Friday, September 16, 2022
Article: Cameras On or Off? It Depends! What We’ve Learned from Students about Teaching and Learning on Zoom
Thursday, September 16, 2021
The Learning Guild's Crowdsourced Favorites from L&D; Practitioners
The Learning Guild has created an interesting list of 56 books which have been recommended by members of the learning and development (L&D) community. The creation of this list wasn't scientific and there is no indication of how many people contributed suggestions. Still any list of favorite books - especially for trainers - can be a good starting point and I do like the questions used for its creation.
The executive summary begins:
In August 2021, we asked L&D practitioners via social channels about their favorite work-related books. We were not interested in what they happened to be reading recently, but the “desert island” books they would want to keep with them above all others, or would suggest for colleagues. We asked questions like: What have you found useful in executing your work or in navigating your career? What is dog-eared? What do you still pull off the shelf? What do you quote? What books did you find influential and kept from college or grad school that you feel contributed to your practice? Contributors were asked to include a sentence or two about why they recommended a particular title.
The resultant list is divided by topics and with brief statement about why the work is treasured.
You need to register (free) to download the entire report. I suspect any trainer or educator will find something of interest on this list. The list might be especially valuable to someone who is new to the field. Of course, I expect some will disagree with this list and I hope those people will create and publish a list of their own.
Tuesday, March 02, 2021
Librarian Education Reform March Meeting: The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff
This month's meeting is on March 9, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET through Zoom. Registration is open to all. This month I am the speaker/facilitator. and will be engaging the group in a discussion focus on "The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff." This discussion will use my blog posts from last year on this subject:
- The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 1
- The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 2
- The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 3
- The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 4
This is an important topic, as you know, because the diversity of our library staff does not match the diversity of the communities they serve. Think of diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, languages, etc. How do we attract a broader range of people to work in our libraries? How do we make it a safe space for them?
I bet you have an opinion on this, so I hope you'll join the conversation!
Monday, August 24, 2020
Sara Benson: Reading Aloud and Fair Use
Sara Benson, who has the podcast Copyright Chat, recently did a 10-minute episode on reading books aloud and Fair Use. The episode is available where you get your podcasts and also on her library's website (along with a transcript). She also points to a guide written earlier this year by eight people entitled "Reading Aloud: Fair Use Enables Translating Classroom Practices to Online Learning."
As Benson states, since the start of our stay-at-home orders in March and the need for libraries and teachers to work remotely, people have had questions about reading books aloud online. We're used to do this in-person in the library or classroom, but what happens when we do this online? The good news is is that Fair Use still applies.
If you are relying on Fair Use, do you need permission or guidance from the publisher? No. While some publishers have provided such guidance, you don't need that. You need to look at, understand, and rely on Fair Use.
Are there instance where Fair Use does not apply? Some. The one that Benson notes is when read alouds are posted to YouTube and those videos have ads. Rather than posting your videos for everyone to see - and in a platform that you cannot control - I would hope that you would consider how to deliver your read alouds to the group that you normally do this with. Stay focused on your audience (which helps you keep your use fair).
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Wayback Wednesday: Upping Your Library Intelligence
Thinking |
Late in the spring, I had a short conversation with Rachel Clarke about MSLIS students and in which areas we thought they (the generic "they") needed to grow. A number of people are attracted to M.S. in Library and Information Science programs who do not have deep library experience. For them, their lack of library experience may inhibit these students from learning and applying new concepts quickly. Rachel and I realized that these students would be helped by engaging in activities that would allow them to increase ("up") their library intelligence. While we promised to continue the conversation later, I've decided to develop a series of blog posts as a way for me to explore the topic and - hopefully - create content which will help current and future MSLIS students, and LIS professionals.This is still an need for those considering entering the library profession. You will gain more from your education - the MSLIS degree - if you have some background knowledge. Even now, with the world seeming a bit precarious, you can build that background knowledge. If you decide to work in a library for a while, before obtaining your MSLIS degree, this knowledge will serve you well because you will not be starting from ground zero, which your boss will appreciate. Finally, if you are finishing your MSLIS degree and waiting to land your first position, now is a great time to continue learning. Besides what is below, consider thinking about the reopening of libraries and COVID-19. Again, your thoughts, questions, and knowledge will be appreciated by your future employer.
