Readings: Week 2

This week's readings formed an interesting set that furthered the interests in information literacy and library instruction that were piqued during class last week. It's interesting to look at different implementations of library instruction and see the ways in which they work toward meeting goals.

This is maybe a little embarrassing to admit, but in my past experience with library instruction, I hadn't realized how much thought needed to go into these sort of instruction sessions. Though I suppose I acknowledged in the abstract that this sort of planning went into teaching in libraries, it wasn't something I'd ever given much thought to; librarians simply plan workshops that they run every now and then-- I don't really think of them primarily as educators. This is a pretty naive assumption for somebody in library school, I guess, but since primarily studying archives and not librarianship per se, it's not something that's come up often in my classes. But it's refreshing to know that this is an important conversation in the library literature.

I thought the ADDIE model laid out in the Veldof reading was very... interesting. When I first encountered it, it seemed like a rather obvious putting into words of the steps that should be taken in any instructional setting. However, as I read more and thought about it, I realized that often these sort of steps don't really go into planning instruction at many levels of formal education, and that education is the worse for it. I also realized that this process was designed to work especially well for the sort of instruction that librarians are likely to do, which is "one-shot" in nature and often focused on teaching specific tasks. (With the goal that knowledge gained from learning those tasks can be transferred to completing other tasks, of course.) I wonder how well this model can be implemented in a variety of settings, especially those in which the monetary and time constraints are as significant as those faced in many libraries. Though the article mentions doing a scaled-down or miniature version of the ADDIE process, I'd need to have some more specific examples of how to do this before I felt comfortable doing so.

My main reaction to the two case study readings (Yelinek et al. and Johnston) was basically that they were definitely just that-- case studies. In both cases, the implementation of the instruction they were designing was over such a small group and the feedback they received representative of an even smaller group that it seems hard to use them to draw any more general conclusions at all. Though both projects discussed seemed to have gone well, I was really looking for more information on the decision-making that went into the content of the instruction and how to present it intellectually, rather than the issues of usability and organization that were primarily discussed. I understand that with web-based instruction these are significant concerns. Content, though, is still what matters. Though the content seems to have been well-communicated in these cases, there really isn't enough information to tell without follow-up or further studies. Still, their conclusions lead to an interesting basis for discussion on the pros and cons of web-based versus in-person instruction.

And that's all for now. Hopefully I won't blog so close to the deadline next week!

Class in Review: Week 1

So I had sort of forgotten that we needed to blog about our class meetings as well, and thus I'm doing this almost two weeks after class! So my memory will probably be a little hazier today than on future class in review posts. Oh well.

I had a bit of trepidation after doing the first week's readings, because I was a little overwhelmed by all the focus on teaching an education and as a future archivist, I don't really think of instruction as something that's likely to play a big role in my career. However, I have to say that what we talked about in class assuaged these concerns pretty well. One thing is that though I think of myself as an archivist (to-be?), I really don't mind being thought of as a librarian, and though I'd like to do archival work, I'd be just fine with having a career that focused on working in library settings (such as in the archives division of an academic library). The other thing is that I was actually pretty interested in the things we talked about in class, and because the class seems to be so well-taught from what I can tell so far (not brown-nosing, Kristin, just being honest!), I think I'm going to have an enjoyable time even if I can't always directly see the connection to my career goals.

I'm actually writing this after spending the day at the UM ALA student chapter's Quasi-Con, where one of the sessions I participated in discussed information literacy, which is a concept that came up a lot in class. I have to say that though I've unfortunately never really studied information literacy, it's quite obvious to me after our discussions today and in class that it's an incredibly important topic. As various people in class discussed their own experiences dealing with individuals who needed help to make sense of information, I thought of all the times I've encountered this in my own experience and how much information literacy is a real need in today's world. I'm also beginning to think of ways that this is an issue that I'll deal with, even as an archivist, and it becomes apparent how much helping folks improve their information literacy when it comes to accessing information.

I have to say, I'm looking forward to thinking about these issues again in class and seeing what else is in store. Now on to the readings!

Readings: Week 1

Typically for me, I'm not getting around to posting til the very last minute! So, I'm a little short on time, but this first week's readings definitely triggered a lot of thoughts for me.

The main thing these chapters made me think was, "Wow, I'm really glad I decided not to be a teacher!" All this sort of research shows just how complicated teaching is. A lot of people seem to think that education is sort of an easy career path or not one that requires a lot of work. If those people become teachers (and some do!), they certainly don't make very good ones.

As I read, I was constantly making connections between what was being said and my own experiences as a learner over the past... 20 years or so, since I've pretty much been in school nonstop since then, if you count preschool. :) My thing is that I've always been the "smart kid"... at the top of the class, with a reputation as the guy who "knew everything." I've been a valedictorian twice and a salutatorian once. But I always say that I'm just good at memorizing things, which is demonstrably true in a lot of circumstances, as most people who know me well can attest. I've always said that really "being smart" involves a lot more than that, even if that's what it takes to get good grades a lot of the time. This reading explicates in pretty extensive detail the ways in which that's true.

A lot of things really clicked for me while reading this and made me think, "yeah, that really is true" when it comes to actually being able to think critically and do real intellectual "work." It made me realize how being "good at memorizing things" (i.e., having "a great deal of content knowledge" in the language of the reading) has helped me along a lot when it comes to developing these higher-level skills. The discussion of organizing information contextually and being able to retrieve it "fluently" because it's been "conditionalized" really struck a chord with me as being a really good verbalization of the skills necessary to be an "expert" in a field. I particularly appreciated that examples from the humanities and social sciences-- particularly history, which is my area-- were used in addition to those from the natural sciences. A lot of times people seem to think that there's nothing more to history than facts, no real conceptual basis at all. I'm pretty sure I've even heard history teachers with this viewpoint, which is distressing.

Overall, I thought this reading was fascinating. It prompted a lot of thoughts about the work it takes to actually put this research into action in a classroom, particularly when classrooms are full of students with widely varying skill levels and sometimes backgrounds, and teachers face nothing short of legions of societal, institutional, political, and personal pressures when it comes to do their jobs well. I'm hoping that the rest of the book provides something a little more concrete with regards to this, though I know there are no easy answers.

One thing I guess I'm still confused about is what this all has to do with libraries. I mean, I understand how it does for an instructional librarian or a school librarian or something, to some degree. And since I'm planning to be an archivist, unlike most of the people in this class, it makes things a little more complicated as well. This just isn't the first things I expected to read in a class focused on "professional practice." But I guess we shall see.

And here goes my first blog post ever. I keep telling people this is a class where I'm going to learn about "blogging and stuff"... so I suppose I'm jumping right in!