First Tuesday Coffee and Easter

Next week are the Easter Holidays: I am point person for questions at for the holiday. Feel free to SKYPE or email me if you have any emergency questions, even if I am not your advisor.

April 2^nd is our next ‘First Tuesday Coffee House meeting’. We will meet on SKYPE at 7:30pm London time. Don’t forget the clocks change this weekend as British ‘summer’ time begins!!!!

If you want to join in the ‘First Tuesday Coffee House meeting’ please SKYPE me to make a connection before Tuesday if possible or send me an email with your SKYPE address so I can reach out to you. Let other people know about it too.

Well, now’s an exciting time as we see the end of term looming and start planning summer work etc… Keep calm, breath. Find out your best way of dealing with all you have to do – I make lists so I can tick things off!!

Hope to chat on Tuesday

Adesola

Award titles

Thinking about Module two-ers who are working on  an award title. As usual I do not see any one module as having exclusive thinking points so this is something for everyone to ponder on. The award title thing is not a big question. Remember that 2/3 or so of your BA (HONS) award is carried over from whatever you did in your associate degree. Then of the three modules in the BAPP programme, only one is an inquiry. So the inquiry topic cannot be the main focus of you BA just because you have not spent that much time on it. Plus we are asking you to have a topic but we are not grading you on WHAT you find out on that topic we are grading you on the process you have. So your final module inquiry might not uncover much more in that area for you than you already know, but does help you have a better understand of the context of the topic and how you want to fit into it.

Hold that thought and look at it another way. When you go for a job and hand over you cv and it says BA (HONS) in performance extensions (!!!!) because that is what your inquiry was. Firstly, it look like you made it up (which you did!) but without knowing about MDX the person looking at your cv is not going to understand it or might think its like one of those degrees you can by on the inter-net!!!! Secondly because it is unique nobody will know what it is or what it is about. Thirdly you don’t know much about it either because think about how much you know about dance or musical theatre or whatever you did for two years in the previous schools. You know all the ins and outs that is what you can talk about from here to Thursday…then on top of being really knowledgeable about that you can also talk a little about whatever your inquiry was on or about your process.

So putting those two thoughts together the simpler and clearer and more recognisable the better such as:

Performing Arts

Dance

Musical theatre

Graphic design

Theatre performance

Lastly, just know you cannot choose an award title in the hope you will go into the topic or because its what you want to do – you are choosing something because its what you HAVE done.

Keep it obvious and know it does not have to be a big decision the only reason you are making it is because we do not know the ins and outs of your experience not because its too complicated for the university to do.

What do you think??

 Adesola

Has it been colourful?

We are in week 5 (sort of half way through the term). I think this is a good time to start to think about where you are heading. Are you clear about what you are required to hand-in for assessment? Do you know the deadline date? It is a good idea to ask yourself why you have been doing what you have been doing? To take a step back and ask yourself what it has meant to you so far. How is it meaningful and how can you make it meaning full. In the middle of it all it can be easy to start to forget to link things find connections and you can end up jumping through hoops just because they are there!!

How has it gone so far? Please comment lets see what people are thinking, saying and doing? Do you have any tips for others or things that have been amazing or very hard or unexpected?

Adesola

First Tuesday Coffee House meetings - SKYPE

We just had our SKYPE chat: a four way conversation. We talked about responses to blogging – how blogging can be frustrating if people do not respond to your posts by leaving comments. But also how the blog can act as documentation for yourself of your process and thinking as you travel through the course. In some ways you are posting for others to read and in other ways you are posting for your future self to read. Ahmet said a really cool analogy about being a stand up comic: you can play to the audience for the laughs or you can play to the truth and hope you get some laughs along the way.

We talked about the reflection section of Module One and how ‘doing’ a journal is not the fundamental point of the section of the module – the point is about looking at how you reflect, what role reflection has in your practice and what other people have said about reflection. Reading the handbook before you do too many journal entries is good, this is because this section is about thinking about reflection and yourself not producing a daily journal (– although you might find that helpful and fun to do).

We talked about how throughout the course there is a multi-layered experience you can have as ideas do not appear ‘straight forward’ and you feel you are starting to think ‘differently’. It was suggested that module One is a way to make yourself more stable as that you can go on to the other modules with a sense of where you are coming from. I think this is a useful comment because it also demonstrates how it might or useful to return to Module One ideas when you are in Module Two and three as a way to ground yourself.