By the way, I know people are worried about job hunting in the wake of COVID-19. Yes, jobs are still available. Organizations are still hiring. You, though, may need to be a bit more flexible, including a willingness to move geographically. You may need to take a position for 1-2 years that is not your ideal, but will help you gain in experience. Remember that you are developing a career, which is more than just your first position.
The Series
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: An Area You Need To Focus On
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: Words Matter
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: Reading, Listening, and Watching
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: Expanding and Tapping into the LIS Network
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: Get Digital
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: Put in the Time
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: An Ongoing Need
- Upping Your Library Intelligence: Vacuum and Use
Monday, October 07, 2019
#ALISE19 : Copyright and LIS in a Global Context: Current Knowledge and Future Trends
Presenters
Laura Saunders, Allison Estell, Deborah Charbonneau and Dick KawooyaAbbreviated session description
Copyright impacts nearly every aspect of an information professional’s job, across all settings. The centrality of copyright to the information professions suggests that LIS professionals need a strong grounding in this topic, and indeed the American Library Association considers knowledge of copyright to be a core competency...Together [four panelists] will share the results of five separate studies to provide a broad overview of the need for copyright knowledge in the field, and discuss the current preparedness of LIS professionals and students. The first panelist will report the results of a study on self-perceived copyright awareness and training needs of academic librarians highlighting copyright, fair use, and intellectual property. The second panelist will discuss the results of a content analysis of job postings for librarians, to examine trends in expectations for copyright knowledge. Finally, two panelists will discuss a series of surveys that put copyright knowledge and literacy in a global context. The first survey gathered current practitioners’ self-reported knowledge of copyright issues in the United States. Data from this study was pooled with data from the same survey distributed across 13 countries for a cross-country analysis. The second survey tested American LIS students’ copyright knowledge and gathered their feedback on actual copyright instruction within their LIS programs. The survey of LIS students has been replicated in 14 countries and while data is still being analyzed, the researchers will share preliminary comparative data. After sharing the results of each of these above-mentioned studies, the panelists will discuss implications for LIS education.Notes
For me, these things stood out in the session:
- Members of our profession believe that copyright is an important topic for them to understand. People have taken advantage of a number of different ways in order to learn about copyright. Among those, who responded to a survey on this topic, most believed that they felt prepared in terms of copyright. However, the survey asked for their opinion and did not assess their actual knowledge.
- People (including students) turn to library staff when they have copyright questions. In other words, people count on librarians understanding copyright and being able to answer questions appropriately.
- More job ads are asking for copyright (or licensing) related knowledge. This seems to have exploded since 2013. It was noted that although copyright knowledge is desired, there is no widespread hiring of people with law (JD) degrees. Rather they expect librarians to have this knowledge.
- Members of our profession believe that copyright should be in the LIS curriculum. Because every MSLIS student needs copyright knowledge, the speakers felt that copyright should be woven into (and across) existing courses.
- Members of our profession also felt that there needs to continuous learning in this area. Once you learn about copyright, you need to refresh that knowledge, especially given that the courts do set new precedents regularly.
- What is intellectual property?
