Today I will co-instruct my last workshop at the UM Library. It's hard to believe that just over a year ago today was my first Word for Dissertation session. I wrote about that experience on August 5, 2011 and here it is August 10, 2012; boy does time fly!
When I first started teaching, I was much less confident than I am now. Now, I'm ready to go in and show graduate students the best ways to format their dissertations, in a way that will make the process easier for them. I'm comfortable working with another co-instructor and watching her teach the workshop in a different way than I did. It's great to know that there is someone else stepping in who can help mentor the person who may become their co-instructor.
I'll take my instructing technology experiences, and try to use the skills I've learned in a transferable way. I'll know that staying excited and upbeat during sessions or presentations is critical; that making the participants feel comfortable asking questions and following along; that everyone learns and processes information differently. It will be valuable to have experience instructing on a variety of things from technology, to databases, to freshmen orientation. And, it is wonderful knowing that I can always re-connect with co-instructors for tips and feedback.
Instruction has been a very interesting and fun part of my appointment at the library. It's something I've truly enjoyed and hope to do more of in different ways in my next position. And it's something that I've been fortunate enough to have time to reflect upon with mentors and colleagues who are constructive and encouraging. So for now, here's the last library instruction post... thanks for following this piece of the blog!
Showing posts with label workshops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshops. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Instructional Transition
Back from a break... relaxed and ready for what's next... when I figure that out :)
As for now, since instruction is one of my few duties left at the library this summer, it's something I may write about more often than not.
As I'm sure I've said before, I've learned that instruction is a continual learning process and there is always something new to take away from the experience at any stage. And now I am in a different phase. Because I am transitioning out of my two-year term-limited position in August, there is a gap to fill in what I teach at the library. An incoming second-year School of Information student showed interest in teaching, so she will be helping to instruct some of the Word for Dissertation workshops that I taught over the past 12 or so months.
This puts me in a different position; having been in the same situation as she just over a year ago, I am now observing her and providing advice and encouragement before her first workshop next week. This experience reminds me about the importance of observation (as noted in previous posts) and the need for constant reflection.
I learned a lot from observing my new co-instructor's teaching style. Having never instructed the class, I was struck by her calmness, her straight-forwardness, and her no-frills approach to teaching dissertation formatting. Her style made me consider something new: formatting dissertations really is a no-frills thing. It is an important, yet not fun part of the dissertation process; why try to make it more than it is? Of course there is an argument for trying to make it fun too, but seeing this teaching style was a good reminder that there are indeed many approaches to instruction.
As for now, since instruction is one of my few duties left at the library this summer, it's something I may write about more often than not.
As I'm sure I've said before, I've learned that instruction is a continual learning process and there is always something new to take away from the experience at any stage. And now I am in a different phase. Because I am transitioning out of my two-year term-limited position in August, there is a gap to fill in what I teach at the library. An incoming second-year School of Information student showed interest in teaching, so she will be helping to instruct some of the Word for Dissertation workshops that I taught over the past 12 or so months.
This puts me in a different position; having been in the same situation as she just over a year ago, I am now observing her and providing advice and encouragement before her first workshop next week. This experience reminds me about the importance of observation (as noted in previous posts) and the need for constant reflection.
I learned a lot from observing my new co-instructor's teaching style. Having never instructed the class, I was struck by her calmness, her straight-forwardness, and her no-frills approach to teaching dissertation formatting. Her style made me consider something new: formatting dissertations really is a no-frills thing. It is an important, yet not fun part of the dissertation process; why try to make it more than it is? Of course there is an argument for trying to make it fun too, but seeing this teaching style was a good reminder that there are indeed many approaches to instruction.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Enriching Scholarship: A Transformative Week for Instruction and Reflection
Before I started writing this, I reviewed my post about last year's Enriching Scholarship session. Just a quick review, Enriching Scholarship is a, "week of free workshops, discussions, and seminars has become an annual
event each May for instructional faculty and staff, and showcases over
120 sessions that address the role technology plays in fostering
engaging and effective teaching, learning, and research"(http://www.teachtech.umich.edu).
Last year, I considered teaching The New Basics: Computing 101 to be my first official instructional experience. I wrote that after the session, we realized we needed to tweak the workshop because there was too much content for too little time. So in between last year and this year, my co-instructor and I taught a Web Basics class, which went pretty well. This year for Enriching Scholarship, however, we decided to not only teach The New Computer Basics: Understanding the Web but also The New Computer Basics: PC Desktop Computing. The Understanding the Web session had several participants, many of whom seemed to appreciate the information we provided about clearing your "cache" and downloading images. And the few participants in the PC Computing class appeared to enjoy learning about how right-clicking can make moving around the computer easier and more efficient.
