No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Effective access: Teachers' use of digital resources (research in progress)
Abstract
In this paper, the authors describe the need for a better understanding of the cognitive frameworks used by high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators as they search for digital resources and conceptualize the integration of digital resources into their teaching. We outline our research methodologies, summarize preliminary results, and discuss how our outcomes will influence how digital resources are developed for educators across all disciplines in the future.
... Surprisingly, only a few studies have examined teachers' strategies for searching and selecting digital LRs in OER repositories [25]. Findings regarding the considerations that guide teachers when selecting LRs, and the different search strategies they employ, showed heterogeneous behavior: teachers employ different search routines [4,7,21,25], look for different types of LRs [4,25], and take into account different considerations. For example, in [21], teacher focus was on finding resources that are age-appropriate, aligned with core standards, and engaging and interactive. ...
... Surprisingly, only a few studies have examined teachers' strategies for searching and selecting digital LRs in OER repositories [25]. Findings regarding the considerations that guide teachers when selecting LRs, and the different search strategies they employ, showed heterogeneous behavior: teachers employ different search routines [4,7,21,25], look for different types of LRs [4,25], and take into account different considerations. For example, in [21], teacher focus was on finding resources that are age-appropriate, aligned with core standards, and engaging and interactive. ...
... However, reviewing the body of literature on the topic reveals some significant gaps: first, some of these studies are two-decade old (e.g., [4,[20][21][22]), possibly rendering at least part of their findings and conclusions irrelevant to the current time. Another gap concerns the generalizability of some of the findings to reallife settings. ...
Teachers using Open Educational Resource (OER) repositories face the challenge of searching and selecting learning resources (LRs) that match their pedagogical goals and teaching preferences. However, teachers are often overwhelmed by the multitude of LRs in such repositories. One way of aiding teachers is providing them with search mechanisms that rely on semantic information describing different properties of the materials, and peer-generated reviews and feedback (‘social recommendations’). Previous studies of teachers’ search and select strategies in such systems were usually conducted in controlled settings, limiting their generalization to real-life contexts. The literature also lacks systematic evaluations of the usefulness of semantic information and social recommendations to teachers’ search processes. To address these gaps, we conducted a study with physics teachers who use a nation-wide blended-learning environment containing an OER repository and social network features. We applied a mixed-method approach, first interviewing teachers and observing them performing authentic search tasks, and then triangulating these findings with quantitative analysis of log files containing data about teacher interaction with the learning environment. Our findings demonstrate the value that teachers ascribe to social-based information, especially from peers who are perceived as credible or like-minded, when searching and selecting LRs. We discuss possible implications for stake-holders and designers of OER repositories for blended instruction in K-12 environments.KeywordsOpen Educational ResourcesSemantic InformationLearning Analytics
... This issue is similarly presented elsewhere around the world; according to Norris et al. (2003), English pre-service teacher education programs fail to develop students' ability to use technology in their teaching. Pre-service teachers of English cannot adopt technology in their teaching due to the implementation of pre-service teacher education programs (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Friedman, 2006). In Vietnam, it is revealed that the ability of in-service teachers of English to use technology in education is just at the beginning level of the SAMR model with the reason partly a result from their pre-service English teacher education programs (Peeraer & Petergem, 2011;Pham et al., 2019;Vo et al., 2018). ...
... Universities still have issues with internet access (Ho, 2014;Nguyen & Pham, 2014). The slow internet speed and lack of computer rooms in universities prevent lecturers and students from using technology in their teaching and learning (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Friedman, 2006;Norris et al., 2003;Ho, 2014;Swain, 2006). ...
With the rapid development of technology in the world today, the application of technology in education, thus, becomes a matter of great importance. In the English Teacher Competency Framework (ETCF) provided by the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, the ability to use technology in education is an essential aspect an English teacher program must include. As revealed from previous studies, English teachers' ability to integrate technology in education is weak as they have not been provided adequate opportunities to learn and integrate technology in education in their pre-service teacher education programs. This paper reports on part of findings of a case study conducted in Vietnam. The research adopted a qualitative approach with the in-depth interview as the instrument. Research participants consisted of experienced lecturers involved in designing the program and student teachers. Findings revealed that the program was not effective in educating student teachers in the methods of using technology in teaching. The reasons for such inadequacy were lack of knowledge of technology integration in language teaching, poor facilities, and low ICT capacity. Integrating technology in the curriculum is suggested for developing student teachers' ability to apply technology in education.
... There is a body of literature that attempts to build a bridge through the knowledge gap. Carlson and Reidy (2004) claim that most digital collections and search mechanisms were not created for K-12 (kindergarten -year 12) users and so present a number of challenges for educators. They hypothesise that in order to develop effective digital resources, LIM professionals need to better understand educators' mental models for retrieval and integration of these materials. ...
... These findings give currency to the research findings of Carlson and Reidy (2004), which describe how digital resource collections and search mechanism are not created with educators in mind, and thus present a number of barriers to their effective use in a learning environment. ...
