The writers and publishers of www.kidcyber.com.au are Shirley Sydenham, a primary/elementary school teacher, and Ron Thomas, a primary teacher-librarian. Since 2019 they have also published e-book resources for teachers.
The rationale
Our business, kidcyber, began back in 1999 when we saw the need for Internet resources that addressed the need of students K - 6 . The Internet needed material that was simply written for a younger audience, factually accurate, readily and constantly available and regularly updated as required. This has been the guiding principle ever since.
Our target Audience
Students from K - 6
Teachers and parents
Homeschool students and their parents
Teacher Librarians
Special Education
English as a Second Language teachers and students
Developing Guided inquiry/Research Skills K - 6
From an early stage, in K-2, students should be guided as they learn to use the required skills, which will be developed and expanded as they progress up the school.
They learn:
to ask questions as the focus for their research/inquiry
to gather and record information
to identify and compare relevant information.
Students should learn how to organise their thoughts and focus their research by making a flow chart, concept map or other graphic organisation. They brainstorm ideas and enter them into a flow chart branching out from the central idea or heading. Each of these entries become questions for their research.
An example of this is: What do bears eat? The question can lead to research about bears generally or about a specific species about which other questions can be researched.
Students should be taught to use a variety of information sources, gaining information from different types of data to make notes and then use their notes to make a report.
Model with them ways of converting their note form into sentences of their own composition to avoid transcription form a source.
Students should be able to share their findings in a variety of presentation methods such as chart or poster, booklet, diorama, power point or kid pix presentation, oral report, video, audio cassette, photographic display, mobile, drama presentation.
Using the internet for research
Text pages in accessible language for K-2 are available on pages in all sections of kidcyber.com.au as one source of information for junior students. More complex information and language continues on the page for older students.
Teachers and students should regard the Internet as just another research tool. Books, videos, CD ROM magazines and real people are all valid sources of information.
The same skills of locating, defining, notetaking and reporting are required whether researching online or hard copy sources. While the Internet provides previously unavailable information, it is not always accurate and the quality of the information is not guaranteed. Authorship may be hard to determine. Often the information presented is too difficult for students to understand, and their time online can be a waste of time. To make effective use of the Internet, teachers should bookmark a list of relevant and suitable sites, appropriate to the needs and abilities of their students thus enabling students to search efficiently.
Students should be taught to acknowledge correctly their use of copyright information, by compiling bibliographies and correctly citing Internet resources, thus avoiding plagiarism.
A school bibliographic style should be established, and it should include citing Internet references.
Example
If author identified:
Thomas, Ron. (2020). Prime Ministers of Australia. [Online], Available:
www.kidcyber.com.au
If no author identified:
Prime Ministers of Australia. (2020). [Online], Available:
www.kidcyber.com.au
All kidcyber.com.au pages come complete with a suggested way of acknowledging the source.
What is inquiry learning?
The inquiry learning approach is about the process of learning as well as the acquisition of content knowledge and skills. It has a broad research base that establishes pre-existing understandings and builds on them by the location and notation of knowledge from a variety of sources. Understandings are developed, and student engagement and critical thinking is improved. Students are helped to take control of their own learning by defining goals and monitoring their understandings.
Why inquiry learning?
An inquiry-based learning approach can help develop higher-order thinking skills and information literacy Students develop problem-solving abilities and develop skills for lifelong learning. Students work co-operatively and collaboratively to solve problems and reach deeper understandings.
Teacher's Role
Rather than let students ‘free range’ on the internet or in the library, the teacher’s role is to guide them to focus on clear, achievable goals and to facilitate the gaining of understandings by teaching necessary skills. These skills must be taught and practiced. (See the above graphic under Developing Research Skills for access to some practice sheets)
The teacher's role in inquiry-based learning is to provide a scaffold framework for student learning, and to gradually remove it as they develop the skills. With younger students, or those new to it, the approach is a more guided one that that for older students.
Teacher questioning is the core, challenging students to look at a bigger picture in their research. Good questions may have some of the following characteristics, or a combination of them:
open- having several answers, rather than being right/wrong or yes/no;
undermining - makes the student reflect on their basic assumptions;
rich - needs some research in order to answer, can often be divided into subsidiary questions;
connected - relevant to the learner;
charged - has an ethical aspect;
practical - is able to be researched using available sources.
One inquiry learning approach is project-based learning in which students learn by actively engaging which is based on real world or personally meaningful.
Why working in groups should be a consideration for all inquiry learning:
Group work enhances student understanding.
Students learn from each other and benefit from activities that require them to articulate and test their knowledge.
Group work provides an opportunity for students to clarify and refine their understanding of concepts through discussion and rehearsal with peers.
Group work can facilitate the development of skills including:
analytical and thinking skills: by analysing task requirements, questioning, critically interpreting material, and evaluating the work of others.
teamwork and collaborative skills such as conflict management and resolution, accepting intellectual criticism, negotiation and compromise.
organisational and time management skills.
kidcyber WebQuests
There are several web quests on kidcyber. A web quest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which all or most of the information comes from the internet. Students are given a task and are provided with online information resources to assist in the completion of the task. The task can be for individual activity or as a collaborative exercise. Web quests are flexible in that they can be teacher led or independently worked through by students.