Sharing and Extending Learning

Throughout the course, you will need to keep some form of journal, share your thoughts, questions, experiences and insights online with other participants, and develop a portfolio to create a record of your journey through the course.

Keeping a Journal

There are various ways to keep a journal—in a notebook, on loose-leaf paper in a binder or on the computer. You might try different media and genres: writing, drawing, collage, poetry. As well, try out different papers, lined and unlined, and different fonts or coloured pens. Your journal entries could focus on any of the following, as well as other areas you want to pursue:

• The readings
• How the readings relate to your context/program
• Insights, puzzles, challenges, possibilities
• Questions
• Ideas for changing practices
• Your response to the learning activities you have tried

Some people like to leave a wide margin on each page of their journal so that they can come back, review their entries and make additions.

A few possibilities for recording in your journal are included below, but you may have other ideas you want to try.

Free Writing

Free writing is writing whatever comes to mind when you pick up the pen. Many people give themselves a specific amount of time to write regularly—this might be every day or every week. If they can't think of anything to say they just write about how hard it is to know what to write, so that the pen keeps moving for the entire time they have allotted themselves.

You might want to try completely "free writing" for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes. Or you may want to try free writing with a prompt. We have suggested some writing prompts in each module. The extract from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron may give you more ideas for free writing.