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Today, I am presenting at the 10th Annual NJ Best Practices Showcase on using blogging as a reflective process for my students. You can view the presentation on my Slideshare page. NJEDge.Net and the host school, the College of St. Elizabeth, are also recording the presentations and hoping to post them to the new NJVid site. In this post, I want to go into a bit more detail than I can do in my presentation about reflective practice itself. Though I reference the book The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action by Donald Schön, what I am discussing does not appear in his book since blogging did not even exist in 1995 when the book was published. He was an MIT social scientist and consultant, and in that book he examines five professions (engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, town planning). The book is very much about how professionals go about solving problems. He introduced reflective practice as a continuous process that involves the learner considering critical incidents in his or her life's experiences. The concept immediately gained traction in teacher education, and also health professions and architectural design. For a teacher-in-training and active in the field, the process of studying his or her own teaching methods and determining what works best for the students is essential. I think it is important that all students (practitioners-in-training) also consider their own experiences in applying knowledge to practice, especially while being "coached" by professionals (instructors,mentors) in their discipline. Education is my focus here, but all three disciplines also make use of portfolios of a kind. If you use portfolios (paper, electronic or objects), you are probably already using reflection as a part of that practice.

International Student Experience UAL, like London itself, is a melting-pot of nationalities. But how well do the ingredients of the pot blend together? How easy is it for international students in the creative arts to find their feet, to find accommodation, make friends, and adapt to the English education system?Do we, as a host institution and host staff and students, understand their needs, and do we give them the appropriate support? This project tackled these issues. Fourteen postgraduate researchers interviewed 141 first-year students across the University from six regional groups - Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the USA - in their own languages. We also interviewed 21 British students to help us make comparisons. An internal report was presented to senior management in March 2008. There have been a number of dissemination activities and presentations at conferences. The project is coordinated by Dr Silvia Sovic. For further information, please contact s.sovic@fashion.arts.ac.uk

Online Education - Introducing the Microlecture Format by Thomas Most college students would likely concur - fifty minute lectures can be a bit much. With current research indicating that attention spans (measured in minutes) roughly mirror a students age (measured in years), it begs the question as to the rationale behind lectures of such length. teddY-riseDGiven that it is tough to justify the traditional lecture timeframes, it is no surprise to see online educational programs seeking to offer presentations that feature shorter podcasts. But in an astonishing switch, David Shieh of the Chronicle of Higher Education recently took a look at a community college program that features a microlecture format, presentations varying from one to three minutes in length.

The Educator's Guide to the Creative Commons Wednesday, December 3, 2008 As not every teacher understands how to implement the Creative Commons into their curriculum, I thought I'd take a minute to explain how I would use it if I was in their shoes.

Assessment Standards Manifesto In November 2007, ASKe hosted 'Designing assessment in the 21st Century' an assessment colloquium looking at the current state of assessment and ways in which practice might be improved in response to conclusions put forward by the Burgess Report. Watch Margaret Price, ASKe Director giving a presentation on the Manifesto. The event brought together the ASKe International Advisory Group (a group of seven world-class experts on assessment) and

Constructive alignment Constructive alignment of learning outcomes to assessment methods The following resources are available: Overview paper Professor Mike Osborne, University of Stirling and Workshop Director Report on the event and areas for future development and enhancement Professor Mike Osborne Keynote address: Aligning assessment with long-term learning needs Professor David Boud, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Powerpoint slides | PDF version Case study 1: Assessment on the TQFE program- a case study of constructive alignment Dr Iddo Oberski, University of Stirling Powerpoint slides | PDF version Draft paper - Word version | PDF version Keynote address: Developing aligned courses Sue Drew, Sheffield Hallam University Powerpoint slides | PDF version Draft paper - Word version | PDF version