On November 4th, I had the pleasure of attending both a mentor/mentee luncheon and a departmental Spring Fling (a whole day of not having to pay for any food, WINNING!)
One of my little assignments with SLIS 809 was to invite Dr. Lewis to the luncheon, which I had done. I also reminded her of the luncheon earlier in the week. She came to the luncheon, as well as the Spring Fling.
The luncheon was a great opportunity for me to have a discussion with Dr. Lewis as well as the other mentors that was quite informal. This was interesting as I was, for one thing, able to hear some opinions on the field and on the doctoral students from some instructors who have served as faculty longer than Dr. Lewis (who obtained her PhD very recently). I think one of the successes of holding this luncheon was that it allowed each of us PhD students to interact with the multitude of other mentors.
Of course, the other success is to show appreciation to the mentors for the work that they have put into this relationship and this pilot project.
Dr. Chuck mentioned that while he was talking to others associated with ALISE, he was told several times that people wished that this mentoring program had been facilitated at their own schools. This does make me appreciate the luxuries offered to us here at the University of South Carolina, which appears to be a school with a student-first approach, at least in this program.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Inviting Dr. Lewis to Speak at the Colloquium.
I invited Dr. Lewis to speak at our SLIS 809 colloquium, which is scheduled for the evening of November 30. She accepted the invitation.
She will speak on the importance of selecting a functioning dissertation committee. She apparently had a hard time with her own dissertation committee, though specific details of that difficulty will not be offered here. That hardship, however, motivates her to want to help others avoid the difficulties she encountered.
I think our colloquium is going to be a huge success. We have Dr. Sam on tap to speak also, as well as a lady outside of the department. I hope all of our faculty and doctoral students will come and enjoy the presentations.
I have asked a lot of Dr. Lewis throughout this mentoring relationship, and I think she has delivered each and every time. This is very impressive to me. One thing that nobody will ever be able to say is that Dr. Lewis doesn't really care about her students. She will truly give them all the time that she possibly has to give. If only this were true of every faculty member.
She will speak on the importance of selecting a functioning dissertation committee. She apparently had a hard time with her own dissertation committee, though specific details of that difficulty will not be offered here. That hardship, however, motivates her to want to help others avoid the difficulties she encountered.
I think our colloquium is going to be a huge success. We have Dr. Sam on tap to speak also, as well as a lady outside of the department. I hope all of our faculty and doctoral students will come and enjoy the presentations.
I have asked a lot of Dr. Lewis throughout this mentoring relationship, and I think she has delivered each and every time. This is very impressive to me. One thing that nobody will ever be able to say is that Dr. Lewis doesn't really care about her students. She will truly give them all the time that she possibly has to give. If only this were true of every faculty member.
Recording My First Lecture (Kinda)
It's taken me a while to finally be able to pen this journal entry, but one noteworthy event in my mentoring relationship with Dr. Lewis was recording my first portion of a lecture using Adobe Presenter.
We actually recorded my portion of the lecture in the last part of October. Dr. Lewis gave me a chapter from her course text to read over, and then she advised me to pick a portion of the chapter that I could use to teach as a part of the lecture using about 4-5 Adobe Presenter slides. I would then work with Dr. Lewis to create the slides and we would work them in appropriately into the online lecture.
I decided that I would make my portion of the lecture about emergent fields in information science. I thought this was relevant to the students in the class because people who get the MLIS degree should not be limited to working in libraries, and whether you wish to admit it or not, the long-term viability of libraries is in question.
I discussed four fields: informatics, user experience design, knowledge management and competitive intelligence. Dr. Lewis watched as I recorded my portions of the lecture, and she said she thought it went well.
Using Presenter was an interesting experience. Dr. Lewis makes it look so easy, but I know it is more difficult than she made it look because I was having problems with it while completing an exercise related to online teaching for SLIS 804. But I look forward to learning the program better, as having the ability to teach online is going to be essential for me to secure a job once I leave here. It is a challenge, but I am ready for it.
Introducing me to a practical skill - I think - represents a major success in this mentoring relationship.
We actually recorded my portion of the lecture in the last part of October. Dr. Lewis gave me a chapter from her course text to read over, and then she advised me to pick a portion of the chapter that I could use to teach as a part of the lecture using about 4-5 Adobe Presenter slides. I would then work with Dr. Lewis to create the slides and we would work them in appropriately into the online lecture.
