Professor Jenna Hartel, an associate professor from the University of Toronto, presented a talk to staff members of the Information Science department on 14 October 2021, regarding her work and research on creative teaching approaches.

Prof. Hartel loves to teach Library and Information Science and has developed a reputation for her creative approaches. In her talk, she described three pedagogical strategies that can be used with the Information Studies classroom and beyond. The topics included: a turnkey activity that can be applied immediately to broader frameworks and philosophies of teaching that are aligned with this particular moment in history. The session further included:

• Using drawing to study our field’s major concepts, and a social and embodied way – a dance! –  to help students analyze these big ideas together (Hartel, 2014; Hartel & Nguyen, 2018).
• An example of organizing teaching around a singular vision, so that class activities, assignments, and themes “hang together,” thereby giving students a coherent framework for engaging the information field and its professions. 
• Contemplative pedagogy, that is, educational methods that quiet the mind and cultivate a capacity for deepened awareness, concentration, compassion, and insight (Zajonc, 2013). Mindfulness meditation in the classroom (Hartel, Nguyen, & Guzik, 2017); creative deliverables (Hartel, Noone & Oh, 2017); and an assignment (Hartel, 2021, video), that extends gratitude and microaffections across our field, will serve as examples.

Furthermore, Prof. Hartel also provided a tour of BIBBLEium, her YouTube channel that provides multimedia resources about Library and Information Science. (Curious educators may wish to glimpse, in advance, the Tiny Videos series which features 15-30 second visions of major ideas in Information Studies and/or the What Makes This Paper Great? series that delves more deeply into landmark papers.)

Prof. Hartel’s biography reads as follows:

Jenna Hartel is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. She teaches mainly in the area of Library and Information Science (LIS). Her work aims to be an imaginative, energetic, and committed form of intervention. Prof. Hartel believes a different character of LIS is possible, one that moves beyond pragmatic concerns with information resources and technologies to consider positive and upbeat information phenomena across the entire human experience. Prof. Hartel has committed herself to promoting that vision through research into information within leisure, pleasurable, or profound contexts.  To the same end, her ideas are expressed and packaged in non-standard forms of presentation that are playful and accessible to all. She hopes to be a catalyst, endeavouring to inspire and encourage the field of LIS to explore new areas, import new methods, break out of traditional boxes in which it conducts its research and teaching, and entertain new possibilities.

We appreciate the time that Prof. Hartel took to present to our staff members, and hope to be able to implement some of her very innovative teaching approaches!