AnyQuestions.co.nz is a collaborative project between educators, libraries and those in the information and education sectors.
This initiative gives school children real time, online access to a reference librarian, who uses a chat session to help students find quality informationrelated to learning. The librarian can also take the student on a mediated journey though the web in search of the answers to their questions.
McGovern was approached to provide a website that would capture the most useful question and answer interactions between library staff and school children.Selected sessions have been anonymised and made available as FAQs for students to consult. The best of these sessions form the core of the Many Answers website.
The Many Answers Tool set
Many Questions uses a version of the McGovern Fitch tool. Fitch incorporates a powerful search and browse capability with a wiki, and a set of tagging and comment tools. This combination allows the Many Answers community of librarians, students and teachers to enhance and extend their use of Any Questions Many Answers.
Keyword/Tag tool
A unique feature of the tool is the complementary keyword index and a user generated student tag cloud. By running the two tool views in parallel the user can see the unique nature of the complementary student/librarian search and inquiry path.
Portable Widgets
The tagging and keyword clouds and the search boxes are exportable.They can be embedded in any web page or blog tool, which gives libraries and schools the potential to extend the reach of Any Questions and Many Answers into the local learning community.
See more work ยป