... Indeed, researchers with the Effective Access project surveyed science and math teachers to understand their use of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and found that, similar to teachers' overall technology use, their NSDL use was affected by school/district infrastructure, professional development, and time (Hanson & Carlson, 2005). The teachers also expressed a need to have content from authoritative sources, aggregated into one, simple site (Carlson & Reidy, 2004). In a study of SLMSs' mental models for teaching electronic resources, Tallman (1999) found that the SLMSs' mental models for teaching with electronic databases were influenced by their models of teaching access, research, and retrieval with print resources. ...
... Although a significant amount of research has been done on children's use of digital libraries in recreational and instructional settings (for example, (Beheshti, Bowler, Large, & Nesset, 2005;Hourcade et al., 2003;Hutchinson, Bederson, & Druin, 2006;Kuhlthau, 1997;Massey, Weeks, & Druin, 2005;Massey, Weeks, & Druin, 2007;Reuter, 2007)), few have studied teachers' and SLMSs' digital library use. This lack of research limits our understanding of how educators use digital information resources and of the factors they consider important for their use in instructional settings (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Hanson & Carlson, 2005). ...
Digital libraries in schools: The best practices of national board certified library media specialists
... These search engines are highly preferred because of their usability, speed of access, quality, and quantity of information retrieved, as well as their ability to retrieve information resources for research projects, term papers, learning more about a topic, course assignments, and seminar presentations (Ertemel & Ammoura, 2021). According to Carlson and Reidy (2004), articles and handouts downloaded from Google provide more recent information. Therefore, these search engines are gaining popularity and are highly preferred among users. ...
This study aims to explore the information needs and informationseeking
patterns of secondary school geography teachers in Bhutan. The study
discussed availability, accessibility, sufficiency of information, and barriers to
teachers’ information-seeking as the core themes of the study. This study
was carried out by means of a survey collected from a total of 191 geography
teachers in the whole country and two focus group discussions consisting of
5 members each. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS, while the
qualitative data were analyzed using thematic method analysis. The results of
the study indicated that the information needs of teachers are mostly related
to teaching content, teaching resources, technology, and student’s learning
needs. The investigation of the information resources available/accessible to
fulfill the indicated information needs revealed that teachers are heavily reliant
on online information sources. One of the major findings indicated in the study
was a lack of research community in schools and a lack of information literacy
among teachers. In the twenty-first century, education has to fulfill the demands
of transmitting a growing amount of knowledge in an appropriate way and to
be lifelong learners, continually aspiring to learn and teach. Therefore, it is
apparent that educators must be aware of the changing demands in teaching
and learning. The results of this research may be useful for the educational
authorities to develop appropriate policies that promote teachers’ professional
development competency and redevelop strategies to replace the inadequacy
of information to fulfill curriculum demands.
KEYWORDS: Information, Information needs, Information Seeking Pattern, Accessibility,
Availability, Sufficiency, and Information barriers.
... Yet, even with these shifts in practices, only a handful of researchers within the last few years, have gone beyond examining the technical aspects of teachers' use of technology. They have started to attempt to understand how teachers find and use online resources for their instructional purposes (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Lankes, 2003;NetDay, 2005NetDay, , 2006Recker et al., 2004;Recker et al., 2005;Recker, 2006). While the Internet provides new resources, the question is whether and how teachers are able to make use of these Internet resources in their instructional planning. ...
The purpose of this book, "Biology Teaching Methods," is to provide adequate guidance for students undergoing the initial teacher education programs in universities and colleges of education, and all other biology teachers in secondary schools in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. We believe that it is important for biology teachers to know why they are teaching the subject, what biology to teach, how to teach the biology content, how to assess students' learning outcomes from instruction, and to be up to speed concerning events in the world relating to biology and biology teaching.
... The results of this research found that ten proposed courses namely were for implementation and the courses were offered in a sequence that coherent with existing curriculum to the degree that feasible. Carlson and Reidy (2004) have conducted to identify the effective access of faculty's use of online resources. The study was examined at the higher level education to explicate the discrepancies and parallels between developers' understandings of faculties' necessary and what faculty actually their needs. ...
This paper aimed to explore the awareness and usage of online resources by the faculty members of Vivekanandha Arts and Science College for Women, Salem. The current study is rooted in primary data which were collected from the faculty members who are working in different departments of Vivekanandha Arts and Science College for Women. A total of 200 well structured and designed questionnaires were dispersed among the faculty members and we received only 179 filled questionnaires were returned out of 200 sample of population and the total response rate was 89.5%. The results of the study was observed and found the maximum number of 112 users (62.57%) was male distribution. Seventy percent of the faculty members were under the age group between 26 and 50 and 66.48 percent of the respondents were from rural area. It is observed the huge proportion of (42.46%) 76 faculty members were comes under Assistant professors and they ranked the first. It is noted the major portion of 91 (50.84%) faculty members were using the Internet in the central library for preparing research work. This study has recommended that more electronic journals and databases should be subscribed to, that awareness and training programmes for accessing electronic resources to be implemented, and the digital library infrastructure facilities to be enhanced.
... "Content is everywhere, and it is not always clear whether the work is accurate and/or where the work originated" (Ovadia, 2013, p. 61). Educators often have limited time and/or training on how to locate quality resources among the many available (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Recker, Dorward, & Nelson, 2004;Hanson & Carlson, 2005;Perrault, 2007;Maull, Saldivar, & Sumner, 2010;Ed. schools, 2013). ...
