Robin’s Websites
WebQuests
Because this WebQuest is designed to last a single class session the depth of learning is limited but it does provide a format for increasing the amount of active learning in a library instruction session. This particular WebQuest is targeted at teacher candidates and is designed to help them integrate information literacy skills into their teaching.
A WebQuest designed for nursing students at the beginning of their training. Nurses must have highly developed information literacy skills in order to make treatment recommendations. This WebQuest introduces students to a variety of scholarly medical information resources. This could potentially be adapted for the nursing program at St. Cloud State University.
As with other WebQuests using the QuestGarden template, the layout for this WebQuest is straightforward and text-heavy. The task in this WebQuest requires students working in groups to explore scholarly resources such as the ERIC database and Google Scholar to produce an annotated bibliography.
Virtual Manipulatives
While this site is primarily an attempt to promote their product, DreamBox does provide some free lessons specifically designed for use with interactive whiteboards. The lessons are designed to improve the mathematical think of students in grades K-7. Interactive whiteboards are particular effective for kinesthetic learners.
This list of manipulatives is produced by Computing Technology for Math Excellence. According to the website, this group primary project is to identify and share teaching resources that address educational standards such as the Common Core. The page provides an extensive list of links to manipulatives. The list would be more valuable if it was arranged by either topic or age group.
According to their website, Shodor is a nonprofit organization for computational science education. The activities page has a wide variety of manipulatives that can be sorted by grade ranges (3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and undergraduate). Some of the activities are really just clicking, with little real manipulation occurring.
Lesson Planning Sites
This site is maintained by Lesley Farmer. Dr. Farmer is an expert in instructional design for libraries and information literacy. The page is organized around the Big6 Skills for information literacy. The lesson plans are limited in number but appropriate for my work. The strength of this page is the categorized resources that can be used to build a lesson plan.
Though the strength of this website is its array of K-12 lesson plans there is a substantial number of lessons plans for higher education. I like that the lessons plans included here are peer-reviewed. Many lesson plans also include resource files for educators to adapt and use. Finally, the site also includes teaching tips and WebQuests disguised as web-based information literacy lessons.
The lesson plans on this site are categorized by individual grades for Kindergarten through sixth grade with grades seven through twelve as one category. While the site does not include any college-specific lesson plans, several of the 7-12 lessons could be adapted for use with freshman particularly those in our Academic Collegiate Excellence program. This program is designed to help students who did not meet our standard admission criteria transition from high school to college.
Archival and Primary Source Sites
American Memory is the premier site for historical images, maps, moving images, sound recordings, and more. The Library of Congress has a page for teachers that provides guidance on integrating primary sources into lessons. America’s Story from America’s Library uses the resources in American Memory to teach children about our history.
Minnesota Reflections has over 152,000 images and documents from Minnesota history. One of my fellow librarians was a primary force behind the development of Minnesota Reflections so it’s not surprising that there are numerous images of St. Cloud State University. Here’s an aerial view of the campus from 1975-1985: Aerial view of campus, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Our University Archivist has worked tirelessly to increase online access to our archival collection. The SCSU archives is the official record keeper of SCSU. While campus departments are the most frequent users of the archives for important documents like the complete collection of undergraduate catalogs, the other resources such as the campus images should not be neglected.
Skills Practice
This tutorial includes tutorials on searching, citing, asking questions, and evaluating information. Each module provides practice for the student and concludes with a quiz. Tutorials of this length work best when they are assigned to a class for a graded assignment.
The personal finance resources on this page provide the following:
- Explanations of common financial forms
- Tax form information
- Details on car loans
- Particulars on growing money
- Financial aid tips
The resources can improve the financial skills of college students.
This resources uses the open source Guide on the Side tutorial software which allows students to do live searching in a database on the right side of the screen while the left side includes searching tips and quizzes. In this tutorial, students learn how to evaluate information. Unfortunately, one of the examples they use is the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. College students would benefit more from evaluating real websites that present more complicated information.
Exploration and Discovery
Google Lit Trips works with Google Earth to track the journeys of characters from literature. The trips are grouped by age (K-5, 6-8, 9-12, and Higher Ed). I explored the lit trip for Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Before downloading a trip, you have to complete a short survey to help justify grant support for the project. I recommend starting with The Basics of Viewing a Google Lit Trip.
The Louvre has three online tours available. My favorite of the three explores the Egyptian Antiquities collections in the museum. Any of the tours could be used as part of a WebQuest or as part of a unit on history or art.
The image quality of this virtual tour is fantastic. You feel like you’re the only person in the museum and can go wherever you want. However, the tour should include more information about the exhibits to truly shine.
Inquiry Learning and/or Interactive Applications, Websites, or Software
The library at the University of Texas San Antonio has developed an interactive tutorial to prepare students for reading scholarly articles. Students are unfamiliar with the formal structure of a scholarly article and are often overwhelmed when required to review an article. This tutorial breaks down that structure and provides tips on how to read a scholarly article.
This tutorial from ITT Dublin (Ireland) walks students through the entire literature review process. It starts with a description a literature review and includes two quizzes. Literature reviews are common activities for graduate students as they prepare their culminating projects. Most students have little experience in writing a literature review. A tutorial like this one could be part of a research methods class.
This tutorial from the University of California Irvine Libraries covers how information is created, shared, found, and used in the sciences. The tutorial has five modules. Each module includes a pretest, review, and quiz. I found the module on how science information is organized particularly informative. In order to find information on a science topic, students must understand the various formats that contain information.