GURU INTERVIEW: KATHY SCHROCK
Kathleen Schrock ([email protected]), creator of Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators (http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/)
Technology Coordinator, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District, S. Yarmouth, MA
Marylaine: How did you get from media specialist to internet guru?
Kathy: In November of 1993 I was the library media specialist for an 800- student, grades 4-8 middle school. When I first went on the text- based Internet (pre-Web), I quickly realized that there were lots of Gopher sites that would be handy for the teachers and students in my school. Being the terminally left-brained learner, I jotted down the info on sites onto the backs of old card catalog cards and filed them by subject in a card file box. Wherever I went, people were always anxious to see the box for some new sites.
In June of 1995, we finally got an ISP on the Cape and access to the graphical Internet was no longer a toll call. The owner of the ISP knew of my little box (now grown to 400 Web and Gopher sites) and told me that if I learned HTML he would host the pages for me. So, using Laura Lemay's first book, I taught myself HTML and created the pages.
I have worked on the site for at least 2 hours each day since June of 1995 (5-6am and 9-10pm), and try to add at least one new site each day. The maintenance, URL checking, and HTML is still all coded by hand, by me, so there is a lot of time spent doing that, too.
I find new sites all over the place, and now get at least 10 submitted to me each day by people who would like their sites to be listed. I look at each one, and evaluate it with the 26 criteria that I use to add a site to the Guide [see http://www.classroom.com/resource/articles/weval.pdf for those criteria], and now there are over 1600 links.
I have also added original content (evaluation guides, slide shows, newsletter, etc.) that teachers often use.
Marylaine: What to you are the hallmarks of a good educational web site?
Kathy: A good educational Web site is one that is authoritative, applicable, non-biased, content-rich, and easy-to- navigate. Even if it is none of those things, if it contains the answer to the question, then it is the "best" site of the moment!
Marylaine: Do you have a written selection policy?
Kathy: No. I have been doing this long enough and know enough educators to know when something is useful for teachers.
Marylaine: I didn't see anything in your descriptions indicating age level for web sites. What's your thinking on this kind of guidance?
Kathy: I have not thought about dividing along grade level or reading level lines since even a site meant for younger kids can be used by high schoolers. I want the teacher to decide if the information is useful as introductory or enhancement material. I think they are the experts at that, and would not like to imply that I am!
Marylaine: I notice that you link to a number of adult-level sites which might link to sites that would be inappropriate for children. Given the flap over ALA linking to the Go Ask Alice web site, is the issue of "where might they go from here" a concern to you? Or do you assume the use of filtering systems?
Kathy: I never assume filtering, since I am opposed to filtering. The site was never intended for kids to use. I am hoping that teachers are provisioning and conducting a reading level survey (that's why I got permission to include the Fry information from McGraw-Hill), or they are using the information as background information for their own purposes, or they are bookmarking the information for their students' use.
Marylaine: Has the worldwide attention and praise your site has gotten surprised you? And how have your superiors responded to the extraordinary fame you've brought them?
Kathy: Yes. I never thought the site would be so widely used or well-thought of. I love the attention! They are very proud and are always bragging about this mention here or that award there...
Marylaine: How do you keep current? What do you read, what web sites do you regularly visit, what listserves are you on, what conferences do you attend?
Kathy: I'm not on any listservs. I attend NECC [National Educational Computing Conference] and and FETC [FETC- Florida Educational Technology Conference], and this year am attending TIES [Technology and Information Educational Services (Minnesota)] for the first time. I present a lot via PictureTel/Vtel because I cannot travel all the time. I read everything from home computer magazines to educational periodicals and journals and subject-specific publications (like the National Science Teachers Association pubs), and I regulary visit NetHappenings and some of the other educational portals on the Net.
Marylaine: What question did I not ask that you'd like to answer, to share your knowledge with other school media specialists?
Kathy: I would just like them to remember, when the technology becomes overwhelming, to reflect on the fact that, even before technology, we library media specialists were trained to locate and evaluate information for support of the curriculum, we learned how to conduct a reference interview to narrow down the topic, and we learned Boolean searching before it became "fashionable". Now, everyone else needs these same skills, and we have to help both our peers and students all learn how to become information consumers.
Marylaine: Thanks, Kathy. I appreciate your taking the time to do this.
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COOL QUOTE
The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters.
Ross MacDonald
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Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
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Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999.