- What is covered by copyright (Title 17, Sections 102-105)
- The rights of the copyright owner (Sections 106-106A)
- Fair Use (Section 107)
- Reproduction by libraries and archives (Section 108)
- First sale doctrine (within Section 109)
- TEACH Act (within Section 110)
- Introduction to the profession
- Reference
- Information literacy
- Library instruction
- Collection development
- Information policy
- Materials for... (or classes such as Youth services)
There were other topics at ALISE, where the answer was "this needs to be infused in the curriculum." Doing all of those changes would be a huge coordinated effort, a task that would not be for the weary. An alternative would be to take some topics or subtopics and create a way for students to engage in self-education. A student should know that they cannot learn everything in their MSLIS program; to do so would require much more than 36-42 credits. Therefore, students should be motivated to learn outside of the structure of the curriculum. In regards to copyright, a program could develop a list of external resources (books, articles, webinars, ecourses, etc.), which the student could engage with in order to learn the topic. While the program would not assess the student's learning, the student should be ready and willing to discuss what they have learned during an employment interview. Some students may find other ways of demonstrating their knowledge (e.g., articles, blog posts, etc.), which could be seen by prospective employers. Of course, some learning options might have their own built-in assessments.
I left this session very happy, because of my love of teaching copyright. I hope that others have taken what they heard back to their programs and are thinking of what they might do with this knowledge. I know that I am!
Resources
These are articles I found online and were not mentioned during the session.- Allison Estell, Laura Saunders (2016) Librarian Copyright Literacy: Self-Reported Copyright Knowledge Among Information Professionals in the United States, Public Services Quarterly, 12:3, 214-227, DOI: 10.1080/15228959.2016.1184997
- Deborah H. Charbonneau, Michael Priehs (2014) Copyright Awareness, Partnerships, and Training Issues in Academic Libraries, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, v. 40, n. 3-4, 228-233, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.03.009
- LeEtta Schmidt, Michael English (2015) Copyright Instruction in LIS Programs: Report of a Survey of Standards in the U.S.A., The Journal of Academic Librarianship, v. 41, n. 6, 736-743, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.08.004
Addendum (Nov. 11): As an FYI, ALISE has reported this information about the conference:
A total of 282 people, including 76 first time attendees, traveled from eight countries - USA, Canada, China, Germany, Jamaica, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom - to participate.
Monday, September 30, 2019
#ALISE19 : Understanding information seeking behaviors within a community
Information and Under-represented Communities
In the juried paper, "Information and Under-represented communities: LatinXs Finding InformaXion in Boston" by Monica Colon-Aguirre and Janet Caja Alcal, we learned of the information seeking behaviors of those who speak Spanish in the LatinX community. A 2015 Pew Research study found that LatinXs are less likely than other groups to know about the services offered by their public libraries. LatinX communities are the largest minority group in the U.S. and have complex information needs. Colon-Aguirre noted that LatinX populations are not monolithic, which means that we need to be careful about any assumptions we might make about their information needs.
Through 13 interviews, Colon-Aguirre and Alcal found that educational attainment and English language acquisition impact the use of library collections and facilities, and whether that use is for the person or for their child. For example, someone with a higher levels of education would use the library for themself, while a person with lower levels of education would seek services for their children.
Colon-Aguirre recommends that LIS educators prepare future professionals with the knowledge and skills to foster cultural competence. She also said we need to encourage students to acquire proficiency in languages used in our communities, other than English. She noted that LatinX communities are less likely to learn English than other migrant groups, mainly due to ethnic enclaves in cities around the U.S. Of course, the optimal solution would be to hire librarians that represent and look like the people in their communities.
Colon-Aguirre also recommended that libraries:
- Employ community engagement strategies
- Develop more programming
- Build rapport with community members, especially those who are gatekeepers
- Create bilingual catalogues
Chatman Revisited
Elfreda A. Chatman (1942-2002) was "well known for her ethnographic approaches in researching information seeking behaviors among understudied or minority groups." (Wikipedia) Chatman studied information seeking behaviors, and then created theories about them.
Because I will not be able to fully articulate her work, I encourage you to locate information on Elfreda Chatman. Two articles, which I quickly found, are:
- Chatman, E. (1996) The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders.
- Burnett, G.; Jaeger, P.T.; Thompson, K.M. (2008) Normative Behavior and Information: The Social Aspects of Information Access.
