8.CONDUCTING LITERATURE REVIEW

When I went about conducting the Literature Review for personal and professional development the first thing I did was to go to the library to find some books for research. Because of the way in which the question was asked I couldn't figure out where to begin looking for answers. I looked in books on business, on marketing ,on communications on organisations and I could not find the answers.
I spent a lot of time on line searching but i couldn't even figure out which search terms to use. In the end I realised that the government might have carried out some research or reports on the subject so I went to the reference section of the library in Blanchardstown and I found what I was looking for. The Economic Social Research Institute had published a report 'Employment Practises in the Public and Private Sectors' which covered exactly the area that the literature review was about.

I continued to search for another source of reference material to use and I found the IBEC website with an up to date report published this year on the same subject. Now I had everything I needed to put together the literary review. I found that trying to fit all the relevant information that I found into the format of the report very confusing and the structure of the report made things even more complicated added to that the fact that I wasn't used to doing the table of contents. Somehow I managed to get the assignment in on time and I got a good mark too. Looking back now I could do the assignment in a fraction of the time and without too much difficulty. I wont be fazed the next time I have to do an assignment like this because we have covered everything in detail and I an confident I know what I am doing now.

7.HARVARD RFERENCING

Referencing is standard practise in College. I found getting used to using the proper referencing to be very challenging and I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. The process of writing down the page number as you are trying to take notes and taking down all the relevant details from the reference material is very time consuming in itself. However when I got used to thinking in terms of citeing the source material as I went along it stopped being as much of a distraction to the assignment.

According to Pears and Shields (2003, p.1),'By providing references you:

• demonstrate the breadth of your research
• allow the reader to independently consult and verify your sources of information
• avoid plagiarism '.

I found that the more I got used to using the Harvard Referencing the more it made sense from the point of view of giving evidence to support what was written in a report. It also gives the reader the ability to see clearly which work is your own and which is from other sources.

In researching the Harvard Referencing system I found a very useful book in the itb Library titled "Cite them right: referencing made easy" by Richard Pears and Graham Shields. This book demonstrates how to reference everything from ancient manuscripts to personal e-mails.
The most important thing about referencing your work is avoiding plagiarism by citing properly because if you have not properly referenced the material it will look like you are trying to pass off someone Else's work as your own. I think you could avoid a lot of trouble by taking the time to proof read reports for proper referencing.

4.EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS

Having done Presentations for Assignments and in-class work I have now got a feel for what they are like. In my opinion the most important element of the presentation is to know the material very well and to have the timing right by practising doing the presentation with the slides. Here are some examples of what my Presentations looked like.

Being nervous about giving my first presentation really made me think about any ideas that would help me in getting through the first one. I came to the conclusion early on that if I was going to speak about something I had a genuine Interest in, and at the same time something that the audience would be Interested In, it would make the whole thing a lot easier. So I chose the subject of 'Endangered Irish Plants' which I thought was safe to assume a horticulture class would find interesting.

In my research for the first Presentation for Personal & Professional Development I looked at a lot of videos of presentations on the Internet to get some tips and to get into the right frame of mind for giving the presentation. One of my favourite videos on the Internet is a TED talks video of Sir Ken Robinson speaking on the subject of Education. I think it shows very clearly that he is very knowledgeable and very passionate about what he is talking about and I think this makes it a great Presentation.

From my own personal perspective I found the first presentation to be very difficult but I was glad that I did and I found the next ones to be much less difficult which is a great relief.

1.EFFECTIVE NOTE TAKING

The format my notes are taken down in resemble Cornel with part of the outline format and some of my own changes. I found that putting the date and the subject of the lecture at the top right corner of the page made finding the relevant notes easy for revision.

 I tend to use the Mind Mapping format when I am starting a new project or assignment, I find it very helpful with the layout of an assignment and I used one in planning the 'Reflective Writing Blog Assignment'.

We have to submit portfolios for both Plant Identification and Practical Horticulture, as part of the portfolios I have been taking photographs to support the written notes in the classes. In the Practical Horticulture class I have a small pocket notebook that I take with me and I take down any important Information in the class and photograph the work being done to add to the notes..

Some of the points on the 'Effective Note Taking' that I found helpful were; skimming notes on moodle before class was good preparation. Also that the lecture notes should not be the only notes you have,sometimes you need to look at a number of different sources to find good material. I filed my notes in file pockets inside a ring binder according to the subject.

Finally I noticed on page 5 of the moodle notes on 'Effective Note Taking' it says that 'Evidence exists which suggests that 30 minutes after a lecture - up to 50% of the content within may be forgotten', given that our Lectures are a full hour long and the classes are given concurrently I would suggest on reflection if the Classes were 50 minutes long it would give students 10 minutes between classes to organise their notes before the next Lecture.

9.TEAM BUILDING

TEAM BUILDING

As part of our Personal & Professional Development class at itb we were given an assignment to carry out a literature review on the following statement 'Orgaisations today are demanding more from their workforce than ever before. They require individuals who are not just well qualified , but who are multi-skilled, diverse, flexible, team oriented and have an ability to communicate effectively.'
In researching for the Literary review I found evidence of how Team Work is valued in the workplace and how the kind of individual who is flexible and who works well in a team is a valued employee.

In our Business Administration class were divided into Teams for in-class assignments. We were given questions to answer and we had to present our answers on a power point presentation.First we had time to discuss the questions and when we agreed on our answers it was taken down and put into a power point.

In the Practical Horticulture class we are regularly working as a team. We are first given a demonstration and then we set about our task as a Team. I found this to be a very good way of getting everyone involved in the task and I have noticed on many occasions how people with more experience on a particular thing will help out  their classmate readily. During the practical class I have taken photographs to add to my diary.

'Teams naturally integrate performance and learning' (Katzenbach, J. and Smith, D. 2000).

Check out this short Video about Teams.