Reflections on the CPD23

I made it... WOOHOO! It’s been a long slog and I know I haven’t kept to the timetable but I am very happy to have completed the CPD23 course. It has been an invaluable tool in CPD learning about different applications that I otherwise may not have heard of.

The beginning of the course, working out a personal brand and finally getting my blog up and running has been really helpful. Realising how much of an online presence I have really shocked me and so I have changed the way I interact on certain social media to maintain a professional  persona if you will (as much as I can). Social media has also helped me to network in ways that wasn't possible ten years ago and have meaningful discussions with colleagues I may not otherwise ever get the chance to meet. A course like this gives you the push you need to look at yourself in a professional light and work out where your strengths and weaknesses lie. It’s also very interesting to see other professional’s views on subjects that in turn influence your own. This programme has pushed me to look at online tools such as dropbox and Google docs which I have heard about but never made the time to explore properly. 

What I need to make sure now is that I keep up with new applications and theories by actively following colleagues’ blogs and keeping up to date with publications such as CILIP Update.

Thank you to all the CPD23 bloggers who have made the programme educational and fun, bringing their own perspectives to applications and programmes and sharing their knowledge with the rest of the profession.

What’s next for me? Well I am working my way through chartership and am ready to start pulling my portfolio together so watch this space... and who knows what might happen at work... every day is a challenge but one I’m ready for!

Catching Up with Blogging Colleagues

Thing 2 is all about blogging and finding out who else is in the CPD23 programme, what they’re up to and how to establish contact and keep in touch with colleagues electronically. From trawling through CPD blogs on Diigo I’ve noticed that although we may all be using the same programs and talking about the same profession, blogs can be as individual and unique as the person that writes them. The best in my opinion are those that balance personality with content, but with such a diverse profession comes a wide range of topics to blog about.

There are those that are obviously very in touch with current events but I’ve always been one of those people who finds things out from someone else... in that way I think blogs are a good way to keep up with news and views but I’d like to know the tools these people use to be able to share information with the world as soon as it happens... it can’t just be a matter of being ties to your laptop 24/7 so what’s the secret?

The other thing I noticed whilst looking through is the different lengths of people’s blogs. I suppose the beauty in blogging is that it can be as short or as long as the creator has time to spare to share their views. Commenting on people’s blogs can be quite a nervous experience and I find myself drafting comments and editing them. It’s like turning up for your first day of work and getting the balance right – I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets paranoid about these things but as you can probably tell by now I’m not the most articulate or spontaneous of people so I worry about this kind of thing! That said I have commented on a couple of blogs and hope I haven’t made too much of a fool of myself!

Looking at other blogs has given me ideas for new entries and I hope that this could lead to networking with a range of professionals from different sectors.