Individual Personal Reflection

The value of reflection

You have been through a whirlwind experience of project development and class activities over the course of field session. While we hope this experience has been valuable and taught you many things, it is time to take a moment to slow down, breathe, and reflect on your experience.

Taking time to reflect is a way of solidifying the lessons you have learned from experience. Reflection helps make meaning of events, reveals mysteries that still need answers, and occasionally yields insights that lead to personal growth. Reflection is also an opportunity to appreciate your personal contributions to a group effort.

Whether your personal experience of field session has been amazing, frustrating, fun, disappointing, or any combination of these, you've certainly been through a lot in a short time. As your final assignment for field session, we ask you to write a short personal reflection on your time in field session. We'd like you to address the following points, and add anything else you feel is important:

  • Not considering new CS technologies (programming languages, algorithms, frameworks, etc.) – what are some things you learned from field session and how did you personally grow during this process?
  • What did you, personally, do well? What could you improve on?
  • What advice would you have for future field session students that are about to start a new project with a new team?
  • What changes to the course structure would enrich the experience of future field session students?
“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” - Margaret J. Wheatley