Mary Wilkins Jordan
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Teaching Philosophy
I believe strongly that teachers work for the students, and owe them their best efforts in providing quality education. I also think students should be involved in their own learning, without waiting for teachers. These goals can be combined in the classroom environment by creating a variety of different learning opportunities, including lecturing, some group work and pair work, learning outside the classroom, making multi-media part of the learning experience. Involving the student in a variety of intellectual activities will help them get more out of the class. Improving student's writing skills is always important, as they will need good writing skills regardless of their career decision.
Research Interests
I am primarily interested in studying Public library administration and training, focusing on what the academic world can do to help support the research and development needs of practitioners. I am also interested in international and comparative libraries, examining how different cultures have set up their libraries (particularly public libraries) and what we can learn from each other to improve our services. I am also interested in work being done to close the digital divide - a natural function for public libraries.