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Digital resources

Connectivity among schools, libraries, and other education centers means little if there is no useful content. Unlike print resources, resources stored in digital archives offer opportunities for students and teachers to mold and even create content and to express understanding of content in multiple formats. Honey and Hawkins 16 describe the potential of digital archives to achieve four goals:

  • provide information any time in any place
  • provide multimedia information in a variety of visual and aural formats
  • allow students and teachers to personalize or customize how they access and represent information
  • radically enhance collaborative activities by reducing the barriers of geography, organizational hierarchy, and time

They further describe three key design principles for digital archives. They suggest that the publishing industry is dominated by a mindset that discourages inventiveness in students and teachers and makes products that are "teacher proof." Digital content, however, allows experimentation in selection, format, and presentation. Teachers can use these resources in ways that make sense to them. This concept of teacher ownership is the first important design principle proposed by the authors.

In order to increase student engagement, the second design principle, designers of digital archives must consider the cognitive, social, and emotional stages of development of the potential users. The authors suggest that the students and teachers themselves are the best sources for assessing these developmental levels. Finally, to make the best use of digital resources, teachers and students need to be able to build personalized approaches to searching and organizing archived materials. Indexing schemes that work well for a scientist or researcher may not be useful in a classroom.

On the Horizon

KTS™

The Knowledge Transaction System (KTS) is designed to facilitate project management and staff communications through a Web-based interface. It captures data for reporting purposes, and for extraction of procedural knowledge. The modules in the system help to track resources (human and material) for budgeting, schedule staff time, and maintain client relationships by tracking vital contact information. Since the system is Web-based, off-site personnel can easily participate in projects and easily communicate with project members, and staff making site visits can easily log in to check the progress of their project and report results.