Rather than seeing the abundance of information within a community, Chatman saw a deficit. Rather than seeing external forces that created the confined community and questioning those forces, Chatman focused on the community as is. Mehra looks at Chatman through fresh eyes and is willing to question her theories, recognizing that doing so is uncomfortable for some.
Epistemicide
Listening to Mehra and Gray reminded me of conversations with Beth Patin about community knowledge, especially in ethnic and indigenous communities and epistemicide (the destruction of traditional knowledge). That destruction begins with devaluing the knowledge held within a community. The community knowledge is held as being deficient, while knowledge from outside the community is held as being more valuable and important.
For example, using Chatman, the knowledge of an Amish community might be seen as deficit, because the community does not reach outside itself to enhance what it knows. Thinking of epistemicide, the external world seeks to destroy the traditional knowledge of the Amish people because it is not based on broader concepts and is not valued.
Did I Get it Right?
As I've written this, I have gone back through my notes and looked at relevant tweets. I'm thankful for those people who tweeted the sessions, because they captured ideas in real-time that were taking me longer to parse. However, now it is your turn. If you were at ALISE or are steeped in these areas, did I get it right? What should be added or corrected? Please leave comments and let me know.
Wednesday, August 07, 2019
The difference between a graduate student and a graduate scholar?
By the way, the auto-generated subtitles are accurate, but the subtitles in the video itself are not.
Are you committed to learning?
Last month, I wrote about a section in Seth Godin's book Stop Stealing Dreams: What is School Good For? The book is available online for free in full-text. That post is The Standardized Mass Contract. With the outdoors beckoning, I am slowly making my way through the rest of the book. As an instructor-teacher-professor, my mind keeps being drawn back to this section:
In less than three weeks, the fall semester classes will begin on many college campuses. Students will walk into classrooms expected to be educated. They will sit and expect that the information delivered will make them more employable after 2-4 years. There are many reasons why students head off to college. I wonder how many are fully committed to the educational process, which includes a high level of commitment inside and outside the classroom. I also wonder how many come expecting - and wanting - their thoughts and world-view to be challenged. If your thoughts aren't being challenged, are you learning anything new?27. The decision
We don’t ask students to decide to participate. We assume the contract of adhesion, and relentlessly put information in front of them, with homework to do and tests to take.
Entirely skipped: commitment. Do you want to learn this? Will you decide to become good at this?
The universal truth is beyond question — the only people who excel are those who have decided to do so. Great doctors or speakers or skiers or writers or musicians are great because somewhere along the way, they made the choice.
Why have we completely denied the importance of this choice?
In section 44, Godin writes:
Teaching is no longer about delivering facts that are unavailable in any other format.You may need to read that twice. In most classes, students are expected to learn how others have thought about that subject. They need to get their thinking in line with everyone else on that topic. However, what we need is to have students committed to learning what others think and then taking the next step and thinking radically about the topic themselves. They need to question the topic with questions grounded in what is known, with an eye towards what's next. Imagine a student who could ask what would happen if "X" occurred, and did so with the knowledge of A-W.
In the movie, Hidden Figures, one of the characters implores his team to "look beyond." To look beyond, a student needs to be committed to learning, questioning, exploring...and not to obtaining a specific grade. Going for the grade is easy. Looking beyond is where the opportunities are.
If you're heading to school, to a conference, or to a workshop, are you committed? Will you look beyond?
Monday, July 16, 2018
IMLS report on Positioning Library and Information Science Graduate Programs for 21st Century Practice
- Recruiting Students
- Educating Students
- Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining LIS Professionals
I expect all of the ALA accredited MSLIS programs will be reviewing this report. It will be interesting to see how this influences their future.
Friday, February 09, 2018
#ALISE2018 : Juried Papers (Friday)
- Archival Access, Systems, and Tools - MLIS students - Created a finding aid for the oral historian collection and tested the oral history metadata synchronizer (OHMS).
- First Experiences in Research - undergraduate students - Engaged in research projects using the oral histories.
- Social event
- Visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial to learn about oral history project
- Day-long workshop on OHMS and collection of undergraduate feedback on tool and documentation.
