Professional Development 2.0

Presented at the Annual Joint Conference of CILIP Ireland and the LAI20 April 2012

Maria Souden, MSI, PhDUniversity College Dublin

School of Information and Library Studies

… establishing an online presence in support of your current practice and future

career

About Me• Postdoctoral Fellow at

University College Dublin School of Information and Library Studies

• Teach “Contemporary Issues in Professional Practice” and “Management for Information Professionals”

• Published in the areas of librarianship practice and community-engaged librarianship

• MSI and PhD from University of Michigan School of Information

email: maria.souden@ucd.ie

Professional Development 2.0

This workshop is not about social media writ large

Or about how to look for or find a job

But it can help you think about how to leverage Web 2.0 tools develop and showcase your professional competencies so that you are well-positioned for your next career opportunity Stay fresh and engaged Think “outside the box” Raise your professional profile

Before we get started…

Take a minute and write down one thing that you’d like to address in your current practice or professional development right now. Could be… Thorny challenge in your organization, with your

services, or regarding users Your next personal or professional growth area Adding a new service or product in your organization Your next career move

My objective for today

You leave with one new idea, tool, or method that you feel like you can use to begin addressing

that issue, or even thinking about the problem and the solution a

little bit differently.

Libraries are changing

“We live in a time of change. The information technology has changed our profession and our lives. Library managers today face problems that need to be solved and library staff feel insecure about themselves and the future”

- Linda Erlendsdóttir, at the 11th UK Nordic Conference

“Like in a river, the only constant in libraries is change. And we need to learn how to cope with change, rather than fighting it. We need to figure out what the flow is and put ourselves into it.”

- Roy Tennant, Keynote at the Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries October Conference

and so

is lib

raria

nsh

ip…

Librarians need to…

Be able to manage people, projects, and resources

Keep on top of technology

Think ahead and be proactive

Deliver more services and experiences for their users

Work outside of their job descriptions

Transferable Skills

Source: Sinead English

The New Professional Development

See: Bedell, J. T. (2010). Professional development 2.0: Take control of your own learning.

Experiential Learning

Most effective learning: Begins with the problematic Grounded in experience

Need = engagement

Learning requires reflection

Reflection requires action

See: Reese AC Implications of results from cognitive science research Med Educ Online [serial online] 1998;3,1.

What is Reflective Practice?

“A dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more

skillful.” (Donald Schön)

Thought + Action

Theory + Practice

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner : toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Why Reflective Practice?

Recognizing sucessful practices and problematic situations

Facilitates change; creates opportunities for growth

“Knowing-in-practice” consciousness (Schön)

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner : how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

Habits of Reflective Practice

Taking time out/stepping back

Asking questions

Looking for solutions

Self-evaluation

Journaling

Teaching

Networking

Engaging in communities of practice

Formulating Questions

“Great discoveries are made when someone asks a new question rather than provides a new answer”

Cultivate- make identifying and asking questions habit

Capture- record questions immediately

Refine- what do you really want to know?

Reframe- sometimes it’s a different question!

Prioritize- importance, immediacy

Eldredge, J. (2006). Evidence-based librarianship: the EBL process. [Literature Review]. Library Hi-Tech, 24(3), 341-354.

Action Research

“…a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out.”

(Carr and Kemmis 1986: 162)

Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical : education, knowledge, and action research. London ; Philadelphia, PA: Falmer Press.

Action Research in Action

Focuses on the problematic

Systematic inquiry (vs. everyday problem-solving)

Can be participatory in nature (collaborative with those being “studied”)

Source: O'Brien, R. (2001) retrieved from: http://www.web.net/~robrien/papers/arfinal.html

Elements of Practice

Forde, C., McMahon, M. & Reeves, J. (2009). Putting Together Professional Portfolios. London: Sage

Blogs for Reflection and Sense-making

“As you read a log, you have the curious sense of moving backward in time as you move forward in pages—the opposite of a book. As you piece together a narrative that was never intended as one, it seems—and is—more truthful. Logs, in this sense, were a form of human self-correction. They amended for hindsight, for the ways in which human beings order and tidy and construct the story of their lives as they look back on them. Logs require a letting-go of narrative because they do not allow for a knowledge of the ending.”

