Tuesday 28 December 2010
Wiki Page
I finally uploaded task 2C to my Wiki page. Here's the web address...http://reflective-theory.wikispaces.com/Reflective-Theory
Monday 20 December 2010
The Networked Professional - Sources of Information
I gather information for my career from many sources. They vary greatly in how much I use them and how useful an information source they are.
The one I use the most is the internet. I think its main appeal is that it holds so much information from so many different places. As John Seely Brown puts it, this is a fundamental aspect of connectivism, the small efforts of many with the large efforts of few. Also, you can be proactive with reference to your career from your own home so it is easier than other ways of gathering information. The theory of connectivism suggests that each web page is a different node, which I agree with because the internet holds so much information that we couldn't possibly classify it as one source.
The three years I spent at college I spent without internet access in my house. At that point it wasn't necessary to use it on a daily basis because I wasn't relying on it for my career, unlike now. At college my fellow students and I would look in The Stage newspaper to gather information about auditions and so forth. We would rely on it greatly because it was our only way of finding things out. Our teachers would inform us on how to act in auditions what we should wear but rarely about castings themselves. My point is newspapers and magazines can be used to gather information but I would only refer to them if the internet wasn't available because anything one can find out from them can be found on line too. Now, I look at thestage.co.uk for free rather than spending money on the newspaper.
I also gather a lot of information from people. Other dancers especially are great suppliers of information. When working or socialising with other professionals I have found that because our career is common ground we tend to share a lot of stories and experiences with one another. I have found this very useful in the past because it is helpful to have human points of view on the information one is receiving.
Notice boards in, for example, dance studios are another way in which I gather information. There are often advertisements for shows and classes and information on auditions. I check them regularly when I attend dance class and have sometimes found them quite useful.
Sometimes, the television has provided me with information. This source, like newspaper/magazine articles, is not something I would look to right away for information to help my professional career. However, there have been times when I have watched a programme, or in terms of a newspaper, read an article, which has given me information about my career. For example, I once caught a documentary on the Lido in Paris from which I learned a lot about that particular job. The fact is I would not actively seek information from the television or from a newspaper, with reference to my career, but occasionally I have found things out from them that is very useful.
Email and phone calls are another way in which I find out information. This information is normally specific to a job rather than it being general. For example, if there is a company I want to work for and I need to find out about an audition I could call or email the casting director to find out more. At this stage an email is usually more appropriate and as correspondence continues a phone call may become necessary in order to gather information.
I have different methods of organising the information I have gathered depending on what the information is and in what form I gathered it. If I were to receive information via email what I would normally do is keep the email and make a copy to save as a document to my computer. If the information was gathered from a notice board or a magazine or was verbal information I would write it down in my diary/organiser. A method I often use because I don't always take my diary out with my is I write things in to my phone. I do not own a nice fancy phone with lots of applications. I know that many people rely on their phones for organising because they have the technology for that. My phone cost about fifteen Euros and is very basic but I still use it to make notes about things. One thing I do not possess is an address book. This is something I am going to look into buying so that I can make a note of all of my professional contacts and have them in one place. I think this will be a good idea because even though I have contacts saved on my computer, technology can sometimes fail us and a back up could be necessary at some point.
The one I use the most is the internet. I think its main appeal is that it holds so much information from so many different places. As John Seely Brown puts it, this is a fundamental aspect of connectivism, the small efforts of many with the large efforts of few. Also, you can be proactive with reference to your career from your own home so it is easier than other ways of gathering information. The theory of connectivism suggests that each web page is a different node, which I agree with because the internet holds so much information that we couldn't possibly classify it as one source.
The three years I spent at college I spent without internet access in my house. At that point it wasn't necessary to use it on a daily basis because I wasn't relying on it for my career, unlike now. At college my fellow students and I would look in The Stage newspaper to gather information about auditions and so forth. We would rely on it greatly because it was our only way of finding things out. Our teachers would inform us on how to act in auditions what we should wear but rarely about castings themselves. My point is newspapers and magazines can be used to gather information but I would only refer to them if the internet wasn't available because anything one can find out from them can be found on line too. Now, I look at thestage.co.uk for free rather than spending money on the newspaper.
