Final Reflection
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| The Rudaí 23 team and all five digital open badges |
A massive congratulations to you for making it this far in Rudaí 23. This is our penultimate module in the course, and the last in the 4th badge, 'Engaged Professional'. It is the last task you will have to complete to gain your final digital open badge. Well done everyone, this is a great achievement.
Thing 23 to follow at the end of the week is for your reading pleasure and our take on your career development after completing Rudaí 23. You will also get the opportunity to apply for our fifth and final digital open badge 'CPD Champion'. That one will definitely be a badge of honour.
Here's a quick re-cap on digital open badges in case you're just joining us on the course at this point. If this is your fourth badge, you're a pro, so skip down past the next section.
Earning your Engaged Professional Digital Open Badge
We have a great FAQ section on digital badges available here if you’re unsure about what they are. You can also read about how to apply for a badge here.
What we need:
As per the other three badges, to be eligible to apply for this Engaged Professional digital badge, the quality of your reflective post will be assessed.Firstly:
We are looking to see if all aspects of the tasks in Things 19, 20 and 21 are completed and you show good understanding of the topics.Secondly:
We want to see that you demonstrate an ability to appraise the podcast tools or advocacy/ professional groups topics covered, based on your experience in using them or interacting with the topic;Give evidence of their practical application;
Give your thoughts and opinions on using the tools or engaging with the topics including your problems or successes, likes or dislikes, you don’t have to agree with us, but detail why;
Detail any changes you would make next time round.
The purpose of this reflective practices is to enhance your learning and application of skills through critical thinking and self-reflection.
Reflective Practice can be defined as the capacity to reflect on actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning (Schön, 1983).
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
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Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods.
Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.
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Thing 9, our first Reflective Practice post outlines the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, and how to write reflectively. It's as relevant for this 4th reflective post as it was for your first and it is a model participants have found to be very helpful. The headings help you to structure your reflective writing and help you to think about what you learned and how you can apply it to your experience. Examples of the type of reflection we require can be seen in Thing 9.
Another great way to see the standard of reflective practice required is to read the blog posts of your fellow participants. If you're reading this entry on the Rudaí 23 blog, just scroll up and see the latest entries from our Rudaí 23 bloggers on the left side of the screen.
Alternative models of Reflective Practice
If this is your fourth badge, you may want to try another model of reflection for something different. There are quite a few theories on Reflective Practice and Wikipedia actually gives a pretty good overview here with some great references if you plan to go a bit deeper into the subject.
Borton 1970
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Terry Borton's reflective model (1970), as adapted by Gary Rolfe and colleagues (2001)
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Kolb and Fry 1975
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| Adaptation of Kolb's reflective model, source: Wikipedia |
Johns 1995
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| Adaptation of the Johns reflective model, source: Wikipedia |
Brookfield 1998
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Brookfield argued that these four lenses will reflect back to
us starkly different pictures of who we are and what we do
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Reflection after Rudaí 23?
Will you every use reflective writing again now that you're coming to the end of Rudaí 23? We hope so! You may think that working in a library does't call for much reflective writing, but you'd be surprised at where you'll start to see it cropping up.
You may decide that you love it and will make it an essential part of your week's recap as is the habit of John Cox. In Thing 19 John outlines the value he sees in reflective writing and how it has helped him throughout the years.
If you are completing Rudaí 23, it's evident that you are interested in CPD and you may be planning on some academic endeavours. Many further education course will ask for reflective practice as part of your course work. Adding references in academic writing will show that you have read the course content, but reflective writing will show that you have engaged with the topic and have a deep understanding of its theories and applications.
Many of us information professionals are 'Teaching Librarians' and teach information skills to students and researchers, or teach on MLIS courses. Often reflective writing is used in these instances for assessment. If you are planning on taking a career move in this direction, you may want to research a little deeper into the area.
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However or if ever you engage in reflective writing again we wish you every success.
Your task for Thing 22:
As with the previous three Reflective Practice posts, your task for Thing 22 is to write a reflective blog post, as detailed in the 'What we need' section at the top of this post.
You have until 30th April 2018 to apply for your digital open badges, after completing all four Reflective Practice modules.
Thing 22 was written by Stephanie Ronan