Andrew Sullivan, “Why I Blog,” Atlantic Monthly 2008

Portfolio as a Tool of Practice

“Collection of material put together in a meaningful way to demonstrate the practice and learning of a practitioner”

For reflection and learning

For yourself and others

Ibid (p.13)

Elements of Portfolio

Planning- where are you going?

Description- what can you do, what do you know?

Evidence- tangible demonstrations

Reflection- on your practice and development

Forde et al., (2009) Ibid

Why have a portfolio?

Some Portfolio Outcomes

Created a sense of achievement

Built self-confidence

Strengthened my understanding of my development as a practitioner

Created sense of my own journey as a professional

From: Forde et al., 2009, ibid

Portfolio is a space for…

understanding professional learning and recording it

using frameworks for professional learning to reflect critically on practice

developing a professional biography and career timeline

critical reflection and writing

What is an ePortfolio?

Professional portfolio, in an online medium

Specialized ePortfolio tools (e.g., Pebble Pad, Mahara)

Blog (e.g., Wordpress, Blogger, GoogleSites)

Key advantage: it’s public!

Building a Personal Learning Network

1. Social networking

2. Social bookmarking

3. Reflection

4. Conferences

Source: Jason Bedell, Professional Development 2.0: Take Control of Your Own Learning

Social Media as a Tool for Practice

“Ground-up” learning

Deepening PD 1.0 engagement

Collaboration

Communities of practice

Resource

Social Media Supporting PD 2.0

Social networking: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, online communities- places to make connections

Social bookmarking: Diigo, delicious- places to share resources

Reflection (blogging) and sharing: Blogger, WordPress, Twitter

http://www.go2web20.net/

Establishing an Online Professional Identity

Personal/professional boundaries

Sharing and requesting information

Making your tools work together- ePortfolio, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn

Social Learning in Action

Now, back to the item you wrote down at the beginning of the session

Turn to your neighbor and share one thing you learned today that you are going to use to approach this problem, issue, next step…

Additional ePortfolio Resources

(added June 2011)

ePortfolio Books

Forde, C., McMahon, M. & Reeves, J. (2009). Putting Together Professional Portfolios. London: Sage

Watson, M. (2010). Building your portfolio : the CILIP guide (2nd ed.). London: Facet.

Grant, Simon (2009). Electronic portfolios: personal information, personal development and personal values. London: Chandos Publishing.

Buzzetto-More, N. (2010). The E-Portfolio Paradigm: Informing, Educating, Assessing, and Managing With E-Portfolios. Santa Rosa (CA): Informing Science Press.

Portfolio Structure: Three Views of Practice

1. Three elements Know why Know what Know how

2. Novice to expert continuum Novice Advanced Beginner Competent

Proficient Expert

3. Professional standards Categories of knowledge, skills, outcomes,

proficienciesSource: Forde et al., 2009, ibid

Dr. Helen Barrette Portfolio “Guru”

Educational researcher in ePortfolio area; notable for using common tools for ePortfolio development, lots of resources posted online

Using ePortfolio as “workspace” and “showcase”

ePortfolio Web Resources

Web Resources for ePortfolios Dr. Helen Barrett's comprehensive list of resources regarding the use of ePortfolios in Education.

ePortfolio Definitions and Examples from PebblePad:http://www.pebblelearning.co.uk/definitions.asphttp://www.pebblelearning.co.uk/examples.aspFrom Helen Barrett:http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioswp/examples

ePortfolio Examples

Examples of LIS Portfolioshttp://lis596jmwolf.blogspot.com/2010/07/reflection-of-lis-580-managment.htmlhttp://www.aerydynamics.com/sean/portfolio/index.phphttp://www.hung-truong.com/http://www.citronadedesign.com/index.phphttp://emilymahood.com/

Examples of Standards-Based Portfolioshttps://efolio.educ.ubc.ca/lright/http://oswook.wordpress.com/

© Maria Souden, 2012

maria.souden@ucd.ie