Listen Up, Web Developers!

Study finds Web producers unaware of teachers’ needs

By Eric Oatman -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2005

Why is it so hard for science teachers to get and use educational material from the Web? Mainly, say the authors of a recently released report based on a survey of 236 teachers, because most producers of Web content haven’t a clue as to what teachers want. “Teachers want good science from good sources, all accessible from a single portal,” says Bethany Carlson, who coauthored the report “Effective Access,” for the non-profit Educational Development Center (EDC). “They want something a digital library can provide.”

Four out of five teachers responding to the survey (www2.edc.org/GDI/publications_SR/EffectiveAccessReport.pdf) said teachers used the Internet to prepare for class “frequently or always.” But none knew what a digital library was or where to find one. The result was a lot of frustrated teachers who didn’t have the time, the training, or the equipment to find classroom-appropriate Web materials and transform them into teaching tools.

One easy-to-use resource is the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), a free online resource of the National Science Foundation. The NSDL provides access to more than 500 science-related Web sites.

To their peril, say experts, school media specialists are failing to tackle problems similar to those faced by teachers. “Media specialists don’t know how digital libraries can enlarge their roles,” says Marcia Mardis, who teaches school library media at Wayne State University. “Media specialists have innovative resources and space to offer science teachers. But we’re not speaking outside the circle.”