Rhiannon

Service Needs and Description

As school curriculum become increasingly advanced, we at the Whitby Public Library (http://www.whitbylibrary.on.ca/) have noticed lately that more and more students are coming to us for in-depth help with homework.  Our library website has a homework help section for teens and kids, but it requires a library card login to access, which is difficult when not all kids have a library card.  The resources we offer are mostly databases and do not really allow students to explore outside links.

That is why we are offering our new social software service that is designed to give support to students.  We have developed a Delicious account called “Homework Help” that targets the needs of students in grades 5 to 8.  We chose the Delicious platform because it is easy to get accustomed to and students will find it simple to get an account and develop their own bookmarks and tags based on their favorites from our lists.

Our research has shown us that the benefits of a social bookmarking and tagging system are far reaching.  People can benefit from the bookmarks which are not tied to a specific computer, and this is particularity pertinent for students who will often do work in many different places.  By offering a social bookmarking system to students we are encouraging active participation in the sharing of information, which will benefit more people.  Hopefully, students will form networks that will spring from the links we include, and our net of influence can reach beyond the boundaries of this particular community.  Also, it can be updated frequently based on the changing needs of students.

Target Audience

It was briefly discussed that this service will be of prime interest to older children.  We are targeting this account to Grades 5 to 8.  This group will hopefully use this account as a starting point to build their own collection of pertinent resources.

A secondary audience that will benefit greatly is teachers and parents.  Both groups can use our service to tailor specific plans to students who may be struggling with their studies.  Our account can also be used by parents and teachers who have children who are not challenged by their schoolwork since there is a wide range of material on the site.

Development of sources

Our sources were developed by examining the current curriculum for Grades 5 to 8.  The first thing we looked at when choosing our resources was if they were appropriate for children, in their language and content. We wanted to make sure that the vocabulary used was understandable for kids from grades 5 to 8. Therefore, we looked at sites which were made with kids in mind. We looked at other library websites and homework websites to see which sites they recommended, and took a lot of the links from there. We tried to find information that was general, yet useful and interesting. Finally, we also wanted the websites to be fun. We knew that if we were kids we would want to visit sites that were useful for completing homework, but that we could also go to for fun. Learning should be fun, which is why we included as many interactive websites as possible.

The websites that were chosen to bookmark range from sites that were topic specific, while others were designed to be more flexible in terms of content and depended on the need of the student. To illustrate, some sites have resources that specifically help those in grade 7 and 8 through advice and effective learning techniques which can help students better absorb and retain the information. The sites also provide quizzes, worksheets, and examples that student can draw on when they encounter problems.

For more general questions that students may have, there are websites that are designed specifically to allow a person to type in any questions they have for a quick response. A question bar is provided as the space where the specific questions a student has is typed in and then answered. There are other websites which allow the students to reach a free personal tutor online where they can obtain immediate homework help.

Another type of website that we have included to better help students understand and complete their homework were ones that parents can use as well. These websites include information to teach parents how to coach and encourage their children. For example, for parents whose children are beginners in French or are in intermediate French, often times parents have forgotten what they have learned in the past. As it is crucial for parents to be able to be active in helping their children learn, these websites are designed perfectly for parents to relearn what they need to know in order to assist their children.  In order to get a grasp of the types of resources, let’s look at some of the specific subjects.

Gym/PE

Gym is a pretty wide open subject area, so we tried to include resources relating to specific games that may be played as part of class activities, like soccer and field hockey, but we also wanted to touch on areas that might not get as much direct coverage in general gym classes. Resources dealing with yoga for kids as well as online dance tutorials will provide our users with exactly the kind of information they might be searching for. We also tried to include resources with information on general fitness and health, keeping in mind that kids may be interested in these general issues to better prepare for gym classes or specific sports.

Computers/Tech

The subject of computers is another area of study that can be pretty open to interpretation. We tried to include some good resources for students to improve their typing, as this is typically a large component of early computer classes. We also tried to provide a range of resources for kids to early teens. We often forget that by the time many young people are in their early teens (and younger) they have a much more solid grasp of computers and technology than many adults. So, while there are resources for younger kids, including Qimo, a desktop designed to introduce kids to linux, there are also resources aimed at more advanced users, like Photoshop and Word tutorials, as well as HTML and Javascript tutorials. Not only will young people find such sites useful, chances are they will be interested in learning more about these specific programs and languages.

Science

Science is such a wide ranging topic that the websites we chose to include had to reflect this.  One of the biggest concerns when choosing science websites was they website’s ability to make science fun.  Far too often we hear children groaning about science homework and learning about it.  The websites we chose really aimed to make science attractive to students and to help them learn interesting, applicable uses for science.  One of the main attractions for a website was the interactivity aspect and having an experiment section.  Also it was really important for the website to be reliable and scholarly in nature in order to encourage the students who already have an interest in science.

Promotion and Maintenance of Homework Help

In order for any new technology to be successful, it must be promoted well.  Our Delicious account will be advertised on the Whitby Public Library website on both the areas for kids and teens.  We also hope to go into some of the schools in person to conduct tutorials on how to set up and use Delicious.  We aim to help students utilize the network aspect of Delicious by showing them how to add their friends and teachers to their networks.  We will strongly encourage a classroom network which includes the teachers, since Grades 5 to 8 are still relatively young and this may alleviate parental concern over what types of sources are bookmarked.  We will be able to gauge the success of our service by monitoring how many people add us to their network.  We will also offer an email service that will encourage student, parent, and teacher suggestions.  There is a blog option on our account and we will use that to advertise new additions to our account and new, relevant library services.  Also, by looking at how popular our links are by seeing how many people have bookmarked the same link, we can assess the popularity and relevance of our sources.

We aim to maintain our account by regularly adding new sites and listening to feedback from parents, teachers, and students about the types of resources that are the most useful.  A service such as this loses some of its power when it becomes too large, so trying to keep the resources limited, organized, and relevant will ensure that it is presented in a way which appeals to students.

Future Development

Once we have assessed the success of our service we can begin to find ways to develop it for the future.  A service is only successful if it is relevant.  We hope to be able to develop this service by offering related Delicious accounts for students.  One that we are hoping to begin developing is a student mental health account and sensitive life topic account.  These are viable resources for students who may be on the cusp of adolescence and wondering about issues that they do not feel comfortable discussing with peers, teachers, or parents.  Let’s face it: times are changing and the gap between youth and adults seems to be widening.

Thank you for your interest in our proposal.  We encourage questions and comments.  You can find us on Delicious.com with the user name LIS9763 or directly at this URL: http://www.delicious.com/Homework_Help.