Wiggling

Unlike a lot of students who I serve in the high school teachers usually have the end product laid out. In this assignment I’m inventing my own.

Like students doing inquiry I constantly have to steer myself towards task completion. It’s easy to become distracted or too interested in topics and or information pieces that catch your eye. As was often the case with this project I’d have to re-direct my eyes and brain to keep to the task of finding information that continued to build upon my focus.

This is often hard for younger students. I believe this is why we have so many research models. Many models represent the many approaches to gathering information and working through the process of learning and presenting findings. Like our students, no one model fits every student. Evidence to this is growing as we’re seeing more IEP’s, mainstreaming, and students with 504 plans in public education.

When I located sites of interest I began adding items to a favorite’s folder on my computer. I really like the ability of IE7 to remember the last folder you added favorites to. Unlike version 6 the new browser makes it easy to add to subfolders and export a subfolder as an html page. I intend to use this exported html file in my links for my finished product.

As I gathered information I used the Librarian Internet Index selection criteria to help guide me. I liked the LII’s “5 Factors” (Availability, Credibility, Authorship, External Links, and Legality) because they were broad enough to apply to my inquiry. Also I felt they were pertinent to type of finished product I’m envisioning; a web site with information / findings. The fact that LII is such a website that gathers quality resources, I found this approach a logical choice.

I felt the heart of what I was looking for was found in the AWEA website, particularly their “small wind” page. I had no knowledge of their site prior to starting this project! In terms of evaluating their resources I felt their information was well established and valid due to their association to the government, especially the Department of Energy. Using the LII’s criteria their information is available to the public in many formats. It has credibility due to its government entity status. The authorship of the many publications they list on their site is non-profit. Many of their external links are also to non-profit groups many of which want to share their resources. Being a government entity their legality is checked through the department of energy.