires are found in appendix B and C. They may be copied or printed (available online at http://cissl.scils.rutgers.edu/imls/) for use in conjunction with each separate student questionnaire.

4. Read through the instructions for interpretation of the coding in the SLIM handbook and analyze the patterns emerging from the student reply accordingly.  

5. Write down a brief summary statement of the interpretation of each the student reply on the scoring sheet.

It's funny, by doing the assignment three times, I've actually learnt a whole lot of stuff. I guess, when you immerse yourself in something for long enough things are going to sink in.

That's it for now, it's almost 11pm and the dishes still need washing...wish me luck (for both the dishes and the assignment!)

Survey, hey, hey...

Surveys aren't very exciting, but at least this picture is...

Okay, here's my second survey (as part of the School Library Impact Measure) process for assessing learning). I hope this is the correct version of the survey, as I know we've been using parts of SLIM instead of the whole system as outlined in the Toolkit.

-- --- S U R V E Y   2 ------

1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.

After writing Assignment 1, I now know a lot more about Guided Inquiry Learning. I understand that Inquiry Learning came out of the work of the early constructivists, who believed that learning is constructive process that builds upon prior knowledges, learning, experiences, and schemas, and that there is a social aspect to learning.

I now understand about the student-centred approach of Guided Inquiry Learning, and how important the different types of interventions are to the whole “guided” part of the process.

Also, I’ve learnt about the importance of Information Literacy and the Information Search Process to the whole Guided Inquiry Learning teaching/learning method. Also, how important questioning skills are a technology, and who we have to question what we find on the Internet in regards to authenticity, who and why is authored, as well as looking for biases.

Through my assignment research, I‘ve learnt about the application of Guided Inquiry learning in a tertiary setting. This was particularly interesting, because NEXUS is designed as a Guided Inquiry subject, so as I’m learning about it I’m actually participating in Guided Inquiry. Has been very beneficial, as I’ve experienced all the steps of the Information Search Process in doing the assignment, and can relate to how it would apply in classroom setting.

2. How interested are you in this topic? Circle the answer that best matches your interest:

QUITE A BIT

3. How much do you know about this topic? Circle the answer that best matches how much you know:

QUITE A BIT

4. When you do research, what do you generally find easy to do? Please list as many things as you like.

I find finding relevant research materials fairly easy to do. I also find it easy to use a variety of search tools, like Google Scholar, Google books, Google, database searches, and library searches. I also find it easy to suss out material to find out whether it is legitimate, relevant, and/or biased, and use this information to consider what to use and what not to use.

5. When you do research, what do you generally find difficult to do? Please list as many things as you like.

I find that I usually run out of time when I research, so I would have to say that I find it hard to utilise my research time effectively at times. I usually spend too much time using basic tools like “Google” and find that I have little time left for use on more expert type search engines. I also find it difficult to whittle down material as I go, often downloading more “stuff” than I need, often because the material might be useful for something. More often then not, this material doesn’t get used, suggesting that this practice wastes too much time when I research.

Not relevant to anything, just a cool piccy of my wife (when she was preggas) and me....

Okay, I need to do one more survey to finalise the SLIM process. Look out for it in coming blog entries!

Brains, brains, got to have brains......urg urg urg

Once upon a time there were three zombies: a baby zombie, a mummy zombie, and a daddy zombie. While they were away in the woods looking for juicy brains, this awful girl called Goldy Locks came around and broke into their house. She ate their food, broke their furniture, and slept in their beds. When they got back, they found her asleep, so they set about eating her brains.....sorry, this is what happens when you spend late nights working on blogs!

I have survived the journey into the abyss - yes, I knocked out a new version of assignment 1 part A and I'm still (partly) sane. The further and further I go into the Nexus subject, the more and more I feel like my brain is going to explode...which is why I was thinking about zombies!

No, it's been a steep learning curve, lots to learn.  Things that have stood out so far, have been Limberg's three different approaches to learning: fact-finding, looking for right or wrong answers, and synthesising facts - which ties in very closely to SLIM and three different codes to show student learning. The importance of interventions - that they are an important part of the "guided" part of Guided Inquiry Learning. Also, the six important components to Guided Inquiry Learning according to Kuhltau. On top of that, there's also the important components of the Information Search Process and  Information Literacy, that are essential to equipping students with the skills they need to take part successfully in Guided-Inquiry learning when the tool of choice for research is the Internet.

While writing the new assignment, I used something I'd completely forgotten about - "Google Books". What a great search tool, as it's useful for searching for texts that you'd spend hours looking for in a library - and even then, there's no guarantee that the content would be what you're looking for. Sure, the books found in Google Books aren't complete, as they're just a preview (bits are deliberately left blank), but you do often get a large amount of the content. I used it to retrieve a book that one of the class readings came out of it, and had a look through the rest of the text for my assignment topic. Best application though, would be as a "try before you buy", or a "try before you borrow from the library" tool :)

If you want to check out Google books, find it at: http://books.google.com.au/

Here's a link to the book PREVIEW from Google Books of "Zombie Zen", I couldn't help continuing with the zombie theme: READ A PREVIEW OF ZOMBIE ZEN

Hey SLIM, this town isn't big enough for the both of us!

Don't know who this is? Shame on you, it's William Slim 13th Governor-General of Australia

 For other famous SLIMs, click here: Wikipedia "SLIM"

I sit here at the keyboard feeling somewhat depressed....I just discovered that I've done the wrong assignment. How you ask? Well, I wrote my assignment from the subject overview guide, which as my luck has it, was wrong... So that means, it's another week of late nights at the computer :(

On a much happier note, I've downloaded a copy of the SLIM Toolkit for the project.  SLIM stands for School Library Impact Measure, a fancy title for a program that " enables you to assess student learning through guided inquiry in the school library. It consists of four instruments that elicit students’ reflections on their learning at three points in their inquiry process. The toolkit will enable collaborating school librarian – teacher teams to chart changes in students’ knowledge and experiences throughout the process. " *

The SLIM program, is based around an Information Search model that has 7 stages: The Initiation, Selection, Exploration, Formulation, Collection, Presentation, and Assessment. It sounds really great, and would be fantastic in a school or TL setting.

Anyway, SLIM is designed for use in a school context with interventions designed to help students with their guided inquiry using the Information Search Process to answer their inquiry. To cut a long story short, I'll be using SLIM to look at a tertiary subject in regards to guided learning (and other aspects) for my NEXUS assignment, so it's going to be interesting how it works in this context. Apparently, Mandy is modifying the "instruments" for this altered purpose, so it should be interesting to see how this all works out.

I could write more, but it's late, and I need my beauty sleep because tomorrow night will be a late one! Got an assignment to write, hopefully, one that's right!

* To get your hands on the SLIM Toolkit, hit this link: SLIM LInk

To the library (database) Batman!

Librarian's Tip #1: DON'T PANIC

"Algorithms I trust. Boolean logic I trust. Beautiful women... they just mystify me."*
        - Zane Zaminski (Charlie Sheen), "The Arrival"

This entry, is about my first journey into the world of library databases to gather information for the assignment. I decided, that the first port of call would be the A+ database, as accessed through the QUT library portal (Press here to access QUT library via QUT portal. Databases are handy things, because they are usually organised by content: for example, a database on Psychology, Architecture, studies of the environment....this of course is handy, if you are looking for information related to a particular topic/area.

The reason for my selection of the A+ database, was that it covered the area of Education, included a "full text" option (so that further searches didn't need to be conducted working off of citations), and as well as covering Primary and High School it also covered Tertiary (which of course, is the area of my assignment!).

I found that the tool was very easy to understand and use straight away, on the right-hand side of the screen was an easy to understand and use search box.

My first search was the term "Guided Inquiry", just to see what came up. To ensure that the documents were recent, I limited the year search to 2000 through to 2010.

I also had a go at using the second search box, the "AND". Here, I typed in "university" - you can see from the "Recent Results" box at the bottom of the graphic, that there were 7 hits.

