Module Two Skype session on Tuesday October 13th at 8pm

I (Adesola) will be initiating the call so I need to be connected to you in skype before hand. Please send a request that states you are in BAPP and your name (not just your skype name). If I just get the standard skype request I might not be able to recognize who you are and I will not accept it.

We will be talking about the nature of questions, their relationship to ‘answers’, different types of questions and how they can be a vessel for professional inquiry.

We will also be touching on ethics as ‘how you do things’ not ‘what you do’. Then how ‘how you do things’ affects/creates what it is you are doing.  

Lastly we will talk about the idea of planning.

Now… please come to the session with some ideas and things to share, discuss, wonder with people about.

Please comment below if you are going to attend the session.

Look forward to talking to you.

Adesola

PM skype chat reflections

The pm skype on Tuesday was also a great chat (I think I always say that but the chats are always really interesting and useful so…) We talked about how part of getting started is about finding your own voice. A lot of module one is about finding YOU in your practice, YOU in your study. Finding your voice is highlighted in the blog posts because you have to think about how you want to communicate. We talked about the issue of not being sure of the style of writing you should use for blog posts. We came to the conclusion that you can use different styles according to how you feel, what the subject of the post is, what kind of writing you want to practice or what response or feedback you want. As you try different styles you are also practicing different aspects of your own voice.

We talked about how the tasks across the course are part of the action of observing – observing yourself, observing what other people have said and done within a subject, observing activity within your practice. We talked about observing in general (in terms of observations for an inquiry). This lead us to talk about the importance of both being open to seeing something new and also be prepared enough to know a little about what you are observing so you can look for meaning and have direction to the observation.

We also talked about ethics looking at the ethical implications of situations where a person was teaching an art practice but is not a qualified teacher. We saw ethical issues both for the person and the institution where the person was teaching. Ethics teaches us there is no right answer there is just care and awareness to what you are doing. For instance there is no right answer here there are problems which ever way you look at it.

In one way there are problems when an artist has a lot of experience in their field and is very accomplished but because they do not have a teaching certificate they are not paid the same as someone who does not know about the practice to the same depth.

In another way there is a problem that someone who has no teacher  training is working with children  - both issues with the well being of the children and also because a qualified teacher would have  had training in a variety of methods and ideas.

The bigger problem seems to be respect for practice. In both case there is an assumption that a practice (the art practice or the teaching practice) is something people can just take on. In the conversation we all had experienced something similar to this problem in our careers.

The conversation was over an hour and so everyone is posting on a part of the conversation they want to share or take away to think about. Have a look at peoples post and comment… Lets keep the conversations going.

Tina www.lynnterry001.blogspot.com is posting about talking to people from different modules and how useful this is – how the modules support each other – seeing the course as a whole.

Andrea www.andreamorrison82.blogspot.co.uk  is going to post on tasks and the usefulness of keeping coming back to them even when you have finished a module. She also has some Module Two question ideas for people to feedback on.

Stephanie  www.stephanieswann02.blogspot.co.uk  is posting on seeing the CV as a self-evaluation tool and the importance of ‘looking back’ and ‘looking forward’ as you are thinking.

Ami  www.amikaraevans.blogspot.com  is going to post about understanding the course as a whole and her ‘ahhh moment’ in this…

Darren www.darrentaggart.blogspot.co.uk is going to post on the importance of thinking about why you are doing something as well as what you are doing. Looking for meaning in the tasks and direction of the course; not just doing things like steps without thinking about where the steps are taking you.

Nafisah www.nafisahbaba.blogspot.com is posting about how it is good to communicate across the learning community – you are not alone.

Lisa http://lisameiklejohn.blogspot.co.uk  is going to post the conversation and reflections.

OK what do you all feel?

