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.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)