CPD 23 - Thing 23 - Reflection & What's Next?

This is the final thing. The end of the CPD 23 scheme. It has been fun and I've learnt a lot. It has genuinely helped me to develop professionally.

I have gained some useful technical knowledge about tools like Jing and Audacity and Prezis. Using RSS feeds has given my professional reading new focus.

Perhaps even more important than knowing more about various tools I have adopted a mindset of evaluating new tools for their potential usefulness. Evaluating the uses that I could put them to in the Library and their potential uses as learning tools for our students. I think learning to look at technology with that kind of reflective attitude is going to be one of the most long lasting things that I take from this scheme.

I like to think of myself as a reflective person but I have gained a lot from the process of writing this blog. CPD 23 has helped me to firmly integrate blogging into my life and my professional practice. I said in a very early thing, it might even have been number one, that I am one of those people who write to think.

I admire the CPD 23 organisers decision to build a strong emphasis on reflection into the scheme. That emphasis combined with the structured blogging has really helped me to reflect on my own professional practice and the wider context that we are working in.

The reminder that reflection is the key to professional development has been welcome. I think for me personally however the usefulness of this blog as a venue and a tool for reflection has perhaps been the more life changing lesson.

The community element of the scheme has also been memorable. I've enjoyed reading other participants' blogs and sharing ideas. That sense that we were exploring things together and sharing our experiences was a powerful part of CPD 23.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped to set this up. It has been a great journey.

Where next?

In terms of my career development completing Chartership is my big project at the moment. Interestingly one of the first steps in that process is drawing up a personal professional development plan similar to the one that the CPD 23 post for thing 23 mentions. Identifying areas for development and deciding how to fill them is clearly a useful exercise.

My plan is slightly different because I need to fulfil the Chartership criteria but the essential idea is the same. Drawing up my PPDP for Chartership really helped me to think about what I wanted to do in order to progress as a librarian.

I should say that I put completing CPD 23 on my Chartership PPDP. It seems oddly circular that at the end of the scheme we've been advised to draw up a professional development plan.

In the long run the important thing for me is to hold onto the good habits that I've gained from CPD 23 and the Chartership process. Habits like reflecting on my own practice and development. Habits like using this blog as a tool for reflection and sharing ideas. I intend to hold onto and build on those habits.

That's thing 23 done!