In my post from May 2011, I wrote about practicing instruction prior to actually instructing. Many of my other posts over the last year have covered this as well. So now might be the proper time to reflect. To start, I'm more comfortable teaching - especially something I've already taught. Secondly, I've become better at being patient while instructing - I've learned the goal is not to get everything done (especially in computer basics workshops!) but to teach at a pace that is both effective and appropriate for the group's learning processes. Participant's learning is the goal!
A third "lesson learned" is that I still get nervous teaching something I've never taught before, but that I've learned how to combat this. Prior to the PC Basics workshop, I spent hours preparing and getting materials ready and arrived much too early the day-of to make sure the computers were loaded with the proper documents and that the handouts were printed and correct. But through this I also learned that that helped me to feel more comfortable with the instruction. Instead of stressing, I built that time into my work schedule and was feeling prepared to teach when the time came.
Most of all, instruction is a process. Having taught the Web Basics three times now, we're still finding things to change and pieces of the workshop to adapt, and that is OK. In fact, it makes instruction fun because I've realized that nothing is perfect and that we can always do better for our participants and ourselves. The process of instructing is part of the learning process for us all (I always learn something new while teaching) - and having the opportunity to do both at the same time is something for which I'm grateful.
Last year, I considered teaching The New Basics: Computing 101 to be my first official instructional experience. I wrote that after the session, we realized we needed to tweak the workshop because there was too much content for too little time. So in between last year and this year, my co-instructor and I taught a Web Basics class, which went pretty well. This year for Enriching Scholarship, however, we decided to not only teach The New Computer Basics: Understanding the Web but also The New Computer Basics: PC Desktop Computing. The Understanding the Web session had several participants, many of whom seemed to appreciate the information we provided about clearing your "cache" and downloading images. And the few participants in the PC Computing class appeared to enjoy learning about how right-clicking can make moving around the computer easier and more efficient.
In my post from May 2011, I wrote about practicing instruction prior to actually instructing. Many of my other posts over the last year have covered this as well. So now might be the proper time to reflect. To start, I'm more comfortable teaching - especially something I've already taught. Secondly, I've become better at being patient while instructing - I've learned the goal is not to get everything done (especially in computer basics workshops!) but to teach at a pace that is both effective and appropriate for the group's learning processes. Participant's learning is the goal!
A third "lesson learned" is that I still get nervous teaching something I've never taught before, but that I've learned how to combat this. Prior to the PC Basics workshop, I spent hours preparing and getting materials ready and arrived much too early the day-of to make sure the computers were loaded with the proper documents and that the handouts were printed and correct. But through this I also learned that that helped me to feel more comfortable with the instruction. Instead of stressing, I built that time into my work schedule and was feeling prepared to teach when the time came.
Most of all, instruction is a process. Having taught the Web Basics three times now, we're still finding things to change and pieces of the workshop to adapt, and that is OK. In fact, it makes instruction fun because I've realized that nothing is perfect and that we can always do better for our participants and ourselves. The process of instructing is part of the learning process for us all (I always learn something new while teaching) - and having the opportunity to do both at the same time is something for which I'm grateful.
Monday, January 23, 2012
A Student Unconference
Last Saturday I attended Quasi-Con, an "unconference" developed from the ground up by my classmates at the School of Information. It was so exciting to see my future colleagues in action - sharing information in an open, interesting way. (That's what libraries do, right?)
Quasi-Con began with small group brainstorming sessions to tease out topics which were both relevant and interesting to participants. The next part of the conference focused on sessions based off these brainstorming ideas. The conference developers really gave the conference participants a chance to discuss and dig into library-related issues about which they are passionate. What a great way to engage everyone!
In the afternoon, Quasi-Con featured presentations from speakers who'd signed up in advance. Some presentations were 15-minute talks about disaster planning or the Occupy Wall Street library, others were panels on thinking about how your prior jobs (like being a trail guide) could apply to being a librarian.
The entire conference was creative, innovative, informative, and inclusive. It was extremely fantastic to see my classmates produce such an awesome event. Check out the http://quasicon2012.wordpress.com/ website for more information!
Quasi-Con began with small group brainstorming sessions to tease out topics which were both relevant and interesting to participants. The next part of the conference focused on sessions based off these brainstorming ideas. The conference developers really gave the conference participants a chance to discuss and dig into library-related issues about which they are passionate. What a great way to engage everyone!
In the afternoon, Quasi-Con featured presentations from speakers who'd signed up in advance. Some presentations were 15-minute talks about disaster planning or the Occupy Wall Street library, others were panels on thinking about how your prior jobs (like being a trail guide) could apply to being a librarian.
The entire conference was creative, innovative, informative, and inclusive. It was extremely fantastic to see my classmates produce such an awesome event. Check out the http://quasicon2012.wordpress.com/ website for more information!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
e-book chapter, and 2011 wrap-up
It's been an exciting week. Today I am "done" with work until the new year, and it's looking like an exciting 2012.
