SchoolRooms is a new online discovery portal for K-12 students, teachers, librarians and parents in South Carolina. It brings together vetted web content, databases, and library catalogs into a single searchable interface. Over 200 educators selected content for 71 subject areas aligned with curriculum standards. The portal was customized for South Carolina schools over a two year timeline. Future plans include adding more local content, customization tools, and a simplified K-2 interface to further improve the resource for the state.
2. What is SchoolRooms?
A new K-12 online multimedia discovery place
for South Carolina students, teachers,
librarians and parents!
A new kind of learning environment that brings
together the best content from all sources into a
single portal that's aimed at meeting the real
needs of real students (parents and educators,
too!) in real schools.
SirsiDynix product ~2 years old
3. Why we chose SchoolRooms
Content selected by 200+ teachers and
librarians.
71 subject areas with content aligned to
national/SC curriculum standards.
Search 3 million educator-selected pages
giving users Best of the Web.
Federated searching of state-wide
databases, county library catalog, & vetted
web content
4. Timeline
Summer 2007
Contract with SirsiDynix is signed
Fall/Winter 2007
Customized SchoolRooms page for 10
pilot sites.
Content Advisory Board formed to
verify content, recommend additional
resources and content
Added Library Favorites to search
Winter/Spring 2008
Customized SchoolRooms page for
2nd wave of county library systems
Intern #1 from USC created online
video tutorials for students, parents,
librarians, and educators
Started integrating Knowitall.org
content into subject-specific Rooms
Summer/Fall 2008
Customized SchoolRooms page for last
wave of county library systems
Working on last library catalogs to be
integrated
Intern #2 from USC created Early
Education Room
Also added Summer Reading Room
and Health & Safety Room
14. SchoolRooms was created in Ohio on
national standards
We aim to make it locally relevant + even
better!
Early Education Room
Summer Reading Room
Health & Safety Room
South Carolina Room
Knowitall.org Resources
South Carolina Book Award Nominees
Show & Share Time (Customization)
16. Rocky Road isnt just an ice cream flavor
Kudos: Customization, quality of web
resources & organization, ease of use
for users
Unresolved issues: Difficulties in
customization for state-wide
implementation, federated search
issues, clunky builder
17. The Future (job security)
Additional partners
More content! Adding SC related
content into Rooms
K-2 interface
Lesson plans & marketing tools
2.3 version (content creation at a local
level)