Week 9: Class Reflection
The main thing we did in the last class was to gather into our groups and deliver our workshops. The workshops delivered in our group were definitely enlightening. We had one on ethics in cataloging, one discussing Kickstarter, a tutorial on how to use Google Sites, and a workshop focused on engaging students with primary documents. I think the biggest challenge for our group was fitting everything we wanted to cover into such a short amount of time. 20-30 minutes is so much less time than you think, instructionally speaking, because you've got to introduce the concept, practice, and assess, then get feedback. I feel like we didn't have time for much depth, and in the workshop Tyson and I led, I don't think we quite accomplished our goals. The feedback from our participants echoed my own thoughts on the workshop and also pointed out areas of improvement that I hadn't noticed, things I'll be sure to keep in mind for next time.
Week 10: Readings Response
How People Learn, Ch. 7; Online Webinars! (Montgomery, 2010); The Embedded Librarian (Matos et al, 2010)
The two articles we read were about embedded librarians and webinars. I must admit, I have little experience with librarians within courses or schools and rarely utilize the reference services provided by libraries. I do agree with Matos, though, that a librarian who is physically in the same space as the faculty he is responsible to will have more opportunity to keep abreast of topics and trends in the department. I also found the differences between librarians' experiences with the faculty and students in various subjects to be interesting. It makes sense that the business librarian would also be seen as a resource for technological methods used frequently in business and that a music librarian who is also a musician would take on many different roles within the performing arts community.
At the same time, however, SI has its own librarian, right? At least theoretically? I don't think I've ever actually spoken to her. I've read her emails, but I wonder how much interaction with SI students and faculty members she has. That's the thing. There are so many resources available to students, and the vast majority of us utilize only a small proportion of those resources. I could see webinar attendance as a course requirement succeeding, but if it's not required, I really wonder how many students would take advantage of such a thing. Speaking personally, my focus is schoolwork, work, internships, and day-to-day concerns, then I'll think about talks and webinars and other enrichment opportunities, and I take advantage of those all too rarely. I don't know. I'm skeptical.
As for "Effective Teaching: Examples in History, Mathematics, or Science," I found it fascinating, but I finished unsure of the effect these techniques and insights would have on my (future) professional practice. I guess the concepts could be incorporated in programming, but that would be strikingly different from the classroom experience, in that it would likely be a one-shot sort of program. (And here begins my thinking-out-loud, rambling section.) I wonder, though, if public libraries could partner with local organizations or institutions to enact some sort of a companion program to the traditional summer reading program, a primarily educational exploration/enrichment sort of thing. Beginning with a nontraditional format in mind, how cool would it be to let the participants determine the specific content? Say, envisioning a program led by an avid outdoorsperson or other expert under the wider umbrella of the natural world or local ecosystems (or something) and letting the students narrow the focus and come up with questions to lead their exploration. Man, that would be awesome. Question is, would kids want to participate? Hmm..
The one-shot workshop experience was most worthwhile for the feedback! It's hard sometimes to realize what you're missing when you're knee deep in planning. Wouldn't it be cool if we were all librarians working together and doing 'test-runs' for each other? I wonder how many professional environments support that sort of development?
ReplyDeleteI wonder what it would be like if the SI librarian sat in the lounge for a couple hours a week. Would she be more embedded then? Would it be helpful or more invasive? These are things I wonder when I get those e-mails...
I agree that students use only a small portion of the resources available to them. Obviously, we can't make them use resources, but we can make sure that they know they're available. For instance, U-M provides legal counseling to students. I have never used it, but as long as I know it's there I COULD use it if wanted to.
ReplyDeleteI think the kinds of enrichment you're talking about in public libraries often happen in community education and/or day camps in communities. For places that don't have those kinds of resources, it would be an interesting idea to see how something like that would play out in a library setting.
Also, the SI librarian does hold office hours in NQ, usually around finals and sporadically throughout the semester. I never understood the wisdom of holding extensive office hours during finals week, personally, but she does have them.
when i first started teaching, i thought that filling an hour long class would be terrifying, but once you get going, you realize that this is never enough time. if you really know what you are talking about and want to see students be able to understand things at a certain level, you can go on forever and still feel like there was more that you could impart and more you could discuss.
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