Thursday 15 November 2012

ETL 503 Assignment One Reflection- Sweet Selection

For some reason I really struggled with this assignment. I submitted it punctually, which is a plus, and I set aside lots of time to complete it, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would and I found Part B really hard to structure, and therefore, complete.

I wasn't happy with my final product, but it's gone to the EASTS Gods now and I'll await its return with a not-so-keen anticipation.


I think, on reflection, what frustrated me most about it was that it was such a slow and protracted process. I'm not working in a school presently (as I'm on mat. leave), and therefore I have very limited access to common selection aids or tools. This meant that I had to search, and search and search for a tool that I could access free of charge and without a registered-school login, and then, once I found an appropriate selection tool, I then had to search it to find appropriate resources (which was also difficult- my fault, as I chose a not-so-school-age-friendly topic- Schizophrenia).

Is this the process that TLs really use? I know that Kennedy (2006), states that it is the responsibility of the TL to become familiar with the available selection aids, and I know that this assignment was about the process rather than the actual chosen resources, but I think the tools need to be made available for students in this course who aren't in a school otherwise it becomes an invalid exercise.

I found searching for website collections also really time consuming and with little reward. I think, and TLs, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the most logical thing to do is use a search engine to find appropriate resources yourself- it is much faster and given the knowledge I've now developed on website evaluation (from ETL 501), this seems to be the most logical process. I understand the usefulness of compiling a list of reviewed sites that from publications such as "Connect", but I can't imagine many TLs, when trying to find useful websites, would go back to a past issue of such a publication, find the right page, read the review and then type in the URL and preview the website themselves- it seems like there's a lot of unnecessary steps there.

I think, if I'm armed with a myriad of selection tools with which I'm familiar, then they would be useful, particularly if they are send regularly via email or snail mail as catalogues