Integrating Things

I have not forgotten about the 23 Things for professional development programme; Thing 19 is actually about integrating "things": things I've learnt or used or tried while going through the Things and how I do or would integrate them in my professional development...

It actually reminds me of Thing 5 on reflective practice! So let's do some reflective practice on Reflective Practice. Before this post, I still have not done some serious reflective practice. Well, of course I do little bits of it all the time, probably without realising that's what I am doing. But let's take the example of talks I have been to: having gone through Thing 5 did encourage me to write up my notes, but they are mostly retellings of what was said. I haven't dared compare what I heard with what happens at the Library and share my opinions of it on this blog.

This blog - created in Thing 1 - is actually something I am really enjoying. I enjoy learning and writing, and since it's "out there", online, there is even the possibility that someone might read my ravings! How exciting. Joking apart, I would like to keep this blog alive when I am finished with the 23 Things. I have started using it to tell about talks I have attended. I have also used it to be able to share on Twitter information in English that I could only find elsewhere in French: I wanted to spread the news about the French Copy party but I could not find any articles in English to point others to, so I just created (translated) one myself!

Among the other new tools I have tried, I am still using LinkedIn, Evernote and Dropbox a little. If I was in a different post, I am sure I would use more of these tools in my working routine. For example, I found Prezi and Slideshare particularly useful, but I am not required to create presentations in my current job.

Time to think

Thing 5 is reflective practice, and it actually comes at a perfect time for me.

Indeed, reflective practice is exactly what I wanted to do - though I did not know the name for it, nor the theory behind it - about my attendance to the Umbrella conference 2011: I wanted to re-read my notes, make sure I understood what I had heard, and think about what it means for me and in which way it can relate or apply to my work. Something I will definitely do as well as write about and post here... when I have time! Time is unquestionably an issue...
More generally, I do think reflective practice is something I should do more. For example, reflecting on what I have learnt - sometimes starting by realising I have learnt something! - and what I have done, and how this contribute to my skills. I have difficulty putting what my strengths and capacities are into words, and I believe reflective writing would help.

And now? The only thing that's left is to... get on with it. Oh.