Primary and secondary educators are making the move to using digital learning resources, and are increasingly integrating technology into the curriculum. With training as both a teacher and an information specialist, the school librarian is in a position to help facilitate this transition to digital.
... It is important having the right information in the right place and right form to meet the academic needs. Carlson and Reidy, [2] highlighted that teachers need appropriate tools to deal with information in the workplace. They asserted that teachers need to adopt appropriate practices for organizing and keeping information collected or received. ...
... • the extended metadata model, "which has been developed by covering methodological resources and learning objects in order to increase their accessibility and usage in teaching process" (Kubilinskiene & Dagiene, 2013); • concept mapping -used for the creation of corpora; • the cognitive frameworks -"used by high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators as they search for digital resources and conceptualize the integration of digital resources into their teaching" (Carlson & Reidy, 2004), etc. In it noteworthy that the creation of the Georgian digital era was initiated by the establishment of Georgian-German scientific relations, which can be regarded as a foundation of the development of corpus-based researches in Georgia. ...
The 21st century shifted the world communities to an “electronic” stage of evolution.
Drastic changes can be visualized in literature, linguistics and other humanitarian sciences.
The greatest attention is paid to the promotion of linguistic researches, which are oriented
towards electronic documenting of the language as well as on the intensive usage of digital
methodologies and modern technologies. The reliance on these “technics” enables
contemporary Georgian scientists to achieve principally new results and verify different models
or hypotheses. Despite these circumstances, a lot must be done in the sphere of Kartvelology.
The paper presents the university projects, which are oriented towards:
• involvement of students in researching activities dealing with the corpus-building;
• promotion of the development of digital Kartvelology;
• facilitation of creation of Georgian and foreign scholars’ digital library and text-corpus;
• development of Georgian scientific meta-language, etc.
Therefore, promotion of digitalization, development of scientific meta-language, facilitation of
the preservation of well-known scholars’ works, creation of digital libraries and establishment
of modern methods crucial for the promotion of up-to-date teaching processes – these are the
main issues of our paper and integral problems of today’s educational world. The methodology
of research includes observation, analysis and evaluation of ongoing projects and their
already-achieved/future outcomes. Certain prospects are visualised.
... • the extended metadata model, "which has been developed by covering methodological resources and learning objects in order to increase their accessibility and usage in teaching process" (Kubilinskiene & Dagiene, 2013); • concept mapping -used for the creation of corpora; • the cognitive frameworks -"used by high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators as they search for digital resources and conceptualize the integration of digital resources into their teaching" (Carlson & Reidy, 2004), etc. In it noteworthy that the creation of the Georgian digital era was initiated by the establishment of Georgian-German scientific relations, which can be regarded as a foundation of the development of corpus-based researches in Georgia. ...
The 21st century shifted the world communities to an “electronic” stage of evolution. Drastic changes can be visualized in literature, linguistics and other humanitarian sciences. The greatest attention is paid to the promotion of linguistic researches, which are oriented towards electronic documenting of the language as well as on the intensive usage of digital methodologies and modern technologies. The reliance on these “technics” enables contemporary Georgian scientists to achieve principally new results and verify different models or hypotheses. Despite these circumstances, a lot must be done in the sphere of Kartvelology. The paper presents the university projects, which are oriented towards: involvement of students in researching activities dealing with the corpus-building;promotion of the development of digital Kartvelology; facilitation of creation of Georgian and foreign scholars’ digital library and text-corpus;development of Georgian scientific meta-language, etc. Therefore, promotion of digitalization, development of scientific meta-language, facilitation of the preservation of well-known scholars’ works, creation of digital libraries and establishment of modern methods crucial for the promotion of up-to-date teaching processes – these are the main issues of our paper and integral problems of today’s educational world. The methodology of research includes observation, analysis and evaluation of ongoing projects and their already-achieved/future outcomes. Certain prospects are visualised.
... The finding explained the assertion that having access to a variety of current books and journals to conduct research are the major motivations of e-library use. A study on the effective access of teachers to digital resources in Malaysia by Carlson and Reidy (2004) indicated a poor perception towards their use; reporting that 84% of the teachers spend less than 50% of their time using web-based resources during instructions. On the contrary, ...
In recent times, advancement in technology has penetrated areas of library functions, especially, the establishment of an electronic library (e-library) system that has become commonplace in Nigeria. Studies have shown a low level of users‟ satisfaction with these resources. Thus, this study examined the influence of users‟ computer-self-efficacy and perception on users‟ satisfaction with e-libraries in Northern Nigerian universities. Descriptive survey research was adopted. A population of 7,028 users was considered out of which 1,406 was randomly sampled and used. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Hypotheses were tested with Spearman Rank-Order Correlation. Findings revealed that computer self-efficacy of users with e-libraries were high, even though their perceptions of e-libraries were low. There was a strong relationship between computer self-efficacy and satisfaction with e-library (r(951) = .164, p = .000), a positive correlation between perceptions and satisfaction with e-library (r(951) = .334, p = .000). It was therefore concluded that the satisfaction of users with e-libraries in the universities in Northern Nigeria would largely be influenced by their level of computer self-efficacy and perception. The study recommended the acquisition of relevant skills by the user for satisfactory utilization of the e-libraries. In particular, users should be assisted in identifying high-quality e-library resources.Keywords: Computer self-efficacy, e-library, users’ perception, users’ satisfaction, Northern Nigeria
... Adapting teaching resources for use in the classroom requires teachers to have a significant amount of background information about these materials [50] . However, many online repositories of materials for K-12 teachers provide fragmented collections of resources rather than cohesive units [11]. These fragmented collections can be particularly discouraging for new teachers so we consider additional strategies sites can use to help new teachers locate materials (Section 4.2). ...
