Serendipitous Searching for Graded Readers. Presented at the ICT and Language Education Conference. Kyoto, Japan. October 11th, 2015.
Abstract
Searching for a graded reader can be a challenging task for students in an extensive reading program. Student using the MoodleReader View Books Block will find the categories of genre, publisher, and level but cannot determine the number of copies, location, or availability of audio CDs. In contrast, the local library search engine may display the later, but then not have the original categories in the View Books Block. These discrepancies in the categories of the search methods are caused by a lack of metadata for each graded reader. This presentation will demonstrate a Moodle Database Activity as a robust search interface to augment the MoodleReader View Book Block or as a substitute for a local library search engine. The systematic collection of metadata for readers, organization in Google sheets, and importation to a Moodle Database Activity will be demonstrated. The addition of ebooks to the Database Activity will also be displayed with discussion of how to structure an extensive reading program that is both digital and print based. Finally, opportunities for collaboration will be discussed for amassing metadata for readers to share via Google sheets, exported database entries, or a Moodle Hub.