It’s a lot easier to have a personal/professional development plan if you have a professional identity and you know where you need to be. I wouldn’t say that I have a professional identity, which is partly why im doing this course. I don’t expect the course to give me an identity; I want to explore what’s out there around my current field of work. It will give me a better idea of where I want to be, or don’t want to be. This activity is very relevant and also very difficult to complete at the moment. Its relevant on a personal development level, however less relevant on a professional front.I guess this makes me reflect once more on, what does it mean to have a professional identity, what does it mean to be a professional? If I can simply tick that I have a list of competencies will I consider myself to be a professional? Im thinking that being professional is also about the feeling of belonging to a group with a clear identity. Maybe I should look to network more with people doing similar roles to me. Perhaps I am a professional and I just don’t know or feel it yet?
I’ve plotted a quick PDP template based on some of the competencies given in the activity and marked myself; I think that’s all I can do at the moment.
- Experience of podcasting; I want to have a better understanding of both the practical and theory behind their use.
- Ease of communicating on line; I want to improve my writing skills, and overcome my hesitation so that its easier to communicate online.
- Better understanding of e-learning models; I have very basic experience of this at the moment. I would be interested to understand more theory.
- I want to get a flavour of would it would be like to ‘be’ an e-learning professional
Goals
- Get involved with all activities, learn and document
- Have confidence to write, make mistakes, learn and improve
- Keep blog posting, read and comment on others blogs
- Reflect on my own personal development, and what profession I would best suit.
- Reflect on how H808 activities relate to my work context
- Ensure that im working towards the TMA/ECA
I found this a very interesting post. I would have said off hand that the course is likely to contribute towards 'professional identity' but this sort of thing is built up from a complicated multi faceted interaction. Thus this course might form on facet....that is why I think tick lists are rather limited, they do not draw out the interaction between different facets, merely identify some of them in a rather monochrome way.
ReplyDeleteI am particularly interested in your perspective, some would say I am at the end of my career, actually I have just applied for a job, the application sits on top of a pile of pension correspondence and my application for a free bus pass
Les
Cheers Les for the comments, its nice to know somebody reads my ramblings.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that ‘professional identity’ is not as rigid as a tick box of competencies. After a bit of reflecting I think these formal checklists and qualifications provide a stake in the ground from which individuals can map out their own identity or path.
I’ve recently changed my career and am pleased for this formality and structure as it provides solid foundations from which to bounce off and explore.
Alan