Mike is joined by Myrna, a Special Collections librarian, to talk about elearning and some online courses Myrna has been taking from home.
Books and resources discussed in this episode:
"Sign language that African Americans use is different from that of whites" (The Washington Post)
Lifeprint ABC's of ASL: Learn how to Fingerspell! video
Queer Trans Online ASL Dictionary
The History of the Book in the Early Modern Period: 1450 to 1800 course
Mike: Welcome to Shelve Under: Podcast, the Toronto Public Library podcast for readers, writers and everyone practicing physical distancing. Today, we're bringing you a bonus episode to give some recommendations for library resources you can access from home while library branches are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My name is Mike and today I'll be joined by my colleague Myrna to talk about some e-learning courses that we've been taking while we're at home. We realize this is a difficult time and hope that our recommendations can help those seeking a distraction. Our thoughts are with everyone in the city, especially those keeping essential services running. Hi, Myrna.
Myrna: Hi, Mike.
Mike: Thank you for joining me today. So we brought you in because you have been taking a couple of different online courses and one that you did a blog post about was learning American Sign Language, and that is through a library resource called Gale Courses. So my first question is why you decided to take that course?
Myrna: Well, for me, American Sign Language had always been something I was super interested in. I always had found it very interesting, the idea that you have this kind of language that is not verbal and I'd like had an American Sign Language dictionary since I was a little kid, it was just that classic case of never making the time for something. I'd also had, right before the library's physical locations closed, an interaction with a customer where she was hard of hearing or deaf and we basically got by and just like me pointing at signs and stuff. But it did make me realize, oh, if I could just know some basic signs to help orientate her in the library, I could have been so much more assistance. So those two things together, just always having a curiosity about the language and then also having a specific situation where I was like, oh, I could have helped somebody to such a greater degree if I had just like basic familiarity with this language. Those are two big things that motivated me to do it. And then I also found myself with a bit more time on my hands, so why not take advantage of it?
Mike: Yeah, makes sense, and I mean, I know a lot of people seem to have some extra time or are looking for different ways to fill the time. So this is one of many courses that is available through Gale Courses. Could you explain a bit how the structure of the course works through Gale Courses?
Myrna: Yeah, sure. So admittedly, I haven't actually completed any of the ones that aren't language learning focus, so it might change a bit depending on the content. But this particular one, there's about like twelve units that you go through and there's kind of lessons in them. And then there's also tests that you take at the end of each unit, just kind of test your knowledge. It's not actually that like scary. Like, if you're failing your tests, you don't get kicked out. It's more just the indicator, "Oh, maybe I should go back and review this content". And then there's also kind of discussion boards where they ask you sometimes to post about homework assignments, but you also can have conversations with the course instructor and also with other students. And I actually found that really interesting. I was a bit too shy to participate too much, but seeing other people's experiences on the discussion board I really found was an added element.
Mike: And so you mentioned that these are instructor led courses. So for the teaching sessions, are they pre-recorded or are they done live?
Myrna: Yeah, so it's kind of a mix. As I said, it could be different if you're taking different content, but there will sometimes be text and then there will also be videos of the instructors. And then you also sometimes have a little kind of interactive activities where it's like, for the example of American Sign Language, kind of like check off what sign somebody was doing in a video so you can test yourself on things. There's kind of built-In activities that keep you engaged. But yeah, it's a mix of text and then video. None of it's live, so you can really do it pretty asynchronously, but you're kind of coming along with a cohort of fellow students, which is really nice. And then an instructor's there in the comments to answer any questions, but you can totally do it at like 11:00 p.m. at night when you have the time. And then the instructor might answer your question the next day.
Mike: Oh, that's interesting. So it gets you a bit of the... still some human interaction, while being able to do it at your own pace.
Myrna: Yeah. And it's definitely like I could tell, I think because a lot of people had signed up, probably a lot of people were experiencing the same thing of like having a bit more time on their hands. I could tell that a lot of other commenters and people were kind of really appreciating the fact that they could reach out and talk to other people during this time, like they were really happy to kind of see all these fellow things. I think a lot of other people in the course actually I think were fellow library workers and some of the non library workers were like, "Oh, my library is closed and I'm so happy to see so many librarians here." That was kind of cute.
