Learning Styles Don't Exist

A good video from Daniel Willingham explaining why Learning Styles don't exist.

Here is another video about Learning Styles

Do Schools kill creativity?

A old but good post by Tom Bennett that is a good answer to all those times you see that awful Ken Robinson video.
Here is a review of Ken Robinson's ‘Creative Schools: the grassroots revolution that's changing education’ by Tom Bennett

Family Economics

Article on Family Economics here.

Some more Cognitive Load Theory

Here is another article on Cognitive Load Theory and another.

Cognitive Load Theory - very useful in designing effective lessons

A simple explanation of Cognitive Load Theory can be found here.

Are students novices or experts and why it matters

An interesting article that is especially relevant when designing inquiry projects.

Comment on BC's new curriculum

Interesting view on BC's new curriculum from 2012

Larry Cuban on Technology in Schools

As always Larry Cuban has a rational and interesting view on technology in the classroom. Here is his latest. If you have not read some of Cuban's work on the subject I recommend that you do.

The case for ending Amazon’s dominance

Another good article from Tim Harford. A good question on the regulation of monopolies and large organizations.

Evaluation of a Reference Work

Evaluation of a Reference Work

Introduction

          At Garibaldi our reference collection includes online encyclopedias, print and online dictionaries, print atlases and print and online biographies. Presently the biographies are the least used of the references. This evaluation looks at the current state of the biographical references, evaluates their usefulness and examines the possible improvement or replacement of these works.

Situation

At the Garibaldi Library our print Biographical reference section receives very little use. In two years I have not seen any students or staff make any use of the section. Right now there are about 100 volumes in this section. We are not in need of the shelf space but eventually we will need to consider whether or not to keep these volumes if for no other reason than it does not look good to have a large number of obviously dated reference works on the shelves.

Process

The works were evaluated using the following rubric. The use of biographies was also discussed with several staff members. An overall score of 1-4 was generated and some summary comments were noted.

See Appendix A for the evaluation summaries.

Rubric for References (based on ERAC (2017) and ERAC (2008) with some modifications from Riedling, Shake & Houston (2013)).

Reference Evaluated
Area	Rating 1-4   (poor – good)	Notes
Curriculum Fit
Content
Social Considerations
Design
Personal Bias
Cost
Overall Rating
Other Comments

Existing Reference Works

To summarize the results, most of the Biographical works are: dated with much being over 20 years old. (If the person was dead this does not matter as much as things may not have changed too much but for people living 20 years ago things will have changed and the works are not as useful); biased the focus is primarily on white males (you really start to notice this when you compare to more modern works); limited to mostly a British and American cultural group; having a very dense text with few graphics or illustrations and most are not used in the current curriculum. Only four works scored a 3 which I judge to be good. These works are the most current and provide biographies on a range of people both men and women and from several ethnic and cultural backgrounds though still somewhat Eurocentric. They are limited in that one is limited to Canadians and the others are focused on scientists.

The biographical collection is mostly dated, biased both socially and culturally, limited in its coverage and is not used by staff or students.

Future Reference Works

After consulting with other staff it did not seem that pure biographical references were going to be used very much. For looking up individuals most staff felt that internet sources were adequate especially if students were careful with the online sources. Staff felt that online sources were more current and also more likely to be used than printed sources (Bell, 2018; Ludeman, 2018;  Silva, 2018). Also students were not limited by the number of resources if a teacher wanted a class to search for biographies.

We have access to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography which is a free source and it provides a reasonable source of biographical information on Canadians though it does not have some names.

We also have access to:

World Book Advanced – 3 overall – encyclopedia articles and primary resources

Encyclopedia of BC - 3 overall

The Canadian Encyclopedia - 3 overall

L’Encylopédie Découverte - 3 my French is not good enough to evaluate this though other staff felt it was fine – produced by World Book

World Book Online – other World Book products

(All of the above are either free or funded by the district)

I examined several other sources including:

Who’s Who Canada – 3 cost $700 per year but not likely to be used very much.

Who’s Who Online – 2 requires student registration (limited use) and did not receive very good reviews. Mostly American individuals.

I also examined several other reference works thinking that perhaps another general reference work might be preferable.

Oxford University Press – 3-4 (depending on how many works) produces a wide selection of reference works that can be purchased for online access individually or in bundles – good material but the cost would range about $1000+ which is about 20% of the budget to get access to what World Book Advanced seems to provide.

Encyclopedia Britannica – 3-4 (depends on how many additional modules are purchased) similar to World Book Advanced with a cost of about $1200 for the basic with additional modules also available.