- She noted that there is literature in STEM on undergraduate and graduate students working together, and the benefits on the undergraduate students.
- STEM literature notes that graduate students gain experience in mentoring and leadership. It provides experience in supervising others.
- Students noted that having more meaningful, sustained and regular interaction between all of the students would have been a benefit.
- Finding a faculty collaborator is key for reaching undergraduate students
- Offices of Undergraduate Research can serve as a conduit to undergraduate students and provide infrastructure
Edited for types and reformatted: Feb. 11, 2018
#ALISE2018 : Digital Literacy in the Era of Fake News: Key Roles for LIS Educators
- Participants define their news landscape.
- Participants encounter examples for fake news.
- Participants find out why the library is the best place to get news.
- Engage participants to consult the library and to gain fact-checking skills.
- Is there an opportunity to collaborate with journalism faculty? There could be informal and formal collaborations. An example that has occurred was an unconference.
- Noted that there are other people besides journalists with whom we could collaborate.
- Journalists are reliant on libraries.
- Can we help end users understand how news stories are created? That would be helpful for our students.
- School librarians can have a role in helpful us tech how to teach.
- Digital natives are skilled with technology, but not necessarily with understanding the content.
- We are asking people to be skeptical, which requires more thought.
- Can we (academics) encourage with the public and uphold our profession?
- Is trust declining in libraries, which are civil institutions? We know that trust is declining in civic institutions, but there is limited data on libraries (outside of Pew data).
- Fake news is entertaining and is part marketing. Can we deliver information in a way that is more eye catching?
- Will our associations and institutions support us in the public sphere if we confront fake news, teach about fake news, etc.? Will our associations help us make positive social impact? Will our academic institutions support us, rather than limit our engagement? There is a social risk to this work.
- Can we get resources out into our community? For example, getting students and alumni to go to town halls, etc., to answer questions from participants with verifiable information. An example of this is Radical Reference, which began during the Republican convention under George W. Bush.
- Can we engage with peoples’ rational minds? Engagement requires respect and openness.
- There is a difference between access to information and impact of information.
- Can we (librarians) be one of the voices on TV as commentators, etc., talking about sources, etc.? Can we do that recognizing that the work would be fraught with emotional and social peril for the individual?
- Can we work with search engine and online social networks to help them filter out fake news?
- These issues exist outside of the U.S., although sometimes in different ways.
Thursday, February 08, 2018
#ALISE2018 : Information Literacy and Continuing Education
- Coursework becomes more collaborative
- Questions seem more welcomes as sites of inquiry and reflection
- Student output more
- One shot workshops or series
- Faculty expertise
- Pull from existing content
- Online courses
- Post graduate certificate
- Demand for interactive online learning - CE for faculty
- Workshops - faculty service or compensation
- Develop faculty expertise in identified topics or bring in others
- How do make sustained CE worth their time and money?
- How to competencies needed and format intersect?
- Interest in CE
- Challenges application to all higher Ed
- Need to explore options
- As a public university, need to be accountable to the community
- Lack of professional socialization for online students
- Lack of student diversity awareness
- Experiential learning
- Field experience
- Diversity focus
- Contact theory - contact between different groups increases acceptance
- Inclusive excellence
- Diversity levers - social justice, human dignity, equity in access to information, equity in information preservation. Where in the LIS curriculum does this occurs naturally?
- These are things that we can do, e.g., teaching with Slack
- Bring people of color into online discussions
- Have students lead in-Service training
- Good to see people trying new things
#ALISE2018 : Juried Papers (Thursday)
- Framework provides for structure
- Provides guiding ideology
- More conversational
- More hands on, peer to peer teaching
- Conversations or training with other librarians on site
- Ditto with faculty
- Using the frame to develop learning outcomes
- Implementing the frames over time
- Time
- Concepts are vague
- Scalability
- Librarian resistance to the Framework
- Requires lots of preparation
- Buy in from faculty
- Faculty still want skills-based instruction
- The Framework does require a change in thinking.
