Being a part of Networks of Understanding and learning: blogging and discussion

In this post I am thinking/feeling about the network of learning that is the BAPP learning community and how you find yourSelf in the network. It mirrors other networks - if you see 'networks' as a method of understanding the world.  In the new Module One handbooks (ACI3611) we discuss the networked professional and suggest looking at some videos. Below is one we suggest watching. (I thought it would be good to see for the Module Threes who did not have the new Module One handbooks in Module One.) I feel the video highlights how the blogs are a tool that help build the structure of our BAPP Learning Network / Networked understanding. This is a network you are part of.

On this course, we draw heavily from the theoretical concept of Connectivism developed differently by Steven Downes and George Siemens. Below Steven Downes talks about networks in terms that help explain why blogs and discussion groups are a part of the network of learning in BAPP ACI

In October I posted a short video of George Siemens talking about Connectivism in a way that explains why blogs are so useful in BAPP - do go back on my blog and have a look. You can use the tags or dates at the side of my blog to find the post. 

Here is a video of Steven Downes talking about networks. The blogs are a part of the network of learning we are creating together. He talks about how there is  a sense of not being told what to do but that we are all contributing. This is an important principle in BAPP ACI. you can't be made to participate - it's your BA but together we can create the place where learning can happen and that is part of the work you have to do for yourself in your professional work and in your study - you have to believe (in yourself, in each other, in the idea of learning, in the idea of your art practice, in whatever it is that finds you here), believe enough to just get on with it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obokyuibtec&t=0s&list=PL521ADEA73AB9F2F3&index=94

Please comment on what you are thinking/feeling of this post below. It would be interesting to discuss some of the video content in our Twilight Tuesday Skype Discussion Group on February 26th or at the campus session tomorrow*. 
(*The sign-up for Friday and Tuesday are on a 'Session Reminder Post'-NOT this post) 

Visit someones blog today and exchange an idea or conversation - visit someone's blog in the BAPP community you have not visited much before - explore.
Adesola

Why blogging - being a living part of a network of information & community.

This post is a short 'bit' about the blogs and why the blogs. In the new Module One handbooks (ACI3611) we discuss the networked professional and suggest looking at some videos. Below is one we suggest watching. (I thought it would be good to see for the Module Two and Threes who have not had the new Module One handbooks.)The blog contribute to the structure of our BAPP Learning Network / Networked understanding. This is a network you are part of this term.

On this course we draw heavily from the theoretical concept of Connectivism developed differently by Steven Downes and George Siemens. Below George Siemens talks about blogs in terms that help explain why they are a part of the network of learning in BAPP ACI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5VHpaW8sQ&list=PL521ADEA73AB9F2F3&index=94

Please comment on what you are thinking/feeling of this post below. It would be interesting to discuss some of the video content in our Twilight Tuesday Skype Discussion Group on October 16th or at the campus session tomorrow*. 
(*The sign-up for Friday and Tuesday are on a 'Session reminder Post'-NOT this post) 

Visit someones blog today and exchange an idea or conversation - visit someone's blog in the BAPP community you have not visited much before - explore.
Adesola

Netiquette

Useful link for discussing/outlining etiquette for using the net. 
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Module One - thoughts for all

We talked about how Module One asks you to re-think and re-feel the assumptions you have about yourself and what you do as a way to better position and recognise what your own practice is.

For instance, thinking about

modesty ‘v’ showing off

and

modesty ‘v’ generosity

When you write a cover letter to an interview modesty ‘v’ showing-off makes you feel the thing to do is ‘I would really like to work with your company’ so you don’t ‘show-off’. But thinking in terms of modesty ‘v’ generosity means you write ‘I am a trained actress … giving your credentials…’ because you are giving the people short-listing for the interview all the information they need about you. Thinking like this you might give different information then ‘showing-off’ but more information than your perception of modesty would have let you.

This stepping back and critically reflecting on your actions in terms of your practice is what Module One is asking you to do. NOT the change what you are doing but to use the tasks to look at what your practice is today.

Cycle Module One!! As ever do not think about only doing the tasks once through. Do them all and then do them again and again. Each time you engage with a deeper or different layer of your practice and task. Module one you are looking at what you already do and applying critical thinking/reflection to what it is you are doing.

The thoughts of people in the session:

Nicole is partly going to use the Module to explore her goals and better understand these goals mean to her:

‘To really get myself out there and thinking of yourself as a professional rather than a student. 

Finding my purpose in what I am doing and making myself an asset to the company.

See how I can adapt myself to communicate with different people of different ages.’

Matthew D. suggests Module One has 3 lens - communication of how you position yourself in the world, what you think you need to do and why you need to do it?

