I have successfully completed all 3 phases of the DigitalEd.ie Professional Services Pathway and have received my Professional Services Digital Champion badge. The journey involved completing a number of Microsoft Badge Courses, some All Aboard courses along with a 2-hour training course of my choice with evidence of skills sharing. I applied for the badges in order of Explorer, Adventurer then Navigator to receive the champion badge! The range of resources presented in the pathway, covered the knowledge and skills to enable me to enhance my skills and confidence in a variety of different digital technologies.
Checkout the DigitalEd.ie Professional Services Pathway for more information. Interestingly I had started the journey sometime ago, unintentionally of course. I have been engaged with the All Aboard digital journey for some time, with a number of badges collected over the years. And the Microsoft Education Centre has been on my radar for a year or so now, completing short course on integrating technology into my work. Definitely a case for recognition of prior learning!
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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!
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December 2023
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