Mike: And I was kind of curious with American Sign language. I mean, I'm thinking, you know, it would that it would help that you're going through activities where you're watching video and trying to read what someone is saying or or understand what someone's saying. Do you have any method to practice it yourself?
Myrna: I've been using my own version of flashcards, and that's really helpful for just reviewing and kind of drilling in the signs, because you are learning so many of them over the course of the course. Also, I've been video conferencing with a friend and they are also taking the course and that's been really helpful because it's a motivator. It's like, oh, I want to finish the next unit so that we can practice new vocab with each other. And then also it's useful because it's like you can easily pick up bad habits, I think, when you're learning in isolation and you don't realize your own error. So having somebody else who's, also even though they're a learner, to look at you practicing your signs is really helpful.
Mike: Yeah, that definitely makes sense and I would probably feel the same way. I need someone else to sometimes hold me accountable or even to talk through things when you're, you know, you're having a problem and, you know, maybe you don't want to text your instructor with something you think is a stupid question. You know, it's something it might be a little more comfortable talking to a friend about.
Myrna: Yeah, and I think it's come up. We had one video conference where we admittedly did not practice any signs, but we just kind of spoke about deaf culture and about kind of like linguistics of sign language stuff, which was still super interesting to just have someone to have that conversation with, even if we weren't necessarily reviewing our signs. Because they just, you know, verbal conversations, more things can come up than when you're speaking with somebody via a message board or something.
Mike: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe I'll take us back to the beginning in sort of some ways for people that may not be familiar with Gale Courses. This is available through our website for anyone that has a Toronto Public Library card. There are a wide range of courses that you can take for free, so not just language courses, but also writing, accounting, legal courses, a really wide range. And I was looking on it earlier and I was looking at one to help, aimed for teachers but to be applicable to me in my job, of doing instructional work for teenagers. So there's a lot of different courses. But one thing people should know is that they cannot start a course at any time. So there are starting dates for the courses. Usually one day a month, either looks to be the second or third Wednesday that you would be able to start a course. And was your course the Discover Sign Language that you've been doing?
Myrna: Yes, so I've just done Discover Sign Language, that's what the title of it is. And there's also Discover Sign Language II, but I haven't started on that yet.
Mike: If you have a specific course you're looking for, like if you're looking for Discover Sign Language, you can also just search that on TPL.ca, our web site, in the main search bar and that'll bring you up to the link to the Gale course automatically so you don't have to go through Gale Courses. Or if you want to browse and see what kind of courses are available, you can just search for Gale Courses and that'll bring you to the main page for Gale Courses with all the different courses that are listed there. For instance, for Discover Sign Language, the next ones are starting June 17th and June 15th. Is there anything else that I've missed asking about the course or something else that you would want to mention about it?
Myrna: I guess one other thing I'll say is something I really I found I enjoy about online learning is just the ability to kind of bring in other resources and perspectives as you're going through the course. Like, if you get confused about a concept, you can really go out and do your own research and bring in other resources. So in particular, for Discover Sign Language, I found there's so many great resources out there created by American Sign Language signers and also by the deaf community that really give extra depth to the knowledge you're gaining. And it's just so easy to really research that as you're going through and so that's something I really appreciate about the online experience. While you might have lost out on kind of the face to face contact, there's so many perspectives like at your fingertips as you're going through and learning content.
Mike: And is that things you're finding through your own research or sort of extra reading material that they're giving you through the course?
Myrna: It's a combination of both. So the course does do a good job, like at the end of every unit there wi ll usually be like additional readings if you want to go deeper on a topic. So, for instance, one unit we talked about Black American Sign Language, which is kind of a distinct dialect. And they linked out to kind of other resources that explained about this dialect and about what is unique about it. But then also there will just be things like I was really struggling with learning how to finger spell because that's like twenty six signs and just memorizing them all is quite difficult. And I myself sought out some videos from a company called Lifeprint that are free online and that really helped me just understand finger spelling on this deeper level. So I like that combination of other resources that it's like pushing you to from the course, but also once you become interested in a topic, you can sometimes find additional resources that are really helpful.
