Exciting learners in an online collaborative learning environment

Ms Kay Cantwell St Agatha's School Clayfield, Queensland, Australia

Rationale

Brisbane Catholic Education recently released a document entitled ‘Living Life to the Full: Promoting Personal and Social Development in the School Context'. This document outlined the importance of an integrated approach to the area of personal development, as one of the key strands of the Queensland Studies Authority Health and Physical Education (HPE) syllabus. It encourages teachers and parents to take on a shared approach to personal development education, of which sexuality education is one component.

To support these guidelines, and to encourage the implementation of the sexuality education component of the HPE syllabus from years 1-7, parents and teachers require up-to-date resources presented in a variety of formats, so that they can access that which best suits their needs. One method for providing such up-to-date information is to ‘harness the power of the internet' (Spence, 2005, p.136) and to create a hotlist of reviewed websites suitable to support parent and teachers in explaining this challenging area. This is supported by the work of Milton (2000), who finds that it is the role of parents and the school to assist children in learning how to process the many messages about sexuality they receive each day from many sources, and also Milton's 2004 work, which finds that parents and teachers require further access to information and training in the area of sexuality education, in order to feel more comfortable in addressing it.

The process of developing the hotlist, found at website http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listsexualitkc.html, is explained below.

Searching for appropriate websites proved challenging, as many sites were aimed at a much older audience than primary school. Initially, a search on Google, with the search string ‘planning sex health education' was made, acknowledging Google's stemming technology, similar to the Boolean. This search brought up 16,200,000 results, far too many to effectively search through. Although the first few matches were quite relevant, many lacked Australian content and were not of specific assistance to parents and teachers of primary school-aged children. This shows that Google is effective, in generating sites of interest, but not always in meeting specific needs.

The search for more useful sites required more specific search terms and a narrower search field. An advanced search using Edna, (Education Network Australia), a directory and database specifically for teachers and other educators, proved to be more suitable. This extrapolation is supported by the work of Lewis and Saunders (2003) and Hyatt and Connoway, (2002), who draw the conclusion that, while Google makes effective surface searches, more specific information is found by using more powerful tools, such as databases, that mine information from a variety of sources that search engines cannot access. The search string ‘sex* health education' in the limited field of school education brought up a number of useful sites, including ‘Talk It Up', ‘Kid's Health' and ‘The Hormone Factory'. Evaluating these sites, criteria such as up-to-date and age-appropriate information, ease of navigation and speed of download were considered.

Looking through these sites, many had lists of links and, from these pages, a number of other appropriate sites were discovered.

Developing the hotlist and placing it online was just a simple matter of following the blanks and the prompts provided on the Filamentality website, found at: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/.

Implementation

Using the Filamentality site, the Electronic Information Packet (EIP), otherwise known as a hotlist, was presented at staff meetings and parent education evenings. The school is located in a high socioeconomic area, and so is well resourced technologically. However, the provision of resources electronically was new to some parents and teachers, and ‘need it now' learning (Prensky, 2001) was encouraged by the existence of a valuable resource online, motivating some parents and teachers to gain further skills in internet navigation, which was a positive outcome of this resource.

A tool such as this hotlist, which provides a list of useful websites that have been previously evaluated, may overcome the frustration parents and teachers experience by an ‘overload' of information on the internet and difficulties in locating appropriate sites. These complaints are not uncommon, as Angeli and Valanides (2004) have found.

Angeli and Valanides (2004, p.31) suggest that a tool such as Filamentality reduces cognitive load, and thus encourages users to form a positive attitude towards using technological tools. It is hoped that, after the introduction of the EIP, teachers will be happier about addressing the topic of personal development, and feel more supported in the shared approach of this concept with parents. This culture change in a curriculum area previously avoided by teachers may be an unexpected positive outcome from the use of the hotlist.

Evaluation

The EIP was designed to give teachers and parents access to timely, relevant information in the area of sexuality education, to support the implementation of the school program and to complement the ‘hard' resources already available through the school library.

The quality of the websites available was such that it is believed that this could be an extremely valuable resource, allowing parents and teachers to not only access information, but communicate it to their children in formats that are more appealing and interesting to the ‘digital generation' (Prensky, 2001). However, it must be acknowledged that some of the websites could prove to be too ‘confronting' for some parents or teachers, and although care was taken to ensure they were not inappropriate, it must be made clear that the resource has been designed for use by parents and teachers and not for children to access unsupervised.

Based on the idea that teachers and parents, as part of the school community, are also lifelong learners, the hotlist would be evaluated from a constructivist perspective. In this way, the hotlist is seen as a learning tool that allows parents and teachers to build on the knowledge that they already possess, thus enhancing their confidence in sexuality education, an area that the literature says that parents and teachers find difficult to broach (Kirby 2003, Milton, 2002). Lebow (1993) finds that, among the design principles minimally required for constructivist learning, are the experience of the knowledge construction process, the experience in, and appreciation of, multiple perspectives and multiple modes of representation. Thus, the criteria shaped by this would include:

• usefulness in developing further knowledge of this area and in enhancing communication skills in this area;
• provision of multiple perspectives, including information for both sexes;
• provision of a range of tools and presentation techniques to cater for all styles of learner;
• elimination of frustration felt when searching for appropriate information;
• evidence of use by teachers through their curriculum design;
• ease of use for parents and teachers;
• adequate explanation of website content.