Recommendations

At this time I do not recommend purchasing any further biographies or any broader additional resources. The existing online resources provided free or by the district seem to be just as adequate as any additional resources which would also consume a significant amount of the library budget each year. There is a need for the Library to develop a project that teachers can use to help students explore our existing online and print resources. This project should also help students develop skills to enable them to use and evaluate other online resources to supplement the school and district resources.

In addition it might be possible to find more free and reputable online resources that could be included in our online resource lists. Also making students and maybe parents more aware of the online resources is a goal to work towards.

The actual dollar cost of these recommendations is low but they will require a significant amount of Teacher Librarian and Teacher time to develop and introduce. They will also require time from classes to run the actual projects and will also require updating. It may be possible to develop a project in conjunction with the new curriculum being implemented and I will explore this idea with staff members. This is a practical and cost effective solution.

References

Asselin, M., Branch, J., & Oberg, D., (Eds). Achieving information literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian School Library Association & The Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada. Retrieved from http://accessola2.com/SLIC-Site/slic/ail110217.pdf

BCTLA Info Lit Task Force . (2011, January). The points of inquiry: A framework for information literacy and the 21st century learner [PDF]. British Columbia Teacher - Librarians’ Assocation.

Beaudry, R. (2018, January 5). Lesson 2: The reference process and information skills. Retrieved January 7, 2018, from https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/1667/pages/lesson-2-the-reference-process-and-information-skills?module_item_id=65241

Bell, R. (2018, January 15). Personal conversation.

Encyclopedia Brintannica Inc. (2018). Britannica Digital Learning. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://britannicalearn.com/

ERAC. (2008). Evaluating, Selecting and Acquiring Learning Resources: A Guide [PDF]. ERAC.  Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.bcerac.ca/resources/whitepapers/docs/ERAC_WB.pdf

ERAC. (2017). ERAC Learning Resource Selection Training. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://ocr.openschool.bc.ca/course/view.php?id=68

ERAC. (2017). ERAC Learning Resource Selection Training. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://ocr.openschool.bc.ca/course/view.php?id=68

Grey House Publishing Canada. (2018). Canadian Who's Who. Retrieved January 18, 2018, from https://canadianwhoswho.ca/

Ludman, K. (2018, January 17). Personal conversation.

Oxford University Press. (2018). Oxford research encyclopedias. Retrieved January 15, 2018, from http://oxfordre.com/

Preston, A. (2017, May 14). How real books have trumped ebooks. The Guardian. Retrieved January 17, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/14/how-real-books-trumped-ebooks-publishing-revival

Riedling, A. M., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips (3rd ed.). Santa Barbara: California.

Silva, C. (2018, January 16). Personal conversation.

Who's Who Online. (2018). Who's Who Online. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.whoswho.com/

Appendix A

Biographical Resources

Summarized using the modified ERAC rubric. Bold indicates acceptable resources.

Abridged Encyclopedia of World Biography -2

          6 Volumes Dated 1999

American Authors 1600 – 1900 -2

          Dated 1964, mostly White male

Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians -1

          Dated 1971, mostly male

Biographical Encyclopedia of Mathematicians -2

          Dated 1999, both men and women

Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists -3

          2009

Brief Lives: Biographical Companion to the Arts -1

          Dated 1971, mostly White male

British Authors before 1800 -2

          Dated 1961, mostly male

British Authors of the 1900s -2

          Dated 1966, mostly male

Cyclopedia of World Authors -1

          Dated 1997, mostly male – 20% female

Dictionary of Canadian Biography -3

Vol 1-24 current vols now online to 2016

Free

Current

Seems to have some gaps, some people not listed

Dictionary of 20^th Century Biography - 1

          Dated 1992

Encyclopedia of World Authors -1

          Dated 1958, mostly White males

Encyclopedia of World Biography volumes 1-25 -2

          No longer subscribed last update 2005

Encyclopedia of World Scientists -2

          Dated 2001, mostly White male

European Authors 1000 – 1900 -2    

          1968 mostly male

Great American Writers of the 20^th Century -2

          Dated 2002, includes some Canadians

Great Composers 1300-1900 -1

          Dated 1968, mostly White male

International Encyclopedia of Women Scientists -3

          2002, a bit dated, all female

Library of International Biography -2

          Dated 1996

Men & Women of Science -3

          2002, a bit dated

Men of Mathematics -1

          Dated 1937, mostly White all men

Notable Mathematicians -2

          1998, a bit dated

Notable 20^th Century Scientists -2

          Dated 1995, both men and women, Europe and North America

World Authors 1950-1970 -1

          Dated 1975, bias mostly White males

20^th Century Authors -1

          Dated 1961, bias for that period mostly European men

20^th Century Authors 1^st Supplement -1

          Dated 1967, mostly White male