Critical
Reflection and Summary: Digital Portfolio
When
I started developing my inquiry plan, I felt like I would stand in
front of a huge mountain. Neither I could see the mountaintop or had
any knowledge needed to reach it.
I
began the process by reading Reader 4 and did realize, that the
inquiry process will take me a lot of patience and reflection. I
started thinking about an issue where me and other professionals
could benefit from. After days of reflection, reading
different articles, speaking with people and analysing the goals
which I would like to reach in my further career, I came up with a
few questions (Appendix A).
I got much positive feedback and decided to stay on the chosen path.
For
driving the inquiry process forward, me and Patrick Abels built a
design group on facebook and additional to this I built a SIG on
linkedin that deals particularly with my issue (Appendix
B).
I also joined other SIGs.
But the results of my groups lagged behind my expectations, because
design professionals are the minority in this course and the
participation has been weak.
I
tried to compensate this lack by discussing verbally my issue with
other professionals and friends of mine. This discussions and the
exchange of thoughts have been very useful for narrowing down my
topic and made me aware of the weak points.
The
theme ethics has been confusing for me first of all, because I didn't
know how to link ethics to research or my professional practice. I
thought ethics related to practice does mean professional and
acceptable behaviour in my workplace (Appendix
C).
But
after reading Reader 5 and the Code of Conduct of my workplace
(Appendix
D),
I realized that ethics in practice are far more than only accurate
and respectfull behaviour. They are fundamental values of social
life.
I
recogniced some overlaps concerning ethical guidelines, but a few
points vary and depend on different circumstances e.g. research has
different requirements on ethics (Appendix
E)
than the profession graphic design (Appendix
F).
Now, I am aware how important ethics in all these cases are and that
I, as an Insider Researcher, have to adhere to all of them.
After
I narrowed down my inquiry theme (Appendix
G),
I designed my pilot survey, my pilot interview and my pilot focus
group (Appendix
H).
I didn't expect the difficulties which emerged by testing this tools.
But I do know now that a good preperation and previously testing
reduces errors, which is particularly important for ensuring a high
number of participants and collecting data
that are useful for an academic inquiry.
During
the process I found a lot of great literature concerning my topic
(Appendix
I).
Complementation to this 'delicious' have been a great help and
enabled me to collect and organize important internet sources
(Appendix
J).
Summing
up, I feel that this module has prepared me very well for conducting
a professional and effective professional inquiry which will be
useful for my own professional development, as well as benefiting
other professionals.