Please comment …

Adesola

AM Skype chat

Today’s am skype session was great. It’s always so amazing to be talking to people who are all over the world. We talked about:

Blogging – we started off about how if you are  starting in Module One you may not be sure what a blog post should look like. Should it be informal, funny, personal, more formal? The conversation took us to the point that the blogs are for connecting. As such people felt that being more personal and informal and not tooooo long encourages people to read and respond. However some post might be more for yourself to reference back later in the Module or the course. We thought about writing for purpose. If you are writing more informally on your blog also remember (and practice) writing more academic style, which the university will require for the work you submit. I think you should start getting used to citing things as you write even if you are writing in an informal manor. If you practice citing then you get used to thinking about how what you are saying can connect with other people’s ideas. Danielle is going to post further about this.

danniausten.blogspot.com.

 We talked about some Module Two inquiry ideas, some ideas are: about how dancers look after themselves, injury and self-medication, the exchange of work place knowledge across a cast or group of performers, Why dance training does not rated as highly in some people’s eyes as desk based study. I am re-posting a great film of a speech by Sir Ken Robinson on this last topic. Saran D. and Sarah S. will post further on our conversation about inquiry questions.

http://sarahdunn88.blogspot.co.uk

http://sarahsmales.blogspot.co.uk

We asked what advice would people who have done Module One have for people in Module One now.  This seemed to be: blog , connect with people, Don’t’ Panic, keep notes to yourself. Anthony is going to post on this and also specifically about working from a cruise ship.

http://antgifford.blogspot.co.uk

James will write about attending a group skype session for the first time and what it was like.

http://jamesbapp.blogspot.co.uk/

We also talked about how all the choices we make and other people make (down to looking at your phone when it should be off for instance during a performance) are ethical choices. Ethics is about reflecting how we are experienced by others.

The next Group skypes are March 31^st

What do you think of our conversations??

Adesola

Skype group call March 3rd

Hi BAPP-ers
We have our first group Skype calls on Tuesday March 3rd. That day we have two chats one am (for people who work in the evenings) and one pm (for people who work during the day)!

These calls are really helpful and a great way to meet and exchange ideas with the other people doing the course.

 It is our collective experiences that makes us strong. It is our collective experience that changes information into knowledge.

So please let me know which call you will be joining by making a comment on this post indicating which one you will be at.

10am (in London)
9pm (in London)

Looking forward to hearing how everyone is doing and exchanging ideas and thoughts on professional practice and the module you are on.

Best wishes
Adesola

Debate - what do you think…..

Ethics is about how your actions are experienced. It is the reflection on interaction outside your skin; the counterpart to reflective thought which is reflection going on inside your skin[1]. Although society, professional organisation and personal morals can have clear ideas about what the right and wrong things to do are. Ethics is about a step before this reflecting about how what you do affects or changes the environment / ‘things around you’. The origins of the study of ethics is interwoven with aesthetics. The arts, ethics and aesthetic are all connected in this through the idea of truth, representation and experience.

What do you think

1) So Ethics is about reflecting on how you are experienced - do you agree or disagree? 

2) Does this help you with your module activity - i.e. does this idea about ethics help you create the situation you want to be a part of?  

Please leave a comment.

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[1] At some levels this simplification to outside and inside your skin is problematic within the principles of embodiment and concepts of the body as they are understood in pragmatism and phenomenology that we are using.

Added skpye session on Thursday AND a little about our Tuesday chat.

Yesterday was our SKYPE chat. the morning chat was pretty small!! but I think quite useful. We talked about making sure you know what your analysis process is going to be. this is important for both Module two-ers and three-ers particularly. There is no point collecting data if you don't know what you are going to do with it. If you don't know what you are going to do with it you start to feel you just need more and more data as if collecting it will somehow get you to some answers. But it is the analysis that takes you to the step of addressing the questions and desire for more knowledge that the inquiry is addressing. 

There are a couple of ways to engage with analysis, here a few ideas:

-Mapping: using the data to start to better understand how something works, or what something is like or where things or people stand within a topic. For instance, this would be to have data that about 'what dance teachers think of teaching boys dance'. You would use the teachers responses to look at the landscape of teaching boys dance - where does it seem to be 'easier' (teachers feel that when teaching them street dance they are more engaged than when teaching ballet, it seems that the boys in doing dance classes in state schools are have better behaviour than boys in private dance schools), then you look at why you think things have mapped out like this - you use the literature to help to theorise about why things look like this. You also use your own experience. You can also question the data itself: did who answered the question or how the question was asked affect the data you collected.