I also gather a lot of information from people. Other dancers especially are great suppliers of information. When working or socialising with other professionals I have found that because our career is common ground we tend to share a lot of stories and experiences with one another. I have found this very useful in the past because it is helpful to have human points of view on the information one is receiving.
Notice boards in, for example, dance studios are another way in which I gather information. There are often advertisements for shows and classes and information on auditions. I check them regularly when I attend dance class and have sometimes found them quite useful.
Sometimes, the television has provided me with information. This source, like newspaper/magazine articles, is not something I would look to right away for information to help my professional career. However, there have been times when I have watched a programme, or in terms of a newspaper, read an article, which has given me information about my career. For example, I once caught a documentary on the Lido in Paris from which I learned a lot about that particular job. The fact is I would not actively seek information from the television or from a newspaper, with reference to my career, but occasionally I have found things out from them that is very useful.
Email and phone calls are another way in which I find out information. This information is normally specific to a job rather than it being general. For example, if there is a company I want to work for and I need to find out about an audition I could call or email the casting director to find out more. At this stage an email is usually more appropriate and as correspondence continues a phone call may become necessary in order to gather information.
I have different methods of organising the information I have gathered depending on what the information is and in what form I gathered it. If I were to receive information via email what I would normally do is keep the email and make a copy to save as a document to my computer. If the information was gathered from a notice board or a magazine or was verbal information I would write it down in my diary/organiser. A method I often use because I don't always take my diary out with my is I write things in to my phone. I do not own a nice fancy phone with lots of applications. I know that many people rely on their phones for organising because they have the technology for that. My phone cost about fifteen Euros and is very basic but I still use it to make notes about things. One thing I do not possess is an address book. This is something I am going to look into buying so that I can make a note of all of my professional contacts and have them in one place. I think this will be a good idea because even though I have contacts saved on my computer, technology can sometimes fail us and a back up could be necessary at some point.
Wednesday 15 December 2010
The Networked Professional - Theories Relating to Networking
Cooperation - People always say how competitive a career in the performing arts is. I have been to auditions with 500+ dancers all wanting the same job so on first impressions I cannot argue that this isn't so. However, the very nature of networking is seemingly cooperative. A network allows people to connect and work together in order for them to mutually benefit their careers. So when is it necessary to compete and when is it necessary to cooperate as a performer?
When I played the 'Prisoner's Dilemma' game, my first instinct was to compete because its a game is it not? And the idea of a game is to win. However, the idea of this particular game is not only to win but to obtain the highest number of coins. I did win by number of coins but I did not receive many coins all together. Next, I tried cooperating on every turn, this enabled both me and my opponent to gain more coins but it ended in a tie. Therefore, in order to win, a better strategy is to cooperate for as long as possible and then to compete in order to gain more coins than ones opponent. Researcher Robert Axelrod looked, in depth, into competition versus cooperation.
'To my considerable surprise, the winner was the simplest of all the programs submitted, TIT FOR TAT. TIT FOR TAT is merely the strategy of starting with cooperation, and thereafter doing what the other player did on the previous move.' Axelrod .R. (1984)
Axelrod wondered whether, in a real life situation, people would only cooperate if they were going to also gain from the act, 'cooperation based solely on reciprocity seemed possible.' Axelrod .R. (1984)
The Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple way of looking at how important cooperation is when networking.
Yet, I can see patterns in my own networking forming through this game. Will I get the most out of my network if I choose to constantly compete with those in it? No, of course I won't because people will not want to network with me if I am only out for my own gain and never look to help anyone else. What if I only ever cooperate? I think this would work better because I would be helping others in my network and they will then, one would hope, want to help me through reciprocation like tit-for-tat. But how about cooperating up to a certain point and then competing right at the end? Well, this might work once but is that person you cooperated with, and then used to get ahead, going to want to help you out in the future? My guess is no. Again, this concept of tit-for-tat rears its head.
However, I have often helped out other dancers with no desire to benefit my own career. If they help me out in the future then that would be greatly appreciated but I don't expect pay back. However, this could be my human nature and Axelrod argues that this doesn't come into play here.
'But the present approach is strategic rather than genetic.' Axelrod (1984)
I can see that choices we make while networking often come down to strategy. For example, I don't want to always be the professional who cooperates in place of getting work I want. Yet, I find it unrealistic to completely rule out ones human nature in these matters. Even though I believe I have that 'competitive streak', I am also compassionate. If a friend of mine was a wonderful dancer but terrible at networking I would give them advice. I am not going to think ' I will not gain a thing from this, why should I do it?'. I think for networks to work effectively, people in them need to cooperate but selfless acts and a bit of healthy competition are also necessary.
