Including Users in Knowledge Gateway Creation and Design

1
Including Users in Knowledge Gateway Creation and
Design

• We will provide access for every citizen into the
  resources of our libraries, collections, museums,
  and much more.
• - Larry R. Faulkner

2
Who are Texas citizens?

• Bandwidth availability
• Income level
• Ethnic/language background
• Age

3
Why bandwidth is important

• How users connect drives the design of a site
• functionality
• image/media requirements
• One data point of the digital divide
• have-nots suffer on dial-up

4
Density of broadband providers
Broadband in the States, 2003, p. 20
5
US K-12 Internet use

• 92 are connected
• 72 use high-speed connections
• 87 can connect in the classroom
• 70 of teachers use the Internet for instruction
• Based on 2001 school year statistics
• Reasonable to conclude current numbers are much
  higher

Successful School Marketer from Market Data
Retrieval http//www.schooldata.com/ssm-positive.h
tml
6
Texas home Internet use

• 47.7 of Texas homes are connected
• 80 of those homes use dial-up
• 19 use Cable or DSL

Broadband in the States 2003, p. 64
7
Broadband trends

• The rate of broadband adoption is decreasing

Broadband in the States 2003, pp. 10, 12
8
Why the decline?

• Market Saturation?
• Slow Economy?
• How does this affect the Knowledge Gateway?

9
Why income is important

• Income drives
• education, both
• where you attend school
• higher education - early adopters of the
  Internet and high-speed connectivity
• consumer tendencies
• technology spending
• broadband adoption

10
Median household income
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/sf
3dp-2k/sf3dp001.php
11
Why ethnicity and language are important

• 2040 Texas population projections
• 276 increase in Hispanic population
• 136 increase in Black population
• Minimal increase in Anglo population
• Digital divide decreasing in size
• 50 of Hispanic adults Online
• 51 of Blacks have Internet at home

Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/tpepp/2001_txpop
prj_txtotnum.php
Pew Internet Study http//racerelations.about.com/
gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?sitehttp//www.nua.ie/surv
eys/3FfVS26amp3Bart5Fid90535702426amp3Brel
true
Race Relations http//racerelations.about.com/libr
ary/weekly/aa073001a.htm
12
Hispanic percent of total population
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/cn
ty_hipct.php
13
Percent speaking Spanish at home
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/sf
3dp-2k/sf3dp012.php
14
Black percent of total population
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/cn
ty_aapct.php
15
Anglo percent of total population
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/cn
ty_anpct.php
16
What this means for the Knowledge Gateway

• A Spanish version of the site is necessary to
  reach a large portion of the state
• To reach every citizen
• Regarding the K-12 push, parents need to know
  what is expected of their children
• The Knowledge Gateways success depends on
  reaching out to cultural groups through
  in-language, in-culture messages, and
  specialized content.
• In the Fray
• Black Planet
• MiGente
• Asian Avenue

The Big Picture Demographics http//racerelations.
about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?sitehttp//cyber
atlas.internet.com/big5Fpicture/demographics/arti
cle/02C2C59015F5909912C00.html
17
Why age is important

• Age, in conjunction with the other data sets,
  will help to define the user groups
• Under 18
• Heavy internet users
• Lie within the K-12 user group

18
Percent of population under 18
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/dp
_plt18.php
19
Percent of population over 65
Texas State Data Center and Office of the State
Demographer http//txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/dp
_pgt65.php
20
What this means for the Knowledge Gateway

• Although users over 65 are not a significant
  Knowledge Gateway user group, it is important to
  note that they reside in high income areas.
• A graphical look at the Under 18 age group
  relative to
• Income
• Hispanic percent of total population
• Percent of Texans speaking Spanish at home

21
Hispanic percent
Under 18
Income level
Spanish spoken at home
22
Taking the data to K-12 users

• The data suggests two hurdles to K-12
• bandwidth
• language
• The focus groups were designed to further
  investigate these issues as well as gain insight
  to
• functionality of the Knowledge Gateway
• utility of the Knowledge Gateway

23
A note on usability

• Including the user in the development process of
  a technology is essential to its adoption and
  success because
• the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction
  of the end users performance can only be told by
  real users
• even if considered part of the end user group at
  the start of the process, once involved in the
  creation or design of the technology one become
  biased by project goals

ISO 9241 - 11
24
User profiles

• 7 users participated in the focus groups
• 2 teachers
• 3 librarians (note forgotten user group)
• 2 teachers/librarians
• 6 in K-8 environments, 1 in K-12
• 6 in public schools, 1 in private

25
Discussion catalysts

• Questions pertaining to
• available technology in the school and classroom
• technological expectations of students at school
  and at home
• bilingual concerns
• reference methods for lesson planning, homework
  help, etc.
• Brainstorm technologies to ease the work of the
  K-12 instructor (teacher or librarian)
• Introduce the concept of the Knowledge Gateway as
  a new teaching tool
• How have new technologies been introduced in the
  past?

26
What users said

• Only one participant displeased with equipment
  available at the school.
• high speed internet clogged by old machines
• Three participants have ESL issues.
• Important because they do not reside in Southwest
• All use the Internet as a research tool to see
  what other people are doing in the field and to
  spark imagination.
• Librarians expressed anxiety about recent state
  and national funding cuts and the loss of
  databases (i.e., Gale and Britannica).

27
Top K-12 recommendations

• Training
• most emphasized point by all participants
• in-service best bet for widest distribution
• invite district tech help/librarians to Austin
  for KG information session
• techie/librarian gives in-service
• Printable pages
• most teachers still reluctant to assign Internet
  homework or research
• Existence of sites already successful at
  Knowledge Gateway K-12 goals

28
Existing sites with similar goals to Knowledge
Gateway K-12

• Marco Polo
• Oasis
• Classroom Connect - Community Page

29
K-12 librarian communities

• Texas Library Connection
• Listserv
• LM_NET - worldwide

30
Recommendations

• Rate of broadband growth has declined
• Texans use dial-up from home
• Hispanic community will be ethnic majority
• Spanish version of site
• Geographically based focus groups
• Southwest region
• what do real users have to say about their
  situation
• Accessibility not addressed in this study, but an
  important user group for future study.