To "OR" on the side of caution

I had a play with the BOOLEAN operator "OR". For an "OR" search, I entered "inquiry learning" or "Kuhlthau" - the reason being, the database would pull up records that matched the general term "Guided inquiry", or made reference to the work of "Kuhthau" (Carol C. Kuhlthau, though the search would have pulled up anyone with the same surname - probably not a good search if the person was called "Smith" or "Jones"!!!). I know Kuhlthau has done lots of work in the Inquiry learning field, so there would be some overlap with the search term "inquiry learning", though the real strength of this is that it would pull up the work of Kuhlthau in areas other than the "inquiry learning" field - which may be of some use. Not a great application of the BOOLEAN operator, but I certainly get the gist of how this works. Have a look at my search below :)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that this search found 350 matching documents. This could be narrowed down by reducing the years to be searched.

To be or to "NOT" to be, that is the question...

Another useful BOOLEAN operator, I did a search on "inquiry learning" and NOT "primary school". This was to cull all the items that had a primary school focus or context (and there's a lot of them!), so that what was left over was more high school and tertiary in focus. Appeared to work a treat, though I ended up with a result of 222 items. Again, by changing the date range the number of items could be reduced.

The verdict

Overall, I found the A+ tool easy to use, and definately something useful that I'll use again. Found  a swag of good material for the assignment, which is definately a good thing! Got to love those BOOLEANS!

Stef

* From the website 'SciFi Quotes" - This is the bit you click to read the SCI-FI Quotes

Descent into Black Mountain territory

Week 3 comes to an end, and I'm still confused and uncertain - which isn't a bad thing according to Dewey who says "...learning begins with confusion and uncertainty." I guess, it's all a matter of trying to keep things in perspective and plugging away at what needs to be done. This week, it's getting stuck into an early draft of the assignment.

Black Mountain - Kentucky, USA - Drop by and get some chicken!

Now that this entry is completely off track, it's time to mention "Saving Black Mountain" - a project conducted in a Year 4 classroom in the state of Kentucky (the  American state not the fried chicken outlet!) that revolved around looking at the issues surrounding mining of a local mountain. This article (read an extract here: LINK to Black Mountain article) was a real eye opener, because it proved that an inquiry-based learning episode/unit can be something more than just an information seeking exercise. In the article, the learning gained from learning about Black Mountain and the issues involved with strip mining it for coal, actually led to the participants actually becoming actively involved in the democratic process and social activism, leading to personal change and ultimately the saving of "Black Mountain".

 Read the letter that students wrote to save Black Mountain from strip mining at:
 http://www.kftc.org/our-work/canary-project/campaigns/black-mountain/letter 

"Largely as a result of the students' efforts, a compromise agreement was reached in May 1999 between coal operators and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth whereby 1,850 acres on Black Mountain would be saved from logging and strip mining." *

I found "Saving Black Mountain" particularly interesting, due to having spent 5 years in a mining town. It's very brave of the teacher to go up against a mining company, because in mining communities they are all powerful and don't like anyone getting in the way of profit. It's good to think, that social activism can make a difference - and it's even better, to think that it can be done at a school level through the use of guided-inquiry learning.

Anyway, it's late at night and I need to sleep.  :)

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* Powell, R, Chambers-Cantrell, S, and Adams, S. (2001). "Saving Black Mountain: The promise of critical literacy in a multicultural democracy" from The Reading Teacher, May 2001. 54:8.

A Scholar and a gentleman

This entry, is all about me figuring out how to use Google Scholar. Oh, and having a play with it to see if I could find some quality material for the assignment. If you're unfamiliar with 'Google Scholar', you can find it at http://scholar.google.com.au/. This is what it looks like, very much like the standard 'Google' screen:

What's the different between this flavour and Google and the regular flavour you ask? More callories? Well, Google Scholar searches Scholarly sources instead of anything and everything on the net - think journals, research papers, conference notes, that sort of thing...

From what I can see, the real benefit of the Google Scholar search engine, is the "cited link" on the search results. This link, is a link between this document and other documents connected to it through using it as a citation. Very useful! At first, I didn't realise how great this particular tool could be...

My first search: [ "inquiry based learning" & "university"] returned 8400 hits.

I realised pretty quickly, that a lot of the material retrieved wasn't directly related to my topic. I narrowed the results down:

[ "inquiry based learning" and "at university level" ]

The results were a much more manageable 64 hits.

On viewing on particular document, I noticed that there was some brilliant material referenced to a "Levy, 2009". So, I thought I'd throw Levy into the search engine:

[ "Levy, 2009" and "Inquiry based learning"]

Up jumped "43" results, but the really good bit is that fact that the search results contained material written by "Levy" in 2009, that was particularly pertinent to my assignment. Then, by hitting the "Cited by" link in the search results documents, I found a bunch of other quality documents containing the work of Levy and other people on Inquiry based learning at university level.

I was impressed with Google Scholar, from 8400 documents, I managed to get the reslults down to 43! Wow. And then, thanks to the cited link I was able to find a whole bunch of stuff directly related to my topic.

I must say, I'm really impressed with Scholar as a tool, and hope to use it again soon in a research context.

It's a Wonder (wheel)!

Wheels are wonderful things, including this example from a VW Golf!

Time to ramp up, and have a go at some expert searches. First on the list, is a play with Google's Wonderwheel! What a great tool, as it brainstorms your search term for you in graphical ("wheel") format - very much like a mind map! How good is that!

Here is some info on WonderWheel from the website: http://www.googlewonderwheel.com

"Whether you are a student, a webmaster or just need to find something online, this tool is relevant for any of us and enable us to navigate the jungle of the Internet more easily.

The wonder wheel is meant to provide a more visual display of relevant search terms and keywords for the user. If from some reason the google wonder wheel is not yet available in your local google search, give it some more time as development in other languages is taking place.

Did you say mind mapper? This tool is a built in mind mapper with the intention to sort out search results in a logical way of relevancy creating a visual wheel of terms that can make your searching enjoyable and time effective at the same time."

 
Here's some examples from me playing around looking for information on the topic for the assignment (which just so happens to be Guided-Inquiry learning in a Tertiary setting):

As you can see (above), Wonder Wheel has found a bunch of terms related to what I put into the search engine. Here, with the search term "guided inquiry" the wheel came up with: guided inquiry approach, guided inquiry planned, guided inquiry definition, guided inquiry learning 21st century, guided inquiry model, and ross todd guided inquiry.

This time around (above), the wheel worked a bit differently - it seemed to find terms related to other areas that might apply to what I was looking for: for example, I was looking for a university context, and the wheel pulled up "TAFE", "College", and "School".

Here (above), I thought I'd use an alternate title for my search topic - to widen the search a bit. Inquiry based learning is the broad title for this style of teaching and learning, though the difference being that Guided Inquiry learning is a style of inquiry based learning with a structured "guidance" element.

Here I am (above), using the alternate term in combination with "university". I could have also used "tertiary" as an alternate term.

I rate WonderWheel highly, I give it 4 and half stars out of 5 on the Stef scale of usefulness (not an official scale!). I think it really helps you get your head around alternate terms to help you find information, and I can see how this would be a big help in a school settings, getting kids to think of alternate search terms when researching.

The search for Spock...er...no, that's not right.

Yes, I know this isn't Leonard Nimoy...

This entry, is looking at Internet searches for information on Inquiry-Based Learning in a tertiary (university) setting for my project. My first search using a standard Google search proved fairly unsuccessful, I used the term "inquiry based learning"+"tertiary", and while there were lots of "hits" I discovered that the material retrieved wasn't directly related to what I was searching for.

Trying a second time, I used the search "inquiry based learning" + "university", the listing returning About 6,910 results (0.21 seconds) according to Google. Interestingly, unlike the first Google search, this time the very first entry was right on the money:

What is Inquiry-Based Learning at University?: Problem Based ...

13 Mar 2010 ... Inquiry based or problem-based learning is rising in popularity as a university teaching practice owing to its ability to truly engage and ...
universities.suite101.com/.../what-is-inquiry-based-learning-at-university - Cached

Was this a case of getting lucky? I had a 1 in 6910 chance of finding something useful in the first entry of this search. The problem with Google, is that it doesn't take any real finesse or skill to use, which is why it's both a good thing and bad thing. GOOD - because anyone can use it, you just need some basic ICT skills. BAD - because it searches anything and everything for your search terms, including stuff that is no way related to what you are looking for.

I should add, why the picture of Spock? Well, think about it... If you asked your students to pull up a picture of Spock from the Internet, unless you told them you were after a picture of Leonard Nimoy as Spock and they did the appropriate Google Search (of course they could just get lucky), you could end up this particular image.