Affiliation - Unlike Axelrod's ideas on cooperation, affiliation has everything to do with human nature. The term is used to explain our need to engage with other humans in order to fulfil our psychological needs and give us, 'a network of support that will help us when we are in need' Crisp and Turner (2007)
This network is most likely to consist of friends and loved ones, but, do I have a professional network of support? I believe I do because when it comes to times of need within a specific career who is better at understanding than someone who knows where you are coming from and has themselves been through what you are facing. My mum is, no doubt, in my social network of support but she is a high school teacher so she can't understand certain problems I may face in my career. Therefore, I need a network of performers that I am close to so that I have support within my profession. This may also give indication as to why I fell in love with a man in a similar field to myself and why my mum married my father who is also a teacher. Perhaps, subconsciously, we humans sometimes blur the lines between social and professional networks in order to gain the psychological support we need.
Homoeostasis is a principle of affiliation which describes each human's differing levels of need for social interaction. Connor and Rosenblood (1996) suggest this is connected to whether the person is an introvert or an extrovert. I am an extrovert and I like to be social. Yet, I can relate to the idea of homoeostasis, with reference to varying needs of social interaction, because there are times when I want nothing more than to stay in. However, staying in is not always an option when networking needs to be done. There is certainly a difference between going out socially and going out with a view to network, which can be daunting however much of a confident person you are. Networking that is done on-line may satisfy some individuals more than physically putting yourself out there. I know that I feel more confident hiding behind a computer screen than actually, say, meeting a possible employer in person and feeling pressure to impress there and then.
This links to the privacy regulation theory, Altman (1975) which explains that our need for privacy can change within a short space of time (the dialectic principle) and that we try to affiliate to our desired level (optimization principle). This could explain why some people are more comfortable with face-to-face networking than others. Perhaps those people are naturally more open and desire less privacy than others.
There has been research into both biological and cultural explanations as to why we affiliate. I think networking is part of our culture as professional performers. In Hofstede's (1980) research into affiliation in 22 different countries he found that in individualistic cultures people had a lot of social contact and a lot of superficial friendships. My career is individualistic, it is my career I don't share it with anyone else. Therefore, as a dancer it is wise for me to have a large network of performers so that I don't limit myself when it comes to working. Besides, there is often going to be a small level of superficiality when it comes to a working environment because we are there, primarily, to get a job done. Having said that, some of my closest friends in the world are performers because, as I have already said, there is a good level of understanding between us that satisfies our psychological needs.
Social Constructionism: This is the ides that humans construct their own meanings from objects and the world around them. The idea is that nothing has a meaning until a human names it and gives it a purpose. Also, everything is subjective because we are adding to pre-existing knowledge, we do not create anything completely from scratch.
Networks are social constructions. They do not exist without humans attaching meaning and use to them.
'What constructionism claims is that meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage with the world they are interpreting' Crotty, M (2005)
Meaning that as we continually engage in the world we find more and more meaning. Therefore, the more we engage in networking the more value we will seek from it.
This made me think about my professional networks in an entirely different way. From a social contructionists viewpoint, I decide what my network means to me and what I want to gain from it. For example, I network with dancers here in Amsterdam in order to find out about work in Holland. However, some of them want to network with me to find out about work further a field because that is where I have experience. We haven't created our networks from nothing, the concept of a network has been practised by humans for a long long time and was given meaning by humans even then. However, we all shape and mould and construct our own networks to fit our varying needs.
Connectivism: Is a theory on learning which has only become popular in the last two or three decades, due to the invention of the internet and Web 2.0. Connectivism takes us away from traditional learning which is a linear process: teacher/book/web page to student. To a learning network made up of all these factors known as nodes and the student makes sense out of the information each node provides by constructing connecting paths between the information themselves.
