After posting my reflection on lesson 5 (I'm a day ahead!), I conducted my hot topic response for lesson 4.
What I thought was great about the Government of Alberta's Online Ref. Centre is that it provides staff and students with access to a ton of information which is relevant to just about every subject curriculum. The site is organized very well which makes it easy to use. However, the one flaw I noted is that there are not enough opportunities for teachers to make their own contributions. There are many teachers who have great reference materials (collections of poems, books, or unit plans) which other teachers may benefit from seeing and using. Allowing these to be shared would make the site more interactive for teachers!
I realize now that the UBC Education Library had a section like this within their website where students (past and present) could share unit plans which they developed. This was and still is a great tool for me as a classroom teacher as I have access to new ideas and information that I can apply to my own teaching. If this aspect of the UBC Education Library could be applied to the Online Ref. Centre site I believe it would be a great addition.
Yes, it's there in another part of the AB Ed. website, but the department of Education vets teacher contributions/units etc. From the web link I put up today, you'll better understand the structure of the ORC>
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