I decided that I would make my portion of the lecture about emergent fields in information science. I thought this was relevant to the students in the class because people who get the MLIS degree should not be limited to working in libraries, and whether you wish to admit it or not, the long-term viability of libraries is in question.
I discussed four fields: informatics, user experience design, knowledge management and competitive intelligence. Dr. Lewis watched as I recorded my portions of the lecture, and she said she thought it went well.
Using Presenter was an interesting experience. Dr. Lewis makes it look so easy, but I know it is more difficult than she made it look because I was having problems with it while completing an exercise related to online teaching for SLIS 804. But I look forward to learning the program better, as having the ability to teach online is going to be essential for me to secure a job once I leave here. It is a challenge, but I am ready for it.
Introducing me to a practical skill - I think - represents a major success in this mentoring relationship.
Monday, October 17, 2011
An Entry a Week Late
Man, it feels like things keep piling on and piling on, but I had to take some time to just gather myself last week, tie up a few loose ends elsewhere, visit my family, attend my 10-year high school reunion, and participate in the job march/MLK Memorial Dedication in Washington.
And I return to Columbia today with an aggravated eye injury (which led to a missed appointment) and more assignments my way. Hehe, I've got to make this transition back into school work better somehow.
The journal entry I am late getting in concerns the October 6th meeting I had with Dr. Lewis. She took me over to the McKissick Museum and shared a few details with me about some things she is doing with a former student by the name of Chess Schmidt to prepare for Dr. Sam's ASIS&T conference. She then handed me this... thing. This mappy thing that I guess was some sort of diagram on the project. She asked if I knew what it was and I kindly told her no. Obviously, this means I'll be trying to find out; the more I am challenged the more I will learn after all.
I should see Dr. Lewis again next week when I record for our lecture, but I may have some contact with her before then.
And I return to Columbia today with an aggravated eye injury (which led to a missed appointment) and more assignments my way. Hehe, I've got to make this transition back into school work better somehow.
The journal entry I am late getting in concerns the October 6th meeting I had with Dr. Lewis. She took me over to the McKissick Museum and shared a few details with me about some things she is doing with a former student by the name of Chess Schmidt to prepare for Dr. Sam's ASIS&T conference. She then handed me this... thing. This mappy thing that I guess was some sort of diagram on the project. She asked if I knew what it was and I kindly told her no. Obviously, this means I'll be trying to find out; the more I am challenged the more I will learn after all.
I should see Dr. Lewis again next week when I record for our lecture, but I may have some contact with her before then.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The Required Mentor Seek Out!!
As required, I sought out my mentor and invited her to the Mentor/Mentee Luncheon scheduled to take place on November 4th at 11:30 at the Faculty House. Oddly enough, I am probably not going to be able to go to a function that I am inviting other people to! I will probably be attending a focus group in Greensboro for my assessment class that day :(
In addition to informing Dr. Lewis of the luncheon, she and I discussed some business for roughly an hour earlier today. Here are the key pieces from that meeting.
Dr. Lewis and I are going to attend some meetings together, per Dr. Curran's suggestions in a recent email. I think that will indeed go a long way in my finding out more about the life of an academic. She and I will attend a meeting Thursday at 10 a.m. related to a research area that Dr. Sam will be discussing at ASIST. We will attend some other meetings as well, including an admissions meeting where decisions are made based on admission of students; Dr. Lewis thinks it'll be helpful for me to learn how these decisions are made and what goes into that process.
I will indeed be co-teaching a class later this month, and will be recording my portion of the lecture for that class on Oct 26th. I will be trained in how to use the recording equipment at 11 a.m. that day. Dr. Lewis gave me the assigned readings for that day, and my next step is to read over those and determine what I think needs to be pulled out of those readings for the lecture and - probably - additional slides. It's a lot of reading but someone has got to do it.
Finally, Dr. Lewis and I talked for a few minutes about some insecurities I have with publishing. I told her that I didn't quite understand what type of literature an information science professor would seek to publish, and where they would seek to publish it. She let me know that there is indeed a place for heavily theoretical stuff, and that heavily theoretical writing is often heavy in literature review and is often countered by others in the profession in later pieces (she offered the popular Michael Buckland piece as a prime example). She also let me know that there is a place for scientific studies, which I think would be more likely my focus when trying to publish; she said these things would get published in different journals form theoretical pieces much of the time. She also told me not to stress about the number of publications and presentations I have made so far after I told her that I am a little nervous about the fact that I may not have as many publications as others in the program. She said that different people have different experiences and that there are a number of things that are considered when bringing aboard new faculty, including teaching experience, which I will likely have a lot of as a result of this program.
