The Development Journal |
What is a Development Journal? A Development Journal or a Learning Journal is a chance for you to reflect on the topics that come up in the unit as part of the lectures or tutorials so that your own learning is improved and your understanding of the history of computing is enhanced. Your development journal should contain an accumulation of material that is mainly based on the your processes of reflection. It is written over a period of time, not 'in one go'. Your entries will extend over one whole semester and the completed journal will serve as the single focal point for all the source materials you use for your essay and for any notes you make on those sources. It is a valuable document and regular effort spent compiling it will bring dividends in the form of a better constructed and sourced essay but additionally it will assist in helping you to organize and deepen your knowledge of the material you cover. The development journal gathers in one place all the thoughts, plans, notes, source material and records of problems which arise during the writing of your essay.
Creating a Development Journal often creates the conditions that favour learning. For example, by simply demanding that you give time, thought and intellectual space to source material, or by enabling you to focus on particular areas of interest and demand that you order your thoughts.
As a loose-leaf folder into which you can place a variety of material, both written and more visual like charts, diagrams, tables etc. You do not have to word process everything – hand-written entries are OK as long as they can be read by your tutor and the student who is doing your crit (if you choose to show them certain entries).
As dated weekly entries. You will need to make weekly entries for at least 8 weeks of the unit over the entire semester.As the weeks of the semester progress, you will find it useful to go back and revisit your entries for earlier weeks, and reflect on the original comments that you made. You might want to make extra entries in later weeks.You may find that your Tutor makes a written comment sometimes to one of your comments or reflections.
Students who have kept journals in the past say, “Make short entries often – don’t aim to write an essay – just record your immediate thoughts, plans or designs as they come up”. Good advice! So don’t be surprised if your journal has short notes as well as longer sections. Remember … Keep your Development Journal safely. It MUST be handed in as part of
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