Inf Retrieval J (2017) 20:524–545 DOI 10.1007/s10791-017-9310-1 SEARCH AS LEARNING Online searching and learning: YUM and other search tools for children and teachers 1 1 1 Ion Madrazo Azpiazu • Nevena Dragovic • Maria Soledad Pera • Jerry Alan Fails1 Received: 29 October 2016 / Accepted: 8 July 2017 / Published online: 21 July 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Abstract Information discovery tasks using online search tools are performed on a regular basis by school-age children. However, these tools are not necessarily designed to both explicitly facilitate the retrieval of resources these young users can comprehend and aid low-literacy searchers. This is of particular concern for educational environments, as there is an inherent expectation that these tools facilitate effective learning. In this manuscript we present an initial assessment conducted over (1) children-oriented search tools based on queries generated by K-9 students, analyzing features such as readability and adequacy of retrieved results, and (2) tools used by teachers in their classrooms, analyzing their main purpose and target audience’s age range. Among the examined tools, we include YouUnderstood.Me, an enhanced search environment, which is the result of our ongoing efforts on the development of a search environment tailored to 5-15 year-olds that can foster learning through the retrieval of materials that not only satisfy the information needs of these users but also match their reading abilities. The results of these studies highlight the fact that search results presented to children have average reading levels that do not match the target audience. In addition, tools oriented to teachers do not go beyond showing the progress of their students, and seldomly provide a simple way of retrieving class contents that fit current needs of students. These facts further showcase the need for developing a dual environment oriented to both teachers and students. Keywords Children Á Search as learning Á Personalization Á Teachers & Maria Soledad Pera [email protected] Ion Madrazo Azpiazu [email protected] Nevena Dragovic [email protected] Jerry Alan Fails [email protected] 1 Department of Computer Science, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID, USA 123 Inf Retrieval J (2017) 20:524–545 525 1 Introduction The use of Web technologies is increasingly becoming a convenient and valuable asset for children’s education (Danby 2013; Knight 2014), because it facilitates learning (Chu 2012), it enhances the class environment and it introduces children, in the early stages of their lives, to today’s information society (Sadaf et al. 2012). However, as Danby (2013) described, incorporating technology into the traditional activities of early childhood edu- cation is not a trivial task. As defined in Rieh et al. (2016), searching as a learning tool is often explored from two different perspectives: ‘‘searching to learn’’ and ‘‘learning to search’’. The former focuses on locating information in the educational setting as a result of an online search process in order to learn, the latter explores users’ search skills, i.e., their ability to know how to formulate queries that best capture their information needs and trigger the retrieval of relevant resources. Young people today—who have been referred to as ‘‘the Google generation’’—turn to search engines as their first ‘‘port of call for knowledge’’ (Rowlands et al. 2008). In fact, children use search engines on a daily basis to locate materials that can help them with different academic tasks, from finding information for a class to discovering the meaning of a word (Knight 2014). While the use of search engines for the enhancement of learning tasks is very common, they are not designed with children in mind, and thus a number of issues arise when used by this audience (Gossen et al. 2013). There is a natural connection between conducting successful information-discovery tasks and the knowledge required to initiate such tasks. Unfortunately, numerous studies have shown a lack of explicit information literacy instruction, even though search engines are used daily by young users (Gossen et al. 2014; Kuhlthau et al. 2015; Rieh et al. 2016; Rowlands et al. 2008; Spink et al. 2010). Another important barrier is showcased by the fact that search engines are not always successful in understanding children’s information needs, particularly because children often express those needs in long natural language or with ambiguous queries (Bilal and Boehm 2013). Another prominent issue is evidenced by the results of the survey conducted by Bilal and Boehm (2013), which identifies that out of 300 retrieved results to satisfy the information needs of seventh graders, only one matched their reading level. This is a concern, as it might not even be possible for children to use resources that are too hard for them to understand because the readability levels of the resources do not match their respective reading comprehension abilities. Furthermore, given that children as web users, ‘‘differ widely in their reading proficiency and ability to understand vocabulary, depending on factors such as age, educational background, and topic interest or expertise’’ (Collins-Thompson et al. 2011), it is imperative to tailor the complexity of results to the specific needs of each child, and not just to generalize these needs based on a label such as age or grade. As reported by Lennon and Burdick (2004), a reader needs to be able to read and comprehend at least three quarters of a text, if learning is to occur as a result of reading. This ratio is meant to set a balance between what the reader understands and the existence of challenging passages that will lead to the improvement of reading comprehension skills (Lennon and Burdick 2004). Therefore, unless the retrieved resources match the reading skills of the user, reading for learning and learning based on the specific information seeking task cannot take place. As reported by Hew and Brush (2007), using web technologies can help students get higher scores in standardized tests and promotes creativity when solving problems. It is important to note, however, that benefits of incorporating technologies in the classroom are not limited to students. As several educational studies suggest (Hew and Brush 2007; Kepple et al. 2015) teachers could greatly benefit from using Web 2.0 technologies in the 123 526 Inf Retrieval J (2017) 20:524–545 classroom environment as those tools contain numerous pedagogical benefits. Even if some teachers use tools such as BiblioNasium.com or Instagrok.com to keep track of their students’ reading logs or locate materials related to the topics they are teaching, the use of information technologies is not widely extended among them (Kepple et al. 2015), a fact that might be due to the lack of breadth offered by these tools, i.e., they focus either on the reading ability progress or on serving materials for learning, but not both. A tool that would integrate both search and reading ability progress tracking could greatly benefit teachers, as they would be able go beyond readability leveled static books, and incorporate up-to-date online articles in the learning process of their students. In addition, they would also be able to actively monitor the learning process of tools such as search engines, providing students with personalized suggestions on how to improve their information discovery strategies. The main contributions of this article are twofold: (1) an analysis of search environ- ments in relation to meeting children’s (see Study 1 in Sect. 4.1) and teacher’s needs (see Study 2 in Sect. 4.2); and, (2) the presentation of YouUnderstood.Me (YUM) (see Sect. 3), our evolving research environment that focuses on facilitating search as learning from children’s and teachers’ perspectives. More specifically, with regards to our first contribution, we present a qualitative and quantitative study oriented to analyze the issues both children and teachers face when performing information discovery tasks or locating learning materials. In order to accomplish so, we analyze the behavior of multiple search environments when using queries generated by children. Note that we focus on the K-91 audience comprised of 6–15 year-olds, since these ages refer to children from their initial search experiences through their ‘‘graduation’’ to adult search tools. We also explore tools teachers use in the process of finding adequate class materials that can be tailored to individual users. The results of this analysis allow us to identify and report challenges teachers are facing and further justify the need of a tool that that considers both teachers and students to foster learning. As a means to frame the possibilities that current information retrieval techniques can provide in closing the loop between both stakeholders, we also include YUM among the tools examined in this study. YUM is the result of our ongoing efforts to develop a web search environment designed to help K-9 students find adequate online materials, while also considering teachers’ needs of tracking the progress of their students and finding adequate materials for preparing their classes. More importantly, as we discuss later on, YUM is meant to address not just one of the aforementioned search as learning perspec- tives, but both. YUM simultaneously enables searching-to-learn and learning-to-search by aiding children find resources that will help them learn and showcasing their corresponding reformulated queries–following the ‘‘showing results for...’’ feature offered by search engines, such as Google. Learning-to-search is of particular importance, given that by learning how to search as they search, children can ultimately take full advantage of rich search engine capabilities and find resources for both leisure- and education-related tasks. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Sect.