INFOhio

1
INFOhio SchoolRooms Update
by Theresa M. Fredericka, INFOhio Kristiana Burk,
SirsiDynix Kathy Fredrick, Shaker Heights City
Schools Denise Scherer, Kalida Local Schools
2
Top 21st Century Learning Skills

• Know More About the World
• UPS says it needs workers who are global trade
  literate, sensitive to foreign cultures,
  conversant in different languages not exactly
  strong points in the U.S.where the social
  studies curriculum tends to fixate on U.S.
  History.
• Think Outside the Box
• Its interdisciplinary combinations design
  technology, mathematics art that produce
  YouTube and Google, says Thomas Friedman, author
  of The World Is Flat

3
21st Century Learning Skills, contd

• Become Smarter About New Sources of Information
• Its important that students know how to
  manage it, interpret it, validate it and how to
  act on it, says Dell executive Karen Bruett.
• Develop Better People Skills
• Taken from How to Bring Our Schools Out of the
  20th Century by Claudia Wallis, Time Magazine,
  December 10, 2006.

4
Learning 2.0

• In the 21st Century, the ability to be a
  lifelong learner will, for many people, be
  dependent on their ability to access and benefit
  from online learning. - Michael Flanagan,
  Michigan superintendent of public instruction
• A 3rd grade science project experience and the
  Chairman of Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy -
• It made me wonder why there isnt a Web site
  where I can just go and have anything I want to
  learn, K to 12, online, browser based and free.

5
What Is SchoolRooms?

• K-12 multimedia online discovery portal
• Combines educator-selected, standards driven
  content with student-friendly software
• Facilitates interdisciplinary exploration
• ILS independent

• Content consists of
• 71 Rooms or Subject Guides of content
  relating to standards
• 1,750 Web page views of content
• 22,500 educator hand-selected Web sites
• 3 million Best of Web sites indexed
• Assorted 3rd party multimedia content

6
71 SchoolRooms forES, MS and HS

• College Careers
• Fine Arts
• Art Theater
• Dance Music
• Language Arts
• Literature (ES MS)
• Literature American (HS)
• Literature British (HS)
• Literature Classical/World (HS)
• Reading Vocabulary
• Speech
• Writing
• Math
• Science
• Earth Science
• Life Science
• Physical Science
• Scientific Process Inquiry

• Social Studies
• Economics
• Geography
• Government Citizenship
• U.S. History
• World History
• Study Research
• Technology
• Audience Guides
• Children YA Literature
• Educators Guide
• Librarians Guide
• Parents Guide
• Foreign Language future development

7
How SchoolRooms Began

• Collaboration with INFOhio
• Idea to take the Rooms platform and build portal
  and resources for K-12 community
• Other partners joined in
• LNOCA
• Kent State University SLIS and IAKM
• Shaker Heights City School District
• Decision to Build 3 Pilot Rooms at Each Grade
  Level
• Earth Science
• U.S. History
• Parents Guide

8
The Pilot (2005)

• Pilot Occurred in Shaker Heights City District
  near Cleveland for pilot Rooms
• Usability Study with Kent State University IAKM
• Two K-4 elementary schools, one 5th 6th grade,
  one middle school, one high school
• Grades 2,4,5,6,8,9,10
• 20 teachers
• 40 classes
• Approximately 700 1000 students
• Parent, Teacher and Librarian Focus Groups

9
Usability SchoolRooms

• Eye-Tracking Example
• Heat map example from Eye-tracking at home
  level. Shows the typical triangle of most
  popular space looked at on Web sites.

10
Usability SchoolRooms
Elementary
High School
vs.
11
What We Learned

• Statistics
• 88 of students said they would use SchoolRooms
  again for homework
• 51 said they preferred it to Google or Yahoo
• Quotes
• This is better than Google because in Google you
  get lots of stuff you dont need. (student)
• SchoolRooms is a great tool for new(er) teachers
  because it provides resources that are aligned to
  the curriculum. (teacher)
• SirsiDynix is offering us the opportunity to
  serve our patrons with accurate information that
  meets their immediate needs. The information
  world is rapidly changing. SchoolRooms is the
  first step in the direction of seamless 24x7
  services to patrons. (librarian)

12
Building SchoolRooms

• One week training June12-16, 2006, at KSU
• Personas overview
• Taxonomy methodology development
• Sessions on gathering creating content for the
  Web
• Teaser content training
• Learning the builder tool

13
Building SchoolRooms, contd

• SirsiDynix Taxonomy Development Methodology
• Used national standards
• Used big 5 content standards CA, OH, FL, NY
  TX
• Scavenger hunt / user-friendly check

14
Maintenance of SchoolRooms

• Content is updated according to an annual
  Editorial Calendar
• Weekly, bi-weekly and monthly updates to teaser
  content and URL validation
• Continuing teacher and librarian contributor
  support
• Editorial calendar developed by the SchoolRooms
  Advisory Maintenance Group (SAM) consisting of
  33 teachers and librarians.

15
Whos Using SchoolRooms

• Live Customers
• INFOhio - Shaker Heights Kalida
• Boston Public Library
• City of Philadelphia Beacon Schools
• City of San Diego
• Sussex District in Delaware
• Reference Case Study Information Available at
  www.schoolrooms.net

16
What They Are Saying

• Ive been playing with the SchoolRooms site
  since the workshop last week and am quite
  enjoying it. Just yesterday, it saved some poor
  third grader who had to do a report on Anne
  Bradstreet. - Childrens Librarian , Boston
• My 11 year old daughter went into the Elementary
  School section of SchoolRooms being a 6th grader
  and she was enthralled! In fact after spending
  over an hour on SchoolRooms I asked her to get
  ready for bed and she asked if she could get on
  the next night. She really loved it! This is a
  really great product! - Parent
• I like how everything was easy to read and it
  was colorful, not boring. - ES Student
• It was much easieryou dont get stuff that
  isnt relevant. - MS Student
• I like the Web site because everything was easy
  to find. - HS Student

17
Phase 1 Deployment

• Shaker Heights City School District
• 5 elementaries, 1 intermediate (grades 5-6), 1
  middle school and 1 high school
• 6000 students in NE Ohio
• Kalida Local School District
• 1 elementary
• 1 middle and high school
• 800 students in NW Ohio

18
Lets take a look!
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
Federated searching across the school library
catalog, INFOhio Core Collection, Best of the Web
and The Web (Google)
28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
Resources

• OCLC Environmental Scan
• Pew Internet and American Life Project
• Ohio Research Study
• INFOhio
• SchoolRooms (info demo)
• School Library Journal editorial and article
  (December 2005)
• SirsiDynix and Born With the Chip by Stephen Abram

32
Whats Next

• INFOhio and SirsiDynix work together in
  maintaining SchoolRooms content for all
  SirsiDynix customers.
• Phase 1 Deployment with Kalida and Shaker Heights
  (2006-07).
• INFOhio and SirsiDynix work together regarding
  technical issues for deployment of SchoolRooms
  for 2007-08.
• INFOhio develops a Toolkit for SchoolRooms and
  marketing materials for 2007-08 information
  regarding cost for schools automated via INFOhio
  vs. stand-alone soon to come.
• Updated information is available from INFOhios
  Web site at http//www.infohio.org/LibraryStaff/T
  ransition/Rooms.html.

33
Questions? Contact

• INFOhio
• Theresa Fredericka
• 614-752-2941
• central_at_infohio.org

LNOCA Joanna McNally 216-520-6900
x223 joanna.mcnally_at_lnoca.org
INFOhio Technical Support Jean
Banks 419-228-7417 jean_at_noacsc.org