Live Session!
Posted October 15, 2019 by Amie Grosshans
I had a live session of my Social Informatics class last week, and I really enjoyed it! There were three sessions available, each on different days and times, and we were required to choose one. I chose the evening session that started at 9pm. This made me a little nervous because I’m usually wrapping my day up at that hour, but I’m pleased to say that I made it through without yawning every two seconds. The worst thing about the meeting was that I looked horrible on the camera (laptop cameras do not do anyone any favors), but I’ll take that over a technical malfunction or brain freeze any day.
We didn’t do anything major in the live session. It was more about allowing us all to talk and interact in real time. We started out talking about any questions we had about the course or the assignments, and then talked more about how information is transmitted and used. One of the most important themes of this class is recognizing that there is always someone in charge of disseminating information, and that person influences what the public gets to know. It’s a more complex issue than you’d think, because it involves how people access information, their physical location, and their cultural biases, among other things. As future LIS professionals, we need to acknowledge that we are the ones in charge of information in libraries. We therefore have to be aware of how we present that information, and always make sure that everyone has free access to that information. We also have to think about how to provide that access to everyone, regardless of physical and mental ability. Taking this class has really opened my eyes to how I get my information, and how I filter that information through my own experiences and biases. It’s incredibly interesting and will be something I think about as I embark on my career in the future.
Overall, I was very pleased with the live session and actually wished it could have been longer. It was great to see my classmates and my professor and to interact with them. We have pretty lively conversations in the class forums but being able to see and hear and talk in real time was a real treat. I wish we could have more live sessions, but I know that they are not easy to schedule. One of the main perks of an online class is that you can attend class on your own schedule, and live classes defeat that purpose. But I am happy that we had this one session, and if there were more live sessions available, I would definitely attend!