It is unrealistic to think that one source (node) will give you all the information you require. If I speak to somebody in my professional network I do not expect they will, for example, give me the name of a company I am interested in working for, plus an email address, plus a telephone number, plus the name of the person in charge of casting and so on. Even if they did I would still want to do some background research for myself on-line. I would have previously thought of the person giving the information as one node and then the internet as the second node. However, where I find this theory interesting is that if each web page is considered a separate node, when I am using the internet, I must be connecting information from multiple nodes in order to gain the necessary knowledge. I feel I have been unaware of how much information I have taken in from different sources and I feel the more nodes I use the more lines of connection I can form and finally the more knowledge I can gain. Therefore, in the future I won't just stop when I think I have acquired what I wanted to know. Instead I will keep looking at information from as many nodes as possible because then I will have more lines of connection to gain understanding from and, most likely, learn something new.
However, one problem I have with this connectivism is its broad definition of nodes. According to the theory web pages, teachers, books and other professionals are all examples of nodes from which a student gathers information. A good teacher is there to help you to improve by correcting you and giving you feedback not just to give you information. I couldn't have learned how to dance say from Youtube. Even through dance tutorial videos I'm not going to learn a fraction of what I did from three years at dance college. So to say the experience one get from reading a web page is the same as the interpersonal engagement of a human being seems, to me, rather ridiculous.
Still, connectivism would suggest that I as an individual make the choice of what nodes I feel are most useful to me. Part of this theory is to be prepared for ever-changing environments and being able to make decisions in this evolving. Recently, I went to Paris to audition for a contract that won't start until April but, before I went, I was offered a month long contract starting immediately. I had to decide which one to do. Having had a bad experience previously working for the company that was offering me an immediate contract I knew the decision I was going to make. Also, knowing that the company in Paris is respectable through people in my network the choice was clear.
'[learning is] a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world' Driscoll (2000)
Therefore, through connectivism we can learn successfully because we are allowing ourselves to adapt to different ideas and changing environments.
Communities of Practice: This concept revolves around the idea of learning in a group rather than individually, in a social and informal manner. 'Situated Learning' Lave and Wegner (1991) refers to how learning can come from situations where a group of people have the the same interests and can therefore learn together from one another to gain a deeper understanding.
My community of practice of professional dancers provides me with knowledge within the working world. In the first year after I left college I learned more about the dance profession than I ever have and possibly ever will do. At college my teachers could teach me how to be a dancer with reference to performance and technique but after that it was the communities of practice I became a part of that taught me how to succeed in a professional environment.
'length is rather variable as individuals go through successive steps at their own pace' Lave and Wegner (1991)
Lave and Wagner are here describing a community of practice of Alcoholics Anonymous, but this notion of the development taking a different amount of time for each individual applies to my community too. Some dancers will take longer than others to find their first job and therefore take longer to become part of a working community of practice. Moreover, I have discovered, these are the best communities of practice to be a part of with reference to furthering ones career because the members get to know one another so well and on a personal level that information is shared freely.
When I played the 'Prisoner's Dilemma' game, my first instinct was to compete because its a game is it not? And the idea of a game is to win. However, the idea of this particular game is not only to win but to obtain the highest number of coins. I did win by number of coins but I did not receive many coins all together. Next, I tried cooperating on every turn, this enabled both me and my opponent to gain more coins but it ended in a tie. Therefore, in order to win, a better strategy is to cooperate for as long as possible and then to compete in order to gain more coins than ones opponent. Researcher Robert Axelrod looked, in depth, into competition versus cooperation.
'To my considerable surprise, the winner was the simplest of all the programs submitted, TIT FOR TAT. TIT FOR TAT is merely the strategy of starting with cooperation, and thereafter doing what the other player did on the previous move.' Axelrod .R. (1984)
Axelrod wondered whether, in a real life situation, people would only cooperate if they were going to also gain from the act, 'cooperation based solely on reciprocity seemed possible.' Axelrod .R. (1984)
The Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple way of looking at how important cooperation is when networking.
Yet, I can see patterns in my own networking forming through this game. Will I get the most out of my network if I choose to constantly compete with those in it? No, of course I won't because people will not want to network with me if I am only out for my own gain and never look to help anyone else. What if I only ever cooperate? I think this would work better because I would be helping others in my network and they will then, one would hope, want to help me through reciprocation like tit-for-tat. But how about cooperating up to a certain point and then competing right at the end? Well, this might work once but is that person you cooperated with, and then used to get ahead, going to want to help you out in the future? My guess is no. Again, this concept of tit-for-tat rears its head.