Mike: That always seems to be the way when you find something that you're really passionate about, the more you start learning, you realize the depth of something and how much you really don't know. So, like it always, you know, I always find I get into these spirals where you start off with like one, you know, not simple, but one small idea of wanting to learn a language, say, and then, of course, with language comes culture and all these other aspects that you don't think of when you just think of learning a language.
Myrna: Yeah, I know, it's so interesting. Another one of our Toronto Public Library colleagues shared a resource that was specifically about like queer Toronto sign. So it was like specific like signs for like gay bars in Toronto and stuff like that. And it was like, "Oh, I didn't even think that this would be like this subset of language that you would want to take on." And so that was really cool because that's not something you'd link in an overall course, but it was something that, like another person was able to share that kind of deepened my learning. So, yeah, there's definitely always so many facets to stuff.
Mike: Wow, that is fascinating. And I'm going to have to ask you for a whole bunch of links after so that we can can put all these in the episode page so people can check this out as well, because I know I definitely want to. So I wanted to move on to another online course that you've been doing, not through the library. But before we talk about that one, maybe you could talk a bit about your role and where you work for the library.
Myrna: So I am a librarian, but I work with two of Toronto Public Library's Special Collections. So the Merril Collection and the Osborne Collection and the Merril collection is focussed on science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction overall. And Osborne Collection is focussed on early children's books and the history of children's reading and children's books. So those are like... Basically they're not circulating collections. They're collections of kind of unique special books that people have to come and look at. And to some degree with the Merril Collection, but much more with the Osborne collection, a lot of those books are very old. So like dating back to the 15th century. Very old books. And so that's kind of like an area of knowledge that anyone who works with those collections really needs to develop a bit to learn about caring for those books, but also just information about those books that we can pass on to people who come visit the collection and help researchers and students. So my role as librarian, I kind of work on projects related to those collections. I also help out anyone who comes in and wants to research on those collections. Sometimes we will like give presentations to people on various topics. During the pandemic, I've been writing some blog posts to help share about things that digitized from the collections. So that's kind of what I do within TPL.
Mike: And which leads to this online course that you're doing offered from Trinity College Dublin, called The History of the Book in the Early Modern Period: 1450 to 1800. So what have you been learning in that course?
Myrna: So that course it's very interesting. So what it goes into is kind of all these different facets of the book in the early modern period and so it's looking at how were books made, how were books sold, how were books read, what was the influence of mainly the printed book on European politics and culture in that era. So it really goes into like super in-depth stuff about how typefaces were designed, but also things like the types of notes people wrote in the margins of their books. Like, it goes into kind of all the different facets of the important role that books played in culture and some of the things we might not know about how people in that era would have approached books, how they would have understood them, their value. So that's really what it's about. And it's a really great course because it kind of connects into a lot of other resources and projects that libraries around the world are working on to share knowledge about that era of books.
Mike: Does this seem like a course that's focussed a lot towards people who are in the book profession of some sort, or are there a lot of just people taking this of interest? Do you have any idea of who is taking the course?
Myrna: So there was kind of like a little intro post when I first started in the course and a lot of people were already working as like antiquarian book dealers or special collections librarians or scholars. But there were also people who were just kind of interested members of public who wanted to learn more about this. I find the course is actually fairly introductory. So it's kind of interesting how all these people who might already be a bit knowledgeable on the topic are coming in and they're offering their kind of enrichment and knowledge. Pretty much like every section of the course has a discussion section and people will talk about things that they have seen or experienced or their own knowledge. And it's almost a little intimidating to participate sometimes because I'm an early career librarian, so I'm just learning about some of these things, but some of these people have super deep knowledge. But it's a really great asset and it's really great to see all those people discuss it. But I definitely think it starts from a beginner enough level that anyone who has an interest in that history could definitely appreciate it and gain something from it.
Mike: And how does the structure work compared to the sign language course that you've been taking?
