Databases

There has been some interesting discussion in our forum about the use of databases, in particular using databases for research purposes. The comment was made that many of the “research projects” that students undertake do not require true research. They are able to use google or a few books to fulfill their research needs. I think this is one reason why databases are underused in schools – teachers are not providing research projects that direct students to engage in deeper levels of research. This is particularly worrying for high school students who need to understand how to use databases and access scholarly information when they go to university.

I think that there has been an assumption that students are able to navigate databases without direct instruction. But this is not so. Databases will continue to be underused and overlooked until we implicitly teach students how to effectively and efficiently use them. With more and more resources going online and out of print (such as the Canadian Encyclopedia, as someone pointed out), we must familiarize ourselves and teach our students how to shift from print to electronic resources. As both Wayne and Chantal have pointed out,we must invest an adequate amount of time for instruction and research remembering the importance of the research process. The process must be the focus - not the product.

Our district has purchased licenses for a World Book Bundle (World Book Online Reference Centre, World Book Kids, World Book Advanced and L’Encyclopedie Decouverte) in addition to Encyclopedia of BC Online and EBSCO Publishing. In the four elementary schools I have taught in within my district, I can say that they are completely underused. In two of the schools, this was due to poor technology. In the other two schools, it was a lack of knowledge about the databases. Like Chantal and Angela have commented, there seems to be a lack of awareness about them.

I have to admit that I am not a huge user of the databases our district has purchased licenses for. Why not? Because the only place I can reliably access them is from home. Our school computers in the lab are so archaic that they take ten minutes to log on and then a minute to load each page. They are unbelievable. So they are not used that much. As computer budgets are now at the school level, you are at the mercy of your administration to set aside money for computers. At our school, most of the teachers are not particularly tech savvy, hence they have not advocated in the past for better computers. Finally this year the PAC is working with the tech committee to purchase a class set of laptops. Hooray!

I find the situation my school is in to be bizarre. How can our school district fork over so much money for databases when the schools don’t even have equipment that is needed to access them? I think that it was a mistake to move the onus to the schools for purchasing technology. The technology budget used to be at the district level, which ensured a basic standard in all schools. I cannot begin to promote databases until I have technology that supports their use. Thank god they haven't shifted the budget for databases to the school level...