These criteria would be shared in order to gain specific feedback from teachers and parents, and this would be gathered through surveys and through parent and teacher forums, where each group would have the opportunity to share their thoughts on the viability of the hotlist. It is envisaged that evidence of the hotlist's performance against these criteria would be clear in the way that parents and teachers adopted a shared language in speaking about the area of sexuality education, the number of parents and teachers accessing the hotlist to support their discussions with their children and the amount of positive feedback expressed through the surveys and data gathering tools, as well as informally, via word of mouth.

In designing the hotlist, it became evident that skills in searching the internet, and evaluating websites, are very necessary in order to create a meaningful and useful resource. As O'Sullivan and Scott (2000) find, the searchers on the internet encounter ‘infoglut' and it can be very difficult to source relevant material. This was particularly so when researching sexuality education, as there are so many unrelated sites that include the word ‘sex' in their title. The process of designing the hotlist made one aware of the need to organise material in a logical and clear manner, in order to support users in their search for the correct site.

Evaluating each of the websites proved to be the biggest challenge, as knowing the needs of parents and teachers in the area of sexuality education is difficult, and aspects such as accuracy of health information, clarity of explanation, appropriateness of images and the choice of language used to convey information were considered. Decisions had to be made regarding the use of slang and cartoon images on websites, with regard to the age group being targeted. The inclusion of web-appropriate tools (such as animations and movie files) also needed to be considered, including user access, ensuring sites that did require plug-ins, such as Flash, directed users to where these might be located and downloaded. These challenges were unexpected at the outset of the task.

The skills of selection, organisation and evaluation are very clearly information literacy skills, and these were very necessary for the completion of this task. With this in mind, it is suggested that, as Filamentality offers such a simple ‘fill in the gaps' tool for designing hotlists, teachers, once exposed to this hotlist, may appreciate its power of and begin to use it in order to gather information for both themselves, and for students, from the internet.

If this were the case, it is suggested that teachers also would strengthen their own information literacy skills, as they become more familiar with the process of evaluating and organising information sources from the world wide web. As a further result, upper primary students could also extend their skills in information literacy, through the design and creation of hotlists on either a topic of their own choice or on a topic that they will then research for presentation as a project. The process of writing summaries of each website forces the individual to really examine their choices for inclusion in the hotlist. This skill in critical literacy allows them to develop as researchers who do not simply grapple with information as if it were ‘a needle in a haystack' (Henri, 1999 p.2).

In conclusion, the process of creating an EIP using the Filamentality website could engender many varied outcomes, some expected and some not. These could include the refinement of certain information literacy skills (particularly evaluation), an awareness of the utility of information sources on the web, an increased use of Information Communication Technology in information provision, greater parent and teacher involvement in the area of personal development education, a shared tool for parents and teachers to access in communicating to children with regard to sexuality education and an established process for introducing and evaluating online tools for resourcing the curriculum.

References

Angeli, C & Valanides, N (2004). ‘The Effect of Electronic Scaffolding for Technology Integration on Perceived Task Effort and Confidence of Primary Student Teachers', in Journal of Research on Technology in Education, vol.37, issue 1, pp. 29-43.

Brisbane Catholic Education (2005). Living Life to the Full: Personal and Social Development Education Guidelines 2005, Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Brisbane.

Filamentality, Last modified Thursday July 29, 2004, SBC Knowledge Ventures, viewed 23 October 2005. http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/

Henri, J. (1999). ‘The Information literate school community: not just a pretty face', pp. 1-10. In The Information Literate School Community: Best practice, J. Henri. Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW.

Hyatt, S. and Connaway, L. (2002). ‘Utilizing E-books to Enhance Digital Library Offerings,' in Ariadne, Issue 33. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue33/netlibrary/, viewed 29 October 2005.

Kirby, D. 2003, ‘The Impact of Interventions Designed to Promote Parent-Child Communication about Sexuality,' SIECUS, http://www.familiesaretalking.org, viewed 23 October 2005.

Lebo, D (1993). 'Constructivist values for instructional systems design: Five principles toward a new mindset,' in Educational Technology, Research and Development, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 4-16.

Lewis, L & Saunders, P (2003). ‘Digging deeper than Google' in Conference papers: Information Online 11th exhibition and conference. Sydney: Information Specialists Group, Australian Library and Information Association.
Milton, J (2000). ‘Sexuality Education for the Future', in Primary Educator, vol. 6, Issue 2 pp. 3-13.

Milton, J. (2002). ‘Sex education for primary school children,' in Primary Educator, vol. 8 Issue 4 pp.17-21.

Milton, J. (2004). ‘Sexuality education and primary schools: experiences and practices of mothers and teachers in four Sydney schools'. In ACHPER Healthy Lifestyles Journal, vol. 51 no. 4 pp.18-25.

O'Sullivan, M.K. & Scott, T.J. (2000). ‘Pathfinders Go Online,' in Library Journal, Vol. 125 Issue 10, pp. 40-43.

Prensky, M (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. http://www.marcprensky.com/, viewed 30 October 2005.

Queensland School Curriculum Council (1998), Years 1 to 10 Health and Physical Education Syllabus, http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/yrs1to10/kla/hpe/syllabus.html, viewed 16 October 2005.

Spence, S. (2005). ‘The Teacher Librarian Toolkit for an information literate school community,' pp. 135-147. In The Information literate school community2: Issues of Leadership, J. Henri and M. Asselin, eds., Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW.