Practical Service

With a full-time job, full-time grad school, and full-time parenting, I have had little opportunity to complete formal "volunteer" experiences over the last two years. I have, however, found many ways to provide my workplace, as well as colleagues around the state with practical applications of my iSchool experiences.

Testing Data Presentation and Information Architecture

One area in which my "information perspective" has been heavily influenced by my academic experiences is in the area of information architecture. Public school education has become much more "data-driven" in recent years, and one of the unfortunate byproducts of this is that there are many instances in which teachers are presented with data without any regard to its structure or format. In fact, oftentimes the operating principle seems to be "more data = better data." An area of urgent need is the data management system currently used by our district and many others in the state. Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (WSIPC) and Skyward, Inc. have partnered to provide a comprehensive school data management and dissemination system, the classroom teacher component of which is known as "Educator Access Plus." Overall, it is a very robust and useful tool; however, the manner in which testing data is presented leaves a lot to be desired, and effectively renders that component useless for most teachers. Data is presented in a raw format and without any comparative context whatsoever. A solution for this is, I believe, a much simpler color-coded architecture, as outlined in this memo. As a result of this initiative I have been in contact with Mr. Don Denny, WSIPC Student Product Manager, regarding the evolution and possible implementation of this idea. Currently, the prospects for implementation of the idea appear promising. In an email response dated April 5, 2006, John Ackerlund of Skyward Inc. has commented that "we haven’t gotten many requests for this type of analysis at a Teacher Level. If you asked me why, I would guess most don’t look at much after they get the results. Maybe they would if they had a nice easy view of it." Additionally, Mr. Ackerlund observed that "unless there is a way to show what those scores represent they do become sort of useless.  I think the suggestion that Stephen Coker made is pretty good. I agree it’s a simple way to point out the areas where the Student is in need of help. I also think it would be just as valuable to add something like that into Family Access as it would for EA+." Mr. Denny also added that "I think the merit is as obvious to them as it is to me and I will be interested in hearing what the Programming Manager for Test Score Management has to say about future modifications." It will be exciting to follow this initiative in the coming months.

What about Wikipedia?

Another satisfying and influential ad hoc service project began with a series of emails to the Washington Library Media Association (WLMA) listserv. Several of the emails expressed concerns about the use and/or recommendation of Wikipedia as an information source in school libraries. Some librarians were even advocating blocking student access to Wikipedia. I found this a little disconcerting and, summoning experience from several courses I have taken, crafted a short online response to the controversy, "What about Wikipedia?" After posting the link, I received several emails from grateful librarians who were busy sharing the information with other teachers. Most importantly, it led to a conversation among our faculty that has led to plans to revamp our "official" research project policies at Wenatchee High School.

Wenatchee High School Student Research Policies

In the Spring of 2006, meetings were held with the leadership of our Social Studies department in the interest of increasing information literacy education through collaboration between teacher librarians and classroom teachers, particularly in the the areas of Washington State Classroom Based Assessment projects and the Citizen Washington Policy Paper project.

The first step in the process took place during the last week of April 2006, in which we evaluated the existing Social Studies research curriculum in light of the Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning as defined by the American Association of School Librarians. By the end of the academic year, we had established a framework for collaboration as well as a specific program for library-based instruction in information literacy skills.