In addition to informing Dr. Lewis of the luncheon, she and I discussed some business for roughly an hour earlier today. Here are the key pieces from that meeting.
Dr. Lewis and I are going to attend some meetings together, per Dr. Curran's suggestions in a recent email. I think that will indeed go a long way in my finding out more about the life of an academic. She and I will attend a meeting Thursday at 10 a.m. related to a research area that Dr. Sam will be discussing at ASIST. We will attend some other meetings as well, including an admissions meeting where decisions are made based on admission of students; Dr. Lewis thinks it'll be helpful for me to learn how these decisions are made and what goes into that process.
I will indeed be co-teaching a class later this month, and will be recording my portion of the lecture for that class on Oct 26th. I will be trained in how to use the recording equipment at 11 a.m. that day. Dr. Lewis gave me the assigned readings for that day, and my next step is to read over those and determine what I think needs to be pulled out of those readings for the lecture and - probably - additional slides. It's a lot of reading but someone has got to do it.
Finally, Dr. Lewis and I talked for a few minutes about some insecurities I have with publishing. I told her that I didn't quite understand what type of literature an information science professor would seek to publish, and where they would seek to publish it. She let me know that there is indeed a place for heavily theoretical stuff, and that heavily theoretical writing is often heavy in literature review and is often countered by others in the profession in later pieces (she offered the popular Michael Buckland piece as a prime example). She also let me know that there is a place for scientific studies, which I think would be more likely my focus when trying to publish; she said these things would get published in different journals form theoretical pieces much of the time. She also told me not to stress about the number of publications and presentations I have made so far after I told her that I am a little nervous about the fact that I may not have as many publications as others in the program. She said that different people have different experiences and that there are a number of things that are considered when bringing aboard new faculty, including teaching experience, which I will likely have a lot of as a result of this program.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Pre-Dinner Meeting
I quickly met with Dr. Lewis right after my 804 class today. As always, she made a little bit of time for me and offered me an encouraging solution. Dr. Lewis told me that she and Clayton had identified a portion of a lecture that they were wanting me to teach and had identified literature for me to read in order to prepare. I will get the needed literature from Dr. Lewis hopefully next week.
Dr. Lewis said that the portion I am doing is the portion that Clayton had done when she was just starting out, so that's another good sign. It appears that I am being allowed to follow a path that has already been traveled.
When we meet next week, Dr. Lewis is also going to take the opportunity to get me some training on using the equipment used to record the lectures. She insisted that it's incredibly frustrating to think you have your lecture recorded and then realize, wait, what? No!
I am thankful for another fruitful interaction with Dr. Lewis. I am seeing I am going to need quite a bit of faculty guidance; I will not survive this educational endeavor if I am simply left to my own devices. Don't get me wrong, I am a self-starter, but I still don't have an thorough enough understanding of the details of exactly what to do in academia to do this without a bit of handholding right now (not just the publish or perish concept, but publish what, collect data how, go to what journals, follow what time tables, etc).
This makes me recall my first days as a newspaper reporter. The newspaper I was at offered virtually no training or guidance on being a newsman whatsoever, they just told me to go report. And I was like, ok, where do I start. I had to learn how to find stories and follow beats all by myself. Once I learned, I wound up being one of their best reporters, but it was one struggle of a learning process for sure and those growing pains were not pleasant (as pain never is, unless you're into that sort of thing). I am hoping here that what I am experiencing are growing pains, and that once I get adjusted to this environment, I will excel and hold my own with the rest of my cohort.
Dr. Lewis said that the portion I am doing is the portion that Clayton had done when she was just starting out, so that's another good sign. It appears that I am being allowed to follow a path that has already been traveled.
When we meet next week, Dr. Lewis is also going to take the opportunity to get me some training on using the equipment used to record the lectures. She insisted that it's incredibly frustrating to think you have your lecture recorded and then realize, wait, what? No!