However, I have often helped out other dancers with no desire to benefit my own career. If they help me out in the future then that would be greatly appreciated but I don't expect pay back. However, this could be my human nature and Axelrod argues that this doesn't come into play here.
'But the present approach is strategic rather than genetic.' Axelrod (1984)
I can see that choices we make while networking often come down to strategy. For example, I don't want to always be the professional who cooperates in place of getting work I want. Yet, I find it unrealistic to completely rule out ones human nature in these matters. Even though I believe I have that 'competitive streak', I am also compassionate. If a friend of mine was a wonderful dancer but terrible at networking I would give them advice. I am not going to think ' I will not gain a thing from this, why should I do it?'. I think for networks to work effectively, people in them need to cooperate but selfless acts and a bit of healthy competition are also necessary.
Affiliation - Unlike Axelrod's ideas on cooperation, affiliation has everything to do with human nature. The term is used to explain our need to engage with other humans in order to fulfil our psychological needs and give us, 'a network of support that will help us when we are in need' Crisp and Turner (2007)
This network is most likely to consist of friends and loved ones, but, do I have a professional network of support? I believe I do because when it comes to times of need within a specific career who is better at understanding than someone who knows where you are coming from and has themselves been through what you are facing. My mum is, no doubt, in my social network of support but she is a high school teacher so she can't understand certain problems I may face in my career. Therefore, I need a network of performers that I am close to so that I have support within my profession. This may also give indication as to why I fell in love with a man in a similar field to myself and why my mum married my father who is also a teacher. Perhaps, subconsciously, we humans sometimes blur the lines between social and professional networks in order to gain the psychological support we need.
Homoeostasis is a principle of affiliation which describes each human's differing levels of need for social interaction. Connor and Rosenblood (1996) suggest this is connected to whether the person is an introvert or an extrovert. I am an extrovert and I like to be social. Yet, I can relate to the idea of homoeostasis, with reference to varying needs of social interaction, because there are times when I want nothing more than to stay in. However, staying in is not always an option when networking needs to be done. There is certainly a difference between going out socially and going out with a view to network, which can be daunting however much of a confident person you are. Networking that is done on-line may satisfy some individuals more than physically putting yourself out there. I know that I feel more confident hiding behind a computer screen than actually, say, meeting a possible employer in person and feeling pressure to impress there and then.
This links to the privacy regulation theory, Altman (1975) which explains that our need for privacy can change within a short space of time (the dialectic principle) and that we try to affiliate to our desired level (optimization principle). This could explain why some people are more comfortable with face-to-face networking than others. Perhaps those people are naturally more open and desire less privacy than others.
There has been research into both biological and cultural explanations as to why we affiliate. I think networking is part of our culture as professional performers. In Hofstede's (1980) research into affiliation in 22 different countries he found that in individualistic cultures people had a lot of social contact and a lot of superficial friendships. My career is individualistic, it is my career I don't share it with anyone else. Therefore, as a dancer it is wise for me to have a large network of performers so that I don't limit myself when it comes to working. Besides, there is often going to be a small level of superficiality when it comes to a working environment because we are there, primarily, to get a job done. Having said that, some of my closest friends in the world are performers because, as I have already said, there is a good level of understanding between us that satisfies our psychological needs.
Social Constructionism: This is the ides that humans construct their own meanings from objects and the world around them. The idea is that nothing has a meaning until a human names it and gives it a purpose. Also, everything is subjective because we are adding to pre-existing knowledge, we do not create anything completely from scratch.
Networks are social constructions. They do not exist without humans attaching meaning and use to them.
'What constructionism claims is that meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage with the world they are interpreting' Crotty, M (2005)
Meaning that as we continually engage in the world we find more and more meaning. Therefore, the more we engage in networking the more value we will seek from it.
This made me think about my professional networks in an entirely different way. From a social contructionists viewpoint, I decide what my network means to me and what I want to gain from it. For example, I network with dancers here in Amsterdam in order to find out about work in Holland. However, some of them want to network with me to find out about work further a field because that is where I have experience. We haven't created our networks from nothing, the concept of a network has been practised by humans for a long long time and was given meaning by humans even then. However, we all shape and mould and construct our own networks to fit our varying needs.
