Interdepartmental Interaction on 'Information and change'

On November 16, 2007, MULISSA has organised an interaction programme with the students of Journalism and Mass Communication on an interesting topic “Information and Change”. Both the disciplines, ie., Library and Information Science; and Journalism and Mass Communication, have many things in common. Both of them
• are information based and service oriented professions,
• have seen a paradigm shift due to the impact of ICTs in recent years,
• are professional courses, and
• have based on the philosophy of disseminating information to the users.

A programme has been chalked out to have a discussion between students of both the departments. The objectives of the programme are as follows:
• To foster the relationships between the department in general and students in particular.
• To promote the communication skills of students by giving an opportunity to express themselves on their field of study.
• To expose the students to the art of participating in a controlled discussion group.
• To develop the skills of group participation.


The modus operandi of the programme is as follows:
• The programme will be held at first year MLISc Hall of Department of Library and Information Science, University of Mysore, Mysore.
• The programme will be on the Friday, November 16, 2007. The programme starts at 3 PM. It is intended to close the interaction session by 4.30 PM.
• There will be two groups of students (not exceeding 15 members on each side) representing the two departments.
• There will be two moderators – one each from each department - during the interactions. The moderators have to initiate the discussion with their introductory remarks. They have to guide the discussion by way of asking questions, critically commenting on a statement, instigating the students to speak by their comments, etc. They have full freedom to control student speaker if they find it so necessary.
• After moderators’ introduction, a student representative from both the side will speak for 5 minutes each to introduce their subject field to the other group.
• The interaction would start after the approval of the moderators. Any student from any group can claim their turn to speak. The sequence will however be determined by the moderators. A student speaker can talk for a maximum of two minutes only. This restriction is to just ensure that all the participants get an opportunity to speak.
• The following guidelines may be followed by the students:
o They speak only with the permission from the moderators.
o They speak only for two minutes, unless extended by the moderators.
o They speak only on the subject of interaction.
o They are advised not to repeat others point and waste their time of presentation.
o It is advised to prepare well before coming to the discussion on various aspects of the subject of discussion.
o Providing factual information if any is encouraged. However, PPTs should not be used.
o It is not a debate and no prizes are given. Students are not supposed to enter with an argument with other students.
o They should speak in turns.