We are delighted to welcome Dave Kelly as our guest blogger this week to talk about reflecting on learning.
This chat has taken place; view the chat transcript here the next #chat2lrn will be on Thursday 4 April, 08.00PST/11.00EST/16.00GMT
I’ve just returned from the Learning Solutions Conference in Orlando. It was three great days chock-full of lots of learning content from a great number of really smart people. I love conferences, and learn a lot while attending them. However, I’ve always felt that the most important part of the conference experience isn’t the conference itself; it’s what you do afterwards.
Reflection is a critical part of our learning process, and yet it’s something we rarely build into the learning programs we design. Reflection provides an individual the opportunity to process the experience and build connections between new knowledge and existing knowledge. That opportunity to pause, to reflect on the learning and build context within our own experiences is hugely powerful.
Whenever I attend a conference (or any significant learning experience) I try to allocate time over the next day or so to pause and reflect on what I’ve learned and consider what it is I will be doing differently as a result.
Two important points: I always try to schedule time within a day or so of the experience. Reflecting quickly is important, as it’s very easy to go back into the office and fall immediately back into our routines. Try to set aside some time to pause and think about what the most important things you learned about from the experience were, and how you can use that knowledge in your work.
The second point? Document and share what you have learned. This is a natural part of reflecting. It not only helps those you share your knowledge with, it also helps to better clarify and contextualize the learning for yourself. Share your reflections with your co-workers, your peers, and with the community at large (using the conference hashtag, if applicable).
Reflection is a hugely important part of the learning process. I think we, as learning professionals, need to provide more opportunities for reflection in the learning experiences we build. We tend to dump content without providing opportunities for reflection, and we need to change that. It’s through reflection that context is built, and it’s through context that learning becomes meaningful.
Please join us to discuss reflection on our own learning, and getting to action, on Thursday 21 March at 16.00 GMT and North America DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME CHANGE ALERT :: 12.00EDT/09.00PDT ::
Looking forward to seeing you there!