I am going to suggest that students at our school take this on to give back to the school. Our students are required to complete a senior project for their English IV class and this would be a great assignment for someone who does not know what to do and has some experience with technology. They can start it off as a blog or Wiki since our school district has specific software that they would like for us to use and only our webmaster for our school's website has been trained to use it. Or they can create a website for the media center using free sites as some other schools in the district. The student will also need a mentor so the webmaster could work with the student and make sure that the Wiki, blog, or free website is linked to our school's webpage just as Destiny currently is.
To start, the media specialist in a similar situation needs to work with the person on what features and links he or she wants to include on the Wiki, blog, or website and how it should be designed. Our school serves many grade levels and those users will have to be kept in mind. Also, with me being the parent of a child with a disability I would want to make sure that all students are able to use the website according to their abilities. For example, alternate text and textual transcripts can be included for the visually or hearing impaired (Jurkowski, 2010, p. 73).
Once the person knows what to include then he or she should look around at other media center websites within and outside of the district using the following questions that Pat Franklin developed to help her high school students with media literacy when evaluating Web sites (Stephens and Franklin, 2007, p. 105):
- URL of Web Page _____________________
- Name of Web Page ____________________
- Is the title of he page indicative of the content? Yes/No
- Is the information useful for your purpose? Yes/No
- Is the purpose of the page indicated on the home page? Yes/No
- Did the information lead you to other sources that might be helpful? Yes/No
- Is the information current? Yes/No
- Does the up-to-date information matter for your purpose? Yes/No
- Does the information appear biased? Yes/No
- Does the information contradict something you found elsewhere? Yes/No
- Did the pictures enhance the content? Yes/No
- Who created the page? ____________________
- The author is affiliated with what organization? ___________________
- What is the domain of this page? ____________________
- Are you positive the information is true? Yes/No
- How can you prove it? ____________________
- Write one fact you found on this Web page: ___________________
References
Jurkowski, O. L. (2010). Technology and the school library: A comprehensive guide for media specialists and other educators. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Stephens, C. G. & Franklin, P. (2007). Library 101: A handbook for the school library media specialist. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Cynthia,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I especially like the idea of having the students develop a website for a project. That could be a really good assignment. I also liked your point about making the website accessible to all students, especially those with impairments.
Cynthia,
ReplyDeleteIt seems so strange that your media specialist has so many responsibilities. I can’t believe that she also teaches Reading and an online program. She must be swamped with various responsibilities! She also must be amazing to handle it all!
I think your idea for seniors to take ownership of their technological learning while giving back to their school is a great idea! It would be good for them to help with creating the media website and it would prepare them for future project in the work force or college. This type of project would be a great culmination for seniors approaching graduation.
The list of questions suggested by Pat Franklin seemed like an excellent evaluation tool. With so many websites available, it is so important to have a test to determine if the site is an accurate and valid source of information. This list would be great to use with students completing web research as well.
Thanks for the wonderful information and tips!
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ReplyDeleteI am in a school that does not have an active website as well. I think it would be wonderful to have, but find that there is very little time to develop one or to find available people willing to take on another responsibility. But like Shannon, I find it hard to believe that your media specialist wears so many hats and I can see where developing a website could be the least of her worries. I like the idea of taking the responsibility off of the media specialist however, and placing it in the hands of the students. It think that it would make an excellent project and that it would give the students a real sense of pride and ownership.
ReplyDeleteThe media center at my school currenty uses Destiny as the media center webpage as well. It works well for putting information at the fingertips of students but you just can't be as creative as with other websites. We have basic information, a Google Calendar for teachers to use when reserving computer labs & the media center for checkout, and links for students.
ReplyDeleteWow...I am sure that your media specialist is exhausted by the end of the day! That is a lot of hats to wear!
I try to help her as much as I can. Working at a small alternative school allows us to learn a lot because there are so few of us. Sometimes I find that we know more of what is going on then others at 'regular' schools but we do not have extracurricular activities and focus only on academics. With all that being said, she still has a lot of hats and works from 8 am until 5 pm.
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