A Perfect Match:Library 2.0 in support of IB framework of learning

Dr. Dana DukicKowloon Junior School

Hong Kong

IBAP Teachers’ Convention - Singapore 2007

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IB FRAMEWORK OF LEARNING, WEB 2.0 AND LIBRARY 2.0: A COMMON GROUND

• inviting participation• supporting collaboration• user (student) centered • personalized services and resources• trans-disciplinary• in constant change

There is a major change in attitude to learning, building knowledge and providing services to end users:

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Inviting participationCollaborativePersonalized

User (student) centeredTrans-disciplinaryIn constant change

WEB 2.0IB

CURRICULUM

LIBRARY 2.0

Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & IB curriculum

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School library 2.0 in support of the IB curriculum

• Library is a physical and a virtual space, accessible to its users from any location and at any time

• It is a mash up of traditional library services and innovative Web 2.0 services

• Provides contents in various formats to meet students’ personalized needs

• Collaborative in creating library resources and services

• Makes use of Web 2.0 applications and services

• Uses social bookmarking to create on-demand resource guides and on-the-fly pathfinders to support IB curriculum needs

• In constant change

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KJS Library in support of PYP curriculum

• Library is everywhere – accessible at any time and any place

• Supplies a variety of resources in different formats

• Supports recreational reading

• Instructs in information literacy

• Collaborative in creating resources – libraryzone, pyplibrary

• Offers interactive web space – forums (book raps), messaging, quizzes

• Introduces Web 2.0 applications – wikis, podcasts

• Prepares on-demand pathfinders and other resource guides

• Monitors users’ needs – downloads, popular pages (page statistics)

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Wikis in libraries

What are wikis and how do they work?• simple websites that can be created and edited by many authors • users can always add new information and edit previous submissions• allow their users to compare previous versions of its pages• users can track who wrote or edited what and when

A well-known example of wiki is Wikipedia, a collaborative online encyclopedia.

Wiki space types: • public • protected• Private

Wiki tools• PB Wiki, Jot Spot, Wet Paint, PM Wiki, Media Wiki, WikiSpaces

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How are wikis used in libraries

Librarians use wikis in many ways:

• subject guides

• policy manuals

• for project planning

• resource listings

• as a library instruction resource

• professional collaborative websites

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Library instructions and wikis

• Web 2.0 technologies introduce a new quality in delivering library instructions

• A number of school libraries offer online tutorials encompassing animation programming, streaming audio and video, coupled with interactive quizzes and handouts for downloading (PRIMO).

• Web-based tutorials are very convenient because they are available any time and students can study at their own pace. A drawback is that students have no opportunity to interact with the instructor or with other students.

• This shortcoming of web-based tutorials can be solved by introducing wikis as a platform for creating library instruction materials.

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THE WEATHER PROJECT

Central ideas:

• school library is an extended classroom, a technology reach environment offering to students a great variety of resources in different formats

• Web 2.0 attitude and technologies can effectively support PYP curriculum framework by helping students to become active learners and encouraging them to learn in collaboration with others

• linking up information literacy with children’s literature has a strong effect on children’s learning motivation

• helping students to develop skills that will encourage them to learn beyond their classroom and beyond the limits of formal education

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Key questions

Reading and discussing the story• What is the idea behind the story The Thundercake by Patricia

Polacco?• How is the story organized?• What did students like in the story The Thundercake?

Information resources about weather• What kind of information resources we need to research about

weather?• How to use nonfiction books?• How to use encyclopedias?• How to decide whether a website is good and useful?

New information technologies• What is wiki and how to use it?• What are podcasts?• How to create an MP3 file with Audacity?

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What do we want for students to learn? (specific expectations)

• literary work appreciation, and to understand that a good story can be a starting point for further inquiry

• to acquire information literacy skills: use wiki, search information resources, evaluate website, create audio files

• to learn and generate new knowledge in collaboration with others

• to participate in project development

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Learning with wikiWiki project participants• year 3 students in Library Club in KJS - Hong Kong • All the students except one were ESL children• No previous experience in web publishing.

Software used in the project Wikispaces

• it is offered for free for educational purpose in K-12 schools. • easy to use• contains a history page• contains email and a discussion page that allows users to put comments • page RSS feeds• Has a capability to imbed audio, video or any other multimedia file• an option to import a blog entry • Includes usage statistics • can be arranged that only invited members can edit the content.

