If life is what happens to our plans, then dance is what happens to our steps.
ideas sometimes when you wait they come to you.

Preparation for starting with BAPP

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Visit a blog and write a comment day

I am making it visit blog day!!! Visit someone you have never read before and leave a comment...
*If your blog is not listed here you need to send me the address as this is the list from Unihub!

Adesola Akinleye

Helen Kindred
Hopal Romans (Guest Advisor)

Module One
Mathew Davidson
Arghierenia (Argie) Kyrimi 
Matthew Lindblad
Matt Shepard
Isabelle (Izzy) Clough
Megan Suddart
Taylor Byrne
Charlotte Wisniewski
Jae Eun An
Kerry Braybrooke-tidy
Laura Merani
Lauren Hamblin
Natalie Smith
Natasha Thompson
Sophie Tierney
Nicole Valverde
Selene Bueno
Katie Blythe
Natalie smith
Module One
Module Two

Ronnia Ashworth


Eleonor Byrne

Amanda Conroy

Dominique Davies


Jessica Dinmore


Joseph Darby

Emma Fitchett


Lauren Harper


Kirsty Haughton


Caoimha Mccabe


Prodromos Mameros

Alicia Morgan

Natalie Herbert-Moss*


Henry Rhodes (A)

Emily Richards

Jennifer Simm


Jessica Stokes

Ann Wall

Module Three 

Shannon Coull

Alana Dann

Eleanor Duignan

Persefoni Georgiou
http://persiaaa5blogs.blogspot.com.cy

Amelia Harris

Chrissie Homer

Imogen Mansfield

Hannah O’Neill

Lucy Penketh
http://lucyjpenketh.blogspot.co.uk

Gonzalo Preciado Azanza

Lydia Safhill

Alice Sampson

Georgina Tedora

Alyshia Waite

Alexandra Zibisow

Tuesday, 14 November 2017

For Module One's about drafts

Module One drafts are being accepted from Monday. Some people have met the Monday draft due date. The draft due date is a guide line for you in terms of organising your time. But don’t worry if you have not yet sent one. This date is reminding you you need to start to think about what you will be handing in. Thisis to do with thinking and working out so you may not know how to approach it yet – great start now so you can work it out. We have a skype session with a Module One focus on Monday 20th so sign up for that too (look out for the sign-up post on Adesola’s blog at the end of this week). Here are some notes on darfts:

1) You send drafts to your Advisor (Hopal (Helen) or Adesola depending on who you have as your advisor). Send them via email.
Turnit-in is only for the final University submission in January.

2) A draft send for feedback is a tool you use. It is so that you can ask questions about your work so: only send things that you want feedback on!! If it is not finished your feedback is going to be

‘it is not finished’!!!

and you know that already so direct the feedback you want. You could ask:

‘I know this is not yet finished, I intend to add a bit about xxxx, but could you look at and feedback on whether you feel my discussion of my practice is clear and have I used citations correctly? Do you feel I have connected the web 2:0 information to my practice or does it seem unconnected? ‘

3) The tasks in the handbook are suggestions for you to develop ideas about your practice in order to write the essay. If you are bogged down in the tasks then maybe lighten up a bit. They do not all have to be done and they do not all have to be done perfectly! The only thing you are being graded on is the essay.

4) Have a go at the essay and see where you are. Then maybe one of the tasks will make more sense or you might think I’ll do that task again to help we write this bit. Or you might feel you do not need to do any more tasks now you are writing the essay.

5) The blog posts you make are a way for you all to connect with each other. If you are not getting any comments on your blog maybe make some comments on someone else’s post. Advisors will not be posting on your blogs much but we are looking at your blogs to see where you are. If your blog address is not in Unihub yet in the ‘Learning Community’ folder PLEASE SEND your blog address to us straight away.


6) If you have something you really want your advisor to read or feedback on email us directly or add it as a comment on one of our posts if it is about the topic in the post.

7) Make sure drafts have page numbers, your name and student number on them. Please send as a word doc (NOT a pdf). Then Advisors can feedback onto the text is appropriate. Name the file saying what it is and who it is from i.e. Akinleye_1draftreflective essay.doc

8) Get connected - come to skype sessions make comments on other peoples blog posts. 

Module One is about articulating and 'seeing' and describing your professional practice - what your unique practice is. 
The Module is about being able to see your practice as a separate 'thing' from what you were taught as you trained, what you do to make money, what people said it should be - what makes your practice yours - YOU. 
The module is about how what you do, how you connect, how you present yourself and your work , how you appear , how you reflect and network  and how these all shape the unique emerging 'thing' thats your professional practice. Then you write about it and that is what you hand in. That is what you can start to send drafts of now. 

