This week marks the end of the module; therefore, I will do some overall reflection of my journey through the module.
The prospect of conducting an ePortfolio was at first quite daunting as I feared I would not have enough to talk about to discuss things in depth and synthesise ideas. However, I then tried to approach it in a more relaxed fashion, where I did not set any specific rules that had to be followed each week but instead just write about topics that naturally came to my mind and connected these in the best way I could. This proved very useful and, although I learnt a lot of new information from the lectures and the readings, it made me realise that there were a lot of resources I had accessed in the past, out of my own interest, that relate to the content presented. It encouraged me to think that I did in fact now more than I felt I did, and to use my previous knowledge as a basis to build on. I also did actively seek out more resources that related to the topics within the weeks themselves, and it was nice being allowed to use a wide range of educative sources, from art installations to podcasts. This self-act of seeking out information to synthesise ideas I had not done much outside of my department of Applied Linguistics so it was nice coming across things I may not have previously. Even within the department this did not occur, so it was comfortable being in the cycle of just doing the set readings and only seeking out academic content for assignments and such. Thus, the ePortfolio itself felt like it was an overall very enriching experience.
I think that the concept of interdisciplinarity was also very enjoyable for me as it seems to me the most accurate representation of what learning and information is like outside of university. Now I think other departments should perhaps seek to incorporate some form of interdisciplinarity in their modules (that allow for it). I realised some of my own modules naturally had aspects of interdisciplinarity, with areas such as sociology and psychology, and these tended to be some of my favourite and most enjoyable modules.
Before taking the module, I was very in tune with my own global identity, having moved across countries and interacting and enjoying things from all over the world, and this module confirmed this for me. It strengthened this for me, but it also pushed me to understand the world outside of my own global identity – to understand how other individual and national identities are connected worldwide. This I really enjoyed, and, in the future, I will seek to stay more educated on current world events, especially when it comes to world politics and news on the climate, as I realised, I was not as active about these as I thought I had been. From our group and seminar discussions I really felt the importance of staying updated with world events as they are all interconnected and, in some way or another, will affect everyone. We also kept bringing up the importance of educating the younger population and, in doing so, made me seek to educate myself more. The module therefore not only affirmed my global identity, it expanded my understanding of it, as I now looked at it not only from my own diverse cultural experience, but also additionally from all the ways in which the world affects me and I affect it back.
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