Reflective Practice and Changes In Practice

Whakatauki

Ko te whakaaro nui ka rite ki te waina kara, rau i te rau.

Wisdom grows like the kumara vine, leaf by leaf.

Sign up for Mindlab? Are you crazy! There is already a plethora of challenges in the working day without committing more time into your evenings and beyond… These cautionary voices were echoing in my head as I signed up anyway.

First impressions

Herbert was the lecturer who diligently roused us all from our 4.30p.m. somnambulist state.  Challenging our mindsets and dusting out the filing cabinets in the deepest recesses of our brains he had me with ‘epistemology’! I love language, rich vocabulary and words that encompass depth of concept. In that opening few minutes one of my colleagues said that I looked like I had won the lottery. It has long been a sorrow of mine that students and teachers seem to increasingly confine themselves to single syllable words and a negligible enthusiasm for vocabulary exploration. Herbert then went on with ‘axiology’ and ‘ontology’; poetry!

Having captured my mind the challenge then became one of building skills.  In the past few years my learning trajectory with digital technologies has been like that of the New Horizons space probe. Travelling far beyond the ken of my known worlds exploring the possibilities of ‘what lies just beyond’. Mindlab was able to stretch my thinking even further and confirm and consolidate areas of my practice that I was still mulling over.  Mindlab reminded me how far I had already travelled along the path towards 21st pedagogy and it prompted me to think about the ramification for other colleagues who were still working in the 20th century production line educational mindset.

I am an avid reader of science fiction and aware of how quickly fiction is becoming, has become, fact. The exploration in conversations with regard to some technological developments kept me hooked into the Mindlab experience. The clincher was the exploration of augmented reality apps, robotics (that was deep water!), and 21st century learning pedagogies.

Deeper Waters

It is true that those knowledge building experiences were a hook but the reflective practice elements were the fastener. Pursuing ideas around leadership, followership, change and environment, to name a few, was challenging. These explorations supported by excellent course content and provocative questioning made the weekly face to face meetings a highlight in my week. Great was the trepidation when the course work shifted to an online learning forum.

The remainder of the course delivered through the online learning forum continued to utilise excellent materials. The opportunity to engage through webinars and the google+ community gave a level of connectivity that helped keep me centred. On the occasions when I could not participate in a webinar I felt disconnected and discombobulated!

I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration into literature on leadership and learning, connectedness and communities of learners. It was through the google+ community that I received a message from a new collaborator and colleague I had met through he kanohi ki te kanohi sessions in the first 16 weeks.  That message came at a time when I was overwhelmed by life and some unexpected personal tragedy and my trajectory began to plummet. It was an occasion when online connectivity served to motivate me personally and to remind me that we are all interconnected and therefore significant to each other, when we might least expect to be so.

Future Steps

It is true that there were moments when I wondered if I had taken on more than I needed to.  Working full time, fulfilling a multitude of demanding roles within my job, and having a busy life outside of my work place did give me pause. In that moment of pause I recognised how excited the new and further learning had made me. The reignition of a thirst and curiosity for knowledge and debate and critical conversation has been deeply motivating.  I know that my assignments have not been perfect, squashed into moments and rushed through between other demands. However they are completed and their completion was satisfying.

Mindlab has been so inspiring that, despite saying I would step back a bit next year, I have been motivated to sign on for another learning programme.  Poutama Pounamu will be delivered largely online, something that I might previously doubted I could manage. A simplistic explanation of the course is that it is focussing on cultural responsiveness, an area that seemed to connect with me throughout my Mindlab assignments, particularly in the multicultural and international perspectives on education,  Eighteen months from now I will be at the end of that course and I feel confident that I will gained deeper understandings and awareness, utilising skills that were developed through the Mindlab course. So, thank you Herbert… ontology, axiology, and epistemology are all serving me well and I them.