Endings to me are about reflecting on one’s experience and performance. As the module for which this blog was kept is about to come to an end, here I seek to describe my experience of keeping this blog. At some level this blog has been a great opportunity to engage with the material presented in class, to think about cognitive theories discussed and apply them to my own material and my own views. As keeping a blog in the context of an assessed module, is relatively new I was surprised to find out that it was harder work than I expected it to be. On top of the rest of the coursework and added to a full time study curriculum, there were times when an extra blog seemed able to be that extra ‘bit’ that adds immense pressure, particularly because it was a very novel experience as well. The online nature of it has also been something new and at times I found myself keeping a hard copy reflective blog and transferring my entries online at later dates. This is because noting down my thoughts and ideas immediately after class was often easier to do offline, as getting access to the internet is not always possible after class. Nonetheless, keeping an online blog was new process and putting some technical mishaps aside it has been creative and interesting.
The blog provided opportunity to look into articles and areas of research that I wouldn’t have engaged with, had this module been assessed by exam only, and to develop new interests in the area. Moreover, the relatively ‘casual’ attitude towards the blogs kept here, was also enabling, as reflection is not something that can be done by prescription. That is, had that blog been assessed strictly on the grounds of deadline terms (i.e. strictly a number of posts every week, or every month) it would have ended up being more descriptive rather than reflective as reflection needs time to emerge and it simply can’t be undertaken on demand. From this viewpoint, the experience of a reflective blog has clearly added to my learning experience here.
As a reflective exercise such blogs could strengthen learning and memory of the material presented by allowing the learners to attempt to make their own meaning of it. By examining my beliefs, emotions and behaviour in relation to the theories discussed, not only did I seek more knowledge in particular domains but I am also more confident that I will remember more than I would remember had I just read articles as a study exercise.
Last but not least, I never new how to devise a blog before. Here, I had the opportunity to learn hoe to blog or create wikis and online presentations, something that I won’t forget about even if I forget most of the cognitive theories that we discussed this semester.
The blog provided opportunity to look into articles and areas of research that I wouldn’t have engaged with, had this module been assessed by exam only, and to develop new interests in the area. Moreover, the relatively ‘casual’ attitude towards the blogs kept here, was also enabling, as reflection is not something that can be done by prescription. That is, had that blog been assessed strictly on the grounds of deadline terms (i.e. strictly a number of posts every week, or every month) it would have ended up being more descriptive rather than reflective as reflection needs time to emerge and it simply can’t be undertaken on demand. From this viewpoint, the experience of a reflective blog has clearly added to my learning experience here.
As a reflective exercise such blogs could strengthen learning and memory of the material presented by allowing the learners to attempt to make their own meaning of it. By examining my beliefs, emotions and behaviour in relation to the theories discussed, not only did I seek more knowledge in particular domains but I am also more confident that I will remember more than I would remember had I just read articles as a study exercise.
Last but not least, I never new how to devise a blog before. Here, I had the opportunity to learn hoe to blog or create wikis and online presentations, something that I won’t forget about even if I forget most of the cognitive theories that we discussed this semester.
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