We decided the experiment went well and was useful. So I am going to do it every first Tuesday at 7pm London time. Anyone can come from any module and we will talk about things that people bring up to talk about – making links across the course and learning from each others experiences.

I am naming it the First Tuesday Coffee House meeting – so if you want to join-in the next one April 2^nd send me your skype address and /or a skype request so we are connected.

What do you think?

Adesola

People at the meeting today were

Ahmet 

http://mrahmet.blogspot.com

Kym  

http://kymwalton.blogspot.co.uk

Sophie

http://sophiejones17.blogspot.co.uk

and me

Visit their blogs to see what they say too….

Rubric

I found this rubric as I was looking through some work. It is a good example of expectations for writing, might be especially useful for those writing their reflection of learning in Module One although I think it is interesting reading for writing in the context of  BAPP in general. What do you think?

Example for BAPP blog: Assessment Rubric (from 3/12/2008)

	Beginner fail (below level)	Expected	Developed	Progressing	Notes
External sources of Knowledge: Aware academic / professional ideas of other and seeing how they fit into your work.	Cite one or no external ideas.	Cite others work  two- three	Cite others work appropriately (examples) four or five Aware of others doing similar work as you	Cite others work effectively – (developed ideas on) more than five
Internal conception of knowledge: Recognising own practise as a source of knowledge.	Telling the story of something that happened that helped you	Realisation: Articulating an   event or incident when self practise developed, (without the aid a teacher).	Trust: Articulate a time when you acted on your practice (self knowledge / things you have learnt) without confirmation or direction of someone else.	Giving / Risk: being able to articulate a through-line (show us how it manifests) of your practice in life outside of the arts or work.
Selection and Justification of approaches to tasks	Wrote the work	Work has a number of drafts, final draft could track the development of the drafts (work went through development stages)	Work reflects other forms of thinking used in the process of composing the essay.	Work is a vehicle that summarises a whole process of learning. Almost like a report on the learning that has been done (persons went through development stages)
Ethical Understanding	Know external frameworks.	Work articulates how student can see the impact of themselves and their practice on others. Aware of external frameworks (rules) and apply them.	Articulate how practice is informed by awareness of particular views and experiences, aware of the effect they have on others.  Know external ethical frameworks and incorporate them into this knowledge of their actions.	Articulate a clear understanding of responsibilities: Practice is informed by student’s perceived place in society – student shows a range of ways to engage with others because of the impact research / study might have. Analyse external frameworks and develop them for themselves.
Analysis and synthesis	Ideas are evident.	Can track where ideas have developed and how they have been influenced by experiences.	Show how ideas have linked in the past and the range of ways ideas emerge. Show the different ways in which ideas can be used. (concepts, principles, systems, models)	Articulate the personal process for developing and applying ideas, shows awareness of other peoples’ processes as well.
Self appraisal / reflection on practise	Explain how a teacher has helped their develop	Explain how a past experience has informed the way the student does things now. The Student explains how their impression of their work has differed from a teacher’s.	Explain how past experience has been used to inform a wide range of elements of practice.	Shows how the student has developed their practice through   intentional use of self reflection (not instigated by someone or something else). Instances of this.
Action Planning leading to effective and appropriate action (B3)	Table or schedule of events	Evidence of how they plan, including prioritising and   setting of aims and objectives.	Showing evidence of having planned for themselves and others. Plan would accommodate a number of people and schedules &/or use existing action planning tool/s.	Shows understanding of ethical implications and the impact of their work has on others. Their work theorises or cites other planning methods.
Evaluation of information (B4)	Student describes information that they think is relevant.	Presents ways that have been   used to access information and identify what is important to their personal practice.	Present a range of existing evaluation tools/ formulas that they have found valuable.	Show personally devised ways and systems that are used to evaluate information.
Application of learning in number of contexts	Shows that student learnt stuff.	Learnt something and show how student used it in a different circumstance.	Learnt something and used it in two other contexts (home-life, teaching, technique class, relationships).	Learnt something and used it in more than two contexts, or at a very deep level.
Use of resources will be effective and wide ranging	Has put aside some time each week to study.	Shows understanding of relevant resources and how they would be useful.	Gathered a number of resources (such as people, things,   ideas, funding) in support of their work.	Sees impact of their work on others. Can describe the strategic implications of their work as a resource for others.
Effective Communication	Good at story telling.	Uses the standard methods of written and oral presentation for academia. (sentence construction, argumentation and citation)	Articulation of the use of a range of approaches to communication / presentation and some are used.	Successful and clearly decided approaches to support impact of ideas and concepts in their work. Articulation of why this approach was used.
Working and learning autonomously and with others	Evidence of being organised and punctual.	Organised work, with a method of working developed from past experience. Can identify the people they work with ‘best’	Shows strategies for working autonomously and with others. Is willing to take a number of roles within a group (challenge, reflect, support).	Shows knowledge of when to engage with others, is aware of their responses to different group settings. Shows awareness of when and how to challenge and support others. Can articulate personal perspectives in relation to working autonomously and with others.

