I am pleased to have recently completed Phase 1 of the DigitalEd.ie Professional Services Pathway, with opportunities to enhance my digital and professional competencies by self-auditing my digital skills and actively engaging in a number of flexible training activities at my own pace. Okay, I had successfully completed a number of the CPD activities sometime ago but just applied for the digital badge.
To be awarded the digital badge awardees have to successfully complete a number of Continuing Professional Development activities including:
Next step is to apply for the Explorer Badge with the aim of becoming a Digital Champion!
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Delighted to have received my digital badge after achieving all the learning outcomes of the course:
Footprints: Here’s my advice for future participants considering signing up for the L2L PACT course. Be committed, be realistic about the time commitment and be ready to be part of a team… or as you will become to know it a TRIAD. The triad offers an opportunity for conversation, sharing ideas & experiences, talking to peers from different institutions and career pathways and learning from them. Yes, many of the activities are completed individually (make sure you stay up to date with the activities) but many of discussions happen within your TRIAD, you’ll collaborate as critical peers to be awarded the digital badge -- all three peers bear the load (resembling the sides to a triangle). Stay connected and remember to enjoy the journey! I am now working towards the PACT L2L Facilitator Badge! PACT helps us address all 4 types of learning outlined in the PD framework. Staff (or in this case teaching librarians) who teach develop their knowledge and competencies in their teaching with a variety of learning activities. Each learning activity can be described by different types of learning, individually or as an amalgamation. The framework categorises four types of learning associated with any professional development learning activity (‘new learning’; ‘consolidating learning’; ‘mentoring’ and ‘leading’).
For me I would consider the following: Engaging with this digital badge by digging into the National Professional Development Framework for all staff who teach in Higher Education. The framework, as a whole, is new to me (new learning). However, the parts, or the elements, are a consolidation of learning. I consider my role as an engineering support librarian a mentoring role as I aim to help students achieve their goals in succeeding in their course. In terms of leading, I also plan on engaging in the facilitators badge to enable me to play a leadership role when this badge is rolled out again. However, I believe that the four types of learning are entwined, when we lead, we also mentor, and consolidate our learning as well as learning new ways of doing things. Your portfolio should be made up of:
Mapping my experiences to the Cycle of Evidence-Based reflection and planning using the responses I had for Week 1 Activity 3 to identify an experience to document your own evidence-based reflective cycle.
Domain: The Self Element 1: Integrity and engagement. A. Reflecting on current knowledge and experience (Taking Stock/identification) I discussed teaching with integrity, by always being honest and fair. We as individuals need to take responsibility for our teaching and learning. Everyone has their own personal experiences that they bring to their teaching. However, we have professional responsibilities. There are many learning activities that has led to my knowledge and skills, including my life experiences as a undergraduate student, my professional librarianship qualification and my many years of experience as a librarian and more recently the completion of an MA in Teaching and Learning. I believe that being able to engage students is key to student’s motivation and learning. I provide learning outcomes, so students know what is expected of them or at least I think they know what is expected of them. I aim to make the course content creative and inclusive, by offering different formats, slides, video, podcasts etc. However just because I think I make the course content creative and inclusive does not mean that the student think this is the case. So, just because I believe in my methods as a teaching librarian does not necessarily mean I am teaching or engaging all students. One size doesn’t fit all, teaching can be a challenge for the teacher, not matter how hard you try – but I must remember that learning can be a challenge too. B. Reflecting to self-evaluate based on evidence (Identification/documentation) Barnard et al. (2008) identifies the characters of integrity as: self-motivation and drive, moral courage and assertiveness, honesty, consistency, commitment, diligence, self-discipline, responsibility, trustworthiness, and fairness. We cannot be all things to all people. I should endeavour to set goals and objectives and take personal responsibility for the way I teach/engage with students to further support their learning. Critically evaluating what I do is no mean task, who wants to be critical of what they do? But to learn from experience we must be critical by thinking about what worked well or what we could do differently. For me I find it easier to reflect after the event, reflect on action, as I can think about changing the structure of the session for the next time. For example, some students require more motivation to stay engaged, so I could build in some more engaging in session activities the next time around to aid with motivation/engagement. To reflect in action is harder when there is complete silence in a session with 20 students and I am anxious and need to think how I can get the group to open up, comment or ask a question. C. Reflecting on what evidence to gather and how to store it. Self-assessment. (Documentation/Assessment) My ePortfolio facilitates me in recording and reflecting on my CPD activities. It helps me identify my strengths and weaknesses and find out what I need to do to keep my knowledge, skills, and achievements up to date. One of the reasons why I signed up for this course was to help with reflecting on my CPD activities, documenting them is the easy part. Additionally, reflecting on my teaching to date and the feedback received from students and colleagues is good evidence of how I motivate and engage students. Not just the positives but the negatives which makes me really consider what I can/should do better, considering how I can motivate and help support and further student learning. The evidence communicated is collaborated by the library team on annual basis for reporting and evaluation purposes, to ensure the information is relevant and current. D. Reflecting to identify, plan and prioritise future learning. External assessment and/or certification of learning to date. (Assessment/Certification) Becoming confident and developing professionally is vital to continue to teach with integrity and relevance, thus I should continue to engage with professional development activities to learn more about educational practices and how to further support student learning and engagement. My short-term goal is to enrol in, and hopefully be awarded, the facilitators badge for the L2L PACT facilitators digital badge. My long-term goal is to apply for a Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Mentoring, to help me develop approaches for effective teaching that facilitates student learning and adopt a reflective approach to teaching. “By choosing integrity, I become more whole, but wholeness does not mean perfection. It means becoming more real by acknowledging the whole of who I am” (Palmer 2017, pg. 13). References Barnard, A., Schurink, W. and De Beer, M. (2008). A conceptual framework of integrity. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 34(2), pg.40-49. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i2.427 (viewed 3 November 2021). Palmer, P.J. (2017). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Schon, D. A. (1991). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Aldershot: Avebury. The Professional Development Framework, for staff who teach in higher education offers five separate areas, known as domains, to assist staff in exploring how they might structure their personal and professional development as teachers or, for us librarians as, teaching librarians.