- Difficult to fit the Framework into the typical one shot session
- Harder to assess student assimilation of Framework ideas
- Librarian attitudes about the Framework vary.
- We should encourage our students to engage in critical reflection and debate about the frameworks strengths and weaknesses.
- We should move away from a strictly skills based approach.
- Need to help student develop assessments
- Navigating online systems and technologies
- Lack of confidence
- Need for advising and support services
- Lack of contact with faculty or a designated program coordinator
- Need for more detailed information about university expectations
- Access during university business hours
- Online office hours
- Blackboard site that hold info that students will need
- A lecturer as an overarching advisor from first contact through graduation
- Plan of study - most frequent
- Registration financial aid
- Technology
- Program advise
- Navigating the ODU website
- Conflicts with groups
- Other requirements
- Email my advisor
- Online office hours
- Classmates
- Email the instructor
- More frequent access to the program advisor
- Promote the resources more frequently
- Obtain more advanced notice of deadlines, etc.
- Standardize office hours across courses and faculty
- Working with the community
- Addressing societal needs
- Intentional integration of learning objectives
- Student preparation, ongoing reflection, and critical analysis
- Reciprocal benefits
- Ability to explore one’s civic identity
#ALISE2018 : A Critical Dialogue: Faculty of Color in Library and Information Science
- Backhanded compliments in student evaluations.
- Micro-aggressions.
- Comparisons that are racist.
- Harassing emails because of someone’s research focus
- Question: Are our associations and institutions ready to support faculty who are being harassed because of the faculty member’s diversity?
- Inappropriate questions from students and faculty.
- Colleagues who do not openly support a faculty member of color and do not confront people who aggressive towards faculty of color. Support needs to be open, loud, constant, continuous. We need our colleagues to not be cowards.
- When a faculty member of color’s story is not believed.
- Comments about appearance.
- Being challenged in class and on student evaluation because the faculty member’s intelligence is not acknowledged.
- Needing to conform to the decorum of the majority.
- Inappropriate assumptions based on a person’s last name.
- “It was that traumatic that I can’t forget it.”
- Realize that faculty of color are not being too sensitive.
- That it takes a lot of work to educate individuals one at a time so those people can provide the support and protection that is needed.
- It is everyone’s job on the faculty to understand the situations that are having a negative impact on faculty of color.
- The stress is real and it can cause illness.
- Retention is an issue.
- The initiatives that are bringing faculty of color into academia do not assure retention.
- Faculty of color tend to follow research agendas which may require more work due to the level of community engagement require. That may mean that the person may have fewer publications when going through tenure review.
- Faculty of color are expected to over perform in order to be seen as equal.
- “We are enough.”
- You cannot just hire one person from a diverse background. That person will be seen as a token and that person does not adequately represent the diversity in the community. Develop cohorts who can support each other.
- Be willing and able to listen to people of color who are speaking up and placing information in the public forum.
- Don’t just invite people of color for photos. Invite people of color to be a part of your research team (co-PI).
- If you are researching diverse populations, do that work with faculty from those diverse populations.
- LIS associations need to do more than talk about diversity. Can they do something to broaden the diversity of the associations?
- That faculty of color need communities of support inside and outside of academia.
- Know that some faculty will be unable to change so they are fully accepting of faculty of color.
- Faculty of color need to keep themselves safe, sane, and healthy. Respect that need.
- Support for faculty of color needs to begin when they are doctoral students.
#ALISE2018 : Innovative Pedagogies SIG
- Declining enrollment
- Outdated curriculum
- Changing market and workplace
- Technological changes
- Changing roles, tasks and functions of the traditional LIS profession
- Competing discipline (data science, data analytics, knowledge management, etc.)