Here's a quick rundown of the past 10 or so days:
1) Went to the Detroit Center last Wednesday to "float" during a grants workshop hosted by the UM Library and the Nonprofit Enterprise for Work for local non-profit organizations. It was exciting to see how library and database resources can be used for organizations who are doing such important work. My days at the Mott Foundation came back to me as we moved fluidly through the Foundation Center's website looking at funder's and grants that applied to the non-profits missions. It was a really cool experience to be there and see yet another facet of what the Library does.
2) Almost have finished "dscribing" part my Community Information Seminar from last semester. Dscribing means taking the lecture slides from the course and ensuring that all of the content and images are "open" for use by others. We collect lecture slides from our guest speakers, they decide the level of licensing they want (Creative Commons) and we publish it. When we're finished, you can view the course here (http://open.umich.edu/education/si). Topics included information technology development, the Open.Michigan movement, social media use in Egypt, local informatics, and more!
3) I'm published! As part of my SI 641: Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning class, we had to observe 20 hours of instruction, teach two face-to-face lessons, and create a project related to information literacy. Then, we were asked by our Professor, Kristin Fontichiaro, to write a chapter for a book about one or more of our experiences. The book, Information Literacy in the Wild, was edited by Kristin and includes a forward by School of Information Dean Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. You can download it free via Smashwords or in .pdf format. Please feel free to share widely!
4) Finally, I'm going to take a break next week and start blogging again after the new year. Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season and best wishes into 2012!
Here's a quick rundown of the past 10 or so days:
1) Went to the Detroit Center last Wednesday to "float" during a grants workshop hosted by the UM Library and the Nonprofit Enterprise for Work for local non-profit organizations. It was exciting to see how library and database resources can be used for organizations who are doing such important work. My days at the Mott Foundation came back to me as we moved fluidly through the Foundation Center's website looking at funder's and grants that applied to the non-profits missions. It was a really cool experience to be there and see yet another facet of what the Library does.
2) Almost have finished "dscribing" part my Community Information Seminar from last semester. Dscribing means taking the lecture slides from the course and ensuring that all of the content and images are "open" for use by others. We collect lecture slides from our guest speakers, they decide the level of licensing they want (Creative Commons) and we publish it. When we're finished, you can view the course here (http://open.umich.edu/education/si). Topics included information technology development, the Open.Michigan movement, social media use in Egypt, local informatics, and more!
3) I'm published! As part of my SI 641: Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning class, we had to observe 20 hours of instruction, teach two face-to-face lessons, and create a project related to information literacy. Then, we were asked by our Professor, Kristin Fontichiaro, to write a chapter for a book about one or more of our experiences. The book, Information Literacy in the Wild, was edited by Kristin and includes a forward by School of Information Dean Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. You can download it free via Smashwords or in .pdf format. Please feel free to share widely!
4) Finally, I'm going to take a break next week and start blogging again after the new year. Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season and best wishes into 2012!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
And, We're Back! Realizing and Balancing Capacity
It's been a while... for the last time... I promise. Last I wrote, it was August, right before the madness that is grad school/work. Now, school has started and work is in full swing. A colleague in my same position tonight asked, "how many hours are you working this week?" and my number equaled his and we both said, "too much." It's not that I mind working a lot, because really, the past month has been amazing. It's more about taking the time to have time for a bit of reflection and knowing my capacity to do things well as opposed to just doing them.
Between last Tuesday and next Tuesday (7 days), I'll have taught 5 workshops. Whew. Might not sound like a lot (and I know people teach that much all the time) but what I didn't consider prior to committing to instruct was the prep time. Now I've taught before, and prepped before, but usually one workshop a month. Not two a day :) So, the reflection part of this - AND - the prep part of this all tie nicely into my thinking about capacity. I know that in order to be a good instructor, prep time is key. And, that reflection time is key. And both of those take time. Luckily, instructing is my job, and my job relates directly to one of my classes (Information Literacy) where part of my requirements are to observe and, ahem, instruct. So this is actually all great experience. But looking back on September (wait, what? September is over?), I realized that most of what I'd done was prep and teach. Which is good, but I didn't get much else done (homework, wait, what?).
So, back to capacity - what is the balance between doing a lot and doing well?
I felt over capacity at work last month. But then I started reflecting; during the last month, I think I became a better instructor. It felt at the time like I was doing too much, but in reality, I think I was doing the right things too much. It felt like I was just flying at an unreasonable pace, but that fast pace actually allowed me to not over think or get nervous, but rather just to do my job. Prep, instruct, prep, instruct. Reflect, prep, instruct. And then, all of a sudden, I'm comfortable instructing. Not that it didn't take hard work, it was just hard to see how that hard work payed off until the reflection came.
So, back to capacity - in the end, I've realized that doing the right things a lot can be very valuable, but that reflecting on that experience is just as important. My prior knowledge of instruction, paired with my whirlwind month of September did help me realize that teaching 5 classes in 7 days is not sustainable, but that now I can feel more comfortable teaching in general and helped me realize that I need to reflect to evaluate, learn, and move forward to continue gaining new skills.
