Reflection - Eureka moment? Reactive vs proactive approaches to my work

Mentally welcoming change(?)
Two days ago, I was having a chat with a colleague who had ventured by my office on a small matter. She was asking how I was adjusting to my new position. I shared the usual comments about adjustment but I also told her how I felt marooned in working almost entirely at my desk researching, preparing learning materials, setting up workshops and creating follow up support utilities (ie. blogs, surveys, tipsheets, and wikis) . Yet I noted a feeling of detachment in working on serving the needs of my colleagues. She suggested that I just take a "walk" around the place and get to meet others. She also pointed out to me that to stay put was only reinforcing the idea of the CTL being unapproachable. It seemed so brutally obvious, so brutally true .. but it hadn't occured to me to get up and explore.

Making change happen (?)
So I decided to pursue the matter and set aside some time yesterday to try it. I really had no idea how it would go. To my surprise it took me over three hours to do what I anticipated might take only one maximum. I figured that it could have gone on longer if it hadn't been for a previously scheduled commitment.

As I went around soliciting questions / answering questions.. I became aware of two things. The obvious first one was how important it was to get out and interact - response from others in seeing me was generally very positive. It also became apparent just how many people really were not aware of the role our small department had in supporting them. The second thing I became aware of came about from responding to the many impromptu querries they came up with.

An Aspect of Professionalism revealled?
In answering these I became aware of the depth of my own understanding of elearning. Aligning learning needs with the affordances presented via various web tools. How I was also going to present a possible tool, strategy, or resource to help meet their needs. It occured to me more afterwards, how I was quickly drawing on my past experience with these resources, with these similar questions, with implementing them.. but as well, the reading that I've had on them to put together what I thought were solid, "professional responses". Professional aspect being .. negating self interest (i.e. suggesting more than one strategy or option to address a need), sharing what I knew and in a way that made the material approachable, and making my focus that of the client's needs, not my own. The whole exercise has made me more aware of how important it is to project that to others .. to build trust and confidence .. if one hopes to help someone make a move towards change.

I'm also looking back on what I was doing before .. I was taking a reactive position to faculty needs - limiting it to responding to email, telephone calls, and the rare face to face visit to the office. What I learned here is the equal need for proactivity, reaching out to solicit needs .. and probably just as important, establishing face to face contact to build a report so people get to know me, trust me, build a relationship of confidence in me. It's now got me reflecting on how this can be realized in an online environment (another point of reflection).

Still more questions. Now sold on the need for proactivity ..

• How can I find a balance between the reactive approach thrust upon me each day and the proactive approach that I now know is so useful and important to my work?
• How can I manage to lessen the reactivity side .. and maximize the proactive?
• Am I raising expectations amongst those I met that I can be counted on to address any of their ICT integration needs or issues in the future?
  
• Can I anticipate a need to somehow manage these expectations? Do I need to worry about managing expectations right now?

Activity 2.4 - Criteria for reflective writing

Readings
Moon (2001)
Richards (2005)

Advice to students on good reflective writing.

You need to understand what reflection is first, what its importance is to helping you learn. You likely already do it in a "non academic" common sense way , to think about something in more detail but often in a free thought or unstructured way (i.e. without a specific purpose or reason to do so) (Moon, 2001).

However we want you to practice more academic based reflection. Why? Academic based reflection is more guided, more purposeful. Reflection here is seen as realizing a deeper understanding of things, to connect that understanding with other things you know or to even challenge what you may already know. It often involves a critical evaluation of what you know to come up with more "sound", more "grounded, perhaps more confident judgements (Habermas) of things you have experienced and have come to "know". The alternative is to simply understand things in a simple, unconnected, isolated manner (Moon - surface learning). It can be seen not as a static "one off" process but part of a cycle featuring action then thought; a process of acting then refining your understanding of what it is you've done .. to then possibly repeat that action but with adjustments made that are based on your new understanding of the action (Kolb - experiential learning) . That process can be repeated to become an "activity reflection" cycle (Richards) directed to improving your understanding of things which in turn help move you closer to realizing a desired goal, overcoming an obstacle or solving a problem.

Put into the context of reflective writing, writing takes on new meaning. Writing means summarizing something. The content for that summary might be a thought, theory, experience or feeling. The act of summarizing invites you to interpret and personalize this content further. Reflecting on this writing invites you to relate these ideas to previous experiences to further personalize them or give them more meaning. You may find yourself going back to the same writing again and again, each time reviewing and refining it because your ideas have been changed by new experiences or ideas that impact on your understanding of the initial idea. These may test or challenge your earlier views causing a complete rewrite of them or they may invite you to refine the wording of them still more. Over time, you realize a deeper understanding of your initial idea. All of the writing, reviewing and editing also becomes a record of something potentially more useful to you - a deeper understanding of your learning processes.

This reflective writing process can be broadened through the inclusion of your peers. Their review or questioning of your work can also draw your attention to common themes or contradictions in your ideas. These too can cause you to clarify or refine your understanding of ideas.

Summary - Activity-reflection e-portfolios (Richards)

Resource
Activity-reflection eportfolios - An approach to the problem of effectively integrating ICTs in teaching and learning, Richards (2005)

Very interesting read.
Richards presents the idea of using eportfolios not as a simple repository for artefacts but as a means to realizing an activity reflection cycle with students. A cycling and recycling between activity and reflection on the process of completing a project, course or activity. More specifically a activity reflection cycle that causes the student to examine perhaps the various hurdles faced, identified and overcome in completing a project, or solving a problem. Very similar to Kolb's experiential loop or spiral, Schon's "reflection on action" but grounded in a context for application and organized / guided to a certain degree in practice (i.e. via questions or format)

The idea being that the learner may discover theory, procedures, or content not simply through reading but through a need to apply these to realize a meaningful project / purpose and then reflect on it. The depth of their understanding is challenged by this need to apply it to the problem. Note that reflections on the task and subtask is encouraged not just at the project's completion or even at the end of key stages of the project but before starting a task and while completing a task.

These can be realized via guided focus questions. Possible questions might encourage focusing on how they might solve or have ended up solving a problem, identifying the skills they had to learn to overcome a problem, or comparing their final work with exemplary examples.

Evidence of good reflection in the eyes of Richards?.

• responses with higher order learning / thinking / knowledge construction
• responses that related to practical experience or application of theory
• responses that were supported by references and/or well informed arguments

Example of a simple eportfolio framework?
A template with headings. Each heading with subheadings .. The student is asked to produce artefacts that support the needs described alongside or in the subheadings and are then stored and hyperlinked to these subheadings. Then the student needs to support the work with an overall review of the portfolio with a focus on reflections about

• key stages of development / learning
• their artefacts of learning

.. but the process doesn't end there. Final reflections are then posted for sharing with others which invites more opportunities for collective learning and creation of a learning community. From my perspective, this also invites the possible identification of "good practices" and debate about most effective "learning / problem solving strategies"