Reflective Writing
Some of my thoughts on Induction day took me back to the time I started my Bachelor of Science degree in DCU. I began to mull over the reasons at that time why I was going ahead with that degree, opportunities, change in lifestyle, bored with my job and all the reasons I shouldn’t, a young son who took up plenty of my time and who’s company I loved, elderly parents which I spent a lot of time with, both enjoying their last few years and doing a lot of work around their house and garden, fetching groceries and running errands.
At the time I felt a degree of apprehension in looking ahead, I really enjoyed my life then and knew, that the future could be a very different place. But I attempted to look ahead and build a mental picture of what life would be like in five years, or even ten years from that time. Knowing that that job I did at that time, “Network Engineer”, was rapidly changing and many of the envisaged changes I did not see as for the better.
I decided to do the Bachelor of Science degree by distance education, this would be the least disruptive method of delivery and allow me to deal with my family and work responsibilities, it also gave me something tangible that I could use to change career. Looking back finishing that degree was one of the best decisions I made, it allowed me to take up at first a part time teaching role, and eventually to obtain a fulltime teaching position.
As I embark on the Masters in Applied eLearning, I am also both reflecting and looking towards the future, in terms of what the outcomes may be, I have many ideas of how I would like to incorporate the skills, knowledge and competencies gained, to work as an effective eTutor.
My thoughts when starting the Learning Theories Module, was that it would provide a good opportunity for revision and make me analyse and reflect on my beliefs about how people learn and how to use strategies to help students to be successful in learning situations. I was fortunate in having prior knowledge of many of the Learning Theories discussed, having covered them in a JEB (Joint Education Board) course I completed a few years ago.
The first area I decided to cover for this was teaching practice, I found the 10 strategies for successful teaching, the, “thinking about learning” and the active presenting strategies, presented some original ideas for effective teaching. I also found that reading these papers helped to prompt me of my own teaching practice, and I found myself analysing what I was doing and could I use new or different techniques and strategies to improve things.