The U of M Assignment Calculator--with the e-mail reminders, the work process broken down into stages, and the resources provided throughout those stages--is an impressive tool that, unfortunately, is limited to U of M students. Enough said.
The Research Project Calculator is another application that I've already explored to some extent. I was so impressed with it that I did the following:
I printed out a copy of a description of the research calculator, handed it to a teacher, and explained how it might work in her research writing class--and that was about the end of it. This tool, as with many others discussed so far, won't translate into classroom application if it is simply offered to teachers: Workshops might help, but the problem there is getting teachers to sign up. E-mail offerings of tools are virtually ineffectual. So what's the answer? How do we library media specialists motivate teachers to at least try some of these tools? I think one answer is leadership and timing: Just as companies train their employees on the job, it's probably most realistic to schedule such training into teachers' days--and I don't mean "Tech Tuesdays" or something along those lines that require before- or after-school participation: I mean staff development days, paid time, uninterrupted time--which probably also means getting administrators on board. Will this happen? In some places I know it is happening. But all too often, it is not, and therefore the "tracks of technology on the educational landscape are still barely visible." Unfortunate. Still, I am impressed by the Research Project Calculator and how it mimics the U of M product; I especially like how it too breaks down the stages of the research process and distinguishes among the formats for the final product: It's not just a calculator. It's a learning tool, a guide, a veritable source of comfort.
Can these tools (or at least the RPC) be used for classroom application and for library projects? Absolutely. It's just a matter of creating an opportunity to demonstrate them to teachers and to point out how well they would work to blunt student excuses that they "forgot." These tools may be even more appropriate for college-level, even graduate-level, courses in which the deadlines are longer and the stakes are higher. As for library projects, I think they could be used to schedule events that require multiple stages over a period of weeks, especially when one stage must be completed before moving on to the next: Planning an event that requires scheduling committee meetings, completing tasks, contacting the media, sending follow-up information, etc., etc., could be a good use of the calculator. That the same features can be found on a good e-mail program--or even on the Google calendar (though this may be just another step toward Google's attempt at world domination)--suggests a certain redundancy that may reduce motivation for using it.
I printed out a copy of a description of the research calculator, handed it to a teacher, and explained how it might work in her research writing class--and that was about the end of it. This tool, as with many others discussed so far, won't translate into classroom application if it is simply offered to teachers: Workshops might help, but the problem there is getting teachers to sign up. E-mail offerings of tools are virtually ineffectual. So what's the answer? How do we library media specialists motivate teachers to at least try some of these tools? I think one answer is leadership and timing: Just as companies train their employees on the job, it's probably most realistic to schedule such training into teachers' days--and I don't mean "Tech Tuesdays" or something along those lines that require before- or after-school participation: I mean staff development days, paid time, uninterrupted time--which probably also means getting administrators on board. Will this happen? In some places I know it is happening. But all too often, it is not, and therefore the "tracks of technology on the educational landscape are still barely visible." Unfortunate. Still, I am impressed by the Research Project Calculator and how it mimics the U of M product; I especially like how it too breaks down the stages of the research process and distinguishes among the formats for the final product: It's not just a calculator. It's a learning tool, a guide, a veritable source of comfort.
Can these tools (or at least the RPC) be used for classroom application and for library projects? Absolutely. It's just a matter of creating an opportunity to demonstrate them to teachers and to point out how well they would work to blunt student excuses that they "forgot." These tools may be even more appropriate for college-level, even graduate-level, courses in which the deadlines are longer and the stakes are higher. As for library projects, I think they could be used to schedule events that require multiple stages over a period of weeks, especially when one stage must be completed before moving on to the next: Planning an event that requires scheduling committee meetings, completing tasks, contacting the media, sending follow-up information, etc., etc., could be a good use of the calculator. That the same features can be found on a good e-mail program--or even on the Google calendar (though this may be just another step toward Google's attempt at world domination)--suggests a certain redundancy that may reduce motivation for using it.
Reference:
