Searching for an Answer

IRB Approval--Finally!

2005-02-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

I finally received approval of my IRB this week. I met with the district's computer teacher last week to share an online Internet Usage Survey that will be administered to all students in grades 6-8. This will be completed during their regular computer class and should take no longer than 10-15 minutes.

I met with the 7th grade teachers last week to provide an overview of the project. (Meetings with the 8th and 6th grade teachers are scheduled for today and tomorrow.)

Consent forms will be distributed to students on Feb 28th (following February vacation) and data collection will begin the first week of March. Looks like things are finally going to happen!

Final Thoughts from Initial Development Phase

2004-12-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

There are several revisions that need to be made before this unit is ready for large-scale piloting. Once my IRB is approved, I will plan to pilot with several middle school students in January. My research project for the spring will begin in February and run for approximately 12 weeks. I hope to have all revisions and additional piloting completed by this time. This online instructional unit will be used in a pilot study for my dissertation at the middle school level. It will be a comparative study that looks at differences between an online instructional unit and direct teacher instruction for teaching search skills and strategies. I will continue to post progress to this blog and reflect on the project throughout my spring study.

http://www.education2.uconn.edu/lhenry/searching/tutorial.htm

Pilot II

2004-12-15T05:15:00.000-08:00

The second pilot was conducted with my son, a junior in high school.
Again, I took notes during the process while piloting the unit.

1--I definitely have to reduce the amount of text for middle school level. This will be especially important for struggling readers. I may want to restructure the first few tasks to really focus on the most important elements for students to learn.

2--The companion worksheet for the search engine task needs to be modified. The space for recording your "focus word" needs to be changed to "keyword" to match the text in the task.

3--Again, the links to the various search engines need to open in a new window so the student can simply close this window when the search task is completed. At present, it is necessary to use the back button several times to return to the project screen.

4--Adding questions or a space for students to record the question for the final task will be necessary. It's too cumbersome the way it stands with the user having to refer back to previous screens for the question.

5--The user spent a total of 38 minutes completing the unit of instruction.

Pilot I

2004-12-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

The first pilot of the unit was completed with my daughter, a senior in high school. I took notes as she moved through each task and identified several problems that will need to be addressed before using this with my study in the spring.

1--In the first task, the links to the content pages need to be setup to open in a new window. It currently opens in the same window causing the user to return to the tasks by using the back button. This would be much simpler if it opened in a new window that could then be closed and maintaining the project window to continue with the next task.

2--There may be too much text in the second and third steps of task 1. I should consider minimizing the text to include just the critical components relevant to the project. There are a few extraneous items that are not relevant to the purpose of this project.

3--The search engine worksheet should be modified to remove the "types of search engines" column. This information is not critical to learning how to search effectively. (The removal of this information from the unit is referenced in #2 above).

4--The Northern Light search engine needs to be removed from the search engine activity. This engine is no longer available for free. There is a membership fee to access its use.

5--Issues with the 10 question assessment continue. (Problems with linking and page format).

6--There is a grammatical error in the dialogue written in task 5. This needs to be corrected.

7--The final task should include a button bar on the left panel that includes links to the search engines presented in the previous task. These should be programmed to open in a new window. The user had difficulty remembering the question as she searched for the information and had to use the back button to get back to the question. (Also might consider writing the questions out on the companion worksheet for this final task.)

8--The user spent a total of 35 minutes completing the project. The timing seems to be adequate since most class periods at the middle school level are 40-45 minutes. If the text is reduced somewhat, this should reduce the time for completion, which will allow for a brief introduction and setup at the beginning of the class period.

Frustration

2004-12-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

Frustration has set in. The assessment component in Flash still does not have all the kinks worked out. The 10 questions are functioning properly however the "finish" button that should move students onto the next task is not linked correctly. Also, the page design has not been edited to match the other pages. There's also some other linking problems that cause the user to have to use the back button several times to get back to the opening page to access the next task. At this point, I don't feel comfortable piloting it with middle school students until these problems have been resolved. I will pilot it with my own kids this week to complete the evaluation of the project.

