Andrew Large

Gender differences in collaborative web searching behavior: an elementary school study

This paper reports the results of an empirical study into gender differences in collaborative Web searching, conducted in a grade-six classroom of a Canadian elementary school. Searches undertaken by 16 same-sex groups of two or three students (six of boys, ten of girls) for information to support a class assignment were captured on videotape. The multiple search sessions took place over several weeks. An analysis of the search sessions reveals that the groups of boys formulated queries comprising fewer keywords than the groups of girls, the boys spent less time on individual pages than the girls, the boys clicked more hypertext links per minute than the girls, and in general were more active while online. The study overall demonstrates academic, affective and behavior differences between grade-six boys and girls working in same-sex groups on a Web-based class project.

The Web as a classroom resource: reactions from the users

This article presents and discusses interviews with 50 grade-6 primary school students about their experience of using the Web to find information for a class project. The children discuss the quantity and quality of textual and image information on the Web versus traditional print sources, and the reasons why they made very little use of any moving images and sound clips on the Web. They also discuss how they searched for information on the Web and the ways in which this differs from looking for information in printed sources. The children overall demonstrate a sophistication both in their appreciation of the Webs strengths and weaknesses as an information source, and in their information retrieval strategies. In their reaction to the Web compared with traditional print sources, they can be categorized as technophiles, traditionalists, or pragmatists. The results from this research study suggest that although the Web can make an important contribution to information retrieval by school students, for the time being, at any rate, a role also remains both for other electronic sources such as CD-ROMs and print materials that are targeted specifically at young users. The Web needs both a more straightforward interface and more information specifically aimed at the young before it can seriously threaten its rivals.

Design criteria for children's Web portals: The users speak out

Four focus groups were held with young Web users (10 to 13 years of age) to explore design criteria for Web portals. The focus group participants commented upon four existing portals designed with young users in mind: Ask Jeeves for Kids, KidsClick, Lycos Zone, and Yahooligans! This article reports their first impressions on using these portals, their likes and dislikes, and their suggestions for improvements. Design criteria for childrens Web portals are elaborated based upon these comments under four headings: portal goals, visual design, information architecture, and personalization. An ideal portal should cater for both educational and entertainment needs, use attractive screen designs based especially on effective use of color, graphics, and animation, provide both keyword search facilities and browsable subject categories, and allow individual user personalization in areas such as color and graphics.

OPACs: A research review

Abstract A large number of studies have investigated the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). This article identifies and analyzes studies that have been published since 1990, excluding comparative OPAC reviews, system descriptions and opinion pieces. It discusses the problems facing researchers as a result of the many variables at play in OPAC research—users, library settings, search strategies, and systems—as well as the difficulty in defining the crucial concept of “relevance.” Data collection methodologies are examined: experiment, interviews and questionnaires, observation, think aloud, and transaction logs. Research results are considered in terms of known-item searches and subject searches. Research recommendations are grouped under three headings: bibliographic record enhancement, search capabilities, and interface design.

Designing Web portals in intergenerational teams: Two prototype portals for elementary school students

This article describes and discusses the detailed procedures followed by two intergenerational teams comprising the researchers and a group of eight grade-six elementary students (ages 11 to 12 years) and a group of six third-grade elementary students (ages 8 to 9 years), respectively, in designing two prototype Web portals intended for use by elementary school students. These procedures were based on three design theories: Contextual Inquiry, Participatory Design, and Cooperative Inquiry. The article also presents and describes the two resulting Web portal prototypes and discusses the design criteria employed by the teams. Conclusions are elaborated on the basis of this research experience regarding how such a design process should be conducted in the context of an intergenerational team, and what characteristics young users expect to find in Web portals that they will use to support their informational needs in terms of elementary school projects and assignments.

Computer animation in an instructional environment

This article reviews the effectiveness of animation in enhancing textual information for instructional purposes. The theoretical basis for visual effectiveness is controversial and rests on competing theories such as dual coding, single coding, and mental models. The role of pictures in prose is briefly reviewed to identify the factors which determine the effectiveness of illustrative material in printed books, and the visual effects of television as an instructional medium are summarized. Research on the effectiveness of educational technologies is prone to a number of methodological problems, which are outlined. Design criteria for multimedia instructional products are summarized.

Primary School Students, Information Literacy and the Web

A generation ago, before such themes as active learning, inquiry-based learning, authentic learning and meaningful learning were part of the vocabulary of educators, school projects that required independent research would have involved finding an article in an encyclopedia, and faithfully copying the text word for word. This level of information literacy was sufficient in a classroom where the expected learning outcome was to find the correct answer to a specific question and know the facts. What information literacy skills do students need in the early twenty-first century? Are the learning objectives in the classroom reflected in the information literacy skills exhibited by students? Do the learning experiences in the classroom facilitate the acquisition of these skills or, have the learning experiences simply been repackaged in the new technologies, giving the impression of being up-to-date, while they remain qualitatively the same as learning experiences from thirty years ago? To answer these questions, this study looks at how grade-six students (11 to 12 years of age) completed a class project using the World Wide Web as their primary resource. The goal of this study is twofold. First, it aims to describe how students accessed, interacted with, and used content on the Web in order to discover patterns in their use of the Web. Secondly, it is hoped that it will present new questions for teachers about the use of the Web as an instrument for learning.

Users' Perceptions of the Web As Revealed by Transaction Log Analysis.

When information seekers use an information retrieval system their strategy is based, at least in part, on the perceptions they have formed about that environment. A random sample was gathered of more than 2,000 actual search queries submitted by users to one Web search engine, WebCrawler, in two separate capture sessions. The results suggest that a high proportion of users do not employ advanced search features, and those who do frequently misunderstand them. Furthermore, many users seem to have formed a model of the Web that imbues it with the intelligence found in a reference librarian, for example, but not a retrieval system. The linguistic structure of many queries resembles a typical human‐human communication model that is unlikely to produce satisfactory results in a human‐computer communication environment such as that offered currently by the Web. Design of more intuitive systems is dependent upon a more complete understanding of user behaviour at the intellectual and emotional as well as the technical levels.

A comparison of information retrieval from print and CD-ROM versions of an encyclopedia by elementary school students

Abstract Describes an experiment using 48 sixth-grade students to compare retrieval techniques using the print and CD-ROM versions of Comptons Encyclopedia. Four queries of different complexity (measured by the number of terms present) were searched by the students after a short training session. The searches were timed and the retrieval steps and search terms were noted. The searches were no faster on the CD-ROM than the print version, but in both cases time was related directly to the number of terms involved. The students coped well with the CD-ROM interface and its several retrieval paths.

Multimedia and comprehension: the relationship among text, animation, and captions

We report the results from the second phase of a cognitive study of multimedia and its effect on childrens learning. A sample of 71 children (12‐year‐olds) drawn from three primary schools viewed a procedural text that included a four‐sequence animation with captions on how to find south using the suns shadow. This multimedia sequence was adapted from a section within Comptons Multimedia Encyclopedia using Apple QuickTime. The children were divided into four groups, each of which viewed different media combinations: text only; text plus animation; text plus captions plus animation; and captions with animation. Shortly afterwards the children were asked to undertake two tasks: To recall in their own words what they had learned, and also to enact how they would find south using a model specially designed for this purpose. No significant differences were found among the groups regarding literal recall of what they had read and seen, or in their ability to draw inferences from it. The children in the text plus animation and captions group, however, were more successful at identifying the major steps in the procedure and at enacting that procedure whereas the children who read the text only experienced the most difficulty in performing the procedure.