Many organizations have developed websites to support high school computer science (CS) teachers by providing them with collections of teaching resources. Yet rarely do these sites take into account the unique challenges of new CS teachers who often have not had formal training in CS. In response to a documented lack of teachers' engagement on these sites, we interviewed 17 CS teachers to learn more about the ways in which these sites are and are not meeting teachers' needs for curriculum resources. We discuss our findings about how teachers use, adapt, and share resources and then provide several suggestions for designing resource sharing sites that support teachers who have varying levels of experience teaching CS.
... Despite the fact that in-service teachers report being active users of the Internet (Kabakçı, Fırat, İzmirl, & Kuzu, 2010;Karaseva, Pruulmann-Vengerfeld, & Siibak, 2013) and previous studies have found that teachers use various online resources as their primary sources of information (Shipman, Bannon, & Nunes-Bufford, 2015), teachers often evaluate their search experience as being rather unsatisfactory. Unsatisfactory search experiences decrease teachers' motivation to retrieve information online (Perrault, 2007), and cause teachers to stick to a few educational sites designed specifically for particular subject teaching (Carlson, & Reidy, 2004), or to give preference to information sources in print format (Korobili, Malliari, Daniilidou, & Christodoulou, 2011). To build Internet self-efficacy, positive previous experience and success in search task completion have been found to be the most powerful sources among teachers (Pan, & Franklin, 2011;Robertson, & Al-Zahrani, 2012). ...
This exploratory mixed-method study aims to examine relationships between secondary school teachers’ perceived Internet self-efficacy and a vital aspect of e-skills for the knowledge society, namely, information search performance online. Sixteen teachers of humanities, science and mathematics) were interviewed about their Internet self-efficacy, and then ten of them completed eleven predefined online search tasks. The results indicate that teachers’ perceived Internet self-efficacy neither correlated with their actual search performance nor was it related to the search strategies that teachers applied. Teachers over-estimated difficulty of search tasks before starting a search. Based on the study results, implications for in-service teacher training are discussed.
... In order to provide comprehensive conceptualization the literature reviewed has been categorized as user studies, library use aspect use of library resources and services etc. in information searching as well as encourage greater use of the web. Carlson and Reidy (2004) have carried out the study about Effective access: teacher's use of digital resources (research in progress). The survey was conducted at the high level, in order to elucidate the discrepancies and parallels between developers' understandings of teachers' needs and what teachers express as their needs. ...
The present study of utilization of information resource and services by library user community conducted at Lalaji Memorial Omega International School in Chennai, India. This paper investigates the understanding on library sources and services through internet by the members of students. The study covers the students of classes of 9 th, 10th and 12 th standards and was limited to school campus of Chennai only. A total of 250 questionnaires distributed but 174 were returned duly filled in as a sample. A structured questionnaire was designed for collecting data from the chosen sample group. The maximum 77.02 % of respondents were browsing the Internet for educational needs, while 10.92 per cent browse for entertainment and e-mail only. Majority 83.33 % of the respondents are aware of 'what a search engine is', while 16.67 % do not know what it means. The maximum 58.62 % of the respondents using 'Google' search engine and followed by 32.19 percent of respondents using 'yahoo' search engine. Majority of 54.59 % respondents are using Internet for clearing their doubts on textbooks and lessons and also it is noteworthy mention that 6.89 per cent of the respondents have given no opinion. It was noted that 43.67 % of the respondents are aware of firewall protection while 56.33 per cent do not know. Also, the results indicated that the web based information resources and its services can be inferred that the coming day generations are eager to learn everything. The data obtained were analyzed using Simple Percentile analysis to generate tables and to arrive at conclusion.
... Insufficient time would usually relate to the amount of time a teacher needs to prepare his teaching and learning resources for use with his learners. The finding that time is a constraining factor, is consistent with the findings of Peirson (2001), Carlson and Reidy (2004) and Friedman (2006). The absence of access to computers has, time and time again been the complaint of many teachers in schools in Malaysia. ...
Although application of technology in the classroom has been introduced for the last two decades, some teachers are still resistance to use technology in the classroom. This study is designed to investigate Malaysian teachers’ perceptions of using technology in the classroom. In this study perception is regarded as interpretation of events among Malaysian teachers due to past experiences, current understanding, present situation and information. Qualitative research is used as the mode of inquiry for this research study. The main mode of data collection is the questionnaire that elicits information on the respondents’ views of the use of technology on the classroom. Participants for this study were seven local English teachers in Malaysia. The findings indicate that although Malaysian English teachers were using technology and have positive perceptions towards using technology in the classroom, they feel it is crucial for them to undergo training in this aspect. They view time constraint and access to equipment as the main obstacles to implementing technology in the classroom. This research concludes that although Malaysian teachers are faced with some difficulties in implementing technology in the classroom, they see a value in technology and want to use technology in the classroom.
... Elavazhagan and Udayakumar (2013) ''examined the exposure and measure the extent use of eresources by the faculty members and research scholars of BITS, Pilani -Hyderabad Campus" and confirmed that "the e-resources are time saving, easy to use and handle, more informative, preferred, flexible and effective". Carlson and Reidy (2004) conducted a study on the effective access of teachers to digital resources and found that "84% spend less than 50% of their time using web-based resources during instructions". Nallathamb and Kanakaraj (2012) found that the "majority of the respondent in the engineering colleges have used electronic resources daily.'' ...
... Elavazhagan and Udayakumar (2013) ''examined the exposure and measure the extent use of eresources by the faculty members and research scholars of BITS, Pilani -Hyderabad Campus" and confirmed that "the e-resources are time saving, easy to use and handle, more informative, preferred, flexible and effective". Carlson and Reidy (2004) conducted a study on the effective access of teachers to digital resources and found that "84% spend less than 50% of their time using web-based resources during instructions". Nallathamb and Kanakaraj (2012) found that the "majority of the respondent in the engineering colleges have used electronic resources daily.'' ...
The present study aims to explore the use and user perception of electronic resources in Siva Institute of Frontier Technology, India. A total number of 123 users were taken into account for the study through a questionnaire-based survey method. A well-structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to the selected 200 students and staff members. 123 copies of the questionnaires were returned dully filled in and the overall response rate was 61.50 percent. The questionnaire contained both open-and close-ended questions. The collected data were classified, analyzed, and tabulated by using simple statistical methods. This study covers the impact of electronic resources on students and faculty in their academic pursuit.
... Teachers, of course, are a primary intended audience of educational digital libraries. Studies have shown that teachers use digital libraries and web resources in many ways, including lesson planning, curriculum planning (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Perrault, 2007;Sumner & CCS Team, 2010), and looking for examples, activities as well as illustrations to complement textbook materials (Barker, 2009;Sumner & CCS Team, 2010;Tanni, 2008). Less frequently mentioned ways are learning about teaching areas (Sumner & CCS Team, 2010;Tanni, 2008), networking to find out what other teachers do (Recker, 2006), and conducting research (Recker et al., 2007). ...
Teachers and students increasingly enjoy unprecedented access to abundant web resources and digital libraries to enhance and enrich their classroom experiences. However, due to the distributed nature of such systems, conventional educational research methods, such as surveys and observations, provide only limited snapshots. In addition, educational data mining, as an emergent research approach, has seldom been used to explore teachers' online behaviors when using digital libraries. Building upon results from a preliminary study, this article presents results from a clustering study of teachers' usage patterns while using an educational digital library tool, called the Instructional Architect. The clustering approach employed a robust statistical model called latent class analysis. In addition, frequent itemsets mining was used to clean and extract common patterns from the clusters initially generated. The final clusters identified three groups of teachers in the IA: key brokers, insular classroom practitioners, and inactive islanders. Identified clusters were triangulated with data collected in teachers' registration profiles. Results showed that increased teaching experience and comfort with technology were related to teachers' effectiveness in using the IA.
... Some barriers are due to the technical infrastructure, including slow Internet connections, outdated technology, and limited student access (Barker, 2009;Recker, 2006). Research also suggests that teachers turn away from online environments because of poor usability design, concerns about the quality and accuracy of online resources, and the time required to filter through the large quantity of unranked search results (Carlson & Reidy, 2004;Madden, Ford, Miller, & Levy, 2005;Perrault, 2007;Sumner, Khoo, Recker, & Marlino, 2003). ...
This article describes two consecutive enactments of technology-oriented teacher professional development designs, aimed at helping teachers find high-quality online learning resources and use them in designing effective problem-based learning (PBL) activities for their students. To align with current professional development prescriptions, in the first enactment, teachers learned PBL design skills concurrently with technology skills. Following aspects of design-based research, the professional development theory, participant feedback, and results from the first enactment informed the design of the second. In this second enactment, technology skills were separated and presented prior to learning about PBL. Results from a mixed-methods study of impact indicated that both professional development enactments were associated with large increases in teacher knowledge, experience, and confidence with regards to technology use and integration. Variations in the level of PBL usage by teachers in their activities, and the degree to which they discuss PBL and technology integration are presented alongside limitations, practical significance, scholarly significance, and planned future work.
Bringing together the multi-folded facets of the various disciplines across the globe, the role of Libraries, the bibliotheca is transforming. The surging demand for the information in todays’ digital world, has been substantially changing the role of libraries. The Libraries are altering their roles by providing enhanced & enriched set of services. The patrons of this Digital civilization and the fresh entries alongwith the extension to this collection of tools and services has also changed. Prabha, Chandra, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Lawrence Olszewski, and Lillie Jenkins calls todays’ world as “overloaded information environment”. This study on Gentrification of Bibliotheca for the Digital Citizens reflects the transformation of libraries in print-digital transition and the kinds of services citizens would like to see if they were to redesign libraries themselves. This study is a part of a research effort which explores the role that the libraries play in people’s lives. Also, the study reflects how the Open Source Library Automation Softwares are affecting the users of today that is the Digital citizens. This survey was conducted to validate the findings from a data collection of 1431 Delhi locals ages ranging from 16 and above during the month of January to June, 2019. The survey was administered during the personal visits to the libraries like Delhi Public Library, Delhi University Central Library, Jawaharlal Nehru University Library. A few personalised calls were made via landline phone and a few by calling directly telephonically, Also, through social networking websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp questionnaire was shared using Google forms. The questionnaire was distributed in print and electronic form both. The data was collected telephonically in both the languages English and Hindi. The margin of error for the full survey is plus or minus upto 5-7 percentage. This present analysis that controls a variety of demographic factors such as income, educational attainment, and age shows that race and ethnicity are significant independent predictors of people’s attitudes about the role of libraries in communities, about current library services, and about their likely use of the future library services the researcher has inquired upon.
Electronic resources play an important role in teaching, learning, and research. Realizing the significance of the E-resources most of the Indian universities are investing large amount of their library budget to provide access to e-resources. Dibrugarh University is no exception. The present study to examine the usage of electronic resources by the faculty members and research scholars at the Dibrugarh University, Assam. User’s awareness of the different types of e-resources available, purpose, frequency of using e-resources, and constraints faced in its utilization are surveyed. Authors suggest ways for making the use of e-resources and services available in the University more effective.
Abstract - The aim of this paper is to introduce some best practices for academic libraries especially in engineering library. It tries to explain the Best Practices implemented by the SNSCE Central Library such as E-books collection development and utilization, Developing SNSCE library website, CAS services and Usage of library hours. Library professionals need to design and develop best practices to improve information sharing and to satisfy the end users.
The present study is aimed to explore the level of reading habits in the electronic era and the use and awareness on internet and its impact among school students of Jawahar Vidhyalaya Matriculation School in Chennai. A structures well designed questionnaire was calculated th, th among 35 teachers and 120 students of various classes (8 9th and 10) of Matriculation school in Chennai. Out of which a total number of 26 staff members and 104 students of various classes have responded. The data obtained were analyzed using Simple Percentile analysis to generate tables and to arrive at conclusion.
Introduction. The perceived information needs of teachers who specialize in reading instruction for at-risk first graders were studied and related to frameworks for the role of social context in information needs, seeking and use. The frameworks considered were: disciplinarity, role theory in work settings, small worlds and information grounds and communities of practice. Method. Two focus groups of Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders were conducted to learn the kinds of information each group needed to support their teaching and outreach efforts. Analysis. Participants' suggestions about information needs were gathered and prioritized using participant-generated votes to assign weights to the group's suggestions. The suggestions were organized for ease of interpretation into three groups: communication, specific skills or resource needs and personal professional development. Results. The two groups showed both common and distinct information needs related to their roles as educators, their relationships with administrators, other teachers and parents and the social ties within their professional community. Communication needs, both within their group and to others, especially parents, were noted. Print and audiovisual materials were most valued. Traditionally accepted resource types (e.g., lesson plans, skill sheets) were mentioned, but were not highly valued. Conclusions. Interpreting these data from the different theoretical frameworks provided alternative views of these data. However, doing so resulted in substantial differences in what was learned about the relationship between information needs and social context and about the ability of the frameworks to drive theoretical exploration. These findings enlarge our view of the information needs of professional educators and provide an illustration of the utility of contrasting frameworks for the development of theory.
In this study, the purpose is to investigate the information use pattern of library resources and related issues among undergraduate (U.G) students of Rajalakshmi Institute of Technology (RIT) at Chennai. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed but 120 were returned duly filled in. A structured questionnaire was designed for collecting data from the chosen sample group. The study covers the students undergoing their first year of engineering education from four departments and the study was limited to students from Rajalakshmi Institute of Technology (RIT), in Chennai. We examined and found that 97.5% of students were using library for study activities while 2.5% do not feel so. 65.83 % of students were using the text books as the most consulted source whereas 34.17 % were using Lecture Notes, Central Library and other sources. Majority (95.0%) of students were aware of search engines, while only 5.0 % do not know what it means. 91.67% of students have opined that 'Google & Yahoo' are the most sought after search engines they have used. Also, the results indicated that the library and its resources can be expected to be used by the coming day generations and they are eager to learn everything. The study was aimed at identifying the needs and the level of awareness of the student community on networks such as internet and the like. A study based on the same topic among various colleges and universities and comparative study can be carried out. The data obtained were analyzed using Simple Percentile analysis to generate tables and to arrive at conclusion.
The role of the internet is becoming ever more significant in the production and circulation of resources for literacy teaching, and in the process is changing teachers’ relationships with educational resources and professional communities. In this paper, we present case studies of four online resource networks established specifically for educational practitioners: TeacherTube, TES, TWRC Tank and Teacher Toolbox. We explore how and why the managers of these sites engage teachers, the online activities of educators using the sites, and the kinds of literacy teaching resources that are available to them. Based on an analysis of literacy teaching resources and associated activity on these websites, we argue that teacher professionalism in contemporary times involves new digital literacy practices in addition to conventional modes of using textual resources in teaching.
