I have survived the writing of two more papers for two more Masters subjects in my M.Ed. It was a crazy last few weeks of December since I had to work on these through part of the winter holiday when the staff at my local school were away.
I received feedback for my ETL503 (Collections Management) subject and am not very happy. Let's just say, that after reading the feedback, I now realize I was supposed to comment on many further areas of selections and acquisitions than I did. Fair enough. However, I find it very difficult to do, so considering I don't work for a school, and to boot, my local school's staff were all away on holidays. The only way I'd know how these things are done at my local school would be if I worked there, or worked closely with the librarian.
There are two major realizations I'm having about this subject. First, I have to "learn" about so many topics on my own. Fair enough, I am a Master's student, and I am an experienced learner. However, For this course, I am consistently finding that we learn about things by just researching for information and reading about them. It's like I'm paying tuition to be told to learn about a topic. I don't find that my instructors do much to facilitate my learning process other than lay out a curriculum path, give me topics to read and study, and give me assignments. I mean, if one could get a hold of the subject overview and modules, they could complete the same work for free. I really wish this masters course were more interactive, with discussion groups...not forums, but live chat groups, or study partnerships, or something where I can interact with other students. I always feel like I have to just find materials and read about a subject to learn anything. I'm not a textbook/"reading" learner, but in this case, it's the only modality addressed.
Second, I wish I'd known that ETL503 would require a significant amount of collaboration or involvement with a local school in order to get a grasp of their selection/acquisition process and policy development. This is especially important for us students who are NOT working in libraries already. If I knew this in advance, I would not have taken it over a school holiday (believe me, it would've made being 8 months pregnant a lot easier). I probably would have waited until I was doing my practicum at participating with a school on a regular basis.
I received feedback for my ETL503 (Collections Management) subject and am not very happy. Let's just say, that after reading the feedback, I now realize I was supposed to comment on many further areas of selections and acquisitions than I did. Fair enough. However, I find it very difficult to do, so considering I don't work for a school, and to boot, my local school's staff were all away on holidays. The only way I'd know how these things are done at my local school would be if I worked there, or worked closely with the librarian.
There are two major realizations I'm having about this subject. First, I have to "learn" about so many topics on my own. Fair enough, I am a Master's student, and I am an experienced learner. However, For this course, I am consistently finding that we learn about things by just researching for information and reading about them. It's like I'm paying tuition to be told to learn about a topic. I don't find that my instructors do much to facilitate my learning process other than lay out a curriculum path, give me topics to read and study, and give me assignments. I mean, if one could get a hold of the subject overview and modules, they could complete the same work for free. I really wish this masters course were more interactive, with discussion groups...not forums, but live chat groups, or study partnerships, or something where I can interact with other students. I always feel like I have to just find materials and read about a subject to learn anything. I'm not a textbook/"reading" learner, but in this case, it's the only modality addressed.
Second, I wish I'd known that ETL503 would require a significant amount of collaboration or involvement with a local school in order to get a grasp of their selection/acquisition process and policy development. This is especially important for us students who are NOT working in libraries already. If I knew this in advance, I would not have taken it over a school holiday (believe me, it would've made being 8 months pregnant a lot easier). I probably would have waited until I was doing my practicum at participating with a school on a regular basis.
