Activity 3.1 - personal & professional development objectives

What have I learned about my strengths and weaknesses?

Weaknesses?
On the whole I'm most vulnerable in a few key areas... researching new developments, issues and academic findings stands out as the most pressing one. When I think about it, I'm more of a "handson" learner .. and thus I tend to avoid it or at the very least only "do" it when something becomes topical enough that it requires learning more about it in formal ways. I'm not one to devote time to do it on a regular basis (and I'm now really curious how others address the same need for it) but the exercise of doing a detailed review of my job description made it pretty obvious that my current strategy won't be enough. I also realized the importance of promoting effective community building - something that I highly value and yet I haven't committed time and resources to learning more on how to effectively realize it in ages and certainly not much in the way of realizing it online.

It's now looking pretty obvious that in addressing these two shortcomings, my game as an Education Technology Specialist is raised .. and it should help feed the other "stronger cards in my hand".

Strengths?
I really wanted to avoid declaring myself an expert of anything. I'm not fond of the term because I don't consider it something that anyone should really be"annointing themselves with. Perhaps with the formal recognition of my peers on the same topic, I would feel more comfortable using the term.. but that hasn't happened anywhere often enough nor with much fanfare for me to do it. I've only learned since being hired how I have a reputation for making and using learning objects effectively. As a result, I managed to convince myself that perhaps I could be bold enough to apply the term "expert" for my effective use of technology / projects in teaching and learning. But only after carefully reviewing it and even still, I'm bound to be brown nosed by someone else out there. My grounds? A now 20 year period of relatively uninterrupted experience with and increased understandng of the use of technology in teaching and learning.

The matter of comparing myself with my peers brought up a number of other interesting problems and unearthed another set of issues. Our rather small department hardly gives me much of anyone to compare myself with and to go outside the University, I'd be hard pressed to know others of our ilke who I could meet to compare notes. Which raises the issue of professional "isolation" and the need to make a conscious effort to overcome this. Thus the only really viable option seems to be online communities. This theme is emerging more and more.

Reflection - Activity 3.1 My own template for PDP

By completing the pdp grid, I became really aware of the challenges of doing a deep review of my current job. In the process I've got a more intimate knowledge of the demands and skills required of me, but equally important, the expectations others may have of me.

I was very aware of a sort of distillation process taking place. I started with my job description. This seemed only logical to me because the job is relatively new for me. I set to work at mining it for a list of skills attitudes and needs ... which led to monster list (about 60 in all). That raised concerns about what sort of an animal I might be realizing for myself - one that could be overwhelming and unmanageable for the purposes of the course. .. so I sought out some objectivity. Threw a bit of a plea to Anne. She provided some valuable feedback on my concerns and my work so far - essentially offering guidance on how I might take what I had already and move forward with it. I did by somehow paring the many items down to a manageable number via typing and sorting them in Excel, then rewriting them so they were general enough, yet still meaningful.

Via the process, came a bit of a revelation on just how much of the job really involves "people skills" rather than "tech or research skills".Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising. I've realized that a good portion of my work has to do with leading or encouraging and modelling how to realize change. I'm also realizing the importance of making that process so transparent that its open to scrutiny by others. I think that is a personal value that was there before but I'm now seeing how important it is in a professional context.

I also had some concerns about my focus just on my work and how this might marginalise any opportunity to incorporate personal development. However, I'm now seeing how almost all of these general categories that I've come up with can be equally important in promoting that personal development as well.

Now off to producing my "personal development" objectives.

Reflection - PDP needs analysis proves to be difficult

PDP needs analysis proved to be more difficult than I had imagined it might be. I found myself swimming in too much choice. I'm leaning towards making the main focus of it my new job. I sense that this would be a natural focus for most any other person in my situation. However, I'm also aware of how a review of these areas risks moving away from personal development ..This challenges what I thought was the importance I place on a holistic view of things. This was something that I learned about myself in the life coaching sessions I had earlier this year.

It seems I have some more thinking to do.

Summary - eFolio Minnesota for Lifewide & Lifelong Learning

eFolio article from Minnesota was very informative.. I had a sense that the H808 course was modelling its approach on the Univ of Minnesota's eFolio initiative AND drawing on the research findings to improve upon it.

Key items that stood out for me?

Process of efolio development
experimentation / living document / archiving

In short, experimentation on what can be added, what should be added, in what form should it should take, and what structure might it take... but also key to it is having a chance to share ideas with peers (getting feedback, learning about other approaches, etc.) to sort out what its purpose is (and it can be multiple). Once this has been sorted out, the portfolio becomes a living document .. something to be added to.

Realizing Integrity
Ties into audience and projecting authenticity. An integration of both the professional & personal really helps realize this. I read this to mean displaying one's underlying values & how they come out in both one's professional / personal worlds. Perhaps best realized through the selection / display of diverse forms of evidence from all spheres of one's life.

Variety of uses
Impressive variety of common uses
- six main functions
* educational planning
* documenting knowledge, skills & abilities
* tracking development
* finding a job
* evaluating a course

Changing roles for users
How these roles can switch over time and even be concurrent. For example one can be a student (studying something) and a teacher (working in the day time) at the same time... which means being able / encouraged to draw in volunteer / community development work as well as one's professional work into the portfolio.

The concept of lifelong AND lifewide learning
I was aware of lifelong learning but I had never heard of the concept of "lifewide" learning. I interpret this to mean a holistic review of all aspects of my life - personal and professional development.

Critical need for Institutional Support
Research outlined the important need for the institution to promote collaboration between students in the development of their portfolios (something that most students found invaluable to their development). and to also support the "presentation" of the portfolio concept. It also needed to provide some sort of framework to make the task easier for learners to manage. Curiously enough, the eFolio made no effort to promote planning with it (which led to a suggestion that it should review this).

Good source of sample eportfolios
Especially useful for modelling how three different "users" could shape eportfolios using the same fundamental structure - students / educators / career (example - http://www.jasonschoch.efoliomn1.com/ )

Reflection - Colleague - involved in creating a PDP and eportfolio

Professional Colleague Danny Munnerley is completing an MA in Creative Media Practice from Bournemouth University.

It wouldn't normally be such a big deal except when I took a brief look at the program, I was taken aback by how much it seemed to model a good many things already presented in H808. It looks as if he`ll be doing a combination of “Action Research” and “professional development planning”. The same sort of PDP where you assemble evidence and conduct frequent reflection on that evidence (both on your own and with colleagues) to help you realize an eportfolio and forward looking plan.

Interesting to see this in action and in another context. The course may provide me with an outsider's view of eportfolios / pdp and professional practice that's being promoted in HE in the UK.