Initially I thought this assignment seemed straightforward enough i.e. find 10 resources to adequately resource an area of the curriculum. Wow, did I learn a thing or two! First of all being that assignments and end of term parties don't go well together.
Before starting this subject I had heard about learning objects from
forum postings and postings on listservs I subscribe to, but couldn't
really visualise what they were. Gaining access to The Learning
Federation website was like striking oil. I found so many objects that
my teachers could make use of and that are totally relevant to our units
of study, but unfortunately overseas schools are not able to access the
site. So disappointing.
Loertscher's notion that the users guide the selection of resources reinforced that I am on the right track in involving the students, teachers and parents in collection development. He also states that it's not about what a library owns but what it can make available to its users made perfect sense to me. My users love their printed books (I'm a TL in a primary school) but they also appreciate the flexibility of using digital resources as these can be accessed from home through the library's Moodle page. The difficult part for me is ensuring the resources are relevant, suitable and support the students' and teachers' curricula needs.
I enjoyed the challenge of sourcing new resources for the Year 5 topic "The Environment" and believe the teachers will be pleased with the results when they come to teach the unit in May.