I am thankful for another fruitful interaction with Dr. Lewis. I am seeing I am going to need quite a bit of faculty guidance; I will not survive this educational endeavor if I am simply left to my own devices. Don't get me wrong, I am a self-starter, but I still don't have an thorough enough understanding of the details of exactly what to do in academia to do this without a bit of handholding right now (not just the publish or perish concept, but publish what, collect data how, go to what journals, follow what time tables, etc).
This makes me recall my first days as a newspaper reporter. The newspaper I was at offered virtually no training or guidance on being a newsman whatsoever, they just told me to go report. And I was like, ok, where do I start. I had to learn how to find stories and follow beats all by myself. Once I learned, I wound up being one of their best reporters, but it was one struggle of a learning process for sure and those growing pains were not pleasant (as pain never is, unless you're into that sort of thing). I am hoping here that what I am experiencing are growing pains, and that once I get adjusted to this environment, I will excel and hold my own with the rest of my cohort.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Expectations of PhD programs versus reality
Following the welcome reception of Dr. Michelle Martin Monday, I was able to catch up with Dr. Lewis - as well as Dr. Keeling - and pick their brains on an issue that I had found somewhat troubling.
Before I entered this program, I was told by countless people to remember that the PhD is a research degree. It's a research degree. It's not a teaching degree, it's a research degree. It's not writing degree, its a research degree. And so on.
This was, of course, good advice, as it forced me to think seriously about why I was trying to enter a PhD program and whether I actually should (obviously, I decided that I believed it was the right move for me, hence my being here).
But, I guess after having it drilled into my head so much that the PhD was a research degree, I came in with the expectation that my coursework in this program would probably be completely research methodology coursework and other types of coursework aimed solely at helping one learn how to research effectively in order to publish and survive in academia.
That is not the case at all with this program. In fact, there are only 15 hours of course credit for "core courses" that are 800-level. These 800-level courses aren't necessarily "research" courses either. There are requirements to take one quantitative research class and one qualitative research class. And beyond that, it seemed as though the coursework was not drastically different from masters level coursework.
So I asked Dr. Lewis and Dr. Keeling if this was dramatically different from their PhD education experiences, and told them what I had thought the PhD coursework would likely consist of. It was very reaffirming to hear that they didn't feel that the PhD requirements here at USC were dramatically different from those at other institutions. They let me know that I probably did come in with expectations that were a bit warped.
This was very reassuring for me. One of my primary concerns, of course, is that I get an education that will be respected at other institutions. Part of this is knowing that South Carolina expects the same of its students that other schools with longer-standing PhD programs expect of there own students. Since, of course, Dr. Lewis did not obtain her PhD from USC, it was reassuring to hear someone educated elsewhere affirm that the coursework here is comparable to other institutions.
Before I entered this program, I was told by countless people to remember that the PhD is a research degree. It's a research degree. It's not a teaching degree, it's a research degree. It's not writing degree, its a research degree. And so on.
This was, of course, good advice, as it forced me to think seriously about why I was trying to enter a PhD program and whether I actually should (obviously, I decided that I believed it was the right move for me, hence my being here).
But, I guess after having it drilled into my head so much that the PhD was a research degree, I came in with the expectation that my coursework in this program would probably be completely research methodology coursework and other types of coursework aimed solely at helping one learn how to research effectively in order to publish and survive in academia.
That is not the case at all with this program. In fact, there are only 15 hours of course credit for "core courses" that are 800-level. These 800-level courses aren't necessarily "research" courses either. There are requirements to take one quantitative research class and one qualitative research class. And beyond that, it seemed as though the coursework was not drastically different from masters level coursework.
So I asked Dr. Lewis and Dr. Keeling if this was dramatically different from their PhD education experiences, and told them what I had thought the PhD coursework would likely consist of. It was very reaffirming to hear that they didn't feel that the PhD requirements here at USC were dramatically different from those at other institutions. They let me know that I probably did come in with expectations that were a bit warped.
This was very reassuring for me. One of my primary concerns, of course, is that I get an education that will be respected at other institutions. Part of this is knowing that South Carolina expects the same of its students that other schools with longer-standing PhD programs expect of there own students. Since, of course, Dr. Lewis did not obtain her PhD from USC, it was reassuring to hear someone educated elsewhere affirm that the coursework here is comparable to other institutions.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)