Between last Tuesday and next Tuesday (7 days), I'll have taught 5 workshops. Whew. Might not sound like a lot (and I know people teach that much all the time) but what I didn't consider prior to committing to instruct was the prep time. Now I've taught before, and prepped before, but usually one workshop a month. Not two a day :) So, the reflection part of this - AND - the prep part of this all tie nicely into my thinking about capacity. I know that in order to be a good instructor, prep time is key. And, that reflection time is key. And both of those take time. Luckily, instructing is my job, and my job relates directly to one of my classes (Information Literacy) where part of my requirements are to observe and, ahem, instruct. So this is actually all great experience. But looking back on September (wait, what? September is over?), I realized that most of what I'd done was prep and teach. Which is good, but I didn't get much else done (homework, wait, what?).
So, back to capacity - what is the balance between doing a lot and doing well?
I felt over capacity at work last month. But then I started reflecting; during the last month, I think I became a better instructor. It felt at the time like I was doing too much, but in reality, I think I was doing the right things too much. It felt like I was just flying at an unreasonable pace, but that fast pace actually allowed me to not over think or get nervous, but rather just to do my job. Prep, instruct, prep, instruct. Reflect, prep, instruct. And then, all of a sudden, I'm comfortable instructing. Not that it didn't take hard work, it was just hard to see how that hard work payed off until the reflection came.
So, back to capacity - in the end, I've realized that doing the right things a lot can be very valuable, but that reflecting on that experience is just as important. My prior knowledge of instruction, paired with my whirlwind month of September did help me realize that teaching 5 classes in 7 days is not sustainable, but that now I can feel more comfortable teaching in general and helped me realize that I need to reflect to evaluate, learn, and move forward to continue gaining new skills.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Instructional Reflections and Feedback
Last week I wrote about participating in lots of instruction over the coming week. Well, that was this week, and this week is nearly over!
On Monday, I participated in orientation workshops for incoming freshman (I did this Thursday as well), and also completed a Word for Dissertation workshop. On both occasions, I had the chance to collaborate with colleagues, which was a great experience. Co-teaching has allowed me to feel more comfortable with instruction and has also provided me with the confidence that I could probably have done both on my own if I absolutely needed to. Working with my colleagues was great, though. It was wonderful to have someone there who could help answer questions or jump in if I forgot something, however it was also simply nice to work with people whom I respect and admire.
The orientation sessions were a nice "warm up" for my later Dissertation workshop. Talk about different audiences! I went from working with 18-year-old-incoming freshman to mainly doctoral students of all ages. The freshman were tired - it was early morning and they were there because they had to be. The doctoral students were fully interested and engaged as this was something they chose to attend on their own and something they knew would be helpful throughout their long dissertation process.
The freshman orientation provided little to no feedback, other than what we could see. Some students asked great questions while others struggled to keep their eyes open. Most participated in our polls via iClicker but other than that, it was impossible to tell how effective of an instructor I was. I did receive some feedback from my co-instructors, which was helpful because they could do this presentation in their sleep and have a good deal of instructional experience.
The Word for Dissertation workshop, on the other hand, provided more and different feedback. I not only received tips from one of the facility's main instructors, but also from 7 out of the 9 workshop participants. The feedback from my instructor was very helpful - she talked about not saying things were simple or easy (because they may not be for everyone!) and also about leading into topics with analogies and in simpler terms. Extremely useful information that I can carry across my instructional experiences.
We also received feedback from the participants via an anonymous evaluation system. The numbers that we received were good - no negative feedback, a few neutrals, and mostly good. The comments, however, were one of my first lessons of criticism in the way that I could not ask for further information or could not really use the information to be constructive. I received a comment that said it looked like I was nervous and made a lot of mistakes by having to go back and repeat myself. I read this comment, and of course, felt a little bad. The same commenter had said my colleague had a nice presence about him, so he clearly did not see that same confidence in me. I did, to be completely fair, mess up right at the beginning of my transition... which probably through this person off. But it was hard to read the comment and not be able to follow up, ask what I might do better, or simply realize that the beginning of my half of the workshop was confusing for people and that I need to practice more for next time. Which I will, regardless :)
The point of this post is just a reflection on my instruction this past week. It also is a beginning thought on how we could make our assessment of the workshops better in a way that might provide more constructive feedback. I'm pretty sure that there will nearly always be "that person" or people who don't respond at all, but as I am more confident in teaching certain workshops, I would like to evaluate the assessment that goes along with them. The one-shot workshop model might be something I re-visit when this time comes.
On Monday, I participated in orientation workshops for incoming freshman (I did this Thursday as well), and also completed a Word for Dissertation workshop. On both occasions, I had the chance to collaborate with colleagues, which was a great experience. Co-teaching has allowed me to feel more comfortable with instruction and has also provided me with the confidence that I could probably have done both on my own if I absolutely needed to. Working with my colleagues was great, though. It was wonderful to have someone there who could help answer questions or jump in if I forgot something, however it was also simply nice to work with people whom I respect and admire.