Connectivism: Is a theory on learning which has only become popular in the last two or three decades, due to the invention of the internet and Web 2.0. Connectivism takes us away from traditional learning which is a linear process: teacher/book/web page to student. To a learning network made up of all these factors known as nodes and the student makes sense out of the information each node provides by constructing connecting paths between the information themselves.
It is unrealistic to think that one source (node) will give you all the information you require. If I speak to somebody in my professional network I do not expect they will, for example, give me the name of a company I am interested in working for, plus an email address, plus a telephone number, plus the name of the person in charge of casting and so on. Even if they did I would still want to do some background research for myself on-line. I would have previously thought of the person giving the information as one node and then the internet as the second node. However, where I find this theory interesting is that if each web page is considered a separate node, when I am using the internet, I must be connecting information from multiple nodes in order to gain the necessary knowledge. I feel I have been unaware of how much information I have taken in from different sources and I feel the more nodes I use the more lines of connection I can form and finally the more knowledge I can gain. Therefore, in the future I won't just stop when I think I have acquired what I wanted to know. Instead I will keep looking at information from as many nodes as possible because then I will have more lines of connection to gain understanding from and, most likely, learn something new.
However, one problem I have with this connectivism is its broad definition of nodes. According to the theory web pages, teachers, books and other professionals are all examples of nodes from which a student gathers information. A good teacher is there to help you to improve by correcting you and giving you feedback not just to give you information. I couldn't have learned how to dance say from Youtube. Even through dance tutorial videos I'm not going to learn a fraction of what I did from three years at dance college. So to say the experience one get from reading a web page is the same as the interpersonal engagement of a human being seems, to me, rather ridiculous.
Still, connectivism would suggest that I as an individual make the choice of what nodes I feel are most useful to me. Part of this theory is to be prepared for ever-changing environments and being able to make decisions in this evolving. Recently, I went to Paris to audition for a contract that won't start until April but, before I went, I was offered a month long contract starting immediately. I had to decide which one to do. Having had a bad experience previously working for the company that was offering me an immediate contract I knew the decision I was going to make. Also, knowing that the company in Paris is respectable through people in my network the choice was clear.
'[learning is] a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world' Driscoll (2000)
Therefore, through connectivism we can learn successfully because we are allowing ourselves to adapt to different ideas and changing environments.
Communities of Practice: This concept revolves around the idea of learning in a group rather than individually, in a social and informal manner. 'Situated Learning' Lave and Wegner (1991) refers to how learning can come from situations where a group of people have the the same interests and can therefore learn together from one another to gain a deeper understanding.
My community of practice of professional dancers provides me with knowledge within the working world. In the first year after I left college I learned more about the dance profession than I ever have and possibly ever will do. At college my teachers could teach me how to be a dancer with reference to performance and technique but after that it was the communities of practice I became a part of that taught me how to succeed in a professional environment.
'length is rather variable as individuals go through successive steps at their own pace' Lave and Wegner (1991)
Lave and Wagner are here describing a community of practice of Alcoholics Anonymous, but this notion of the development taking a different amount of time for each individual applies to my community too. Some dancers will take longer than others to find their first job and therefore take longer to become part of a working community of practice. Moreover, I have discovered, these are the best communities of practice to be a part of with reference to furthering ones career because the members get to know one another so well and on a personal level that information is shared freely.
Friday 10 December 2010
The Networked Professional - Current Networks
a) The methods and tools I currently use to engage in my professional network are:
1. Being a member of the Amsterdam Dance Centre which is where many professionals go to take class.
2. Focusing on dance, I have been signed up to websites such as audities.nl, dancerspro.com, thestage.co.uk and starnow.com for a long time. Also, I recently signed up for LinkedIn.com since starting this course.
3. Focusing on modelling, I am signed up to purestorm.co.uk and modelmayhem.com.
4. My show reel is on youtube.com and I have a link to it on my profiles on the websites above.
5. I promote myself to possible new employers by emailing them my C.V, photos and link to my show reel.
6. This blog, because by doing this course we are all networking with one another via our blogs.
b) A practitioner I admire because of the way they use their networks is a friend and former colleague of mine, Fiona Reed. Having worked as a dancer for over 10 years she networked so much and gained so many contacts and so much experience that she, along with her friend, set up her own agency for dancers. I admire her because she has been so confident in networking that she has worked constantly for most of her career and dance companies trust her so much that now she is finding them dancers via her agency. Whilst working with her she gave me so much help and advice and also helped my film my show reel, which I have used to secure work for myself.
c) I use facebook socially but it also helps me in professionally because I am 'friends' with past colleagues and we often tell one another about jobs, auditions and general information about the business. Furthermore, there are facebook groups which I often view that have information on auditions such as UK Dance Auditions.
d) There are many reasons people may use the various networks I have mentioned. For example, some people may use audition/casting websites to look for specific jobs. Personally I won't be using them, for example, to look for classical ballet jobs or jobs that require strong singers, however, other users of the websites will. Also, employers use these websites to look for potential employees and post jobs and casting calls.
