Meet the Blogger

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Hello from Ohio

Hello Reader, and welcome to my blog. I am Liz Grauel, an final-semester MLIS student at Dominican University and small business owner living in Dayton, Ohio. I have a BA in Economics from the University of Dayton and studied for my MS and MBA in Economics at Wright State University. Since 2011 I've been working in the software industry in roles ranging from engineering management to product management to marketing, and while completing my degree I've been working full time as a consultant, providing marketing and writing services to small organizations. 

I live in an old, creaky house with my partner, Steve, and our pets. Our cat, Pete, is nearly 8 years old, and we have a 7 month old puppy named Orla. I am an insatiable reader, avid (though unskilled) gardener, and amateur cocktail inventor.

LIS meets EDU

For several years I've volunteered for educational programs and institutions, including stints as an industry fellow for the Dayton Regional STEM Center and, currently, as an associate board member for the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. In these roles I've helped develop middle grade and high school lessons, supported community outreach, and helped to incorporate open access resources into curriculum.

The fulfillment from these and other community activities prompted me to join the MLIS program with the goal of starting a new career in academic librarianship and directing my scholarship towards social justice, digital equity, and critical literacy. Although it's more relevant to K-12 education, I enrolled in LIS-724 with the goal of gaining skills I can adapt for higher education. I'm especially excited for it because just this afternoon I accepted an offer for a dream job as an academic librarian - specifically focused on digital pedagogy! I'm feeling kind of like this about the serendipitous timing of my final class and my new career:

Image Source: https://twitter.com/schittscreek

Technically Speaking

The title of my blog is "Technically Speaking", which is a fun play on words and a pun for the ways I interact with technology for work and education. In both realms a great deal of my communication and work products are facilitated through technology. I'm too old to be a digital native, but I'm a long-time resident of the digital world with deep interest in the ways digital technologies change information and society. I've shaped much of my work as a student around issues of social justice, equity, and social informatics around this interest. Last fall I even had opportunity to publish a review of The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online in Education for Information - I'm super proud of it!

While I've been working in the software industry, completing a fully-online degree program, and thinking and writing about technology for years, I strive to lead a fairly 'analog' life most of the time. I see most technology as a tool and some of it as a distraction. While I love a good Netflix binge, outside of work and school I usually spend very little time at a computer or on my phone. I think I have a very healthy relationship with technology and have found ways to integrate it into my life to make it better and more enjoyable.

My major uses of technology today are for communicating with clients and developing marketing resources in my professional life, and for engaging in all things MLIS related: communication, both written and through Zoom, reading, writing, and completing assignments. In my new role this summer I will be continuing to use technology for work, and also supporting students and faculty in evaluating, integrating, and using digital tools in the production of knowledge.

As a new face to the field of education at this level, I have so many questions that I'm hoping to hear from readers about. Where are you learning about new education technologies? How concerned are you for your students' privacy? What do you wish you'd known when you started out?  I am very excited for all of the learning that is yet to come.