URGENT SKYPE conversations groups

I need you send me request for contact on SKYPE and / or email me your SKYPE  addresses so I can contact you. It would be great to have sorted that out before Tuesday / Wednesday. Please email me the information.

How have you constructed your thoughts about...

This post is about looking at what three things mean to you and how you can interact with them:

A)    What it means to work when doing a work-based learning course,

B)   What campus sessions are / mean

C)   Notes about stuff on posts

I am starting with (C) – I am really excited about the SKYPE group calls plan see my post last week. If you want to do it my SKYPE address is in the handbook. This blog is open to anyone and everyone because I think the idea of open access is interesting and education needs to work out how to engage with the idea. But I don’t want my SKYPE address to be open access!! So I am not posting it, just look in the handbook. I have at least one person for each module discussion BUT for a group we need more than one so join in.. 

Looking at Blog posts this week I read Rhoda’s blog post about how much data she has. I think it’s really useful and not just because she mentions me!!! Have a look and leave her a comment on what you think.

http://rakparker.blogspot.com

Looking at (B). This relates to the open access ideas I hate to endorse too much use of Wikipedia but for the common understanding of something it is useful. Here’s what they say about open access.   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access

What do you think?

The philosophy of this course has something to do with the changes in how we can understand learning, information, knowledge and connection that the inter-net has raised. We see these issues in our everyday social life and work life. We begin the course by flagging it up, but this is for more than just how to get noticed for the next audition it is about thinking about how we interact and connect with each other. On this course we have decided to come together in the web 2:0 ‘world’ it seemed that because people are working or looking for work in the professional arena that the Internet offers two interesting concepts that we can use. Firstly, connection with each other out side of time and space as we usually use it. I am writing now, about things I care about and hopefully connecting with you but you are not ever in the same time or space as me even though we connect. Before internet maybe we could use a letter in this way to some extent but a letter requires a physical object that travels the distance between us. From my time and space to yours – the internet offers another way to address time and space. I am interesting this because of my work in embodiment.

So the internet and the blogs and lib-guides are our shared point of connection. That’s what that’s about – what do you think? How have to understood what the blogging is all about? You can see that from the perspective I have just described it is really important you post on your blog and comment on others. It is how you participate. So the campus sessions are not the places where we give you information that is on the web in Lib-guides, group emails & blogs. The campus sessions are places where we can come together to talk about what we think of the information. We then share out what we found. So not coming to a campus session is not about missing important information it is about missing connecting in a particular way – in physical person. You my be someone who needs this or likes to work that way but other than feeling sad about not working in your preferred way you are not missing key information. I think the coming together of people to talk is really fun and interesting. One of my advisees was really worried about missing a campus session and that is what made me think we should think of other ways to interact together in conversation – hence the group SKYPE idea (see previous post).

This course is not about us giving you information and you telling us back what we said. It is about you pulling the information and meaning toward you through a range of sources and us nurturing and encouraging that process. We are here to help you find meaning and value in the information. So not coming to a campus session does not mean you miss having us inject you with information.

How do you see the campus sessions? How are you finding the connections you make on the course with peers with advisors, with the handbooks, with other people’s literature….etc…?

