Revision and Reflection - revised!

It has been a while since my last post.  January and February were busy months for me - coaching, night classes, marking and teaching.  Working on my Master's portfolio was pushed to the side and I attempted it when time

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permitted.  These two months were also a transition time in my high school classes - the end of one semester and the beginning of another.

Over the last 2-3 weeks I have put in more time for my project - A rationale for using technology in Project Based Learning.  I received feedback, had an honest conversation with my advisor and I did lots of revisions.  I am happy to report that there are only a few small edits that need to take place to this version of the paper before it goes to the next advisor for review.

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I also had a great conversation with a friend of mine.  I told him that I look forward to being complete so that I can become current again in my topic.  What I mean is that most of the articles, posts, and my own work, have not changed much in the last year, as I have focussed on my project.  I have revised and reflected but I have not been able to stay as current as I would like.  Is it possible that revision and reflection can take up too much time at the expense of new knowledge?

I definitely see the value and worth in revising my work and taking the time to reflect upon it but have I lost out on anything?  What valuable findings and conversations have occurred while "I have been out"? I know that there were great tweets, and tweetchats that I missed.  What about some new articles and tech tools that I have missed that others have shared?  I have wrestled with these thoughts for the last couple of months.

I have also considered and thought a lot about when is a "work" finished?  When can I, the author, say that it is done and move on?  There were times throughout the process when I wanted to just leave it and not just for a little while.  I wonder how my students feel about some of the work that they need to do in my classes?  While each stage of the paper writing process was a part of my learning, I will admit that I stopped being excited about my topic a while back and any excitement that I still had turned to the hope of completing my work. This has been the longest that I have ever spent and focussed on a single project or topic in my academic career.  Now I look forward (after the creation of some videos for examples to accompany my paper) to seeing what is next for me.  There are several Essentials of Project Based Learning that I want to look at more intentionally: public audience, 21st Century Skills, Revision and Reflection, and there are other interests to pursue (upon completing my M.Ed. I will be purchasing and learning to play my first guitar!)

An aside to my thoughts on revision, I was also thinking about the role of technology in revision and reflection and more specifically how revision and reflection were completed prior to the availability of technology tools.  There were many drafts to my initial proposal and to the paper itself, on top of the drafts that were submitted to advisers.  I would often edit a "draft" about 4-5 times.  Multiply this by the drafts that were submitted and you have about 35+ versions of my work.  I guess in this secondary thought about the role of technology in revision and reflection I have a  few questions:

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1. Does technology cause us to be sloppy, careless or perhaps not as careful with our initial work as we ought to be?  I think of this in light of always wanting to be a "one hit wonder" - to complete my work and have it be "good enough" on the first try.
2. Does the use of technology make revision too easy? In grade 9, I took typing in a room full of  typewriters.  It was difficult to correct a mistake, as simple as it might have been.  Now with online tools like Google Docs or TitanPad, we can revise and revise and revise.  As I have asked before, "is a work ever done" or can/should I keep editing?
3. A bigger question might be, "does anyone other than me really care about my reflections?"  I don't mean to say that reflection is not valuable and should not be completed - quite the opposite.  Personally, I have learned a lot about myself through this series of reflections while completing my M.Ed portfolio.  I have enjoyed blogging about the process, but how much reflection has really been shared?  What about the day to day reflections or more importantly, the thoughts that I don't let leave my head while I am revising my work.

As much as I will be glad to see this portfolio come to completion, there is this weird feeling in my mind.  The feeling is similar to "buyer's remorse" - that sense of let-down after you get that new item.  With the time, effort, stress, fatigue and commitment to this process by myself and especially by my

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family, it would be easy to say that I am not doing something like this again.  However, I am already starting to ask myself - "What's next?"  I will begin to work on this idea in my next and maybe final post.