The instructional website as a focus for teacher-librarian and teacher collaboration: a research study

Instructional websites can be developed by a school as a curriculum resource, intranet or ICT training tool, through programs such as Frontpage and Dreamweaver. These websites can foster professional exchange amongst teaching staff and between teachers and librarians. A recent study has investigated the value of instructional websites at Linlithgow Academy, a Scottish secondary school which has developed a range of websites on a limited budget. The study found that the websites have increased staff collaboration and improved planning around specific projects. Staff have also benefitted from an increased exchange of ideas and teaching methods and better provision for professional development and resource needs. Students have shown improvements in the quality of work produced and improvement in ICT and information literacy skills. Finding time and resources were the main challenges to collaborative work, although impromtu meetings and staff commitment helped to resolve these. Increased student involvement in website planning and production, scaffolding of tasks, inclusion of information literacy guidelines and greater teacher control of websites are some of the potential future developments for website collaboration. The article also includes a literature review and excerpts from interviews undertaken in the research process.