Cpd 23 #5 - Reflective Practice

I find true reflective practice to be challenging. Like many others, I am on the go, and have many activites crammed into my life. So, finding, or taking, the time to reflect is difficult.

From the UK version of CPD 23 I learned a simple three- step approach to reflection. 1) What?, 2) So What., 3) Now What? Let's review and reflect on our participation so far.

1) What? we've restarted our dormant blog, viewed colleagues' blogs, considered our public brand, and lookead at some social networking tools.

2) So What? Blogging is a way of onlline sharing our discoveries in this professional development exercise. since we're seperated by distance and are forced to communicate online the blog serves as a good tool for accoomplishing that purpose. Actually, just writing itself is a form of reflection. Hence the diary or journal.

Branding is a concept that I became familiar with a few years ago, although I didn't actively organize my online personna to consolidate it. Since rreading that toopic I have made a few adjustments, notably on my LinkedIn profile, which is dedicated to my music personna. I have more difficulty consolidating my facebook and twitter personnas as they serve for my two careers, librarianship and conducting, and my family and friends as well.

3) Now What? AsI continue to work through the 23 Things I'll keep blogging, perhaps it will become a habit. I'll also read colleagues blog to keep up with their experiences and discover ways that I might continue to grow. I'll keep monitoring my brand on my online social and professional networks and in print media for my conducting.

Whew! That's a lot of reflecting for me. On to the next activity, and on to Thing #6.

CPD23 - Thing 2 - Blogs continued

As a part of setting up a blog to comment on our own personal development, CPD23 members were asked to visit other members blogs. Since I work and live in Nebraska I decided to look for colleagues. Along the way I discovered some interesting things.

1. CPD23 is sponsored by UK librarians, so most of the blogs and news listed on the CPD23 blog are - British. They've been setting up some area meetings - in the UK. OK, time to look somewhere else.

2. I imported CPD23 to my iPad's "Flipboard" app to make it easier to read the blog posts. But, I got mostly the UK info when I wanted the Nebraska stuff. I finally located the Nebraska page and now can view colleagues' posts.

3. Many of my colleagues submitted their blogs from previous years' 23 Things and haven't yet started blogging about this program. I also noted that most of the colleagues are from rural libraries. Since I work in Omaha we won't find a lot in common. Fortunately I also live in a small town with a library of its own. I think this year's 23 Things will teach me more about what a small town librarian's life is like.

Finally, I amamazed at how quickly one can fall behind in this project, and I appreciate receiving Twitter posts from CPD23 to help keep me on track.