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From Home Page. To get a user id ...

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We asked for minimal information, although we will use the County and User Profile for statistical purposes.

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Click Register. You’ll see that we’ve told people to verify that they are a state resident and there’s a disclaimer about the information and how it will be used.

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When registering, you’ll get your User ID immediately on the screen and then an email.

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Back to the home page, once you’ve logged in or have been IP authenticated, you’ll be able to search and access all of the content in the taxonomy on the left hand side of the screen. Let’s just use the search in the middle right now.

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You’ll get hits from DISCUS. From the home page, we’re keeping it limited to 10 databases or less. Still working on which ones we want here but you can see the result sets. You also get info from Best of Web which is comprised of 3 million + resources selected by educators. Library Favorites is made up of web sites we’ve chosen to index. So, you’ll see more South Carolina specific sites indexed here. There are also Library Catalog results under DISCUS that you’ll see in another search. On the left hand side, you can navigate to the results from just one resource (DISCUS, Catalog, etc..). You can also jump out to your county’s library catalog where you can place holds and see all of their holdings.

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Users can also jump into the taxonomy based on their grade level or the grade level they are working with. Here’s the Elementary Room. The “rooms” here are based on curriculum standards, although we can customize the terms here if there’s a discrepancy between what we call something here in South Carolina versus the national standards. Featured content in the middle and Cool Links on the right hand side. This information changes monthly based on an editorial calendar.

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Within the Elementary Room, someone might choose to look at Earth Science specifically. Notice that all the featured content changes to relate to this subject. Subtopics appear in the taxonomy, again based on what is being taught in the classroom.

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Here’s the bottom part of that same page. You’ll see a slide show in the middle and several links users can explore. On the right hand side, there are educational games and some fun facts. The How Do I questions also change to correspond with the Earth Science room we’re in. If I click on one of the links related to glaciers, we’ll get a popup window.

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You do need to allow popups for the SchoolRooms site because most links will popup in a secondary window. This is so users don’t lose their place in SchoolRooms.

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Some links are internal to SchoolRooms. For instance, the How Do I links. Here’s an example. I was still in Elementary – Earth Science and clicked on the “How Do I Learn About Oceans” link. This takes me directly to resources that are buried in the taxonomy, in this case under Earth Science – Earth’s Changing Surface – All About Water.

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This is the Middle School Earth Science Room. Notice the different colors and terminology. There’s also different featured content and resources.

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As I go into one area of Earth Science, you’ll see more featured content, slide shows, games and fun facts.

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There’s a dramatic different in the color scheme for High School. This was all based on usability testing done by SirsiDynix, INFOhio and Kent State. These are the colors selected by high schoolers. Again, you’ll see more sophisticated terminology as we go from Elementary to Middle to High School. I’ve typed in a search in the middle of the page for “global economy.”

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Here are our search results for “global economy.” We have selected different databases for the High School students so you’ll get different hits than you would in the Elementary or Middle school rooms.

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Here’s an example of looking at one particular DISCUS resource, Student Edition.

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Here’s an individual record. They do tend to be very brief and it completely depends on the database vendor as to how much information they’re sending over. The title is hot linked so we can jump out to that article.

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If you are in a library or school, you should not have to authenticate to DISCUS again. If you are at home, you would be prompted to fill in the DISCUS username and password before you could get to this article. We are talking with the DISCUS database providers to see if we can’t streamline this a little better.

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On any search results page, you will have the same options on the left hand side. You can look at results in a particular resource (DISCUS, Best of Web, Library Catalog, etc...). You can also access your public library’s catalog directly. Otherwise, you cannot place holds or see all the holdings from within SchoolRooms. This depends on the type of library catalog they have. You also get an RSS feed should you wish to bookmark that to initiate your search again later.

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In addition to the student areas, you also have audience guides for Educators, Librarians and Parents. Here’s the Educator’s Guide. You’ll choose Elementary, Middle or High School again depending on the age level you’re working with.

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As you dig into the taxonomy, you’ll find lesson plans, classroom activities, classroom management tools, technology tutorials, etc... Here you are seeing Classroom Activities. There are also Teaching Resources and Related Topics on the right hand side. Teachers also get How Do I links such as How Do I Discover Aligned Lesson Plans? and How Do I Prepare Students for Tests?

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The Librarians’ Guide includes a lot of information about management, literacy, technology and professional development. Here I’ve chosen the High School area, then Information Literacy and finally Technology Literacy. There are several dropdowns with resources targeting areas such as national standards, advanced search strategies and boolean operators. More great information on the right hand side with Tech Tutorials and the Future of Libraries.

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This is a screen shot from the Parent’s Guide – Middle School level. Great featured content and links. Notice the How Do I links which focus on learning but also on social issues.

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Parents can get Homework Help. One example would be Math. They can see what their child should know at this level, refresh themselves on math terminology and see formula tables. If they select one of the resources and click GO, they’ll get a popup window.

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In this example, they are going out to Math.com and they can explore different math reference tables for General Math, Algebra and Geometry.