Guided Inquiry And Wikis

Sept 08
The assessment policy is finally finished ... I have been far too busy to 'blog'!
The new challenge is to finish off some research into the use of Guided Inquiry as a learning process with a group of Year 7 students.
We are more than half way through the process and so no conclusions have been reached except to say that it was obvious from the start that students love to select their own area of interest for study purposes - mix that with new technologies that include social interaction and we are onto a winner.

Online Workgroup

3 March: Last weekend I initiated my first online workgroup. As the chair of the Middle School(7-10) Assessment Committee set up to draft a new assessment policy, I was finding it hard to find meeting times suitable to all members. I decided to set up a Yahoo Group with links to readings followed by a proforma of policy on which all members were asked to jot down suggestions for all to view and comment.
None of the other committee members had ever belonged to an online group before and were pleased to find it was easy to join and some have already contributed to the files.
As this is a four week task I decided against setting up a Wiki and this Yahoo Group space is proving adequate for our needs. I have yet to set up a 'chat' which will also be a new experience for all other members.
A big thanks to Lyn Hay who gave me my first experience in online communities and workgroups in my CSU coursework. Translating study experience into the workplace is very exciting.

ASLA Day at the State Library

Sunday 24 February
Yesterday I thought I would come home sure of exactly where I was going in my Research plan but I am still in the 'confused' state of not knowing if I really want to do action research on how teachers manage and use Guided Inquiry or if I would rather look at the use of specific Web 2.0 tools and how their use improves attitude and success in learning with teenagers.
The latter idea 'grabs' me more but I am actually working through Guided Inquiry with a team of four teachers next term anyway. Surely the project would be too huge to amalgamate both?!
(This Action Research is a project undertaken with collaborative assistance by a community of teacher librarians: CAR-TL.)

Life-Long Learning

I hope to use this space to record my journey as I learn, share and research my experiences in the use of ICTs to enrich and extend the learning and knowledge development of students and their teachers.
This goes hand in hand with assisting students and teachers to follow the Information Search Process in developing a 'Guided Inquiry' approach on their journey of assimilating information into knowledge.