Presentation

2004-12-06T05:13:00.000-08:00

We're supposed to present our final project tonight, however we are not prepared to do so. The 10 question, multiple choice assessment that my partner developed in Flash is not working properly. We need more time to work out the kinks and upload it to the site again. It's been a frustrating few weeks waiting for this final component to be completed. Additionally, the webpage that the assessment is embedded in does not have the correct format and the links are not working to continue with the unit after taking the quiz. Hopefully all these bugs will be worked out soon.

Last Development Piece

2004-12-02T23:17:00.000-08:00

My partner is still working on developing an assessment component that will be embedded into our unit on searching using Flash. This has not been completed yet so piloting is at a stand still at this point. Also still waiting for IRB approval to do a full-scale pilot of the project. I have access to a few middle school students thorugh a library media specialist ready to pilot. Also, I can have my own kids pilot the unit if necessary. Hopefully the development will move along quickly in the next few days so we have time for piloting next week.

Field Testing

2004-11-15T17:20:00.000-08:00

Still waiting for IRB approval. This is not a problem up to this point as the project is still not ready for piloting. My partner is working on the completion of the assessment component that will need to be incorporated into the project before it is ready for field testing. Once this has been completed and all links are tested, I plan to pilot the project with my two children (high school age) while I wait for my IRB to come through. I hope to complete initial piloting by next week.

http://www.education2.uconn.edu/lhenry/searching/tutorial.htm

Refinement of Objectives/Assessments

2004-11-09T04:28:00.000-08:00

I found that the refinement of my objectives and
assessments was somewhat of a synchronized dance
routine. As I adjusted and changed one element, it was
necessary to go in and make adjustments to others.
After having my original storyboards developed to see
how the web project would come together, I realized
that it was necessary to go back and combine some
pieces to make it a more cohesive project. My original
design had three separate instructional components that
I found I could easily incorporate into one. This was
determined once the assessment of these components was
developed. Additionally, I found it necessary to keep
asking myself, "What do I want the students to learn
from this experience?" and "What skills are essential
to that learning?" As I made changes to my assessments
based on these two questions, it was necessary to
adjust my objectives to truly meet the learning goals
of this project.

Another important consideration will be the assessment
of the project as a whole. Once I get out into the
field to pilot this unit, it will undoubtedly be
necessary to make additional changes to my objectives
and assessment items. I look forward to implementing
this project, refining it, and continuing to use it in
my future research.

Field Testing

2004-11-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Field testing is supposed to happen this week, however we are still completing the design of the project. Also, I do not have IRB approval to pilot test at my research site. The plan is to continue working on the design and begin piloting as soon as approval is obtained.

Show and Tell

2004-11-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

It was a rewarding experience to see everyone's projects come to life. The "show and tell" process allowed me to see some flaws in my design and what I needed to revise before I went online with an active webpage. The most poignant was the missing content-based evaluation that should have been incorporated into our project following the Knowledge Quest portion. This section was still under development and not ready to be posted yet. Additionally, some of the text appeared quite small. I adjusted some of the font to make it easier to read. Also, I incorporated additional colors in the font to separate sections and highlight key points.

Web Design

2004-10-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

The basic web design layout was completed. At this stage, it's important to keep the audience in mind to ensure that the text is at an appropriate reading level. Also, design elements should be appealing to the age group that ill use the project. Information was pulled from various sources available on the Internet to create the Knowledge Quest portion of the project. Changes were made to the original story board ideas as several different elements could be incorporated into one page followed by an assessment of content.

