#finalreflections

I can’t believe how fast this semester went by! I have learned so much that I hadn’t even thought about before taking this class. I think the biggest thing that was rather “mind blowing” to me was the ALA Code of Ethics. It makes since that there would be a code of ethics for this profession, but I had never thought of it! It is nice to have something to refer to when in the middle of a tough situation, or when something could get tricky. This is something I can bring to my current and future positions. Right now I am working in a fine arts library, so copyright issues come up quite often. It is nice to refer to the code of ethics when I need to. 

Having class discussions with my classmates was also very insightful for me. It was really nice to hear what other people were thinking and what they were interested in pursuing in this field. I didn't realize how many different jobs there are in library science! I always thought about working in an academic library or public library; not in a law firm or hospital or even a museum really. This really made me think about different ways to take my career path. However, I found through this exploring that I do actually love academic libraries and would love to someday be a librarian in an academic setting. I also realized however that I would be happy being a reference librarian or subject librarian and wouldn’t necessarily have to be working with music everyday to be happy. Of course it would be very nice to use my background in music, but if I don’t I still have a passion for libraries without the music aspect. 

Our searching exercise was also very helpful to me. It forced me to delve deeper into searching and finding information. I usually only search one database and can usually find what I am looking for, but learning how to use different databases and find information gives me so many more options. This can really help patrons that I work with now and also in future positions. 

    This course was really an eye opening and stretching one for me! As per mentioned during the showcase: The course was really a course of firsts! And hopefully I can carry on whatever I've learnt here to other portions.

    I'm glad to say that I've survived it and am actually pretty proud of my work! I won't say its perfect (or really good) and there's so many others in class who have more awesome work, but I think it was really worth it. XDD Through this I've learnt the nitty gritty dirty portions to short video makings. And can really appreciate and understand how intricate videos are.

    Really like to thank Elizabeth, Jamie and Ceri for their awesome work in shaping our scripts/ storyboards/ video editing and cuts. But more than that, for encouraging us to express our creative-sides and pushing up to achieve more. Like I had mentioned in the showcase: I really feel that all our projects are a combined effort of all the teaching staff as well as inputs from various students! Thank you everyone!

    One thing I would like to mention was that at the start I was torn between 2 problems to answer through the video:

1) What makes math problems too hard to solve?

2) How does one survive the cold?

I ended up doing qn 2 only after much debate because of feedback from the 6th graders, Elizabeth as well as finding a succinct and concise YouTube video on "P vs NP". I feel now that maybe doing the whole video on "cold" is not something within my area of specialty and possibly a further improvement would be to do one within that. 

    Another area of improvement would be delivery and hosting. I felt that certain other videos had better hosting compared to mine. One reason was that I was unsure in front of the camera, and I feel the answer to this is just more practice and keeping the script only to main points. The second reason was that at the start of the storyboard I was having a more "Ted-Ed" (voice speaking with animation) mindset to creating the whole video.

    Although I must say that I am unlikely to start another video on my own time, I do hope that these lessons can be brought forward when I do need to use them.

    Other than learning about video making/ hosting/ script writing, another lesson I have learnt through class is framing opinions/ feedback. I noticed how individuals in class, Elizabeth and Jamie especially, would give a precursor before stating their opinion. They said stuff like "This might be just me", or "Coming from... ", or "You don't really have to do this, but if I were you...". (This enabled the listener to better understand the context in which the opinion is aimed towards.) I felt that this really helped in the creative process. Also, framing the feedback didn't cause any unhappy moments, as is often seen when ideas get "shot" down in more direct manners.

    I'd like to end off by saying that I'm really glad to have gone for MIT 20.219 and for the friendships made. I would really like to extend the invitation to all students and teaching staff to keep in contact and visit us in Singapore if you can! Please do visit! 

    (P.S. - @Paul: All the best with the video! Hope to see it on Science Out Loud soon)

    (P.S. 2 - @everyone: I hope everyone is doing okay with the snow barrage and all!)

    With Best Regards,