Suggestions

=__Suggestions__ =

In our research, we were surprised by what little research was available on teachers as a user group. There are lots of studies on children and students, but surprisingly so few on those who instruct and educate them formally. In response, our first suggestion is that there first needs to be more research on this user group in order to better undsertand their information seeking needs and behavior. When we know more specifically about the needs of this user group, then we can better develop services that will better meet their specific needs.

In our study of teachers, we found that their primary role is to teach and therefore their predominant task is lesson planning. Most teachers create lessons based on curriculum guides and state standards and indicators. To better serve teachers, information providers must take this into consideration and become familar with the curriculum as well as the standards and indicators. This knowledge will aid them in designing websites, pathfinders, selecting resources such as databases and books. This knowledge will also aid them in the layout and location of these reources. For instance, if a school media specialist is well aware of the specific resources teachers will need based on the curriculum, they can organize teacher-specific resources by quarter, grade level, and subject. If teachers can find resources with greater ease based on the chronology that they are familiar with, then they will be more likely to use these services.

Looking at a school as an “Ecology” (Perrault, 2007), implementing Web 2.0 tools district wide, such as "Angel" discussed in a 2010 article by Pijanowski, could facilitate collaboration, allow for greater standardization across disciplines, and ensure a more consistent implementation of State-specific standards and district policies. Pijanowski gives an example of a school district in Georgia that implemented a technology that served as a repository and content-sharing platform, a networking tool, and a training site, all with 24/7 access. The learning management system allowed teachers across the district to collaborate with one another, share ideas, lesson plans, etc., and work together to develop a new curriculum.

When addressing needs and providing resources more locally within school systems or schools themselves, we as Library Media Specialists, should consider the mission of the School Library Media Program: //**to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information**//. Taking into account that teachers continue to be challenged by accessing information as well as organizing the relevant information and resources from year to year, resources that offer tools for collaborative planning and cloud access should be considered. There are numerous tools that are available for teachers that offer many of these features. While access to these resources can be beneficial, teachers often lack the skills to use them and ultimately the time to learn the skills, unless it is worked into professional training. Targeting pre-service teachers and providing ongoing professional development opportunities will be key to teachers (and students) becoming more effective users of ideas and information. We suggest offering webinars and face-to-face tutorials throughout the school year.

[|Evernote]
Is a virtual space that allows students to save emails, links, sticky notes, web clips, pdfs and share them with each other.

[|LibGuides]
LibGuides is a template-driven, third-party, content management system for libraries, with a Web2.0 look and feel. The system is domain-mapped to your library's web site and hosted on the vendor's server. The templates provide box types for different types of content.

[|Diigo]
Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows users to save websites, as well as tag them, add sticky notes and annotations, and share them with other users in various groups. Sticky notes are an effective way to start a virtual conversation among teams of teachers on the merits of a website.