- Expanding roles and responsibilities
- Collaboration across disciplines
- Collaboration across areas of expertise
- Emerging competing professions
- Growth necessitate change
- Digitization, curation, and sustainability of the digital world
- Innovative Pedagogies - teachers as facilitators
Anh Thu Nguyen - University of Toronto, hanhthu.nguyen@mail.utoronto.ca
- Advocacy
- Services
- Insider-outsider
- Professionalism
- Change
- Counter stereotypes through actions
- Interrogate and reflect on emerging professional identities
- Critical approaches to LIS
Lilia Pavlovsky, Rutgers University
- Job market analysis
- Stakeholder analyse
- Curriculum review
- Competitor analysis
- Internal assessment of student community
- Enrollment has gone up. 130% growth.
- Marketing became clearer.
- Diversity in student population.
- More professionals in the program.
- More international students.
- Curriculum became cleaner.
- LIS traditional still the anchor store and a vibrant community.
- Clarity of identity.
- Program improvement never ends.
- Change is the new normal.
- Innovation as practice.
- Complacency should be questioned!
- Review of markets ongoing.
- Assessment/evaluation.
Wednesday, February 07, 2018
#ALISE2018 : The Benefits and Challenges of Allied Programs and Specializations in LIS Units
Archival education
- Increased enrollment.
- Emphasis on evidence supports the school’s social justice concerns.
- Multiple points of intersection with other areas of the department, as well as other academic departments.
- Built tighter connections with external communities.
- Had to overcome stereotypes.
- Balancing faculty workload.
- Helping students to connect between their background and communities to their future careers. The classroom must be a safe space.
- Rethinking class lengths to allow for more depth during a class session. For example, having a class that meets in 8 hour blocks several times a semester.
Trends:
- Branding and repositioning
- Relocation and merger with other programs
- Expansion of programs and specializations
- Pedagogical shift - move to more on campus courses for international students ( mostly from India)
- Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary
- Move to focus on the broader information science
- Need for a different level of competencies
- Nice to learn vs need to learn
- Rich flexible curriculum
- What is the LIS profession? Who are our students?
- How can we brand our programs to demonstrate the versatility of our degrees?
- Given demographic trends, how can the many related associations be sustained?
- Should ALISE be the leader in developing alternatives to....?
- Assuring faculty to teach
- Low enrollment in classes
- Dual degrees must be approved by each department/school, then the campus, and the state. Specializations are approved by the Board of Trustees. He noted that most employers do not ask to see a student’s transcript.
Should ALISE be the leader in developing alternatives to....?
#ALISE2018 : Will “online” go the distance? The quality of teaching and evaluation in online LIS education
- Parity can be challenging in subjects which require developing empathy, perception, and non-verbal communication as learning outcomes
- Expectation of autonomous practice
- Group selection and client selection
- Initial group meeting
- Research
- Design and implementation
- Establish the rapport that communication is always open, using the tools available.
- One group discussed assessment and evaluation of group work and then deviated into talking about student feedback on their group mates. Talked about communicating with students. Keep in mind that in the work world, not everyone works at the same level and assessing your peers in normal.
- Failure is okay. Getting comfortable with teaching online, etc., takes time.
- How do we support the technology for online education? Where are the resources for supporting the instructors?
- Faculty are hired for research, yet are told that they need to keep up to date on teaching technology. Faculty may be required to troubleshoot the technology problems for their classes, because there is no IT support.
- Does the university value online the same as face to face?
- When you teach online, be explicit with the instructions you give students.
#ALISE2018 : Critical Thinking
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Webinar: Getting the Most Out of Your MSLIS Program
Webinar Description:
In our November [2017] webinar, join Professor of Practice Jill Hurst-Wahl for advice on how to make the most out of your time in an LIS program. This webinar is for both current and future LIS students at any university.
Congratulations, you are now in a Master’s of Library and Information Science program and working quickly towards becoming a professional librarian. The time you are spending in your MSLIS/MLIS/MLS program will go by quickly. What do you need to be doing to ensure that you get the most from it?
This webinar will give you actions to take to position yourself for success in your program and afterwards as an LIS professional. By the end of the webinar, you will have a series of tried and true steps on which to embark.