"Whoever undertakes to set himself up
as a judge in the field of truth and knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
--Albert Einstein

 

Class style -- My teaching style is andragogical (that is: "guide on the side" rather than "sage on the stage") and constructivist, which means we are each in charge of and responsible for our own learning and expected to contribute to our course content and each others' intellectual growth....just like in the real world of functional LIS professionals.

This class is not a traditional "one-to-many" transmission of knowledge (from professor to student), but an ongoing "many-to-many" construction of shared knowledge. I am your guide, and your professor by virtue of my expertise, experience, enthusiasm, and employment and, like you, I want to come to class in my own time and s/place. So, we won't have any "live" events (such as Eluminate video lectures or Second Life seminars) that require we all show up at a specific time....no live video, no required classwide chat sessions, no scheduled events like you might experience in a physical classroom or hybrid environment...that would defeat the privilege of an entirely online class! You might prefer live sessions, but the main reason students take entirely online classes (and the main reason I teach them) is because none of us have to show up at a specified time and place.

A Vision of Students Today

Our 202 Blackboard is our "classroom platform" and is available online 24x7....whenever and wherever it is convenient to you to connect. So, "connect" you must!

Would that I could fashion a magical download button to instantly transfer and integrate into your knowledge base all the things you have to learn....but I can't....yet ;-) So, if you want, need, or expect the imposed discipline of mandatory attendance schedules, the social aspects of a traditional campus, or some form of intuitive virtual hand-holding, please make yourself happy by withdrawing from this class and taking one of the traditional, classroom-based or hybrid sections of 202.

We will engage in significant online group work, so if you don't like group work, I suggest you withdraw from the class and reconsider your choice of profession. All libraries work together; and all librarians work together. In fact, librarians and libraries collaborate, an even more sophisticated form of working together. (We will learn more about collaboration during week one.) In order to collaborate, we must give up the winner vs. loser, zero-sum competitive mentality, roll up our sleeves, focus on our COMMON goal (learning about information retrieval), bring our best tools to the table and use them without reservation, and work together without competition, fear, exclusion, or judgment. If you are unable or unwilling to do this, librarianship is probably not the profession for you and you will probably not like, nor do well, in this class.

We are adult learners, and among a new breed: adult "entirely online" learners. Online learning offers significant freedom and flexibility, and an entirely new class of challenges. You can come to school in your 'jammies at 4am, or from the beach while you are on an extended vacation. But it also requires quite a bit of self-discipline and self-motivation. YOU have to show up regularly and consistently, and make good use of your "classtime" in a space where "you" are virtual and where the traditional tactics for social engagement don't apply...and you have to find a way to make your presence (contribution) known, without wasting your (or anyone else's) precious time.   "Save the time of the user" is one of Ranganathan's five laws of Library Science, and one that we all agree to respect.

An online class requires good time management skills...and this doesn't just mean the ability to schedule or click off a checklist of completed tasks. An entirely online class is vibrant and always moving, and can be very easy to ignore and neglect, or equally easy to obsess about. Being a digital student requires a tolerance for ambiguity, and a willingness to suspend expectations and assumptions. Online learning, and entirely online classes, are not (or should not be) simply "traditional" classes converted for online delivery (a/k/a "shovelware".) If they are, they are a big waste of resources and potential. Online is a unique, new environment, and it is changing rapidly as we learn to use it. The good news is: we are each extraordinarily intelligent, and each of us shares a history of being "in the top of our class" (we are all overachievers ;-) To accommodate the new environment, and cultivate collaboration, we will dispense with competition entirely, and learn to collaborate like professional librarians who understand that information and learning opportunities are a plentiful, renewable resource, and we will travel together to the miraculous realization that information retrieval is the heart of that exchange.

We are not hear to memorize facts, but to learn to think as a librarian.

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

I trust we are all eager and willing to help each other succeed with grace and generosity as we construct a shared understanding about librarianship via our study of information retrieval together. 

About Participation --- Participation is a large part of our class, and represents a good chunk of the total available "points" that constitute the necessary final grade. At this level of study, every student is expected to complete all the assignments to the best of their ability, and on time, and in good form. Each is expected to ask for help and assistance when needed, and to provide same to others. I do not "compare" students. Each of you is an individual, and each has a different learning need.  There is no expectation of perfection, and no need to be embarrassed by not knowing. Many times there is a greater quality of learning when one attempts yet "fails spectacularly" than when one plays it safe, and passes miserably. Participation is, therefore, (and because of the environment of our class, necessarily,) perhaps the great differentiation in our class, and is discussed in greater detail on the grading page.   Please understand that just because a certain number of participation points are available does not mean anyone is "guaranteed" to earn all the points by simply satisfying the minimum participation requirements outlined in this course material. This is graduate school. You are supposed to transcend what you already know, and have already mastered.  

Focus on the learning tasks at hand, and avoid counting points. In other words, "participation" is the real art of an online class:  not only must you show up and do all the required work, you must show up regularly and consistently and learn to engage intellectually in this new type of learning environment.   Do not be afraid of making mistakes. To excel you will need to take risks, step outside of your comfort zone, ask the difficult (or embarrassing) questions, reach for the challenging information, and reveal that innermost brilliance most of us tend to keep secreted safely away ;-) This is what I mean when I say (and I will, "...no worries...")   For more guidance, see the rubric for how we will evaluate the quality of our posts in the course documents section of our Blackboard.

What is a "week"? --- Our class is entirely and always online, and designed so we can each choose our own time and place to "attend." We do not have a regular, weekly meeting time nor place. It might help you make sense of the time requirements for this class if you consider that instead of spending three hours sitting in a classroom, with maybe a couple of hours of commute time added, and that you will have to spend that same amount of time "reading" our class space. This "reading as class time" is in addition to the "reading time" you will spend preparing for class.

This intentional lack of scheduled time inevitably causes some confusion as we start counting "weeks" on the class schedule, particularly when determining when assignments are due.  All assignments are due on the last day of the "week" in which they are posted as due on our class schedule.   For instance, if our semester starts on a Wednesday, the following Tuesday (midnight) is the "last day of that week" and the day that week's assignments are due. (Assignments can always be turned in early!)  We have some flexibility for assignment due dates, but the assignments are cumulative. If you have questions about this, please ask them in the appropriate forum in the blackboard discussions.

OK, then...ready to get started?