Rinnelle Lee-Piggott CUTL 5207

The Final Reflection

I love teaching and having had opportunity to reflect on whether I am a teacher or an

educator or whether I am a helper or a judger, I have surmised that I am all to varying
degrees when I think about my teaching. I am always developing, willing to learn new
skills, strategies and content in order to enhance my teaching. This was my disposition
when I began the CUTL programme and the fires for
learning have not been smothered but have been
fanned to new heights and strengths.

As I look again at my journey cube (figure 1) and Dr

Burn’s journey chart (figure 2), it is evident that I have
had a career-enhancing opportunity, having pursued
CUTL and having met that year-end goal of
successful completion. I have been exposed to new
Figure 1 - My Journey Cube created in CUTL learning resources that I have used or can use in my
5001
teaching, especially those on reflective writing,
technology integration, active learning strategies and classroom assessment techniques
(CATs). I have also benefitted from the development of new technological skills and the
use of technological tools, such as screencasts. The development of higher education
blended courses was
definitely new territory,
which while my prior
knowledge assisted with
the alignment of learning
outcomes, teaching
strategies and
assessments, was
insufficient for working out Figure 2 - Dr Burns' Journey Chart

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Rinnelle Lee-Piggott CUTL 5207

the right balance of face-to-face and online sessions within the design of a blended
course. Thus skills such as storyboarding became particularly useful. Yet, the design,
organization, media-use and reflective writing skills were most heighted through the
development of my e-portfolio. I am surprised to see what it has become from an empty
shell. I showed a few of my departmental colleagues my e-portfolio and they were
really impressed and thought that the theme on my home page, ‘Effectively
professional; Professionally Effective!’, truly captures the essence of my e-portfolio –
clean, well-organized, aestheticaly-pleasing and adequately-reflective of my
professional development on the CUTL programme. I too believe it to be an exceptional
way of showcasing and charting professional effectiveness and development. Although
I do feel that groups pursing CUTL should have institutionally-reduced workload, the
programme has benefitted everyone in many ways, including personally, socially and
professionally.

Armed with these new learnings, I am prepared to make more meaningful contributions
to departmental and committee meetings, especially in the area of course design. I now
have a new toolkit of resources to share with my classes of Secondary school teachers
on teaching strategies and CATs for them to try within their schools. I am really excited
about that! However, the earliest impact of the programme from its end and moving
forward for me would be incorporating more technology use among my MEd students,
in particular and improving the layout and content of the myelearning course design
shell of one of the MEd courses that I teach to make it more user-friendly and attractive
by including pictures, session descriptions, a class announcement block and links to
videos and a class blog. The present one, which I thought was ok is now seen as
severely lacking in these respects.

Another pursuit is to create a professional e-portfolio that charts my career. Who knows
when this would become useful for promotion or career shifts! I always knew since
hearing about the ‘Guardian Teacher of the Year’ awards that I needed to develop an e-

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Rinnelle Lee-Piggott CUTL 5207

portfolio; not for applying for the award but because I recognized its usefulness. Now,
through CUTL, I have the skills to create and maintain an e-portfolio!

Lifelong learning must continue; thus I will continue to participate in professional

development courses offered by UWI’s CETL and/or other providers. I am actually very
glad that I pursued the CUTL programme and I am very grateful to Dr Burns and her
team. My academic journey has only just begun but it has begun well!