Thing 17 - Reflective Practice

I've chosen to to write about how I can use reflective practice in my Library experience because as I am doing my Chartership (slowly), it is a really useful tool.

At work we have to justify everything we do, so being able to talk about it reflectively is the best way of getting the message across about what I have been doing.  As an example, we have been preparing some Modules to go onto our VLE (Blackboard) covering mainly Harvard.  I have had to do Module 1, which is the "Getting Started" Module.  It's OK writing one of these things, but if I can't explain why I have put in it what I have, then quite rightly I could be questioned about it.  So if I was writing reflectively about it I suppose I would say something along the lines of;

I have created Module 1 for our students to help them get started with Harvard Referencing.  I could have just sat down & written it, but there were certain things I needed to take into consideration. What were my aims and objectives?  What as I trying to achieve?  What did I want the students to achieve? How was I going to set it out.  How was I going to see the learning outcomes? - to name a few.  I did ponder these for a while, and started with the aims and objectives.  Once I had sorted these out, the rest fell into place a little easier.  I was worried about my skills using Blackboard, as up to now I haven't used it to it's full potential at all, but as the saying goes "Practice makes perfect", and once I got going and with the help of colleagues who have more experience with it, I found I could do exactly what I wanted.  My first draft was ..... well poor, but I wanted to get down on paper, so to speak, my initial ideas.  Then came the fun bit, making it how I really wanted it.  I kept showing it to colleagues, because advise is the best thing ever when you are working on something new.  After the first draft I realised it was too wordy.  This was level 1 and was not supposed to but the student off, they are supposed to complete this and move onto the next Module without wanting to run a mile.  After quite a bit of tweaking to make it more attractive, more readable, and even have a fun element in it, I was finally satisfied it could be published for the students to use.  The feedback has been amazing from tutors and one student has already completed it - it was only launched a few days ago - and they have written a very complementary comment on the Padlet wall I set up.  Time will tell if I have got it right, but it can be altered if need be later on.  I am relieved about the comments so far, as this was something new to me and I have a nasty habit of doubting my own abilities to do things like this, but I'm more than happy now to have another go and do Module 5 in the next few weeks!

I probably need to work on making it sound more professional, another nasty habit is to write it as I would say it.  I could probably pad it out more if needed, but I think it says everything I would say.

Carol