Posted on March 3, 2012 by Maureen Barry
As you may know, I have been an embedded librarian for a course this quarter: Social and environmental sustainability in Appalachia. We leave tomorrow morning for our service trip to Athens County in southeast Ohio.
Posted on March 3, 2012 by Maureen Barry
We made it! Our students learned some crucial information literacy skills, helped solve a community problem (illiteracy) and turned in a pretty solid research portfolio to Project READ. Yesterday, we met one final time this quarter to reflect as a group, along with Becky Garvin, Director of Project READ and Cathy Sayer, Director of Service-Learning at Wright State University. In preparation for this reflection, the students write responses to 4 or 5 reflection prompts. Then we discuss as a group what they have learned about information literacy, about themselves and about their communit
Posted on March 3, 2012 by Maureen Barry
Earlier this week, I attended a book discussion about Dan Butin's book "Service-Learning in theory and practice: The future of community engagement in higher education." One of the main arguments Butin makes is that service-learning should have a discipline-based home in the academy. He compares it to how feminism, which began as a social movement, became women's studies within the academy. Of course, this leads to hundreds of questions. What would this look like? Would the focus be on citizenship in our democracy? or community studies?
Posted on March 3, 2012 by Maureen Barry
We're down to four students. Three of our students dropped the course. My co-teacher and I are disappointed by that, but we also have no control over that. The good thing is that now all four students are one team, working towards making the best research portfolio they can create for Project READ. Do they complain?
Posted on March 3, 2012 by Maureen Barry
Last week, I attended my first National First Year Experience Conference in San Antonio, Texas. I came home with tons of ideas and little time to implement them, of course. What I enjoyed most about the conference was hearing the perspectives of academic advisors, student affairs experts, First Year Experience staff, faculty and administrators. We librarians were represented fairly well, too. All of us came together with common goals: student success and meaningful student learning.
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Maureen Barry
The quarter is drawing to a close so quickly, and we still have a lot of work left to do for Project READ.
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Maureen Barry
Any readers out there from Michigan? If so - mark your calendars for the upcoming Academic Libraries 2012: Advancing Value Michigan Library Association Academic Libraries Annual Conference May 10-11, 2012 in Ann Arbor. I recently received confirmation that I will be co-presenting along with Suzanne Gray, Information Literacy Librarian at Eastern Michigan University, and Shannon Zoet, Assistant Director of Campus Partnerships at Michigan Campus Compact, about service-learning and information literacy.
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Maureen Barry
During Week 4, we covered searching the catalog for books. We sent the students to the stacks. Many hadn't realized there would actually be books written about the topic we're researching. We also focused on how to cite in APA style so they could complete their homework for class 5 - to find and cite three books (or at least chapters).
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Maureen Barry
I just put this new report released by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement on my reading list (which is growing ever-longer!): A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future. Get more information here.
Posted on January 1, 2012 by Maureen Barry
Lately, I've been feeling a little frustrated with myself as an instructor. I'm always changing the game plan, never happy with what I have planned. My co-teacher and I are constantly reinventing our lesson plans and our class. It takes a lot of time. And, frankly, sometimes I wonder why we haven't figured this out yet - this is the sixth time we have taught this course. Why aren't we on auto pilot? Then, I realized that all of this reflection and reinvention is a good thing. I remember reading The Reflective Practioner by Donald A.