Teacher and Librarian Collaboration: Access to References and a Webquest

Today's happy news is all about the library selecting and acquiring an online encyclopedia by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and getting a subscription to the Philippine Studies. By providing access to the source to faculty so that they can share the resource to their students, the Visual Arts teacher created a mini-webquest for his students.

A webquest is an activity that teachers and librarians can use to instruct and facilitate the learning of research skills, specifically the use of online sources, unpacking a question to its basic idea/s and identifying keywords to use when searching for sources online. It is also a kind of assessment to gauge the students' understanding of concepts. This activity can be done asynchronously. The teacher can further use students' discoveries from the webquest as an entry pass to the next online session or a point of discussion connecting it to a new concept. The entire exercise becomes an experience of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

Teachers and librarians can work together to design a webquest. This way, the learning objectives are deliberately met and the assessment of skills are identified right after. Feedback is essential which can be done asynchronously as well. If you are subscribed to World Book Online, you will find out that there are ready made webquests in the Educators' Page. More on this in future posts!

Webquest and Pathfinder: The Teenagers Guide to Meaningful Research

I'll be presenting a paper at the International Association of School Libraries (IASL) Regional Conference in Bacolod City on 26-27 April 2012. Here is the abstract

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Abstract: School libraries play an important role in the development and facilitation of research skills. High school students who undergo research paper writing need to have companions and mentors as they complete the journey of accomplishing their first academic paper. While teacher experts and research advisers are automatic mentors for research, the school librarian is likewise, a reading and research companion of the teenager traversing for the first time the exciting road of scholarly research.

This paper explains the impetus and the creative process with which the school librarian has undergone in the design and preparation of an Information Literacy (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 2000) Webquest for grade 11 students and a school library Pathfinder for grade 10 students of Beacon Academy, a Filipino high school offering the Middle Years Program (MYP) and the Diploma Program (DP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB). Using Wikispaces.org as platform for the webquest and the pathfinder, both are aimed at providing structure and meaning for grade 11 students preparing to write the Extend Essay and grade 10 students working on the Personal Project. Relevant to the webquest and pathfinder are factors that contribute to its implementation: administrative support, available technology and resources, web 2.0 know-how of the school librarian, use of the guided inquiry model (Kuhlthau, 1997) and, collaboration with teacher experts and mentors. The school librarian has identified evaluation tools like process journal of students, library work logs and reflection notes, and a rubric on the effectiveness of the webquest and pathfinder for students to answer or use.