Introduction

In this essay, I will be reflecting on my personal development throughout my time at the university while studying my course computer networking. I will be discussing my performance in various activities that have taken place in the first half of the year, and aim to develop an understanding of how I approach to different situations. Additionally, I will develop an action plan to discuss my goals and how to improve the way I approach certain situations.

Oral Presentation Skills

Firstly, I will be talking about my oral presentation skills. In week 10, I and my group members had to give a group presentation discussing possible solutions to a problem that was presented to us. From this, I discovered that I needed to improve on my confidence in speaking to the audience, this is because I felt that I could have elaborated on what I was saying and felt that my point was not explained effectively. For this reason, in other group presentations I will prepare myself by speaking more and ensuring that my explanation is understood by the audience, rather than simply reading of the PowerPoint slide. This will eventually give me more confidence to engage with the audience as I will be fully prepared and organised.

Written Communication Skills

My written communication skills in the formal report come across clearly and I believe I have done a good job. I have been able to set the report out in a structure which was effective in ensuring a good flow throughout the report. In my report there are simple construction errors in some sentences and grammar problems. The way to improve these are by getting a fellow class member to proof read my work before I submit my work. As looking back to my report and getting feedback it is simple and brief and some content was missing. I should have added more detail in my report and read the assignment brief to see what content I had to add in my report before submitting. I should also have elaborated when talking about various skills in my report.

Team Role Preference (Belbin)

There are many Belbin roles which people can choose to be or when they complete the questionnaire they will get to know what they are. My Belbin role was a chairperson, this means that someone who is in charge and the leader for a group. The evidence of me being a chairperson is when I and my group members had to give a presentation in one of our seminars regarding a problem and how to find many solutions to the problem. In my group I was chosen the role of a chairperson due to my leadership and commitment towards the presentation. When the group activities were taking place in my seminars I was relaxed and had no problem being the chairperson. I am most comfortable when organising my group members for a presentation as I told them what to do and in which order would each group member take the time to speak their point out. Sometimes I find some situations hard to deal with as when a group member does not share his ideas to the rest of the group. When circumstances like this appear I try in my best manner to settle the situation very quickly so I and my group members can get back to work.

Learning style (Honey and Mumford)

As I completed the questionnaire in my seminar class the outcome of that was that I am an activist. I will explain what an activist is and that person who is an activist likes to be involved in experiences which are new. I enjoy doing most of my seminar, practical and assignment work as this is what an activist does. Also I do not like working alone but I work with a group of people to make work easier for myself and others by helping each other. Activists learn better when they are working in a group and have to work as a team to get work done, also they like dealing with difficult tasks instead of doing the easier tasks and finding an easy way out. As I am an activist I do not like sitting for too long listen to lectures as I get bored very easily and this is when I learn less rather when I am in a practical or in an seminar I like that way as you can ask questions and you get to work together and do practical work. When I try to think on my own or when I try to do simple seminar tasks on my own I learn very little this is because I prefer working in a group with other people to make it easy for everyone as everyone can contribute their input.

Learning Power (ELLI)

I will now discuss my learning power and this is measured on the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI). My strongest learning power is Positive Learning Relationships. My reasons to believe this are that when I am given tasks to complete, I form a group and work with other people to gain solutions and work on together to share ideas. This helps me to understand the problem from other people’s perspective. For example, in practical’s when homework is given I and my colleagues get together to share ideas and to complete the work given by the teacher. However, I am also able to work on assignments independently requiring no help from others. My weakest learning power is Critical Curiosity. My reasons for this is because I do not dig deep enough and see what the assignment really means and wants from us. I try to work out tasks which are given in class but I ask for a friend to help me work it out together so it is easier for both of us. As critical curiosity is my weakest dimension this is because I do not like to try to figure out tasks myself. The evidence to support that my strongest dimension is Positive Learning Relationship is that when I looked at the ELLI profile I went through it thoroughly and I found out that this is because I like working on tasks in groups rather than myself. Also I am not afraid of talking to group members to share ideas in order to help them and make their task easy. The evidence to support that my weakest dimension is critical curiosity is when I do not like going into detail on many tasks as it wastes time, and I do not like to work out tasks myself instead I work with a group of people.

Motivation

My main motivation on my Computer Networking course is mastery orientation, this means to master my goals in simple words develop new skills and gain more knowledge about my course. Also to do well in all of my units whilst my time in university and do good when presenting work in a presentation. This will have an impact on my career as I will master my course by gaining in depth knowledge about it and doing well in simple presentations. This is because these presentations will help me after when I finish university so I will feel much confident to speak to other people and to stand up in front of many people to deliver my speech. In some ways this may be bad for me as I may not get the grade I want to and the first class degree, this is due to just getting more knowledge and being good at programming I may not look at what the assignment requires to get high grades and may just keep on talking about information which is not related to a particular unit or task. In other ways people that are performance oriented will not like to do group tasks in which they do not feel confidence because they think they will not pass due to their lack of confidence, by doing this people will stop learning and it may affect their grades as far as I am concerned I am mastery oriented so I will not lack in confidence I will get together and do group work without avoiding any group related tasks.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

My personality type is that I am an extrovert this is because I like talking with other class members and I am someone who likes working in groups. By being an extrovert in some of my seminars or practical’s I speak out and ask questions to my teacher instead of putting my hand up first. When there is a group task to do I am the first person to get forward and participate with fellow class members. Also I like to work with friends as we share ideas and make group work and exercises easier for each other to understand. When I am learning and studying some problems may occur if I am an extrovert one of them is that sometimes I may not have someone to work with or they may be busy this can go for career implication as well. The other personality type I am is sensing this basically means I am good a memorization and I talk mainly about the structure and organization of what needs to be done. By being sensing I will make sure I go through my assignment step by step to be sure that every requirement is met. There may be implications when learning they are that when studying I may not know what to do step by step as some steps may be harder to understand then others and in a hurry the organization of assignment may not be done correctly. An implication may occur in my career after university is that I may start to forget data which I memorised in university and may just read a question once to understand it instead of going over the question multiple times to be certain of how to answer it properly. The other personality type I am is feeling, this is when I use my heart instead of using my head to think. Also I decide certain data on my feelings and what follow what my heart says about it instead of using my head for deciding a reason. The implications this may have on learning is when I learn I may get information wrong due to following my heart and not my head this will lead me to incorrect data. I may have implications on my career by choosing a job which gives more money and when given the job I may struggle on doing my duty so I start on a job which I understand of doing instead of following my heart and going for higher paid job and struggling. The last personality I am is judging this is because I am well organised and I meet my deadlines also I plan before I start any of my assignment or group tasks. Also I don’t do everything at the same time I take my time to do it correctly the first go by doing one thing each time. The implications this may have on my learning and career is that when I try to get my information across to someone else they may not like it as I am decisive, but due to family problem or if I be ill I may not be able submit assignments or go to work.

Conclusion

I have a lot of career objectives for the future of my career as I want to work in the department of computer networking. Also I want to master my skills and get a good understanding of networking so I may not struggle in my career when working. Sometimes I feel that I also want to get the highest possible grade before leaving university such as a first class degree, at the same time I will make sure I gain in depth knowledge of computer networking as this knowledge will help me in my career when I finish university and go on to work. The requirements to get a job from my course which is computer networking is that people will need a bachelor’s degree and they will need some of the following skills: good communication skills as they will communicate with other people and have knowledge of information and understand the computer networking job profile/company you are working for and what they require. Also as I love to work as a team you will need good team working skills because sometimes you may work in groups to work out a possible solution to a problem.

Action plan

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Andrew Tinson 16/08/2018