Time: 10am-11am; 11am-12pm(2)
Hours completed (IST): 11.75/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 4/15
Accumulated on-site hours:15.75/150
Today I attended two IST meetings. The first reviewed the current progress of a scavenger hunt to introduce first-year students to the library. The second meeting concerned "game night," an outreach project for students on campus.
During the first meeting we watched and discussed the videos that students will watch to get clues on where to go next. Students move through the hunt and during the process are introduced to locations and services in the library. The hunt itself is a shorter, more manageable version of the ARG (alternate reality game) developed by the Penn State libraries where their mascot has been kidnapped and the student is charged with finding them. The videos and the overall composition of the Kent State seems like it will do a good job of introducing the library and some basic information literacy skills to students.
The "game night" meeting was to further develop an outreach event that invited students to come to the library to play video games and board games and to socialize with each other and librarians. It is similar to the Library Late Night that is held at the beginning of each academic year. That event has music; food; drinks; along with several video game stations and other activities. The library owns several Nintendo Wii systems along with games. There are several official and unofficial gaming clubs on campus and, based on the popularity of Late Night, it is a great way to bring students into the library. The meeting considered adding more hardware or software, assessed how different areas might be set up, possibly making room for a LAN party, and attempting to contact Red Bull representatives who are often on campus. The plans for the event will be further solidified with the hopes of having the event next academic year.
Attending department meetings has helped to show not only how far out planning for events seem to being, but how important time management is with so many short and long-term projects coexisting.
Friday, February 27, 2015
January 22, 2015 (Thursday)
Time: 9am-11am; 12:30pm-2pm; 7pm-8:15pm (4.75)
Hours completed (IST): 9.75/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 4/15
Accumulated on-site hours:13.75/150
Today I attended three bibliographic sessions conducted by three different librarians. Each session was provided for different types of users: Tammy did an outreach session for a high school; Vanessa did a session for education majors studying to teach social studies; and Michael's session was for lower-division undergraduates in the School of Communications. Witnessing the different styles fo teaching for this diversity of groups was highly elucidating.
For example, the outreach session for the high school students was essentially the same lecture that we would provide for first-year students; however, Tammy seemed noticeably conscious of slowing her speech and spending a little more time than I had witnessed of her in other sessions. Of course, this is something she would probably do with college students if she had the same amount of time with them: she had two hours to lecture and then assist students with their searches compared to the more usual 50 minutes.
During my session with Vanessa I noticed that she like to regularly ask questions of the students or have them participate in small projects. This is known as formative assessment and I understand why so many instructors use it. The students did seem more engaged and Vanessa explained later that this helps her to modify parts of her lesson on-the-fly. If they seem to get how to conduct a search quickly but most do poorly on her citation exercise, then she knows to readjust her lesson plan to fit the students' needs.
Michael has a very rapid-fire delivery which makes his use of a more summative assessment a great choice for him. Because he is very prepared for his lesson he seems to have development mental section breaks where he will stop and ask for any questions, or if people have understood thus far, or just to make a quick joke to give everybody a breather. It works as a tool to say, "Okay. We're done with this and moving on to something new."
The one thing that made each of these BIs so successful was that each had a good relationship with the instructor for each class. It seems that having an instruction session that most benefits the students requires a good working relationship between the faculty member and the librarian. Additionally, it was helpful to see different styles of assessment in action and how both can be very useful tools for instruction.
Hours completed (IST): 9.75/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 4/15
Accumulated on-site hours:13.75/150
Today I attended three bibliographic sessions conducted by three different librarians. Each session was provided for different types of users: Tammy did an outreach session for a high school; Vanessa did a session for education majors studying to teach social studies; and Michael's session was for lower-division undergraduates in the School of Communications. Witnessing the different styles fo teaching for this diversity of groups was highly elucidating.
For example, the outreach session for the high school students was essentially the same lecture that we would provide for first-year students; however, Tammy seemed noticeably conscious of slowing her speech and spending a little more time than I had witnessed of her in other sessions. Of course, this is something she would probably do with college students if she had the same amount of time with them: she had two hours to lecture and then assist students with their searches compared to the more usual 50 minutes.
During my session with Vanessa I noticed that she like to regularly ask questions of the students or have them participate in small projects. This is known as formative assessment and I understand why so many instructors use it. The students did seem more engaged and Vanessa explained later that this helps her to modify parts of her lesson on-the-fly. If they seem to get how to conduct a search quickly but most do poorly on her citation exercise, then she knows to readjust her lesson plan to fit the students' needs.
Michael has a very rapid-fire delivery which makes his use of a more summative assessment a great choice for him. Because he is very prepared for his lesson he seems to have development mental section breaks where he will stop and ask for any questions, or if people have understood thus far, or just to make a quick joke to give everybody a breather. It works as a tool to say, "Okay. We're done with this and moving on to something new."
The one thing that made each of these BIs so successful was that each had a good relationship with the instructor for each class. It seems that having an instruction session that most benefits the students requires a good working relationship between the faculty member and the librarian. Additionally, it was helpful to see different styles of assessment in action and how both can be very useful tools for instruction.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
January 20, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time: 10am-11am (1 hr)
Hours completed (IST): 5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 4/15
Accumulated on-site hours:9/150
Today I attended the weekly meeting of the Instruction Services staff. These meetings are a way for the members of the department to touch base, to discuss the progress and outcomes of projects, and to disseminate important information. Attending today helped cement the complexity of the university system. Something like reorganizing or adding to a shared hard drive can involve discussions with several departments and still requires a huge investment on time by members of the department to "clean up" or organize shared resources.
Some of the conversation also revolved around the difficulty of implementing and maintaining Instruction Services projects and initiatives because of ideas and plans of other departments both within and without the library. In other words, negotiating and communication appear to be paramount when working in an academic library.
Another issue that arose was the plagiarism school program. Attendance for the program has ballooned creating a large workload for the librarians who work with students. It is a useful program but it may be impossible to keep up with the current demand. Conversations on how to address this issue considered working closer with students before they are sent to the program, either by working with faculty in the classroom or by offering classes or workshops at the library.
Hours completed (IST): 5/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 4/15
Accumulated on-site hours:9/150
Today I attended the weekly meeting of the Instruction Services staff. These meetings are a way for the members of the department to touch base, to discuss the progress and outcomes of projects, and to disseminate important information. Attending today helped cement the complexity of the university system. Something like reorganizing or adding to a shared hard drive can involve discussions with several departments and still requires a huge investment on time by members of the department to "clean up" or organize shared resources.
Some of the conversation also revolved around the difficulty of implementing and maintaining Instruction Services projects and initiatives because of ideas and plans of other departments both within and without the library. In other words, negotiating and communication appear to be paramount when working in an academic library.
Another issue that arose was the plagiarism school program. Attendance for the program has ballooned creating a large workload for the librarians who work with students. It is a useful program but it may be impossible to keep up with the current demand. Conversations on how to address this issue considered working closer with students before they are sent to the program, either by working with faculty in the classroom or by offering classes or workshops at the library.
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