The new story board layout includes the following:

1--Introduction and background
2--Knowledge Quest (search strategies, Boolean logic, and search engines)
3--Search engine activity
4--Content-based assessment (10 multiple choice questions)
5--Brainstorming (generating lists of focus words for search application)
6--Link Selection (importance of reading search engine results)
7--Final Assessment (terminal task that is performance based)

IRB

2004-10-18T23:37:00.000-07:00

IRB application has been completed/submitted to pilot my web-project with 7th grade students at PCS. The IRB meets on October 26th. Hopefully it won't take too long to process and I'll be able to begin piloting in early November.

Story Boards

2004-10-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

At this point, the web project will consist of 6 separate webpages.

1--Knowledge Quest (introduce search engines and strategies and Internet metalanguage/includes 10 mc question assessment)
2--Basic Search Strategies (no Boolean logic)
3--Prior Knowledge (brainstorming lists of words associated with topic and/or question)
4--Search Engine Selection (how to access and select search engines depending on information needs)
5--Develop Questions (generate a question of interest based on prescribed topic)
6--Advanced Search (utilizing Boolean logic)

This unit will conclude with a terminal task in which students will employ everything that they have learned to locate an answer to a specific question.

Task Assignments

2004-10-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Task outline of work to be completed

We established a task outline to determine who would be responsible for what portions of the project in order to keep on schedule with development. This seems to be an important element of Instructional Design, especially when you are working in a collaborative fashion. During project creation, it seems that a lot of tasks come to the forefront at the same time as you try to pull things together for the development of the product. I can see where tasks could easily become overlooked at this stage of the process if task assignments are not completed. For our purposes, we developed an outline that established who would complete what tasks and assigned a specific deadline for each of these. Many items at this stage of development require that previous tasks be completed before you can move ahead. This task outline allowed us to see where the project was going over a long period of time and how it would all come together by the due date.

Assessment

2004-10-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

The assessment components of this project will include several different aspects. First of all, students will need to complete an entry-level behavior test in which they will be asked to launch a web browser and access a search engine. These are the basic prerequisite skills necessary for students to have before they engage in the web project. This assessment will be strictly observational for the researcher to determine whether the student possesses these prerequisite skills or not.

Secondly, students will complete the Knowledge Quest portion of the searching tutorial at which time they will be presented with 10 multiple choice questions. These questions will be content-based and extracted directly from the Knowledge Quest material.

Finally, a performance assessment will be completed that requires students to select a science-related topic from a list and complete a search for information to answer a specific question. This assessment will include specific information that needs to be located as well as the application of information learned in the Knowledge Quest portion of the project.

Performance Objectives (revised)

2004-10-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Below are my revised performance objectives based on the most recent version (3) of my ICM.

1. Knowledge of Search Engine

Given a specific search engine, the LWBAT identify the structure of the search engine without assistance.

Given a specific search engine, the LWBAT identify the type of information that the search engine will retrieve without assistance.

2. Use Basic Search Strategies

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT identify one focus word to enter into a search engine to locate the specified information without assistance.

3. Question Generation

Given a pre-selected topic, the LWBAT generate a question about that topic that they are interested in answering by conducting a search on the Internet.

4. Activate Prior Knowledge

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT list terms (focus words) related to the specified information without assistance.

5. Use Advanced Search Strategies

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT utilize Boolean search terms in a search engine to locate the specified information without assistance.

6. Select Appropriate Link from Search Engine Results

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT select an appropriate website link that contains relevant information to the search task.

Performance Goal

2004-10-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is kind of the "big picture" goal of what I want students to perform.

Given a search task and access to 6 search engines, seventh grade students at PCS will be able to employ advanced search strategies to locate 3 websites that contain answers to questions about weather related topics.

Weather related topics were chosen because it is part of the seventh grade science curriculum at this school.

epsy 375 v-3

2004-10-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

epsy 375 v-3
Originally uploaded by lahenry96.

Above is version 3 of my ICM. Not too many changes this time--just some "tweaking" to make it better. Also included is a brief description of the elements for part 1.

Resources

2004-10-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Descriptions of Search Engines

Search Engine Watch
http://www.searchenginewatch.com

Understanding and Comparing Web Search Tools
http://www.hamline.edu/administration/libraries/search/comparisons.html

Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Search Engine Chart
http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/

Internet Workshops

Finding information on the Internet: A tutorial http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

Searching the Internet Workshop
http://www.ci.keene.nh.us/library/srchdemo.htm

Scavenger Hunts

Internet Scavenger Hunts by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga http://www.utc.edu/~tpa/mcallister/scavenger.html

Internet Treasure Hunts for ESL Students by The Internet TESL Journal
http://iteslj.org/th/

Scavenger Hunts: Searching for Treasure on the Internet by Education Worldhttp://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml

Revised Goal

2004-09-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Given a search task to locate information about rainforests, the 7th grade students at PCS will be able to employ advanced search strategies to locate three different websites that contain answers to specific questions about rainforests.

Example Questions:
1) What animals live in a rain forest?
2) What type of plants grow in a rain forest?
3) What is the climate of a rain forest?

The hope is that students will utilize advanced search strategies (keyword + focus) to locate information to answer the questions. If a student was searching for information based on the first question, employing an advanced search strategy would be to use the keyword "rainforest" and a focus word "animals" with the Boolean operative "and" or "+" depending upon the search engine that is being utilized to access the information.

Performance Objectives

2004-09-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

1. Knowledge of Search Engine

Given a specific search engine, the LWBAT identify the structure of the search engine without assistance.

Given a specific search engine, the LWBAT identify the type of information that the search engine will retrieve without assistance.

2. Goal Setting

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT identify a specific goal to locate the specified information without assistance.

3. Activate Prior Knowledge

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT list terms (focus words) related to the specified information without assistance.

4. Select Appropriate Search Engine

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT select the appropriate search engine to locate the specified information without assistance.

5. Use Basic Search Strategies

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT identify one focus word to enter into a search engine to locate the specified information without assistance.

6. Use Advanced Search Strategies

Given a search task on the Internet, the LWBAT utilize Boolean search terms in a search engine to locate the specified information without assistance.

epsy 375 v-2

2004-09-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

epsy 375 v-2
Originally uploaded by lahenry96.

This is the revised version of my ICM. Note in this diagram that the prerequisite skills are to the left side prior to the exclamation point.

epsy 375 ICM

2004-09-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

epsy 375 ICM
Originally uploaded by lahenry96.

This is my initial ICM. Notice the two ovals at the bottom indicate the original prerequisite skills that were identified. Follow the chart bottom-up.

Initial ICM

2004-09-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well, my initial ICM included 9 components and 2 identified prerequisite skills. After much deliberation last week with my partner, we have refined this ICM to focus on a total of 6 components. Additionally, we identified 3 prerequisite skills. These skills include:
1) Basic computer skills (operational)
2) Internet Knowledge (basic level-know what it is)
3) Ability to access the Internet (includes launching a web browser and accessing a search engine)

My initial ICM included only the first 2 of these. My instructional objectives have been developed based on the following 6 components:
1) Knowledge of Search Engines
2) Goal Setting
3) Activation of Prior Knowledge
4) Selection of an Appropriate Search Engine
5) Use of Basic Search Strategies
6) Use of Advanced Search Strategies

Main Project Goal

2004-09-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

1st Attempt

"Seventh grade students at PCS* will be able to locate relevant information on the Internet by conducting a search task."

PCS*-Acronym is used to protect the identity of the innocent.

Yes, my first attempt at writing a project goal resulted in a statement that is too broad and lacks specificity. After talking with my partner and seeing the goal that he had developed, my second attempt provides much more clarity.

2nd Attempt

"Given a specific search task to complete, seventh grade students at PCS will be able to demonstrate effective search strategies to access the requested information within a specified time period (40 minute class session)."