Personal development plan
This paper is a presentation of my personal development plans that shows the knowledge I have gained following this program of study. It includes a brief account of selected lecture activities and a clear well structured evaluation of the learning experience through the entire period of this course. First of all I will focus on my life purpose, dreams, short term and long term goals, values, beliefs, mistakes, lessons learnt, and success milestone.
Personal goals values and beliefs
My personal goal in life is to become successful in whatever I do. Joining this study program has been part of my strategy to achieving what I want in life. I have so found this program very helpful and supportive towards my ambitions in life. I specifically enjoy every moment of the program, the lectures, and the learning activities. The experience has been amazing. Interacting with my tutor and other students in class has made me learn a lot from them. I love and enjoy technology more than anything in the world.
This is the primary reason why I have to pursue this study program. Technology inspires me and makes wake everyday thinking about how I am ever going to use my knowledge and experience in technology to create a solution to a societal problem. Sometimes I wake up and tell myself that I am going to have to do what I have to do even when I do not feel like doing it. All these activities that make inspired in life lean towards technology. I believe that I have to keep myself fit for the sake of my future and plans in later life. I have to make wise decisions every time I interact with people both in my family circle and my social circle.
Personal goals in technology
I have also come to realize that my personal goals in technology and life in general have to keep me inspired every single day. I have to know at my figure tips and relate them to every situation and experience I go through . In order to do this, I read them out to myself every day, with a lot of energy and passion. The second thing I do is writing them out everyday where I can easily read them whenever and wherever I want. Writing these goals down is a very short process. I also have a dream board or a vision board where I put pictorial illustrations of my goals and dreams.
In this board I try to put a time line for the future where one dream or goal has to be achieved first before others. The short term goals have a higher priority compared to the long term goals. This is because they are a prerequisite for the achievement of the long term goals. Some of the pictures and illustrations posted on this board are of things that will get me inspired to do things in line to my passion of technology. I want to see technology be the foundation for future development of this world; a situation where everyone is expected to depend on technology to be able to do normal things in life.
Making mistakes is part of life. I have found myself doing things that are not correct even in the course of this study program. However, I have come to appreciate the role that mistakes play in our lives. Mistakes are there to help us learn. For instance, being a lover of science and technology means that I have to encounter situation where I may not be able to do things perfectly. In such situations I can either choose to contribute to findings new solutions, or give up and conclude that the process cannot be achieved.
Reflection of unit learning outcome
Depending on the availability of resources and the nature of task, my tutor has always employed the use of group work. Group work is a type of learning activity that is done in groups or pairs. It is mainly used in the development of the content material and not to introduce or wrap up a topic. I have found group work to have advantages over other forms of classroom activities for teaching and learning technology in college. Such an activity is important for building good relationships among the students and a spirit of co-operation. It is a key motivator to encourage the participation of every student in the classroom . Sometimes some students may not get the opportunity to participate in whole class activities due to the size of a class . However, with group work, every student gets a chance to be actively involved in a lesson. Group work has also helped me and the other students combine our ideas and work together especially during the assignments .
In addition group work has helped me to improve essential skills that I have as a technology student. When students are asked to perform activities in groups, they are expected to cooperate, join their knowledge and thoughts together for better solution. My tutor has also been expecting us to improve our ability to communicate in the groups as each student gets a chance to make their own contribution. The tutor has also been expecting us to seek for guidance from him wherever we need help. There time when it becomes hard within the groups especially when everyone does not have a clue about a piece of information. These are moments when we are expected to seek guidelines from the lecturer.
During the lecturer led instructions, the lecturer has been proactive and played a central role in providing the instructions and information to the students while the students act as passive recipients of the information. The lecturer led activities or whole class activities require the full attention of the students . A key motivator in the class whole class activities for technology lessons has been to give the students challenging work according to their abilities. Giving the same work might be biased in the sense that slow learners will feel unmotivated if the work is too hard while the bright students might get bored quickly if the work is too simple .
Even in the lecture led classroom activities certain behaviors were expected of me and the other students. In lecturer led instruction, the lecturer expects that the students be attentive. Since the lecturer assumes full control of the classroom activities and the students play a passive role, the students are only required to listen attentively. In the process of classroom discussion, the lecturer can provide incentives because this is essential for students’ motivation. Students are also expected to ask questions where they do not understand or need clarification. Since lecturer led activities may not give students a chance to capture all the information one at a time, the students are expected to write notes for later reference.
Assignments have been part of the learning activities that we have had to put up with in the whole lecture. Some of the assignments have been in the form of homework while others have been in the form of library and research activities . For the homework activities we were basically expected to do some written assignments either at home or during our own free time. The assignment have been a good way of assessing the progress of a student as the lecturer offers guidance and the students are also allowed to correct errors committed. Homework assignments also help lecturers complete or cover additional materials that they failed to cover during normal lessons . Some of the assignments were given to help us read ahead before a next lesson. So that, during the lesson we find it easy to be attentive and flow with the content given. The lecturer gives sample questions that would help the students understand the basics of a new topic. At the same time, the lecturer can give the students exercises after teaching a topic .
A library is generally used for research. Student of all grades especially high school students have to be familiar with the use of the library for research. Library projects in teaching and learning of mathematical concepts is important since it encourages students to research topics of interest and learn more outside the confines of the classroom. There are a lot of books with different ideas and knowledge on various mathematical concepts. Students can use the library to research on topics for an upcoming lesson. For instance, the lecturer could provide the students with topical questions and mathematical problems to be researched in the library before the coming for a lesson . One of the expected behaviors for this out of class activity is development research skills. The lecturer expects that the student be able to use the library or the internet for that matter in research. In addition, cooperation with lecturers and other students is expected.
I like the way my lecturers have been using technology mapping to implement the course technology in technology. Technology mapping is gathering all the information that relates to technology, identifying all the important content and skills that need to be taught, coming up with an appropriate instructional method that will be employed, and designing an effective and efficient means of assessment. One such example of a technology map that depicts a cohesive technology is interdisciplinary technology map from the Kentucky department of education. The map also includes a scoring rubric that measures students understanding of concepts and skills in technology .
A technology map is very useful as it is able to identify all the important activities for curricula . It is in fact an effective guideline for an instructor to use in the classroom to effectively cover all the important content and classroom activities that are needed to complete a program. It provides a clear range or scope of the knowledge and skills that the learners have to gain over a specific period of time. Through the designing of a technology map, the necessary resources can be linked and used appropriately for the effective delivery of subject content .
In conclusion, Technology inspires me and makes wake everyday thinking about how I am ever going to use my knowledge and experience in technology to create a solution to a societal problem. Sometimes I wake up and tell myself that I am going to have to do what I have to do even when I do not feel like doing it. All these activities that make inspired in life lean towards technology. I believe that I have to keep myself fit for the sake of my future and plans in later life. I have to make wise decisions every time I interact with people both in my family circle and my social circle. I have also come to realize that my personal goals in technology and life in general have to keep me inspired every single day. I have to know at my figure tips and relate them to every situation and experience I go through. In order to do this, I read them out to myself every day, with a lot of energy and passion. The second thing I do is writing them out everyday where I can easily read them whenever and wherever I want. Writing these goals down is a very short process. I also have a dream board or a vision board where I put pictorial illustrations of my goals and dreams.
Reference List
Cole, K. A., 1999. Walking around: getting more from informal assessment. Technology teaching in college, pp. vol 4 no. 4 pp.224-227.