Point (A) It’s a work-based learning course. To me that means work is central (your professional practice) so the course should not be an either /or situation: study or work. The point is you are studying your work. If you get offered a job while on this course do not see it a conflict – I mean maybe we are doing a good job of helping you open yourself to new possibilities and deeper thought and that has shifted your approach to something in a positive way or made you more attractive to employers. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that as you open the door into deep thought around your practice you get a job!!! Of course I am not saying you are validated by a paid job but think about the experience and see how things connect.

Of course work out with your advisor any admin problems if you are worried about getting work posted off for deadlines or less internet access but we are all imaginative people we can make it work. The opportunity is that the work will add experience to your study at MDX and the study at MDX with add depth to your work. That is point. If you are not finding that synergy then think about it because that is why we ask you to centre around your professional Practice in the work you hand in for assessment. Part of this course is about placing yourself in your work context, better understanding what you bring to your practice what your influences are, what you want to know more and more about. How have you seen the relationship between ‘work’ and ‘study’ so far? Have you noticed work informing study and study informing work? What is your experience in this?

Please comment

Keep up the good work

Adesola

SKYPE group calls

Well, the SKYPE experiment when well on Tuesday. It seems we can have groups of four or five to talk together. We can't see each other (without the supper-dupper SKYPE package) but it is the group conversation that is nice. I am thinking about this in terms of people who can't make campus sessions. BUT the problem is you students are pretty slow on the blog post reading!!!! not many people responded to my last post.  So I am giving you a bit of time to read this before some trial group discussions:
I am going to try to have:
a module one group discussion March 5th at 7pm (London time for those on tour etc..)
a module two group discussion March 5th 8:30pm
a module three group discussion March 6th 8:30pm

Whose wants to join in???
Adesola

Trying out an idea

Hi
I want to try out using SKYPE to have a group virtual Campus session!!! I need four or five people who want to give it a go. I was thinking about doing a trial on Tuesday 19th at 7:30 British time. It is particularly for those people not in UK or London or people who have to work during the day. Campus sessions are like think-tanks where students get to talk about common issues, ideas experiences and then we blog about this to the wider community. If you don't make a campus session it does not mean you are missing out on information it is just the experience of meeting and chatting live with peers. However for those on tour or just have work conflicts etc... getting to Hendon can be difficult. The part you are missing is the talking live to peers part, so this little experiment address that. If it works ok then we can do it more... Who wants to give it a go. Please leave a comment and if you want to help send me a SKYPE request so I have your address.
Adesola

How you are experienced -

Hi

Here are some thoughts sparked by Module One, first task. Module Twos and Module Threes please read this because these are not thoughts in terms of tips for passing Module One, they are ideas about the layers you can find in the work. Don’t think of a module ending and that’s it. The ideas introduced in each module has something to offer whatever stage you are at. Ideas are introduced in a module as tools ways of looking at things. These are tools we are hoping you will use on-goingly; throughout this course and into your work arena and beyond your time at Middlesex!!

So I am looking at some ideas introduced in Module One, but this should be relevent to everyone on the course.

The CV

We ask you to use your CV as a starting point for posting / thinking about introducing yourself and what your experiences is. Page 11 in the Module One handbook states.

‘You should take your current professional CV and rewrite as a profile improving on its quality and Upload this as your blog profile.’

Why are we asking you to do this: because we want you to start to see your Self in different contexts. To see yourself beyond how you were positioned in your prior learning environment and start to see yourself in terms of the different parts of YOUR life. Part of doing this is to start thinking about what you ‘have done’ which is what a CV narrates. See my previous blog posts on this.

Positioning of Self

http://www.adesolaa.blogspot.com/2010/10/positioning-of-self.html

(October 10^th 2010)

(Re-thinking this might be really useful people starting Module Two to give your self a ‘what have I just done moment’ and to contextualise any feedback you have just got from the work you just handed in (your assessed work)).

So here is what is happening for me. I feel really uncomfortable that you could feel encouraged  to just post your ‘audition’ CV. I don’t like the details such as dress size, you  SHOULD NOT post your street address as most CVs have at the top. I think it is kind-a icky to have some of those details which are about costume fittings or ‘look’ (like brown eyes etc…) on your blog which is open access to anyone who finds it. But then you are not being asked to do this directly because how relevant is that kind of CV to this context. I want to encourage you to think about the message and appropriateness of the CV you post in the context of an open-access, learning blog.