Myrna: I would say it's similar-ish in that it's a combination of kind of written-up like almost articles or texts that you learn and then you also view some videos from the instructors of the course. One thing I would say that's a bit different is there are quite creative assignments they basically give you. So there was one assignment where it was like make up your own printer's device, which is essentially like the logo a printer would have had in the early modern period. And they give you kind of like all the little pieces to put together one that would be like, this would represent my printing house if I was an early modern printer. So they're very creative in terms of how they keep you engaged and get you to kind of extend your learning in that way. So that's one really cool thing about it, is that it kind of assignments they come up with. And there's other things where they'll link you to databases and say, just go explore this database of early modern books and bring back what you've kind of learned from it or observations you've made about it. So that's another area where kind of having a mix of more people who are newer to the content and people who are more experienced with the content is really interesting because there can be some really deep insights from people who are already familiar with the content that they'll bring back from the little assignments they set in this course.
Mike: I guess it's nice to know that those elements are in online courses because, you know, a lot of the great learning experiences that I've had in classrooms have not just been from a teacher, but when everyone is learning collectively together and you're learning from the experiences of other people as well. So it's great to hear that these are elements in online courses also. One question I have to ask you, because, of course, you're working from home you're not able to get into these special collections right now, how much does this course really want to make you get your hands on some old books?
Myrna: You know, I actually will say some of me and my colleagues, we've been texting each other and e-mailing each other being like, "We miss the books." That's literally, like, we miss just being to, like, go in and like pull these, like, amazing books off the shelf and look at them and use them in our research. But I kind of think this has like almost calmed to me down a bit in that I'm like looking at all these books from all over the world and I'm getting like all this new content. So it's made me a bit less melancholy about not being able to be with our own collections, though there are some things where I really after I learned about them in the course, I really wanted to go look at our collections. There was one thing about how various - this is super like book nerdy - but like how different versions of Aesop's Fables were illustrated. And I know the Osborne Collection has got a ton of different collections of Aesop's Fables and I was like, oh, now I want to go see and compare ours and see if we have any of the versions talked about in the course. So definitely for some specific things, I want to like follow up and do a little bit of research about what our collection has. But overall, it actually has made me less sad about not being able to be with the books.
Mike: Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear it's been maybe therapeutic in a sense and maybe potentially give you some other ideas for blog posts once you're able to get back in and be with the collections. Maybe I'll just ask you one last thing about this course. And is there any sort of interesting fact that you would really like to tell people or something that you've really learned has that stuck with you from the course?
Myrna: There's so much in there. I think one thing that was very interesting to me and that kind of let me see how we assume people in the past, like we don't even think about how their experiences of life could've been different. One thing is there was a section on readers and they were talking about how in kind of the early modern period, so many people were readers, but they were not writers. So that people, it used to be you could learn to read and you would read the Bible and you would read these different texts, but you wouldn't write. And they were talking about how especially that was for women. And that was really something I wanted to kind of go deeper on and think about a bit more about like what's the implication of that being someone who can read but can't write, can't have an output only input, though obviously you still would have some sort of output, but it wouldn't be one that we'd be able to review nowadays. So that was super interesting to me and just something I hadn't thought about before.
Mike: Yeah. And I guess that would spin off into, you know, at a time when it wasn't easy to have access to printing presses and be able to get your thoughts out there, as anyone can do these days online in any sort, you know, who controls that and and what does that mean about the works that are getting published?
Myrna: Yeah, and I think that's something that's come up in the comments a bit is when they will, in the course, and sometimes people pushed back on this idea, of like looking at books as kind of the popular culture of the era, when really it just was so much more narrow who had access to literacy and then also books as opposed to just like pamphlets or smaller texts. And so we can kind of understand this as one part of culture people might have consumed back then, but it's not nearly close to the kind of mass culture that books are nowadays or the Internet is nowadays, because so many more people have access to that than had access to books and literacy back in the early modern period.
Mike: Well, you've given me a whole lot more research and learning that I want to do so thank you so much for coming on and talking about these courses that you've been doing. It's been really fascinating.
Myrna: It was my pleasure.
Mike: Take care.
Myrna: Bye.