Thing 5: Reflective Practice

I am not really sure what to say about reflective practice. I have no experience of it in a professional sense, due to the fact I am still studying, and I only have a small amount of experience from my degree course, where I had to write a reflective report for one of my modules. I feel like I already do reflect a lot (which I often call "overthinking") but not in a way I could call a "practice" or in any way a structured, useful exercise.

I have reservations about reflective practice in terms of how time-consuming it could potentially be, although I appreciate that adopting a reflective practice attitude is useful. The structure of reflective practice will, I think, be especially so.

I am going to use the following questions and apply them to my participation in cpd23 thus far:

What did you learn?

So far I have learned about some online tools I didn't know about. I have started participating in the library-related blog world and have met some new people (although as I'm behind, that's actually a week 7 activity-related thing!) I have also realised I get into habits online and this makes me more closed to new things, which is not good.

What did you enjoy?

I enjoyed reading new blogs the most. It's nice to have the incentive to do some exploring online. I have really enjoyed reading other interpretations of the tasks. I also, surprisingly, quite enjoyed considering the concept of my "personal brand". It's an interesting topic of debate, it seems!

I am also really looking forward to the coming activities.

What worked well?

RSS feeds! I should have explored them before. I am still not sure I will continue, but they are useful. I think this activity as a whole worked very well and encouraged me to stop being a lazy internet being!

What, if anything, went wrong?

Nothing has gone wrong so far, hopefully this will continue to be the case.

What would you change?

I would probably try and make more time for the activities. Life always gets in the way. For example, today I spent until 3pm applying for a job, running around trying to find my degree certificate!

In terms of the actual course, I think it's very well-structured and I'm learning things both about how I work and how things, especially online things, work. I've found it difficult to keep up with lots of blogs due to the sheer volume! I wouldn't change that though...it's great that so many people are getting involved.

What (potential) impact could this have in your workplace?

I'm currently applying for jobs so it's useful when jobs have some sort of mention of "professional development" in the job specification.

In terms of practical uses, I'm certainly keen on using technology in any job I end up doing. I'm very keen on working in education, and Web 2.0 technology use in education is definitely an area of interest. I think doing the course has even showed me a new use for Twitter, through the cpd23 hashtag - an example of Web 2.0 being used in an educational context.