The orientation sessions were a nice "warm up" for my later Dissertation workshop. Talk about different audiences! I went from working with 18-year-old-incoming freshman to mainly doctoral students of all ages. The freshman were tired - it was early morning and they were there because they had to be. The doctoral students were fully interested and engaged as this was something they chose to attend on their own and something they knew would be helpful throughout their long dissertation process.
The freshman orientation provided little to no feedback, other than what we could see. Some students asked great questions while others struggled to keep their eyes open. Most participated in our polls via iClicker but other than that, it was impossible to tell how effective of an instructor I was. I did receive some feedback from my co-instructors, which was helpful because they could do this presentation in their sleep and have a good deal of instructional experience.
The Word for Dissertation workshop, on the other hand, provided more and different feedback. I not only received tips from one of the facility's main instructors, but also from 7 out of the 9 workshop participants. The feedback from my instructor was very helpful - she talked about not saying things were simple or easy (because they may not be for everyone!) and also about leading into topics with analogies and in simpler terms. Extremely useful information that I can carry across my instructional experiences.
We also received feedback from the participants via an anonymous evaluation system. The numbers that we received were good - no negative feedback, a few neutrals, and mostly good. The comments, however, were one of my first lessons of criticism in the way that I could not ask for further information or could not really use the information to be constructive. I received a comment that said it looked like I was nervous and made a lot of mistakes by having to go back and repeat myself. I read this comment, and of course, felt a little bad. The same commenter had said my colleague had a nice presence about him, so he clearly did not see that same confidence in me. I did, to be completely fair, mess up right at the beginning of my transition... which probably through this person off. But it was hard to read the comment and not be able to follow up, ask what I might do better, or simply realize that the beginning of my half of the workshop was confusing for people and that I need to practice more for next time. Which I will, regardless :)
The point of this post is just a reflection on my instruction this past week. It also is a beginning thought on how we could make our assessment of the workshops better in a way that might provide more constructive feedback. I'm pretty sure that there will nearly always be "that person" or people who don't respond at all, but as I am more confident in teaching certain workshops, I would like to evaluate the assessment that goes along with them. The one-shot workshop model might be something I re-visit when this time comes.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Instruction, Instruction, Instruction (and..... we're back!)
I did the bad blogging thing, I dropped off for several weeks and am now diving back in with the hopes that my few gentle readers will forgive me and again read my posts.
Interestingly enough, my last post talked about how I was thinking about starting my next instruction project with a colleague and between then and now, we not only taught one workshop but are gearing up for our second on Monday!
The first workshop we taught was on RefWorks, a bibliographic management tool. We ended up following through on simultaneously editing a Google doc, each creating our own specific outline, and then practicing once before the workshop together. Of course we each prepared on our own, but knowing that we worked well together, the one practice together was enough. And the workshop went well! It was a program we were both fairly familiar with so we were able to get smoothly through the tech parts and trade off well. Another great part of practicing, at least, was working with my colleagues. We were able to provide ample and productive feed back to one another both during the practice session and after the workshop which was helpful. It was also helpful that we are both very able to take constructive criticism so that we could help each other improve.
Monday is our next teaching session, this time on instructing Microsoft Word for Dissertation. This program is quite a bit more complicated and there are always things that can go wrong with not a lot of explanation. Because the first session went so well, we decided to use the same planning method as last time. EXCEPT, we practiced more. We have had different levels of feedback during each session - all of which have been very helpful in thinking about our session on Monday. It's been very useful to have the different levels of feedback; by levels I mean our levels of preparation paired with different levels of novice/experts.
During our first practice session, an expert in instruction and Word for Diss helped us through and showed us how she generally teaches the workshop (effectively). It was so useful to have this during our first run through because we inevitably forgot content or needed refreshers on the "why" we do this or that. During our final practice session, we had observers who were less knowledgeable about the program (though still experts compared to the workshop constituents) and who were not experienced in instruction. Their feedback on the content specifically was very helpful.
This planning workshops thing is getting easier, but no matter how experienced I get, I'll always remember the planning process, and even more importantly as I move forward, the evaluations.
Getting evaluations from the first workshop (which only had a few people) was very exciting because no matter how we thought we did, if our participants didn't learn something, our workshop was less successful. In the future, after I have more of the workshop content and know-how down, I think it would be interesting to re-look at the evaluations and see if there are questions I'd like to incorporate or take out. All comes in time, but this instruction thing is pretty interesting.
Oh, and happy summer!
Interestingly enough, my last post talked about how I was thinking about starting my next instruction project with a colleague and between then and now, we not only taught one workshop but are gearing up for our second on Monday!