Wednesday, 8 November 2017

Noticing patterns and themes across the course

We had a campus session on Tuesday. We talked about the Professional Artefact, professional practice and analysis. Here are some points that emerged from the discussions that I think might be helpful.

1)    Read the handbook (the 2017-18 ones if possible) more than once.

2)    Module One is about seeing, noticing and articulating your practice. At the end of Module One you are asked to write reflectively about your practice. In order to do that you need to have been able to ‘see’ step outside yourself to critically look at it: to consider and wonder at and notice how your practice manifests at this time.

3)    Module Two once you have some idea of data collection methods you must plan what you will do with the data. How you will analyse it. You have to do more than just compile the answers people gave you when you asked them a question. When you start to think about what you will do in terms of analysis this frees you up to think of more practice-based data collection methods – it becomes more exciting more relevant to your practice. More than just asking people the answer to a question you are asking. The people or books will not have the answer. YOU ARE NOT LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER. (You are looking to find out more about something). You are looking for themes significant ideas, patterns in the data/ activity of the data collection. Then in Module Three you can think about what this Themes, significant ideas and patterns mean to you and your practice (which you started to identify in Module One)

4)    The professional artefact is something that fits as a way of sharing in the culture of your practice. Just as the written essay is a University artefact. Something you would expect to come across in the University setting. The way you explain your inquiry through the professional artefact is something not out of place in your professional setting. If you don’t yet know what you want to say then you will also not know how to say it. The artefact is how you say it. You cannot decide how to say something before you know what it is you want to say. If you don’t know what you want to say it will be because you need to do more analysis to help yourself understand what happened doing your inquiry and what it means to you.

Have a look at the comments where hopefully people who attended the session will also make comments and post links to their thoughts.


Friday, 3 November 2017

Campus session November 7th 10am to 1pm

Just a reminder we have a campus session 10am to 1pm (time in London) on Tuesday November 7th.
If you are not in the London area you could skype in to listen.

Let us know if you are coming in some form by commenting below.
We wil start to talk about the (drafts of)  artifacts, plans and reflective essay you are handing-in for the different Modules.

Room space: W151

Adesola

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

The Art is in the process

We had two great Discussion groups on Tuesday. I am going to highlight some of the different points that we talked about and some I have talked about with other people in One-to-ones.
First some Module Two questions (and reminders for Module Three.)

What is the recommended time frame for the primary research aspect (interviews, questionnaires etc) in module 3?
I recommend 3-4 weeks for each section1-4 wks data collection (interviews, etc..)
5-8 wks analysis (triangulating the data, literature, your experiences)
9-12 wks creating communication of experiences and discoveries (written essay and artifact) 

How many research questions do you recommend? 
It depends on how you are working - I recommend being open to the area you are looking at and not pinning it down too much. This might mean one to two very open questions or lots of small ones that build to create a bigger picture together. You are not looking for answers you are looking to find out something more about an area in your own professional practice remember.

and how many pieces of literature to review? 
You are not reviewing single bits of literature - you are reviewing what is said about the topic in general (The Literature). Like not reviewing a show (Kinky Boots) but reviewing (overviewing) all the different types of shows there are - Musical Theatre, Drama, Medieval, Dance etc…. You are explaining the field where your one small area fits. In doing this you might (and should) identify three or four written books / articles that are particularly relevant and that will be key in informing your inquiry analysis. For ‘Review' think ‘overview' or 'The Literature' think ‘whats out there on the general subject…’ so a literature review is An overview of what is out there on the subject.

Other ideas we talked about
Don't get stuck trying to perfectly answer one question - cycle round tasks, come back to things review older Modules and tasks. You don't go to a ballet class and spend two weeks just standing at the barr trying to do the perfect plie or playing a song on the saxophone you don't spend two weeks  getting the perfect first note. (You know when to come back to it and when to work extra on parts. Use the same skills in your 'academic' study. Don't make the artist you a different being from the 'academic you'.

Reflection is about keeping track of your process

Differ your approach to ideas - organize yourself so you can play with looking at ideas from different perspectives.

Don't look at things in terms of 'I agree' or 'I disagree' - look at things in terms of what their relationship is with other experiences you have had and other ideas you have encountered. 

Ethics is not a thing it is a more a word that indicates you have taken or are taking an approach... 
Rather than the 'ethics of the situation' (as if Ethics was a thing)  you would say 'the ethical consideration made in the situation' (about how things were done). My last blog  Oct 30th 2017 talks more about this. 

For module Two and Three rather than think 'What question an I finding / exploring' think 'what do I want to find out more about / what am I finding out more about'.

People who attended the discussion ate writing the links to their posts about the discussion below. Also please comment below.