Blogs and educating the eflective practitioner

Preview:

DESCRIPTION

This presentation is about using blogs in higher education as reflective journals. It applies blogging to developing Donald Schon's concept of the reflective practitioner and his idea of the practicum as a ‘virtual world, relatively free of the pressures, distractions, and risks of the real one, to which, nevertheless it refers. It stands in the intermediate space between the practice world, the ‘lay world’ of ordinary life, and the esoteric world of the academy’ (Schon, 1987 p37). This is a space to build a community of practice, where the processes of problem solving, experimentation, coaching and building a professional repertoire of experiences can be undertaken. Blogs can act as the ‘glue’ to hold these activities together, acting as a reflective commentary on the practitioner’s growth. My argument is that blogs provide a perfect vehicle for reflection and critical self-awareness, and as such they provide the possibility of what I term the eflective practitioner, because of their unique qualities that raise them above traditional learning journals. The key reasons for this are that they map the learning journey in real time; they are deeply personal, giving a whole person view; they use rich media that becomes searchable and reconfigurable using tagging; they are portable and easy to access; they encourage dialogue, interaction with an audience and peer group feedback; and they are emotional and playful too. They also give great insights into how learners learn, articulating how experience is transformed into learning. you can see more on this at my blog at http//eflections.edublogs.org

Citation preview

the e-flective practitioner

blogs and educating

the guru:Donald Schon

the idea:the

reflective practitioner

the practicum

‘The practicum is a virtual world, relatively free of the pressures, distractions, and risks of the real one, to which, nevertheless it refers. It stands in the intermediate space between the practice world, the ‘lay world’ of ordinary life, and the esoteric world of the academy’ Schon, 1987, p37

communities of practice

what is the practicum about?

problem solving

experimentation

coaching

building the repertoire

why reflect?

‘Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.’

Boud, Cohen and Walker 1985

where have I been?

where am I now?

where am I going?

reflection-on-action

reflection-in-action

reflection-before-action

why blog?

the industry is doing it

to upload

from download

culture

shift

building a collaborative learning community

blogs and educating the eflective practitioner

why do they work?

map the learning journey

real time

personal expression

whole

person

view

rich media links

images

video

mashable

tagged

searchable archive

portable

easy to access

dialogue

playful

emotional

interactionwithan audience

peer group feedback

blog buddies

small groups commit to read & comment on each others blogs

connected

knowledge

all this makes for

learning how learners learn

deep

reflection

articulating experience into learning

blog

reflectionabsorption

field testing

experiencepractice

adding to the repertoire

new concepts

theeflectivelearning cloud

privacy

who sees it?ll

self disclosure

netiquette

ethics

private

public

vs

professional not confessional

assessment

assess process

not product

‘the assessment of secondary material is usually the preferable choice’ Moon 2006

issues?

quality

language

staff time

access points

benefits

group identity

collaborative community

document workflow

online workbook

‘warts and all’

reflective analysis

organise thoughts

‘The blogs are brilliant, it is great to read what everyone is doing, quite addictive, and I must start to write more on mine..’extract from student blog

conclusions

inside view

insight

informal

feedback

authentic

archive

always on

mapping the journey

connected knowingprocess not product

real time

collaborationdeep insights

professional not confessional

final thoughts

‘Harry stared at the stone basin. The contents had returned to their original silvery white state,

swirling and rippling beneath his gaze. “What is it?” Harry asked shakily.

“This? It is called a pensieve”, said Dumbledore. “I sometimes find - and I am sure that you know

the feeling - that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.”

“Er”, said Harry, who couldn’t truthfully say that he had ever felt anything of the sort.

“At these times”, said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin, “I use the pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind,

pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this

form”’. Harry Potter, Rowling, 2000

p.lowe@lcc.arts.ac.uk

http://eflections.edublogs.org

Recommended