Curiously enough I neglected to upload this to my eporfolio! To be honest I think we deserved this badge, we put in a good amount of work to the National Forum pilot. I'd like to thank my colleagues on the HECA Library Committee for the support and collaboration.
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At the DCU National Digital Learning Centre hosted unconference on eportfolios it was great to hear the voices of people who have been thinking and writing on the topic for a long time, people such as Lisa Donaldson, Michael Seery and Orna Farrell. I can't seem to find my notes from the day but in terms of headline takeaways I have this:
While I think I could really like the collaborative writing process I'm not sure we did a good job of starting the article we did. I don't know if that is one I can particularly contribute to or I would enjoy reading. The video below is for the previous iteration. Preparing for a "referencing, citing, and research" class with design students you have to feel that these are an awful lot of different things being shoved together! In general I try and like to focus rather more on what we cite and reference than the mechanics. How we think about information sources is probably a better way to conceptualise it. I think we could easily do a whole module on this in nearly any undergraduate degree to its improvement.
I also think we should do this with teaching strategies that have a good chance of working.
I admit it: this project has not featured a lot of reflection from me, and certainly no deep reflection. I got the impression as the project progressed that this was intended by the NF. I’m not apologetic however. I needed to catalogue this activity for myself. And to see what emerged from it myself, and then to see what could be codified. From the beginning when discussing this with colleagues, and I talked with other groups and gave some support also, that it was crucial that what we produced was useful for us.
In my work I am mindful of the tension between a public portfolio and a reflection which is, by nature, revealing and difficult in public. Jenny Moon discussed at this workshop the concept of learners delivering what was required in reflection. I’m often worried about the “performance” of reflection also. And as I perceive the eporfolio as being a tool for the performance of a digital/online identity in a professional context I don’t think it is an appropriate space for the kind of professional reflective practice that the main workshop activity involved. This image contains most of the self reflection in this portfolio!This mirrors the tension in a student’s eportfolio between a portfolio for learning and one for assessment. It is not possible to achieve both aims honestly and this is largely accepted in the field. I was taken by Helen Beetham’s concern that the learner has their working portfolio in a walled garden with a route out. Her work on digital identity in the modern mediated world has been important to me (as has danah boyd’s) and both have influenced how I think about eportfolios for professionals. And as with the statement above about student work I believe that the eportfolio as a professional development tool and as a tool to manage your digital identity is not a suitable place for deep, critical, self-reflection. I think Michael Seery expresses this well. It is however a good place to put your statement of practice, policy, and your ideas based on this self reflection. It is product, rather than process, that a professional CPD focused eportfolio focuses on. To this end I will be proposing to this group a continuation of the pilot scheme with a real focus on our own ends. I intend to support the group in exporting their portfolio work so far to other domains and possibly systems. Many of us have used domains, as I have here, that echo the aims of the project rather than our identities. And I then intend to collaborate with the group to get a better sense of what the realisable CPD aims of this portfolio can be, taking in not only the teaching world which is the pilot, but also the information professional. This should lead to some publishable work. It was a great privilege to get this opportunity, hosted by l2l in DIT Bolton St. to attend a workshop with Jenny Moon. She, in a way, started out this teaching and reflection thing for me c.13 years ago via a workshop I attended in Griffith College arranged by Dr. Fiona O’Riordan then working part time in lecturer support. I was looking for a real insight into how much, if at all I had grown. I also retain few specific memories of the actual workshop! Plus I have always struggled with reflection and self-awareness.
It was interesting for me to see how she introduced the concept of reflection and the specific focuses she brought. And also the literature that she conspicuously didn’t refer to. And again, as with all the “structured non-accredited” that we have here, it’s always a pleasure to see how another person teaches, to be a student again. The largest part of the workshop was the case study on four successive iterations of a reflection. I enjoyed it, and was interested in how it revealed the process of self-examination and how self-examination can lead to compassion when continued, rather than mere empathy. Though I think I was the only person who saw it quite in that light at the workshop. For example others took the case study as ending up with the subject of the examination being placed in the centre, whereas for me, the author (doctor) was at the centre but having reevaluated their experience and empathising with the patient they were able to relate the patient’s experience to their own autobiography. This to me is more realistic, empathetic, and capable of producing compassion than an elision of the author for a not possible patient or student centred approach. This is, in part, why I have appreciated the experience of being a student several times during this project: it helps me empathise and relate my students’ experience with my own. Of less interest and impact to me was the element Jenny felt was most important, and that we should take away and use: the epistimology of thought and learning section. I suppose we should have been an ideal audience for this being librarians and currently quite obsessed with fake news, media literacy, criticality etc. I need to take a further look at these materials to see what insight I can gain. I have a huge bias against psychological “types” I admit. And the process of categorising brief statements into different levels of critical perception seemed quite arbitrary and, divorced of concept, not hugely useful to me. I don’t think you can make a deep distinction based on keywords popping out of sentances. It needs much more and deeper investigation. I will do this however, as I will review the case study that she did as I may use it with my RPD group next year. Group workshop on new design programme learning outcomes. While it is always a learning experience to work on documents in areas you are not expert in, what was most informative here was the process of working in a group on it and meshing our skills and experience together. It certainly took up some time: we spent most of a day on these learning outcomes.