Hopefully you will look at it and develop something new for this context. The ‘about me’ part of the Blog sort of serves as a CV area too. You could post about the process you took and use the actually CV you develop as your ‘About me’ content. The point is to question what it will be like for people coming across your blog. What experience will they have of you, since the blog might be the only experience they have of you. It is not just what you want to say because you know much more of the story behind the intentions you have as you make your blog. It is also about stepping ‘outside’ yourself to imagine how you are experienced. THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF ETHICS.

A chunk of Ethics is introduced in Module Two so module Twos and Threes what do you think of the above in terms of how you are approaching ethics?

Although formally introduced in Module Two it is sooooooo important to note that everything we do, every decision we make has something to say within the realm of ethics. Because experience is transactional there is inter-play you are experienced as something… ethics is about looking at how you or what you create or do are experienced.

In this case you can ask yourself questions about why you chose the photo you chose to represent you on your blog. Does it actually look like you? Is it what you were told was a good headshot? Did you choose it because you like to think of yourself that way? What does it say about what you want to appear as? How you want to be experienced? How is it an ‘ethical’ representation of you??? what other things have you considered: are you put off posting on your blog because of your spelling and you don't want spelling mistakes to represent You? What things do you consider in other contexts (at auditions, at work...). do you think to think of yourself as a 'good' person!

You can ask similar questions about how you construct a CV for your blog. What pressures do you feel you have to conform to? Where is honesty in the representation of your Self? Is it possible to represent your Self ever? Is it more about learning to being what people want you to be in different parts of your life? 

Module Twos these questions are important to you because you are starting to take your ideas (questions) out beyond your own Reflective work (journals and blog posts) and looking at literature, peers and other professionals to see what they think – but at the same time you can be thinking about these questions of representation, transaction, how things are experienced through thinking about how much value you put in information from different people because of how they appear to you. How you experience them. How much you and what you put out alters what you receive / perceive.

Module threes this resonates with you because of course you are starting to be out in the field talking, interviewing reading and you can think about how much of You, you are gathering and how much of the ‘other person’ or ‘other’ idea it is possible for you to gather. How does the way to approach people change what you see or hear in them? I do not think you are looking for a neutral way to do this but instate to note down the impact you think you have on an encounter as being as important as the conversation / information you get from an encounter.

So what do you think? How has this post come across?? What do you think of thinking of ethics as ‘How you are experienced’?

Adesola

Starting up

Hi

Welcome back returning students and welcome new people. As you start to organise yourself and read the handbooks I hope you will get going blogging and commenting. I am writing a quick blog on citations requested by Mel. Module Twos and Threes are thinking about their feedback. As you start it is a good time to look at your work with fresh eyes. If you are new starting Module One now is a good time to read through other peoples blogs and see what people have been doing and thinking.

We use the Harvard system. The idea of a citation is that you are letting the Reader know where you got an idea or quote from. It is making sure you recognise the places things come from. It also allows the Reader to go and find out more about that idea or the rest of the quote because they know where it came from. This is how they know you write the name of the person who said it and the date of the publication they said it in just after you mention it (for example (Smith 2012)). If it is a quote you also write the page number (for example Smith, 2012 p.65). Now the Reader has what they need to be a detective.

First they go to the end of your writing to the bibliography. There you will have written the longer version. The name of the person is first (Smith) so they can find the name you had in the text and then they check the date (2012). Smith might have written a number of things that you have quoted at different times so there maybe a (Smith, 2007) as well. Then the rest of the long citation in the bibliography tells us the name of the book and who published. The whole point of all of this is that the Reader can go to the library and get the same book you were looking at. Then they can turn to the page (p.65) and read what you read that led you to write about the idea in your paper. It is all about giving the write information so we can have the same (reading) experience as you.

If you quote someone – even if you have just said something about that person you still have to use a citation at the end of the quote, anyway you need to put the page number as well.

For example:

James Smith writes about cows in his book ‘I love milk’. Here he is point out that grass is really important.

‘It was green and beautiful and fed the cows very well’ (Smith, 2012 p.65)

Also see past posts:

Adesola's BA PP blog: What Sam and Billy say: What Sam and Billy say

What Sam and Billy say

Writing about experiences...

