Online
Who Am I Scheduling For: Me or My Kids?
Posted January 23, 2015 by Alison Mitchell
Well hello, second semester! It’s nice to see you. And I think I’m going to enjoy your courses, even though I picked them based on what was offered at a time that still allowed me to pick my kids up at school every day, and not really based on what I actually wanted to take. Sigh. Last fall, when we were registering for the spring semester, I had a list of things I needed in my schedule. Not one of them was an actual class. I didn’t want to take a Monday class, because of all the Monday holidays. I didn’t want to take a Friday class, because my kids have several Fridays off for teacher professional development and Parent-Teacher conferences. I wanted morning classes, because my husband can drive the kids to school if I take a 9am class, but I’d have to find a babysitter if I took a 1pm or 6pm class. At some point, I know, I’m going to have to take classes that are only offered at one certain…
The Future of GSLIS: Blended and Online Courses
Posted February 5, 2014 by Maggie Davidov
You haven’t heard from me in a long while because I’ve been in class every day for the past three weeks. No, I am not taking more than my usual part time load. However, I am taking my first online class this semester. The online class is taking up most of my time. I spend a good hour every day following my class discussion on twitter. Check us out #lis460. I also listen to podcasts from my professor, the ever so talented Linda Braun. After the podcast for the week is over I watch her explain a new trend in social media through multiple screencasts on youtube. I then do my readings. Thankfully they are more relevant than a textbook on reserve at Beatley; they are blog posts or magazine articles from the LIS, technology or education field. I then take all of this knowledge and discuss it with my group on a collaborative google doc. There are of course other projects, but that is the bare bones of what we do every week. I…
Get WISE
Posted October 31, 2013 by Julie Steenson
There has been a lot of blog talk lately about online classes. I have taken all three types of classes in my two years here at GSLIS – face-to-face, blended and online. My personal favorite is face-to-face although with a long commute, blended and online can be more convenient. I love the face-to-face interaction of my traditional classes, but a well-done online or blended class can be just as involved and highly interactive. (See my posts on Saving Kingston and my alternate reality class!) Any kind of long-distance learning requires one to tap into a different skillset and requires good time management and self-motivation. As all styles of learning have their benefits, which vary from individual to individual, I am a big fan of trying them all. I have taken classes on both the Boston and West (South Hadley) campuses, in-person and online. This semester (my last!), I have added the final GSLIS choice and am taking a class online through the WISE program at Syracuse University. WISE stands for Web-based Information Science Education. It…
Online Classes : To Overthink or to Not Overthink, That is the Question
Posted October 22, 2013 by Carolyn Lucas
Despite the fact that I have been the Facilitator for the Archives Management Cohort Online for almost a year and a half now, I personally have never taken a class online. I have taken face-to-face classes for almost 20 years, but had my first online class experience happened last Monday when my Management class was held online for Columbus Day. We had a fairly “traditional” online class, which required several hours sitting in front of the computer reading through articles, and then watching powerpoints, reading lectures, and participating in discussion activities – a fairly typical week in the life of an online class. I cannot speak for the other students, but I for one quite enjoyed the structure of the online class. It was laid back and didn’t require an hour’s travel to and from school (if you live around the Boston area, you’re familiar with the “reliability” of the green line…), but it was difficult to motivate myself. While we normally have classes on Monday afternoons, I found myself starting the readings on Monday…
The Ultimate Group Project: Saving Kingston Part 3
Posted August 14, 2013 by Julie Steenson
I am recovering from the summer term and the intensity of two classes. You may have followed our ground-breaking alternate reality game in my online Management class with Mary Wilkins-Jordan. (See earlier Kingston posts) As fabulous, dedicated Simmons GSLIS students, we did, indeed, save Kingston and all its libraries! We battled blizzards, naysayers, and gloomy politicians to raise the level and value of the library and information science industry of our fictitious town. To do so, we had to be a team, and all flag-waving aside, the collaborative effort was the likes of which I have not seen before in any of my classes. Early in the term, our professor gave us complete flexibility to work alone or in groups related to our organizations (public, corporate, prison, archives, etc.) or across our base groups (our classes – management, reference, etc.). She cautioned us, however, that while working alone remained an option, we might need to work in groups in order to accomplish it all in the compressed summer session. I am pretty driven, but she…