The first workshop we taught was on RefWorks, a bibliographic management tool. We ended up following through on simultaneously editing a Google doc, each creating our own specific outline, and then practicing once before the workshop together. Of course we each prepared on our own, but knowing that we worked well together, the one practice together was enough. And the workshop went well! It was a program we were both fairly familiar with so we were able to get smoothly through the tech parts and trade off well. Another great part of practicing, at least, was working with my colleagues. We were able to provide ample and productive feed back to one another both during the practice session and after the workshop which was helpful. It was also helpful that we are both very able to take constructive criticism so that we could help each other improve.
Monday is our next teaching session, this time on instructing Microsoft Word for Dissertation. This program is quite a bit more complicated and there are always things that can go wrong with not a lot of explanation. Because the first session went so well, we decided to use the same planning method as last time. EXCEPT, we practiced more. We have had different levels of feedback during each session - all of which have been very helpful in thinking about our session on Monday. It's been very useful to have the different levels of feedback; by levels I mean our levels of preparation paired with different levels of novice/experts.
During our first practice session, an expert in instruction and Word for Diss helped us through and showed us how she generally teaches the workshop (effectively). It was so useful to have this during our first run through because we inevitably forgot content or needed refreshers on the "why" we do this or that. During our final practice session, we had observers who were less knowledgeable about the program (though still experts compared to the workshop constituents) and who were not experienced in instruction. Their feedback on the content specifically was very helpful.
This planning workshops thing is getting easier, but no matter how experienced I get, I'll always remember the planning process, and even more importantly as I move forward, the evaluations.
Getting evaluations from the first workshop (which only had a few people) was very exciting because no matter how we thought we did, if our participants didn't learn something, our workshop was less successful. In the future, after I have more of the workshop content and know-how down, I think it would be interesting to re-look at the evaluations and see if there are questions I'd like to incorporate or take out. All comes in time, but this instruction thing is pretty interesting.
Oh, and happy summer!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Working Together
So, I finally have a workshop scheduled to teach! All on my own! Well, wait... not all on my own. In fact, I'm team teaching... with a colleague... who is teaching his first workshop too...
We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this. I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop. My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done. I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more. Now, where to start with that?
In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion. Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like? So that's what we decided to do. Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch. However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this. I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop. My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done. I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more. Now, where to start with that?
In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion. Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like? So that's what we decided to do. Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch. However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
Friday, May 6, 2011
My First (Official) Instructional Experience and Enriching Scholarship
This week at the University of Michigan, Enriching Scholarship consumed my time. Enriching Scholarship is an annual week-long technology event (FREE to anyone with a uniqname) around the University presented by many departments including Literature, Science, and Arts, the Duderstadt Center, Communications, the Library, and many more. For a little history on the people who produce Enriching Scholarship, taken directly from the Enriching Scholarship home page:
Additionally, I had the opportunity to co-teach one of these sessions: The New Basics: Computing 101. What a valuable and great experience! Our session was attended by very receptive folks who gave us great feedback about what they wanted to know and about what they learned in the session.
While it seems our participants had a valuable experience, I learned a lot too. Not so much about Computing 101 (though I did learn some tricks and tips too :) but about presentation style, preparedness, and adaptation during workshops. As this was the first iteration of this workshop, we planned too much (or differently) than the participants wanted or needed. The first part of the workshop - browsers, bookmarks, tabs, etc., took much longer than expected but it was mostly because people were asking so many (great!) questions. So, timing of the workshop will need to adjust - either into a Comp 101 and Comp 102 or adding another half hour, or... so many possibilities!
Secondly, I could have been more prepared. Part of me is always hesitant to actually practice presentations (which I did, but not enough). I need to get over that and just practice, practice, practice! Which actually leads to my third point - adaptation. I had practiced, but only to the point where I could pretty much repeat information - and this did not serve me well when we had to adapt. I got frazzled and tried to do way too much in the last 15-20 minutes, which I think was confusing for the participants after the first 1 1/4 hours was at the perfect pace. But, the participants stayed after and asked questions so I think people were truly interested in the topic and glad to be there.
I am excited to reflect on and revamp this workshop with the feedback and observations that were made on Tuesday. Plus, I got the first instructional experience out of the way and am more confident moving forward knowing what I can do better next time :)
The TTC is a group currently comprised of staff from these units across campus. An annual initiative of the TTC is Enriching Scholarship, a conference offered for instructional faculty every May, showcasing over 100 workshops and sessions that address the use of technology in teaching and research.Anyway, Enriching Scholarship is pretty great. It brings together people who know technology, who want to know technology, and who want to share information about technology. I attended four sessions - one each day - and learned about Productivity Tips, Tools and Tricks, Embracing Facebook in Your Teaching, Using Everyday Technologies for Teaching, and Find, Use, Remix and Create Open Learning Materials. Each of these sessions brought something new to my work and gave me ideas to move forward as I think about instruction and my professional practice.
