15th International Reflective Practice Conference: Comhrá

Welcome to the people who are visiting my blog for the first time after the 15th International Reflective Practice Conference: Comhrá at Limerick University, Ireland.


I'm writing this post early because I am taking some time off for leisurely travel to Ireland in the hope that I will have adjusted to the time zone and shaken off my jet lag before I need to stand up and present at the conference. If you are reading this it also means that someone was interested enough to come along to my session, listen to me and follow up - and that is all good news. I hope to hear from you and I would love you to post a message and tell me what you thought of the conference and my presentation.


For those of you that are new here I want to tell you about my five main reasons for keeping a blog. For those of you who are experienced bloggers - please respond with your reasons and we can share the joy amongst us all.


1. I like to get these thoughts, ideas and feelings out of my head and written down somewhere. Preferably, somewhere I can find it again, so a chronological blog is perfect.


2. I like to have a separate personal and a professional blog. I can let my family and friends know what I have been doing and load up the photos, and I can also keep in contact with other blogging contacts who might (or might not) be interested in what I get up to on the weekends.


3. I like the stimulation and ideas from other people who respond to my comments. There are very interesting people out there that I would never have met if it wasn't for this blog.


4. I live in a regional town and it can be hard to talk with other people about what I am thinking and feeling. I enjoy connecting with people and discussing the issues, without worrying if they might be related to someone who knows someone.


5. It's fun. It's new and it is the future. As a PhD student I want to have contemporary research in 3 or 4 years time and I am certain that we will be doing more and more online. So, I might as well learn how to do it now.


If you are new to blogging, here are some of my favourite blogs that I recommend you visit. Sarah's blog is an experienced blogger and her blog is fantastic - she has great information for new people about how to get started, and ideas and examples about technology, tools and techniques. Pam is a midwife and I enjoy reading her posts about the different aspects of her life. David's blog is fun and I enjoy reading his thoughts about daily life, through the eyes of a 20-something US bachelor. Mary-Helen is doing a PhD about doing a PhD and she describes her blog as a place to dump her thoughts - it's an interesting journal and I enjoy reading about her latest PhD adventure. Dave has a blog about using a blog for reflective practice and he has some great ideas about using technology. Do you have any favourite blogs to recommend to us?

Reflective Practice research design

I have been plodding along with my PhD and thinking about reflective practice and trying to work out how to design my research. I am getting towards the stage where I need to make some decisions and make a start if I am ever going to finish.

I had an idea about setting up a couple of different reflective practice groups, including a blogging group to test out some different reflection methods and techniques and explore people's experiences, but it all sounds too restrictive. How will I know which are the best or the right methods to select? What happens when people leave or join the group? I don't want to impose my ideas about reflective practice on other people - I think it is the kind of thing that you have to work out for yourself and personal preferences are very important.

So I was thinking that maybe I should do simple old qualitative research, where I talk with people about their experiences of reflective practice, how they learned about it, when they began to value reflective practice and how do they do it. I think it would be fascinating reading. This way, I could invite people to be involved and perhaps target some of the influential writers about reflective practice. There is also a place for me to explore the idea about blogging for reflective practice and find out about bloggers' experiences.

I have been reading Dave's blog - he has been writing about using a blog for reflective practice, and his ideas fit in really well with mine. I'm off to the 15th International Reflective Practice Conference: Comhrá at the end of the month and I am presenting my research ideas about reflective practice and blogging. I'm interested in your thoughts and ideas - do you think we can use a blog for reflective practice? Do you think my research proposal will work?

One door closes... then what?

I was having lunch with a friend recently (great lunch Nadine) and I was talking about how I was feeling confused about some choices that I have recently made in my work, and some choices that I need to make in the future. Over the past year, I have experienced having one door close - a career path that I had worked hard towards was destroyed by a vindictive bully. I won't go through all of the gory details, but it was a difficult time. I found, that soon after another door opened, and I decided to step into the adventure of PhD candidature. This is something that I have always wanted to do. I really love being a PhD student - I love reading, and finding out about other people's research, planning my research and writing and presenting my research. I am glad to be a part time student because it will go for longer and it is a wonderful time.

But back to the door thing - I find myself in a position now where I'm not sure what to do next. I was talking with my friend about this and she commented that it can be hard when there are lots of doors open. It made me stop and think - she is right and there are lots of doors open for me at the moment. It is nice to be in a position where there are lots of good options to consider, but it does make it hard to know what is the right thing, or the best thing to do.

How do you decide which is the best career move next? What kind of jobs should I be looking for or thinking about as a PhD graduate? Has anyone else been in this situation before? What did you do? Does anyone have any tips or suggestions to help me out?

Helen

Wordle - a tool for distilling thoughts

I have decided to go back to wordle and see if I can find a clearer way to understand my thinking - it's a bit like sifting sand from a mine to find the gold. Here is the wordle of the past four months of my blog. Cool huh. I think wordle is a great reflection tool or reflection technique - it's a way to see things more clearly. I have also seen Wordle used as a way of distilling poetry and journals, and I am going to see what my journal looks like when its Wordled. Not sure if I will share it - but I will save that for another time.

thanks

Helen

Confidence in Public Speaking

I have been having a think about my presentation skills and confidence at getting up in front of a group of people and being able to make sure that words actually come out of my mouth. I feel like I do an OK job. I get feedback from other people that I look and sound confident. But I don't feel confident. I feel anxious, nervous and worried. I believe that it is possible to die from embarassment. I feel light headed, dry mouthed and it sounds to me like my voice is a quavery squeak.

But if I want to be a world famous researcher, author and conference presenter, then I am going to have to find a way to improve my confidence in public speaking. And my first presentation, all by myself is planned for Feb 27th 2009.

I was inspired by Jeffrey's ideas about Learning from Impromptus, and his advice that people get better with practice. I also enjoy Kevin's blog and especially his post about the magic of dialogue - Kevin says that it is a skill that can be learned.

So I have decided that I am going to learn and practice how to improve my confidence in public speaking. I found a group called Toastmasters - they advertise in my local area - the Bendigo Club 'Have you ever wanted to speak confidently in front of an audience? Learn and practice your speaking skills in a friendly, supportive environment. And have a lot of fun along the way.' Yep -that's for me. What an appealing advertisement - it actually sounds like fun. And not scary at all.

So I am going to join and I will let you know how it goes. Wish me luck! Do you have any other advice or suggestions for ways to improve my confidence in public speaking? I'd love to hear from you.

Helen

Welcome

Hello world. This is my first post and the first exciting step into the world of blogging and letting people see what I am thinking and feeling. I'm a bit nervous, and also excited. Anyway - here we go.

Helen