Sunday, October 3, 2010
Advancing the Promotion of Information Literacy Through Peer-led Learning
I believe that these courses should be a requirement for incoming freshmen entering a University. It would be a great way transitioning new students coming from high school into a more challenging and indenpendent environment. If I was giving this opportunity to take certain classes like these as a freshmen in college, I would be more successful in my academics overall. Most individuals that are now seniors are still lacking the knowledge and resources available to them on a daily basis. I can personally say that it was not until spring of 2010 where I taken Library 201 course which opened my eyes to the resources available here in the Western Library. After a few years into college I learned that we have to be proactively and really engage ourselves in a way that can really beneficial and useful from one class to another. Having such tools and basic understanding of how to research and use our surrounding resources could be very helpful but here at Western Washington University it is something less valued and should be taken into consideration for the future students. I really never had a mentore or someone who was able to guide me in a direction of being successful academically while here in college. Relating this to this course to this class (Research Mentoring), I believe that we will in some way be a source of help for our mentees and hopefully learn new things that they can use in the future.
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Hi Percy :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think it would be great if WWU required freshmen to take a course like this! I appreciate your experience. The reading showed increased retention when students were involved in a peer mentoring program; I also like the idea of those students later becoming mentors. Have a great day, Christina
At this point, believe it or not, there is no way for the Library to connect with students across the board. We manage to reach a lot of students in FIGs and through major-specific classes, but we still don't have a way to ensure that all student even know the basics of what they should expect from the library.
ReplyDeleteMy personal take on this is that we are letting students graduate without even getting the basic research and information management tools needed for what lies beyond undergraduate life. We live in an information economy and yet there is still not enough emphasis on the basics of information retrieval and use.
I think that you demonstrate sentiments that will help compel you to engage in service for learning.
I agree with you completely! I definitely would have benefited from a class like this when I was a Freshman. What I don't understand is why some students have no yearning to learn at all. They are simply going to school because it will make their parents happy, or because it is what is "expected" of them. Having a requirement like this might get them more excited about learning. The reason I get so excited about learning is because of teachers and other students that have positively influenced me.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how much more comfortable I would have been in navigating the researching world if I would have had a mentor to guide me through the library as a freshman. College is overwhelming coming from high school, and I agree completely that a mentor would have been extremely beneficial. I feel if they created a research course for strictly freshman, then this could benefit the rest of their college academic experience.
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