SLMS Interview: EDIT 6900 Assignment Description

EDIT 6900
SLMS Interview
Assignment Description and Rubric
Mode: Individual
Value: 10 points

updated
8-11-08

Purpose of this Assignment
The most significant product of this course is the Problem Project, in which your team will identify a problem of practice, research the literature to discover what is known about that problem, provide recommendations for solving it, and design (but not implement) a way to evaluate the efficacy of one or more of these recommendations.

It is critical that the problems emerge from authentic SLM practice. Thus, you will interview a media specialist to discover one or more problems that might serve as topics for research. It is very important to note that topics need not be typical media center problems, but can be any education-related problem. In your role as instructional consultant, teachers may come to you with all sorts of concerns that have nothing to do with media center management - but you must still strive to provide avenues for solving problems through information, networking, and research.

This experience will also give you a small amount of experience in conducting interviews.

Keep in mind that your goal is to come up with at least one substantial problem - and more would be even better. Solutions are not required at this stage. Neither are you obligated to choose one of the problems that emerge from your interview - there will be many other choices for your Problem Project.

Linked AASL Standards
3.2 Instructional Partner
3.3 Educational Leader
4.2 Managing Program Resources: Human, Financial, Physical

Related Themes from this Course
Establishing a theoretical frame around a problem
Applying what is known to problems
Research methods and techniques (interviewing)

Task

Working media specialists may not interview themselves. :-)
Find a media specialist to interview, and set up a date and time. Interviews may be in person or over the telephone, but don't use email for this. Interviews should last no less than 30 minutes, but 1 hour would be better. Do not exceed 90 minutes. While arranging the interview, mention its purpose so that your interviewee can be thinking about it ahead of time.
Submit your SLMS' name and school to the separate Dropbox set up for this. Otherwise, you should plan not to share the identity of your interviewee. Name the file yourname-interviewee.doc. (Purpose: so that I can separate in my mind your person from their problems; the info is there in case of legal or accountability problems.)
Conduct the interview. Explain the project and its purpose. Your questions, at minimum, should include:

Describe your school to me, in terms of demographics, grade levels, and any special characteristics.
Share some examples of problems (or issues or challenges) you face in the media center.
Share some examples of problems teachers have come to you about.
Share some examples of problems that you know are going on in your school, whether you've been consulted about them or not.

Make sure to ask open-ended questions - avoid leading your interviewee. You may certainly follow up with questions about what happened in regards to the problem, or other questions that seem appropriate to you.
Take notes during the interview. Audiotaping is optional, but make sure it's ok with your interviewee if you do this.
Thank your media specialist by writing them a thank-you card shortly after the interview.
Write up your notes, leaving out identities. A word-by-word transcription is not necessary, but your description should be adequate to give us a sense of what you discussed. Do explain what kind of school this SLMS is working in.
End your notes with a definitive list of the problems that emerged from the interview.
Self assess using the rubric below; paste along with your notes into the second Dropbox (labeled SLMS Interview). Name this file yourname-interview.doc.
Post your notes to the WebCT Discussion Board set up for this purpose.
Read the notes of your classmates, and think about which problems would make good projects for this class, and which are particularly relevant or interesting to you.

Components

Name of interviewee and school to MAF (via WebCT dropbox "SLMS Interviewee" - 1 point)
Notes posted on WebCT discussion board, with brief school description and list of problems
Notes (same as above) and Rubric with self-assessment to Dropbox ("SLMS Interview" - 9 points)

Evaluation Checklist

Criterion	Value	Your assessment: (yes or no)	MAF's assessment
Name and school of interviewee submitted	1	.	.
Notes posted	2
Identities omitted in notes	1
Interview questions asked in an open-ended manner	2	.	.
Notes are sufficiently descriptive, but not a transcription	1
One or more problems identified	2	.	.
Self-assessment submitted	1	.	.

Total:

Comments:

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Update log:8/11/08: refreshed for 2008. 8/10/07: created.

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