Looking forward to a great term everyone

Adesola

In the nicest posible tone....

For all modules there are different things you are asked to give us for assessment. BUT in each module what you hand-in is linked it is not a load of independent documents. In Module One you are making a portfolio telling one thing. In Module Two you are telling one thing: about a plan that is linked to your practice and will complete your BA. In Module Three you are telling us about one thing; a Research project. But because life is multi-layered you maybe handing different aspects or parts of the one idea but they are all linked in telling the same story of each module.

All the work we are doing on linking experiences, networks, reflection why would we then ask you to chop things up and not relate things to each other. In some cases – like Module Three you are asked for a document and then there is a brake down of each section but they are part of the same thing!!

The sections are like the way a book has chapters each chapter has a particular part of the story but they relate to each other to make a whole picture. The sections are like chapters of a book each section has its part but they are put to together to make the who report.

For everyone please remember that the assessment work is not a load of hoops we want you to jump through to get the prize of passing. We want to understand what you have been doing, we want you to be able to articulate it in away that anyone teaching at BA level will understand and also at a level where you can tell other people about your work in your professional world. Why would we want to read the same thing repeated again and again in different short documents that don’t relate to each other? I guess I would hope that you could see we are not trying to give you tasks like hero’s in a fairytale that get more and more difficult to see if you deserve a BA. All the work we do about web 2:0 in Module One shows that of course you can find the ‘knowledge’, ‘information’ but what is its value/ meaning. What makes it important is the unique view/ ideas/ experiences you have had and how you give it meaning. That is most important and then it is important that your special voice on the topics can be heard and there are standard ways for people to hear you; the guide-lines for how the work is to be submitted is just so you have experience in presenting your voice in away that will be heard in the establishment of a university setting because a BA is a university artefact.

Please try to make sense of what you are doing. At the beginning of each module we ask you to take a leap of faith into the ideas and activities but by the end do not be doing things because you think you have been told to, have a reason for doing them for yourself also. If you need to grab hold of that meaning and its slips away talk to your advisor that is what they are there for. There is no secret society holding the knowledge: we want you to do your best, do well this world needs all the brilliant, fulfilled people it can get.

Most people are doing this but just a reminder:

Put your name on your work – simply so we know who its from

Put page numbers on it – simply so we know the order of things

Put things together – so that you link your learning particularly to you and your practice.

Use words you know the meaning of

Check the meaning is what you think it is, not just how it is used in Metro or the Sun

Don’t rely on one word to give meaning to a whole sentence – write to illuminate ideas.

Feel you are a part of something: your interesting voice within the context of hundreds of others in books and journals too. 

Respect yourself and what you think by presenting it clearly and respect yourself by respecting the work others have done. If you thought it then probably someone else has too. Find your published soul-mates: what they brought to the ideas you are interested in too. Don’t reinvent the wheel find out about the wheel.

OK then

!!!!

Adesola

Writing about experiences...

Busy writing drafts about your experiences this term? I will make this a short post to tickle your thinking (or not). The work asked for, for assessment for all three modules asks you to recognise your unique experience, within a context / environment of the activities you undertook this term; knowing they are connected also to your past and your anticipated future. We are asking you to be reflective about meaning and knowledge by considering yourself as environment, history, future hopes, and actions – a unique matrix of experiences.  Here are some favourite quotes:

 “A body is not so much a thing, as it is an act- an act made possible, to be sure, by the physicality of the organism performing it, but not identical or reducible to the organism’s physicality.” ( Sullivan 2001 p.29)

“Truth occurs when humans and their environments respond to and transact with one another in such a way that flourishing is achieved for both. Truth is not a matter of humans “fitting” their beliefs to the world. Nor is it a matter of matching internal representations to external reality.” (Sullivan 2001 p.144)

So we are asking what just happen (last term)? But how can anyone know? We are asking you to take your best reflective self and look at the different ways you could understand the activity you undertook. In doing so look at where ‘you’ are in that.  I chose these quotes even though I don’t believe we can understand (or even recognise)  ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ but I do think there is a beauty in our attempts.

Sullivan, S. (2001) Living across and through skins : transactional bodies, pragmatism and feminism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.