Additionally, I had the opportunity to co-teach one of these sessions: The New Basics: Computing 101. What a valuable and great experience! Our session was attended by very receptive folks who gave us great feedback about what they wanted to know and about what they learned in the session.
While it seems our participants had a valuable experience, I learned a lot too. Not so much about Computing 101 (though I did learn some tricks and tips too :) but about presentation style, preparedness, and adaptation during workshops. As this was the first iteration of this workshop, we planned too much (or differently) than the participants wanted or needed. The first part of the workshop - browsers, bookmarks, tabs, etc., took much longer than expected but it was mostly because people were asking so many (great!) questions. So, timing of the workshop will need to adjust - either into a Comp 101 and Comp 102 or adding another half hour, or... so many possibilities!
Secondly, I could have been more prepared. Part of me is always hesitant to actually practice presentations (which I did, but not enough). I need to get over that and just practice, practice, practice! Which actually leads to my third point - adaptation. I had practiced, but only to the point where I could pretty much repeat information - and this did not serve me well when we had to adapt. I got frazzled and tried to do way too much in the last 15-20 minutes, which I think was confusing for the participants after the first 1 1/4 hours was at the perfect pace. But, the participants stayed after and asked questions so I think people were truly interested in the topic and glad to be there.
I am excited to reflect on and revamp this workshop with the feedback and observations that were made on Tuesday. Plus, I got the first instructional experience out of the way and am more confident moving forward knowing what I can do better next time :)
Sunday, March 13, 2011
ALA Ethics, Mosley, and HarperCollins
ALA Code of Ethics
I've been thinking a lot about ethics this term, mostly because I'm taking a course on Ethics and Applied Policy. I think this is actually the third class this semester for which I've been asked to read and review the ALA Code of Ethics - which is pretty cool in my book. It shows that SI and the field of library science are very aware that ethics are important to being a professional librarian. Overall, I find I agree with most all of the ethical statements, and believe they are necessary to upholding the rights of both librarians and users. The statements of providing: a high-level of service; intellectual freedom; library users rights to privacy; co-workers and colleagues the appropriate level of respect and fairness; public interest not private interest, service that keeps personal convictions and professional duties separate; and professional development (participation in as well), all seem vitally important to our profession. I've seen some of these in action, for example, in the February 2011 edition of the Ann Arbor Observer, there is a short piece in the UpFront section talking about fines and user's privacy rights. In another case, a librarian at the UM wanted to pull what they thought was a vulgar material from the collection and found ways to disallow it from circulating (keeping personal convictions and professional duties separate). In my relatively short library career, I've seen these ethical statements be needed to provide guidance on issues that are not always straightforward. Which is basically what "ethics" is :)
Mosley: Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty
This article was particularly interesting to me because of my current and former jobs. In my former job, I worked for the Director of some of the UM libraries and she was very focused on engaging faculty in the library. This article shows one way to do it well. Secondly, an issue that has arose several times in my current job is librarians working with faculty on assignments and providing direct support to the professors via ctools and in-person meetings. Ctools now has a feature where the librarian can upload resources and access the particular relevant assignment. Finally, I've actually been at the reference desk when these students come up with their library-integrated assignment. It's interesting to read this article, then, because it appears Texas A&M has thought through their model and that it works. Faculty often know the library for their own purposes but don't necessarily know how their students use the library. Through a workshop like the one described, faculty can have an orientation about the library AND better understand their students. Further, through librarian outreach, librarians can become integrated in curriculum (as was discussed a few weeks earlier in a different fashion), and can become a larger part of the campus.
HarperCollins: Three Perspectives
Whew! What an issue. And these tough issues will continue to come - quickly - as the digital world changes libraries forever. I chose to read three of the more generic pieces from this list since I (admittedly) did not read much about HarperCollins up to this point
Official HarperCollins statement: HC's official statement on Library Love Fest blog 3/1/2011, An Open Letter to Librarians
-Clearly HarperCollins knows they are in a jam - they wrote this letter on the defense, seeing that libraries won't be happy with their new policy. While they discuss their reasoning, they do not provide hard statistics or numbers showing where they got their 26 uselife of books. While they do say that they've talked to librarians, they don't specify who, what, where or the topic of the discussions. It's clearly problematic; the backlash justifies my statement.
Professional Organizations Respond: ALA Washington Office, 3/8/11, American Library Association tackles new challenges in the e-environment
-ALA's response was entirely professional. They've identified a solid, practical way to deal with this and how to keep their members informed. I'm not an ALA expert, so I don't know the way they usually deal with issues such as this, but it was refreshing and uplifting to see their response. They know that they need to take immediate action - and they have - and they know that it is their responsibility as a professional organization to inform their members and work for them. Kudos.