Reflection: reflect on what you do and why you do it, how what you do works and how it can be improved, how could you use that process in the future

Networking: the give and take of relationships within the aspects of your life/professional life.

To not overthink what you are doing Module one is about growing as a person and developing and then looking back on where you started from.

Arghierenia says Module 1 is about your practice, you are not being asked to do something new necessarily but to look at what you do through a different perspective by using critical thinking. There are three different lenses through which we will look at our professional practices; communication, reflection and networking. It’s useful to do the tasks a few times, as the module progresses as the way you do them will change and that will help your learning and understanding of them.

We also talked about criticism ‘v’ reflection. Reflection should not start from a deficit stand point. That is, it not about what you ‘can do better’. It is about if you can see different or varied perspectives.

We about doing the tasks as a cycle also you do not have to stick to the week suggested.

The course is like the seasoning to you the meal of your life, it is not about cooking a whole new meal!

The course is about how you pull information to you meaningfully. This is difficult at first because we are often used to ‘educational’ experiences where information is pushed at you and you have to receive and memorise it! However, we are suggesting in professional settings you have to have the confidence and independence to be proactive not sit and wait for someone to tell you what to do.

What do you think-feel comment below...

Tuesday PM chat: The shift and the jigsaw

PM Tuesday chat

On Tuesday April 5th  we had our First Tuesday PM chat. We talked about something we called the ‘shift’. This is the movement between what you start something thinking and where it takes you by the end. It is the shift in each Module that we are asking you to identify for yourself and write about to hand-in.

In Module One you started the course and did a number of tasks to get situated and by doing them and thinking about the reader information there should be a shift in your thinking. It is this shift that we then ask you to reflect on and write about as your reflective essay. If you just do all the tasks and can not talk about what changed for you there is no point. We are not training you to follow tasks like a small cuddly animal!! We are suggesting things that might stimulate your thinking and asking you to articulate what your thinking is and how it developed.

In Module Two the shift is more clear you start the module with no plan and end with a plan… but again although the plan its self is important explaining why you made the choices you made – why you are doing it that way and not another way is the important part. The answer to why you are doing it the way you are doing it is all to do with your own understanding of what you want to do. You can inquire any number of ways but the way you come at it affects what what happens and what you find. That is the point…

In Module Three: this is almost exactly the same as Module One but instead of us giving you tasks you have given yourself tasks (i.e. the plan you created in Module Two). You start the module with some ideas (your questions) you do the activity of data collection and reading the literature and reflecting (inquiry tasks) and at the end you think about all this and notice what has shifted for you. What has been the shift in your thinking now when you think about the original question. This is not about some massive world discovery. It is just that now when you think about this topic other things manifest – that is what you write-up / that is your analysis why those new things appear now when you think about the topic. It might be the question it self has changed for you. Maybe the words of the question have changed. Danielle talked about how her original question was about Dancer retirement but now she feels it is not about retirement it is about transition. That’s a big shift in her thinking about what a dancer’s career is…

We talked about how people within an industry have a kind of knowledge that people outside can not have. “nobody outside the industry quite understands how passionate artists are”. Martha Graham said a dancer dies twice (referring to not being able to dance, then not breathing!). But we never think of Martha Graham as ever not a dancer. We talked about what a professional career is. For people in Module One thinking about your Professional career for the first time in this course might make you ask what it is. We said it might not be what you are doing to make money (your not a professional waitress just because you wait tables), it is what you are working towards, training for and thinking about … We talked about how sometimes a doctor in another country has to work as something else but she is still trained as a doctor her profession is still doctor. We thought it was important to respect what people are professionally as well as what they are doing at the time you meet them. So in Module One you are thinking about your own professional direction and ideas and training.

All of this led us to say the answer is in you and your experience – the answer is the shift in your thinking/doing. Lauren is writing about this further http://laurenhoskins92.blogspot.co.uk/

You are not trying to discover a new undiscovered thing you are thinking about how things have shifted for you, and you are unique so your thoughts are interesting and relevant to others. Danielle will post more on this http://danniausten.blogspot.co.uk

Look to yourself and your experience and make it relevant to your practice. Jessica will post on this  http://jessicaplant.blogspot.co.uk

Remember the shift – is a cycle of things making sense – then making no sense – then making sense again, then no-sense, then sense…. There has to be periods of no-sense because if you are truly adding to your understanding before you learn something new you have to become aware you don’t know it. Suddenly being aware of something missing affects everything else you know and changes that too – so things seem confused. But then as you become aware of what you didn’t know as space is made for it – like realising a jigsaw piece is missing and having to rearrange the pieces to make a space for it. But once you have done that the picture is clearer.

Be brave – do not just accept things because they are offered to you, question think critically, find the connections to the bigger picture.

What do you think?

Adesola