Of the different information sources and services (use of the school
library, use of its OPAC, etc.), students were most unfamiliar with
using Wisenews and the school's OPAC (see Fig. 3). Students were
more familiar with using the school library facilities, public library
facilities, and Yahoo!. Students' familiarity with Yahoo! was greater
than that of Google (4.5 compared to 3.2), which might be explained
by Yahoo!'s more child-friendly services such as “Yahoo! Kids”
(http://kids.yahoo.com/). Since students did not have free access to
the WiseNews database in school in the past, and because it is not a
freely accessible database, their familiarity with WiseNews was
substantially lower than all of the other information sources and
services prior to the inquiry PjBL. Perhaps not surprisingly, the biggest
improvement was seen in this domain, and was supported by our
interview data. Some students became so comfortable with using it
that one of them “used it for leisure reading and for doing homework.”
Another student used it for reading topics of interest to himself that
were not required in school. Fig. 3 summarizes the students'
responses about their perceived familiarity with the various information
sources and services before and after the inquiry PjBL.