This week we were fortunate to have Debbie Abilock join us via Elluminate for a chat about website evaluation in school libraries. Debbie has a lot of experience in this realm, and she seemed eager to talk to us to hear more about our ideas! Some of the more interesting parts of the discussion dealt with how we should allow young people to handle information--do we carefully guide them through the search process, shielding them from anything potentially harmful? Or do we let them loose in the internet wilds, trusting that they will be able to handle it? Obviously, part of the school librarian's job is to help students distinguish the good, the bad, and the ugly. But how to do this? There are a lot of ideas on the market right now, but I am not sure how they all stack up. Good evaluation, I would guess, really needs to be learned through trial and error and through looking at a lot of websites.
For a lot of this, I think age is a big factor to consider. Do I think high school students need excessive filtering? No, they should be of the maturity level where they can handle it. Younger kids, though, probably don't have the maturity, context or experience to deal with some of the things that are on the internet. I also thought the idea of using badges is worth mentioning, although not knowing much about badges myself, I can't comment too much on it!
Finally, we talked about budgeting. I think the main point here is: If you have money, spend it, because you never know when it will disappear.
I love your description of "the internet wilds." Yes, so much seems to be about striking a balance, and it's hard to know exactly what that balance should be.
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right that badges will be a big part of this conversation and a lot of what school librarians will do in the future. Do you think it would be helpful for me to do a webinar over the summer about badges for school librarians? I think that a lot of people are interested in knowing more but don't know where to start.
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