Traditional modes of learning such as classroom teaching and performing routine activities such as homework, and assignments are replaced by interactive methods of teaching such as multimedia presentations and the like. This paper tries to investigate the awareness on Internet and its resources by the members of the students of international school in Chennai. The study covers the students of class VIII, IX and X and was limited to Chennai city only. The analysis of the data was carried out with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) package and the results were obtained using Simple Percentile analysis and Chi-square tests and to arrive at meaningful conclusions.
This paper presents findings from a case study investigating secondary school teachers' understanding of the term digital libraries and their relationship with learning. The study addresses two research questions: (1) How do teachers conceptualize digital libraries, their relevance and issues relating to their integration into the curriculum? and (2) What are the teachers' perceptions of the initiative to develop a collaborative digital library for school projects? A series of interviews were carried out on six History subject teachers which provide a detailed and succinct information on their understanding of digital libraries, their knowledge and use of the Internet and digital resources, their perception of the possible impact of digital resources on teaching and learning, the benefits teachers seen in digital resources and the problems they have in using them. It also offers important insights on History subject teachers' perceptions of the initiative to develop a collaborative digital library for History projects, perception of its potential use, pointing out the conditions that facilitate its use in the classrooms. The paper also points out the relevance of digital libraries to the History curriculum which will make readers understand that using the technology is relevant to the teaching of all subjects.
The present study is aim to investigate the level of usage and awareness on internet and its impact
among international students of Lalaji Memorial Omega International school in Chennai. A descriptive
method has been used in this research. A total of 200 questionnaires distributed but 150 were returned
duly filled in as a sample. A structured questionnaire was designed for collecting data from the chosen
sample group. It was found that 75.33 % of students were aware of search engines and 24.67 % did not
know what it means; 73.33 % were browsing the internet for entertainment and educational needs.
Majority (80%) had opined that 'Google & Yahoo' were the most sought after search engines they used;
66 % were using internet for doubts on textbooks and lessons. Also, the results indicated that the internet
and its resources can be inferred that the coming day generations are eager to learn everything. The data
obtained were analyzed using Simple Percentile analysis to generate tables and to arrive at conclusion.
Primary and secondary (K–12) teachers form the essential core of children's formal learning before adulthood. Even though teaching is a mainstream, information-rich profession, teachers are understudied as information users. More specifically, not much is known about teacher personal information management (PIM). Teacher PIM is critically important, as teachers navigate a complex information space complicated by the duality of digital and physical information streams and changing demands on instruction. Our research study increases understanding of teacher PIM and informs the development of tools to support educators. Some important unknowns exist about teachers as information users: What are teachers' PIM practices? What are the perceived consequences of these practices for teaching and learning? How can PIM practices be facilitated to benefit teaching and learning? This study employed a qualitative research design, with interviews from 24 primary and secondary teachers. We observed various systems for information organization, and teachers report their systems to be effective. Important sources for teachers' information in order of importance are personal collections, close colleagues, and the Internet. Key findings reveal that inheriting and sharing information play an important part in information acquisition for teachers and that information technology supporting education creates unintentional demands on information management. The findings on the nature of teacher information, teacher information finding, keeping, and organizational practices have important implications for teachers themselves, school principals, digital library developers, school librarians, curriculum developers, educational technology developers, and educational policy makers.
Educators use information to support their teaching, which is largely concerned with the transfer of information. To support this information exchange, teachers manage complex information environments that are continually changing based on outside influences. Decisions on when to go out and seek additional information, what information to incorporate, and what information to dispose of are all based on notions of relevance. This exploratory study found that notions of relevance are largely driven by the educational context and are therefore unique to this particular user group. Relevance is often prescriptive for teachers, that is, information needs are driven by curriculum and school policy. Teachers also appear to stack the deck when looking for relevant resources, increasing their chances for finding a good resource fit by drawing on shared experience and information from close colleagues. Resource selection is again curriculum based, but also has the interesting feature that teachers are proxies for relevance decisions that affect their students. Anticipated relevance is present in various aspects of teachers' personal information management (PIM), such as deciding whether to keep resources for future use, organizing their physical classroom space, and resource housekeeping decisions.
Purpose -To study and investigate the awareness and utilization of library electronic resources and related issues among faculty members of SKR Engineering College (SKREC) at Chennai Design/methodology/Approach -A descriptive method has been used in this research. A total of 150 questionnaires distributed but 105 were returned duly filled in as a sample. A well structured questionnaire was designed for collecting data from the chosen sample group. Scope and limitations -The study covers the faculty members from all departments and was limited to Engineering college faculty members only from SKR Engineering College in Chennai. Findings-48.57 percentage of respondents are lectures, followed by 23.81% of respondents are senior lecturers, 20.0% of respondents are Asst. Professors and only 7.62% of respondents are Professors. 62.8 percentage of respondents are aware of online resources but whereas only 37.2 % o them are not aware. 28 (26.67%) and 23 (21.90%) were the most used. E-Journals and E-Books respectively and followed by use of E-Database 15.24 %; e-thesis & dissertations 13.33%; e-magazines 12.38% and only 10.48% responses indicates the use of all e-resources used by the respondents. 51.43 percentage of respondents visiting library to access E-resources weekly twice while 5.71 % of them fall under occasionally. 30.48 % of them fall under daily whereas 12.38 % of them use e-resources once in a week. 44.76 percentage of respondents are satisfied with all e-resources they are getting from the identified sources. Furthermore, 17.14% indicated fully satisfied while 10.48% and 27.62% were less satisfied and dissatisfied respectively. 56.19 percentage of respondents faced problem of slow Internet access speed which takes a lot of their slot time to retrieve the relevant information.