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ImplementationThe project offered 2 types of activities for students:• Literary activities, connected to the story• information literacy activities

Literary and literacy contents and activities were interwoven and they support each other during the project

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Activities related to the story

1. Reading the story about weather• discussing the story elements: setting, characters, problem, solution• writing the story elements into a worksheet• introducing Audacity• Audacity – recording thoughts about the story

2. Searching for other stories about weather in KJS Library• brainstorming key words connected to weather

3. Learning the parts of a book Parts of a book

4. Creating a list of stories - bibliography:• students used worksheets with bibliographical data• students learned how to use the Citationmaker

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Collecting information resources on weather

Nonfiction books

How to search nonfiction books – PowerPoint lesson• creating a list of nonfiction books about weather in KJS Library

Encyclopedias

Searching encyclopedias – PowerPoint lesson• creating a list of encyclopedias with information about weather

Internet

How to find a good website – PowerPoint lesson

How can you tell it’s for real - exercise• testing websites on Weather by using a Web detective worksheet

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Inquiry about thunderstorm

In the story The Thundercake by P. Polacco the grandma advises the little girl to count seconds between lightning and the sound of thunder to be able to guess how faraway a thunderstorm is. Students were surprised by this statement and wanted to know if it was true and why.

Inquiry questions• What is a thunderstorm?• Why do we see lightning first and hear thunder afterwards?• How do we know how far away a thunderstorm is?

During the inquiry students used resources like nonfiction books and the Internet, made notes and formulated answers and explanations.They presented their finding in Wikispaces.

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Creating a podcast Thunderstorm

• Students prepared a script and recorded audio by using Audacity

• In the podcast Thunderstorm children explain the elements of the story The Thundercake by P. Polacco, talk about their inquiry about thunderstorm and tell jokes about weather.

LibraryZone: Thunderstorm

Story writing

•discussion about the story structure•creating a basic story structure by using a worksheet•writing a story about fear of thunderstorm

Students stories

(click the icon)

(click the icon)

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Students’ self-assessment

What did they learn?• how to use wiki• how to record an audio file (Audacity)• parts of a nonfiction books• how to know if a website is good or not

What they liked, and what they didn’t like?• creating hyperlinks• sending messages• recording with Audacity• writing stories

What grade would they give themselves?• The highest!

Evaluation

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Observation during the lessons

• students enjoyed the story and discussed the story elements• collaborated inside a group but there was no inter-group collaboration• once the work was published students didn’t make any changes• used messaging to contact each other and the librarian for instructions

in using wiki• rarely used discussion space• asked questions (what is a thunderstorm?) and suggested other

activities (story writing)• history page showed that all students were not equally active• considered their work as a group effort and success • worked also during the recess time and from home• Students enjoyed recording the audios with Audacity

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Analysis of students’ final work

• Students’ work is displayed on 4 wiki pages: Thunder Cake

Stories by students Weather fiction books Information resources

• The textual part is done by students (librarian inserted pictures)

• Information resources page is a good resource for unit of inquiry about weather

• Stories are short but well structured

• List of fiction books about weather is useful for the weather unit of inquiry (teachers borrowed some books for classroom reading)

• Thunder Cake page shows students’ feedback to the story

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Conclusion for the Weather project

Instructional practices

• children’s story was a good introduction to the project• wiki is a useful instructional tool for teaching information literacy• students still have to learn to manage wikis to make use of it in its

full potential• library is a platform for collaborative and personalized learning

Learning

• students acquired new information literacy and other skills• students worked collaboratively on the project, asked questions,

participated in planning project activities• learning was personalized, students picked project tasks according

to their interests and skills• students had the opportunity to work on the project at any place and

any time they found convenient

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Skills development

• research skills (how to use nonfiction books, encyclopedias and the Internet)

• critical thinking skills (how to decide if a website is good)• decision-making (made decisions about division of labor in the

project)• communication skills (worked collaboratively on a project, learned

how to use wiki)

Practical benefits (in PYP discourse called “action”)

Year 3 teachers used some of the resources created be students in their everyday classroom work

• they checked out books from the collection of stories about weather and read them in classroom:

• used nonfiction books about weather for practicing research skills

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Conclusion

• IB curriculum is officially described as “inquiry-based” and “resource-based”, and this already makes the library essentially involved in the whole process of teaching and learning.

• I showed here some illustrations of the role that the school library can play in the implementation of the IB program.

• There are many more contributions that the library can offer, which are made by other librarians or are waiting to be explored in the future.

• It would be a pity if these opportunities were missed or forgotten in the development of the curriculum, as they apparently sometimes are.

• For instance, in the new and very comprehensive document Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education the search for the word “library” gives the result “total instances found: 0”.