Thing 19

OK I'm going to do a run down of what i'm doing now because of participating in cpd23.

• Blogging - I hadn't blogged before cpd23 because I didn't think I had anything interesting to say to anyone. It turns out that actually some people have read it and that I'm not as bothered about how many people read it (or not) as I thought I would be. I'm finding it a very useful tool to record my thoughts. My Senior Librarian has asked if we can use a blog to share information between the LRC staff. Although I haven't looked into this yet, it sounds like a very good idea.
• Twitter - I am trying to Tweet more, I rediscovered my Twitter account in the summer after attending the CoFHe Conference and I am checking it everyday but not necessarily posting anything. I've also started favouriting things I think would be useful to go back to in the future.
• Reflective practice - primarily driven by the fact i'm doing my Chartership. I know it is good practice and am trying to do it more in the workplace to help make the service better.
• LinkedIn - I joined this a few weeks ago and have sporadically dipped in and out of it since. I really like the LinkedIn Today feature, I've joined some groups but not yet participated in any discussions.
• Google Calendar - I'm still not using it, as I have Outlook at work and an electronic calendar on my phone. I've ditched the paper based diaries though and think I need an iPhone now. My phone is old and doesn't do apps - iPhone 5 possibly in October, my birthday in November.....
• Google docs - I've started to use this to help virtualise myself! I am using it for back up of personal docs, I probably won't use it at work as I don't have any need to.

Reflective practice

Well it sounds very simple in theory but it isn't. I've heard a great deal about it over the last few months, I've registered to Charter earlier this year so reflective practice is becoming a very big part of my life, I've been to the CDG NE reflective practice workshop and now there is this Thing!


Do - Review - Plan or What? - So what? - Now what?


I can do the do / what and the Plan / Now what bits fine.


The Review / So what bit is where it gets complicated for me, I can state what happened and make comments about whether it was useful to me. I then start to justify my comments because So what? implies to me that I need to. Yet if you look at the Evaluate it points mentioned in Thing 5 (and these were the same points given at the CDG NE event) none of them ask for justification. They are just asking for opinion.


The evaluate it points are:
What did you learn?
What did you enjoy?
What worked well?
What, if anything, went wrong?
What would you change?
What (potential) impact could this have in your workplace?


So this is where I get confused - do I justify my comments or not? I am reflecting, it is my opinion so I would say I can't be wrong even if you disagree with me. I don't feel very comfortable with that though because I want you to know the reason behind my opinion, it might help you understand my position.


Regardless of this, I am plodding along with it with the hope that I will get better at it and eventually be good at it. I have tried to reflect quickly so that I don't lose the gut reaction, follow the evaluate it points (possibly not as strictly as you should) and my blog, in addition to being something I've been asked to do as part of cpd23, is also giving me good experience at trying to write reflectively. I haven't gone back to do any critical evaluation yet, that will be started in the next few weeks I hope, I have at least got lots of information to be critical about.