Here is how I would explain the domains in less than 250 words!
Working from home since the dreaded pandemic means constantly working at over 100%. No office chat, no social coffee breaks, very limited CPD. Don't get me wrong I love my job, but I love time to enjoy my job recreationally too. Attending in person workshops, conferences, gatherings seem like a distant memory... will our networking events ever return? Being online for networking events is not the same, our passion is lost in translation.
Yes, Twitter is great for making connections to people and organisations within our communities and to build community online, but you can’t beat real, face-to-face connections. The pandemic has intensified many of the factors that can lead to burnout and stress, social distancing has really taken away the fun and the great supports that we librarians are used to. Let's just hope our connections will be rejuvenated very soon! I created my ePortfolio in 2017 when undertaking the eportfolio module in the certificate in teaching and learning where the learning outcome was to develop an electronic Learning and Teaching Portfolio representing my ongoing professional development, using the platform as a space to work, reflect, document, share and discuss.
Investing time in developing and maintaining your portfolio is always a good idea It can help with job applications and interview preparation, appraisal discussions, applications for further study and of course meeting CPD processes for a professional network. The L2L joint digital badge initiative has been piloted, offering librarians an opportunity to record and reflect on their professional development by mapping CPD activities to the national forum personal development framework through an eportfolio. I signed up for the course to explore the National Professional Development Framework and reflect on what is involved in making a commitment to my professional development as a teaching librarian. Applying UDL to online library instruction means creating instruction and learning materials that take account of everyone's differences, preferences and abilities. The aim of library instruction (whether online or face-to-face) is to teach information literacy and research skills. Information literacy skills include the ability to find, retrieve, evaluate, store, manage and to reuse information to create new knowledge or solve problems. Why UDL? Well, UDL provides us with a variety of strategies and resources to help meet diverse learning needs, improve accessibility to learning opportunities, and increase student success.
The primary goal of Library Instruction is to teach information literacy and research skills that develop independent and lifelong learning skills that can be utilized beyond the college experience. Welcoming flexibility in delivering library training and instructional materials along with offering multiple ways for students to express themselves and demonstrate their knowledge can only make for a better more engaging learning environment and improved student success. Higher education is going through a period of great digital acceleration. In spite of the mayhem Covid-19 has brought to all aspects of our lives, higher education institutions are adapting, and piloting new approaches to delivering teaching and research. Digital transformation may be happening at a quicker pace than formerly planned, but now is the time to take advantage of these developing trends and new ways of thinking. Openness is impacting many areas of higher education. As a librarian embracing openness, where knowledge and resources are typically kept behind paywalls, and incorporating the idea of openness through resource provision, discovery, dissemination and library instruction is what drives me towards OER and OEP. Under the subscription model, the role of libraries is to buy or license content on behalf of our users and then act as gatekeepers to control access to them. Libraries need to consider OER as sustainable alternatives or additions to established subscribed resources. OER – freely licensed, remixable learning resources – offer a promising solution to the constant challenge of delivering high levels of student learning at a lower cost. I think libraries have a role to play in advocating and raising awareness of OER in the academic community and in supporting our colleagues in a collaborative manner to use, re-use and publish OER. Moreover, OER offer much more than just cost savings - well-designed, customizable, openly licensed resources can engage students and invigorate educators in ways that permit more responsive teaching and enhanced learning. In a world where research is open, the role of libraries is shifting from licensing and disseminating to facilitating and supporting the publishing process itself. I support UNESCO’s call to support the use of OER for sharing learning and knowledge openly worldwide with a view to building more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient Knowledge Societies.
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December 2023
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