- Critique: you use the data to inform a critique of the behaviour or phenomena of something. Maybe you asked 'why do dancers get injured?' you use your data to look at a problem (getting injured). You might then identify that certain circumstance lead to injury. You compare what you found with what the literature says and your own experience. You explain the practical situations when something happens and explain why you think that is. You can also question the data itself: did who answered the question or how the question was asked affect the data you collected.

- Action research - you identify something you want to 'try out'… you try it out.. you look at whether it had the affect you were expecting, you think about what happened and why. You use the literature to both plan the change you try out and then to understand what happened after you tried it out. You can also question the data itself: did who answered the question or how the question was asked affect the data you collected.

How are you finding the idea of analysis?

The evening session got moved to Thursday March 13th….. so you can still join in this month. 

Looking forward to talking to you
Adesola

February Second Tuesday talks

The Second Tuesday Group SKYPEs went well this week. We had a mix of students from across the modules. It is really useful to talk to people who have just done the module you are on or who are a step a head of you so you can see where things are leading. We talked from UK, China, Germany and USA.
We were:
http://ehbutterfly.blogspot.co.uk
http://ionaholland.blogspot.co.uk
http://pipspalton.blogspot.co.uk
http://julia-v-gil.blogspot.de
Lucy Jennings and
Ruth Woods
Visit their blogs and say hi too.

We talked about the anxiety of getting started. Trying to avoid the idea of 'confusion' and embrace the idea of 'not knowing yet'. If you are going to have a genuine  learning experience you are very likely not to know where it will end. You can't know the end at the beginning or you wouldn't be learning anything new. We talked about how if you are feeling 'confused': work out specific questions or identify particular issues rather than just see the whole thing as 'confusing'.

For Module Two we talked about how you do not need a specific question at this point just a bit of an idea of the general area you are in. Also that the word 'question' does not mean something to answer. But 'question' in the sense of something you what to know more about.

Tips people talked about were:

• Look at other peoples blogs especially blogs from people who have just finished the module you are on now. 
• Read the whole Reader/Handbook first so you get an overview of the whole module. You can just skim-read just to get the overall picture. 
• Work little and often don't wait to the 'end' to get everything done.
• Work out your time management across the term
• Work with peers

The next group SKYPEs are Tuesday March 11th, 11am (London time) and 8:45 (London time)

discuss!

Aims and chatting

This week we had another ‘First Tuesday Coffee House Meeting’. Only three of us but it was a really useful chat.

Sarah

http://seraclops.blogspot.com

Sophie

http://sophiejones17.blogspot.co.uk

In terms of Module Two: we talked about trying out different types of ‘something’ when doing pilots – not just piloting ‘an interview’ but if you think you are likely to use interview as a tool in module three, then trying doing different types of interview. On SKYPE, in person, on phone, with open-ended questions, with set questions etc…

We talked about finding a range of key words as you think about what is important to your inquiry into for instance:

Sarah is thinking about ‘motivation’ and we added the words ‘inspiration’ and ‘passion’, which was the way Sarah was thinking about motivation.

In terms of Module One and onwards: we talked about how useful Journaling is for capturing ideas. How at first you might want to make neat organised journals but after using that tool for a while it becomes a place for thoughts that manifest in a range of ways – including pictures, drawings, and writing around the edges of the page!!

We talked about thinking about ‘what has made a difference to my practice’ as a theme to question yourself as you submit work for evaluation in May.

We said that the ‘First Tuesday Coffee House Meetings’ were useful because it is nice to talk across modules and also to have a conversation that can wander or has no aim at the beginning but is built from all the people in the group contributing.

The next ‘First Tuesday Coffee House Meeting will be May 7^th hope you can join us.

Adesola