Got a Question? Ask Eric

It seems that teachers are always doing some kind of research.

Whether it's getting background information for curriculum, finding specifics to explain a particular lesson, or preparing a report for a meeting or an after-school course, teachers put a premium on research tools that can home in on the needs of the moment.

The Internet and the web have dramatically expanded the information resources available to those with online access. But whether all this info seems like a gold mine or wasteland often depends on finding the right guide. One of the most comprehensive and flexible online guides for educators is "AskEric": http://ericir.syr.edu.

ERIC, an acronym for Educational Resources Information Center, is a federally funded information clearinghouse. Researchers and college students know it as an indispensable academic tool providing annotated listings and abstracts of education research, studies, and papers. The ERIC database, now available and searchable online, directs users to voluminous full-text documents, typically available on microfiche in about 1,000 libraries across the country. (It is also now possible to have many ERIC documents sent to users in printed or electronic versions for relatively modest fees.) The main ERIC site is located at http://www.aspensys.com/eric/index.html.

"AskEric" is a more user-friendly spin-off of the ERIC system developed by the Department of Education and Syracuse University in 1992. It describes itself as "a personalized, Internet-based service providing education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents."

The AskEric service has several parts, but the most valuable are the Question and Answer service and the Virtual Library.

The Q & A service allows you to submit a specific request for information and receive a personalized, e-mail response within 48-hours. There are limits of course. AskEric supplies info about educational practice, policy and research; it does not answer content-specific questions. ("For example, we are not a good source of information for discovering the causes of World War II, or the average life span of a kangaroo.") But if you're looking for information about reading programs, block scheduling, the effects of class size on student achievement, or almost any educational issue, AskEric is an excellent starting point. When a friend recently wanted to know if there was any legal basis to challenge the tracking system at her local high school, AskEric responded quickly with a long list of relevant citations.

The Virtual Library section of AskEric has additional resources for specific content areas and classroom uses. A useful section on "television companion materials" helps teachers find and order guides or student materials to supplement programming from a variety of educational channels. Another section lists over 700 lesson plans organized by topic and grade level.

Finally, for those content-specific or open-ended questions that AskEric might not be able to answer, you can try the "Virtual Reference Desk at http://www.vrd.org, which is also linked to the AskEric site under "special projects." This site directs users to reference services that can answer almost anything, and includes ways to "Ask an Author," "Ask a Librarian," or "Ask a Scientist," as well as links customized for parent inquiries.

So while AskEric cautions "we do not replace an individual's own research," there's no doubt that if you have questions, AskEric has answers.

Suggestions for Ed-Web? E-mail: StanKarp@aol.com.