1st Reflection

We started our 1st day around 7:45 on May 22, 2019 from the lobby of Newman Hall and had a warm welcome from Clara Chu, our Program Director and Distinguished Professor and her team members Courtney A Horry, Jean S Kanengoni and Catalina Hernandez-Cabal.

In total we had 9 different activities including formal welcome & introduction session, program overview, visits to Undergraduate library and main library. The session on ‘Smarter, Strategic and Sustainable Libraries’ was really an inspiring one and it was reflecting in other activities of the day as well.

We were also privileged to meet with Ellen Tise and Stellenbosch University Librarians and the talk of Ellen Tise was awesome. We concluded around 5:00 pm with feeling of renewed freshness.

2nd day started with the session of Zoe Revell, DISC Assessment and concluded with Innovation Studio & VR lab tour. I would term this day ‘The Day of Learning’ with ‘Outcomes’.

for instance the DISC Assessment activity of Zoe Revell, Library Operations Associate helped us to look at our strengths and weaknesses as it was a perfect exercise for assessment of workplace priorities and preferences and helped us to reflect on our personality styles (Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness). So here I can tell you that I have a CS style.

Blogging was another fruitful activity conducted by Clara. I would like to mention here that I tried many times to start blogging but every time due to unclear direction I stopped it. but this time you can see here, my blog is on the go… and this is a smart start and it will sustain.

we had a lovely ‘Library Buddies Lunch’, it connected me to people of repute and expertise like Prof. Christopher John Prom, Associate University Librarian for digital strategies who connected me to another expert of LibGuides Kristen Feist. I and Chris are planning to meet soon again to have a more detailed discussion about our work and also to built a long term professional cooperation.

Later half of the day was full of fun and surprises in ‘The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) where Robert and his team conducted interactive sessions on ‘Flexible Classrooms, Flexible Pedagogies’ showed tools like IClicker and e-Text. Innovation Studio and VR Lab was really a fun story and we ended the day late in excitement and were ready to come back to CITL next day for more to learn.

Friday, last day of our 1st week started with a session titled, ‘Leadership: Cultures, Sub-Cultures & Academia by Candice Solomon and Robert. I had attended many sessions on Leadership & Cultures but this session was particularly unique due to its facilitators. mixing us and then separating us on the bases of our interests and similarities and differences was really a fun & easy learning approach. one does not need to give a lecture on it. you just stand up, demonstrate and learn, that is it.

we had some 5 sessions on this day with 2 visits to DIY Instructor Studio and Tech Hub.

May 25, 2019 was a fabulous day as we were privileged to meet the faculty members of ISchool of University of Illinois, Terry Weech, PhD. Library Science, Liza and Amani Ayad. This welcome dinner was an opportunity of shared cultural expressions and a perfect example of professional networking.

 

 

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