Facilitating middle school students´ sense making process in digital libraries

Previous research on using digital libraries in science classrooms indicated that middle school students tend to passively find answers rather than actively make sense of information they find in digital libraries. In response to this challenge, we designed a scaffolded software tool, the Digital IdeaKeeper, to support middle school students in making sense of digital library resources during online inquiry. This study describes preliminary results from a study to see how middle school students use different IdeaKeeper features. Initial data analysis indicates that IdeaKeeper can facilitate online learners to engage in sense-making process in online inquiry