Press: Library Journal, 3/7/11, Library Consortia Begin To Vote Against HarperCollins Ebook Checkout Policy
This piece was helpful to read because it not only gave an overview of the issue, but also relayed what some libraries are doing in response. The statements by folks in the article show the way real people and organizations are dealing with this decision by HarperCollins. That libraries have revoked their licensing to HarperCollins sends a very strong statement that they completely disagree with the fact that books expire after 26 uses and that they will not stand for a company supposedly committed to resource sharing to do such a thing. The article is a bit biased, but it also raises issues of concern for the future.
My Thoughts
This whole thing is quite a mess - libraries already in funding trouble now are being challenged with providing users with what they think should be a given resource - one that is part of their future as a library. How are libraries supposed to move into the digital age if more and more constraints are put upon them? How are they supposed to survive (in the way they need to) if companies continue to restrict them? This seems to be a game between public and private, with private holding the cards trying to make money off the public which has very little right now. The companies need to survive too, but not at the cost of libraries.
I've been thinking a lot about ethics this term, mostly because I'm taking a course on Ethics and Applied Policy. I think this is actually the third class this semester for which I've been asked to read and review the ALA Code of Ethics - which is pretty cool in my book. It shows that SI and the field of library science are very aware that ethics are important to being a professional librarian. Overall, I find I agree with most all of the ethical statements, and believe they are necessary to upholding the rights of both librarians and users. The statements of providing: a high-level of service; intellectual freedom; library users rights to privacy; co-workers and colleagues the appropriate level of respect and fairness; public interest not private interest, service that keeps personal convictions and professional duties separate; and professional development (participation in as well), all seem vitally important to our profession. I've seen some of these in action, for example, in the February 2011 edition of the Ann Arbor Observer, there is a short piece in the UpFront section talking about fines and user's privacy rights. In another case, a librarian at the UM wanted to pull what they thought was a vulgar material from the collection and found ways to disallow it from circulating (keeping personal convictions and professional duties separate). In my relatively short library career, I've seen these ethical statements be needed to provide guidance on issues that are not always straightforward. Which is basically what "ethics" is :)
Mosley: Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty
This article was particularly interesting to me because of my current and former jobs. In my former job, I worked for the Director of some of the UM libraries and she was very focused on engaging faculty in the library. This article shows one way to do it well. Secondly, an issue that has arose several times in my current job is librarians working with faculty on assignments and providing direct support to the professors via ctools and in-person meetings. Ctools now has a feature where the librarian can upload resources and access the particular relevant assignment. Finally, I've actually been at the reference desk when these students come up with their library-integrated assignment. It's interesting to read this article, then, because it appears Texas A&M has thought through their model and that it works. Faculty often know the library for their own purposes but don't necessarily know how their students use the library. Through a workshop like the one described, faculty can have an orientation about the library AND better understand their students. Further, through librarian outreach, librarians can become integrated in curriculum (as was discussed a few weeks earlier in a different fashion), and can become a larger part of the campus.
HarperCollins: Three Perspectives
Whew! What an issue. And these tough issues will continue to come - quickly - as the digital world changes libraries forever. I chose to read three of the more generic pieces from this list since I (admittedly) did not read much about HarperCollins up to this point
Official HarperCollins statement: HC's official statement on Library Love Fest blog 3/1/2011, An Open Letter to Librarians
-Clearly HarperCollins knows they are in a jam - they wrote this letter on the defense, seeing that libraries won't be happy with their new policy. While they discuss their reasoning, they do not provide hard statistics or numbers showing where they got their 26 uselife of books. While they do say that they've talked to librarians, they don't specify who, what, where or the topic of the discussions. It's clearly problematic; the backlash justifies my statement.
Professional Organizations Respond: ALA Washington Office, 3/8/11, American Library Association tackles new challenges in the e-environment
-ALA's response was entirely professional. They've identified a solid, practical way to deal with this and how to keep their members informed. I'm not an ALA expert, so I don't know the way they usually deal with issues such as this, but it was refreshing and uplifting to see their response. They know that they need to take immediate action - and they have - and they know that it is their responsibility as a professional organization to inform their members and work for them. Kudos.
Press: Library Journal, 3/7/11, Library Consortia Begin To Vote Against HarperCollins Ebook Checkout Policy
This piece was helpful to read because it not only gave an overview of the issue, but also relayed what some libraries are doing in response. The statements by folks in the article show the way real people and organizations are dealing with this decision by HarperCollins. That libraries have revoked their licensing to HarperCollins sends a very strong statement that they completely disagree with the fact that books expire after 26 uses and that they will not stand for a company supposedly committed to resource sharing to do such a thing. The article is a bit biased, but it also raises issues of concern for the future.
My Thoughts
This whole thing is quite a mess - libraries already in funding trouble now are being challenged with providing users with what they think should be a given resource - one that is part of their future as a library. How are libraries supposed to move into the digital age if more and more constraints are put upon them? How are they supposed to survive (in the way they need to) if companies continue to restrict them? This seems to be a game between public and private, with private holding the cards trying to make money off the public which has very little right now. The companies need to survive too, but not at the cost of libraries.
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