I think that this process should become part of our normal working practice and I forwarded Gilly Salmon’s Carpe Diem learning design workshop materials to my team leader in the hope that we could incorporate this in teaching and learning. Perhaps we could become an example of best practice in curriculum design for the college? Discussing this with colleagues I really feel there is a potential to be more efficient with time by front loading the work collaboratively like this. Outcomes were much more robust, more concise, more thought through and less likely to cause trouble further down the line. While it was tough going at times the achievement was rewarding and the overall experience enjoyable and useful for everyone in the room. I did learn quite a bit. For a start I had always thought my partner had a high breathing rate – she breathes at twice the rate I do – whereas I in fact am an outlier: I breathe at rest 7 times a minute. This is not normal (it doesn’t mean I’m super fit unfortunately). I also really relished the chance to learn and relearn some skills and also to discuss issues that have occurred while administering first aid to help me problem solve in the future. The trainer is also going to have hour long monthly sessions on topics which I really look forward to. Full day first aid training. Always interesting to be a student in a formal setting. It reminded me that the democratic classroom I try to create is inherently problematized by the formal classroom setting. I asked to go to the bathroom! I also didn’t like the rhythm of the day being dictated by a video, the prioritisation of a kind of rote learning, and the assessment instrument. The nature of a FETAC PHECC qualification is quite prescriptive, industrial, punch card (with no hanging chads), and box ticking. Hence the multiple choice. I also found the huge use of “mnemonic” acronyms irritating. Firstly it turns out I don’t particularly find them helpful. Secondly it distracts from what I think should be the content and a better way of explaining them. Thirdly it also confuses as non-obvious, or not particularly appropriate terms are chosen to create the acronym – the cart is driving the horse. For example the SAMPLE acronym is one I failed to remember in the test. – (Google snippet here) “SAMPLE” is a first aid mnemonic acronym used for a person's medical assessment. ... The questions that are asked to the patient include Signs & Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Past medical history, Last oral intake, and Events leading up to present injury. Past medical history (Past? Really? Sh.uld be medical history), Last oral intake? Signs are not symptoms and it should therefore be SSAMMOE. Better still the group should be educated in the reasoning and role play a scenario. Wouldn’t it be interesting to then follow that through with potential problems from the kinds of information given and the deficits? As the day featured so much content delivered on screen I found my attention wandering. It’s a simple lesson to learn but one that we need reminding of until we restlessly root out the content delivery mode of education from the classroom. It’s lazy and unengaging. It’s required by licensing and awarding bodies however. Often the old school professional bodies were obsessed by information and less with suitability of the graduate as a person. I do know this has changed but I am reminded of things like the Law Society’s tedious rote learning examinations that they are now reconsidering. My copy of the new edition of Brookfield’s becoming a critically reflective teacher arrives. I actually read the introduction with mounting excitement and a sense of possibilities. These really are areas that I want(ed) to examine with groups I work with.
I was particularly struck by his insight into power and discourse in teaching. Applying this thinking to reflective practice, reflection, and portfolios is a topic that has long tempted me and one which I think I will not be able to resist after this. I fully admit to not having read this before, despite using his “four lenses”. As usual it was really instructive to go back to the original text. Not to be all old fashioned librarian on it, but I learn more and more, every year, how important a commitment to scholarship is. Group workshop on new design programme learning outcomes. While it is always a learning experience to work on documents in areas you are not expert in, what was most informative here was the process of working in a group on it and meshing our skills and experience together. It certainly took up some time: we spent most of a day on these learning outcomes.
I think that this process should become part of our normal working practice and I forwarded Gilly Salmon’s Carpe Diem learning design workshop materials to my team leader in the hope that we could incorporate this in teaching and learning. Perhaps we could become an example of best practice in curriculum design for the college? Discussing this with colleagues I really feel there is a potential to be more efficient with time by front loading the work collaboratively like this. Outcomes were much more robust, more concise, more thought through and less likely to cause trouble further down the line. While it was tough going at times the achievement was rewarding and the overall experience enjoyable and useful for everyone in the room. |
AuthorI'm a librarian and educator interested in learning, information, and culture. Archives
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