Faculty of Education - Theses

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Subject: Melbourne × Subject: Victoria × Subject: ask-an-expert services × Subject: education ×

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    Ask a parent: investigating the need for a parent 'ask an expert' service in schools
    Houlihan, Gerard ( 2004)
    'Ask an Expert' (AskA) services are question-answer based Internet services where questions can be asked of individuals with specialist knowledge. There appear to be no examples of AskA services localised to a school community and provided by parent volunteers (here termed ‘AskA-Parent’). This research utilised a needs assessment methodology to explore the potential for constructing such a service at an independent Australian school. Data sources included school documents, government statistics and individual interviews with purposeful sampling of teachers, parents and student prefects; four in each group. Based upon the interview responses, a survey was completed by teachers (n=62), students (n=44) and the students' parent/guardians (n=74). Four main themes emerged from the data in the context of the literature. They were related to the usage of information and communications technologies (ICT); pedagogy; learning communities; and general ICT issues. The findings indicated that a particular strength of the AskA-Parent program was an ability to further develop schools as learning organisations and to facilitate links between members of the school community. A cautionary finding was related to the importance of clear guidelines in order to lessen obstacles to the success of the program. The findings of this study suggest that there would be benefit in trialling an AskA-Parent program.