This study reports on exploratory research that investigated biology teachers' perceptions of their online information seeking practices and how these practices influenced their instructional planning activities. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results of an online survey and ten in-depth interviews measuring use of specific online tools (i.e., search engines, specific Web sites, digital libraries, online periodical databases, and electronic discussion lists) were conducted. Key findings show that teachers are using a greater number and wider range of current and multimodal resources than pre-Internet and perceive this as an advantage in creating authentic, inquiry-based learning experiences. However, underuse of educational online resources specifically designed to support teaching and learning activities (e.g., digital libraries, online periodical databases, and electronic discussion lists) was evidenced. Four themes reflecting the consequences of teachers' information seeking practices emerged from the data analysis: Currency of Information; Sparking of Ideas and Gaining Personal Knowledge; Resource Management and the Role of Time; and Webs of Sharing. Each theme encompassed both the purposeful and the indirect actions by teachers to access knowledge and resources to refine and improve their instructional planning. Study findings have implications for informing the collaborative relationship between school library media specialists and teachers. (Contains 5 tables and 6 figures.)
Teaching is an information-rich profession with increasing demands on accountability and performance. Ideally, a well-managed information space provides teachers with relevant information when they need it, thus increasing their efficiency and efficacy and conceivably improving teaching quality. Little is known about teacher personal information management (PIM). This exploratory study employed interviews to establish a context to study teacher PIM. The study found that teachers draw information from a variety of physical and digital sources, and while they were aware of sources that had valuable information, especially digital libraries and their school library media centers, they rarely used them. Teachers used distinctive personal organization schemes to manage their information, sorting information alphabetically, topically, and by educational standards. This study introduced the observed phenomenon of “information heritage,” where teachers were handed down information from their predecessors and then had to choose what to do with it and how to incorporate it into their PIM practices. Teachers store their information physically in cabinets, closets, and shelves, and digitally on their computer hard drives, school group drives, and using bookmarks. Ephemeral information created by teachers often has time management purposes.
Purpose
To demonstrate the value in conducting a usability study and following an iterative design process to create a more user‐centered and sustainable digital library.
Design/methodology/approach
After identifying three key user groups, a series of usability tests and focus groups were conducted to assess how users interact with the site's interface. An iterative design process followed involving the development and testing of prototypes by representative users and stakeholders.
Findings
Users' interaction with a digital library is task‐oriented and context dependent. Serving the needs of multiple audiences is an iterative process and requires an ongoing dialog with users.
Research limitations/implications
Like most usability studies, the results are not generalizable.
Practical implications
It offers an example of how an informal usability study and iterative design process can be conducted to create a more user‐centered digital library.
Originality/value
This paper provides new insights into the information needs and behaviors of users of cultural heritage digital libraries and builds on the literature on usability and iterative design.
Examines what occurred when the mental models of library media specialists teaching electronic information literacy database access interconnected in the complex changing environment of a lesson. Discusses changes to the mental models the library media specialists held with respect to the electronic database, role of the library media specialist, lesson goals, and teaching strategies. (Author/AEF)
Teachers are responsible for juggling knowledge of where students are and where they need to go; having insights into students' special needs and progress; choices of curricular activities and materials; rules that govern children's participation; expectations from parents and communities; and the norms and rules that govern them as teachers. The addition of technology further complicates the equation and presents many new questions. This book provides information based on 10 years of data gathered from the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project. Started in 1985, ACOT is a research collaboration between universities, public schools, and Apple Computer, Inc. to investigate the results of teachers and children routinely using technology for learning. The book includes case studies and teachers' personal perspectives from experiences in ACOT classrooms. The chapters are: (1) "From Instruction to Construction"; (2) "The Challenge of Instructional Change: Two Teachers' Stories"; (3) "The Evolution of Instruction in Technology-Rich Classrooms"; (4) "Managing a Technology-Rich Classroom"; (5) "Redefining Student and Teacher Roles"; (6) "Maintaining Student Engagement"; (7) "Enhancing Innovation and Promoting Collegial Sharing: A Reciprocal Relationship"; (8) "Integrating Technology into the Curriculum: An Exemplary Unit of Practice"; (9) "Creating an Alternative Context for Teacher Learning"; (10) "Back to the Real World: Opportunities and Obstacles in Staff Development"; and (11) "Technology: One Tool Among Many." A methodological appendix and index are also included. (Contains 127 references.) (Author/SWC)
Profile of Teachers in the US
- C E Feistritzer
National Study Tour of District Technology Integration
- J Hawkins
- E M Panush
- R Spielvogel
Building the 21st century information technology workforce: underrepresented groups in the information technology workforce
- Itaa Task Force
The Internet, technology, and teachers: survey results
- Netday