Learning Commons Episode 10: Two Questions About Educational Resources

SUMMARY
Over fifty types of educational resources are identified. Deeper questions about what makes an effective resource and what makes a resource effective are explored, in establishing the learning commons in modern school.


Playing the Game of The World of Resources
Some people love to spend time categorizing things. For instance, I created the chart below to visualize some of the most common types of educational resources. I made it to look a little like the party game Twister!

As I reread the chart, I was thinking about how today's teachers and students can become easily bent out of shape in feeling:

• overwhelmed, at the range of resources 
• out-of-date at the speed of technological change in creating and recreating resources
• fragmented, at the realization they may concentrate on one resource at the expense of the other
• anxious, before the necessity of organizing and storing the number of their resources
• unskilled or lacking in confidence, in accepting the challenge of applying new resources
• isolated from helpful groups who are more easily sharing resources

However, there is really no point in making a show of how many different resources you can name. You no sooner learn about a Flickr than along comes a Twitter!

What Are the Real Questions
No. While you might simply group resources by type into smaller units for comprehension (e.g., print, digital, media, human, and graphic resources), there is more to it than that. How do we view resources if we want to harness them to develop the physical/virtual learning commons that will forge 21st century learning?

After 35 years of managing and teaching in school libraries, I believe there are two basic questions to ask about “resources”:

• What makes an effective resource?
• What makes a resource effective?

I have summarized my thoughts in the illustration at the right. Feel free to use the slide (with acknowledgement please) as a talking prompt for professional and classroom purposes.

What Makes an Effective Resource?
This first question is predominately about content. Teachers and teacher-librarians regularly analyze the content of the resources they use in their teaching, according to well-established criteria:

• How accurate is the information within the resource?
• How authoritative are the creators of the resource and the information they present?
• How clear is the writing and presentation of the resource? As a result, are the facts and ideas easily understandable for the intended audience?
• How comprehensive is the information presented? Is the resource both broad in scope and deep in treatment?
• Is the information up-to-date where necessary?
• How objective is the treatment of the facts and contexts in the resource?

While these criteria are mainly for non-fiction sources, they can be applied for interesting discussion to other types and forms of information.

The key to answering this question is to integrate it daily in all we teach and learn. Teacher-librarians use such criteria constantly in teaching student how to evaluate websites, select appropriate secondary sources, link to video clips that support their presentation.

What makes a resource effective?
This is the more difficult question, as it addresses the use of resources for effective teaching and learning. Within the usual temporal, spatial, fiscal, and policy constraints, we must think deeply about each resource we think of using by asking such related questions as:

• How appropriate is the resource to the user's age, grade, ability, interest, and accommodation?
• How feasible is it to use the resource within the time allotted?
• How relevant to the task at hand is this resource? Is there another resource better suited to the purpose? 
• How practical is the resource within the classroom, home, and jurisdictional situation we face now?
• How will the resource result in students doing significant work?
• How suitable is the type of the resource used? Should we choose print, media, electronic, or human resources for optimum teaching and learning?

One Answer to Rule Them All
In promoting deep thinking about the Learning Commons in schools and school libraries,  I concentrated last week on questions of readiness and motivation. This week, I have focussed on questions about resource effectiveness.

What do these questions have in common? Simply this. As we search for, find, select, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate education resources for the Learning Commons, we must be prepared to share the process and products of the process from beginning to end. Not just with other colleagues, but with students, parents, and the community. Or else it is not a Commons at all.

To paraphrase: We can individually identify all the trees we want, but it is by the fruits of our practice together that we shall be known.