When considering the dance school I am a member of, I attend classes firstly to work on my art but also in order to meet other dancers and network that way. However, some dancers go to follow a specific teacher's class because that teacher is affiliated with dance companies which the dancers themselves would like to work for.
e) My ideal network would be a casting website specifically geared towards show jazz dancers like myself. I am interested in work such as casino shows, cabaret shows and cruise ships. I am unlikely to audition for musicals as I am not a strong singer nor will I ever audition for say a contemporary company because it isn't a style I am very practised in. Therefore, for me a website which incorporates the type of work I'm interested in and less of the work I am not, would be ideal.
It would need to have a profile page for each member with a place for C.Vs, show reels, photos and personal information and easy access to casting advertisements. The website should be free for users because if you are looking for a job it is likely you are not currently working so why should you be made to pay? Another feature my ideal network would have would be the ability to write a review on a dancer you've worked with or has worked for you, if you are an employer, which would appear on their profile page. However, prior to the comments being displayed on the website they should be checked by admin staff and negative comments should not be allowed to be displayed. There should also be an anonymous forum where dancers can comment on their experiences working for dance companies. I have had bad experiences in the past which could have been avoided if I'd have read reviews about unprofessional companies. I have also had great experiences which I'd love to recommend to other performers.
f) To work towards my ideal network I could approach other dancers I already know and ask them if they would be interested in a website which incorporates my ideas. I could also write to existing casting websites with some of my ideas and see if they'd be interested in making some changes. I could create a group on facebook or a blog about my ideas to see if anyone else is interested and other performers could give their input too.
g) The most crucial tool I would need is the internet. This task would require a lot of research into existing casting websites and the needs of other dancers. I don't know if anybody else shares my feelings about a website like this. But I know that if I made a facebook group I could invite all my 'friends' to join who are dancers and ask for their feedback on my goals for the website. However, out of everyone I invite to this group not everyone will join and those who do may choose not to give their input. I also do not know how to actually create a website so if I were to take the project that far I would need help from someone who does.
1. Being a member of the Amsterdam Dance Centre which is where many professionals go to take class.
2. Focusing on dance, I have been signed up to websites such as audities.nl, dancerspro.com, thestage.co.uk and starnow.com for a long time. Also, I recently signed up for LinkedIn.com since starting this course.
3. Focusing on modelling, I am signed up to purestorm.co.uk and modelmayhem.com.
4. My show reel is on youtube.com and I have a link to it on my profiles on the websites above.
5. I promote myself to possible new employers by emailing them my C.V, photos and link to my show reel.
6. This blog, because by doing this course we are all networking with one another via our blogs.
b) A practitioner I admire because of the way they use their networks is a friend and former colleague of mine, Fiona Reed. Having worked as a dancer for over 10 years she networked so much and gained so many contacts and so much experience that she, along with her friend, set up her own agency for dancers. I admire her because she has been so confident in networking that she has worked constantly for most of her career and dance companies trust her so much that now she is finding them dancers via her agency. Whilst working with her she gave me so much help and advice and also helped my film my show reel, which I have used to secure work for myself.
c) I use facebook socially but it also helps me in professionally because I am 'friends' with past colleagues and we often tell one another about jobs, auditions and general information about the business. Furthermore, there are facebook groups which I often view that have information on auditions such as UK Dance Auditions.
d) There are many reasons people may use the various networks I have mentioned. For example, some people may use audition/casting websites to look for specific jobs. Personally I won't be using them, for example, to look for classical ballet jobs or jobs that require strong singers, however, other users of the websites will. Also, employers use these websites to look for potential employees and post jobs and casting calls.
When considering the dance school I am a member of, I attend classes firstly to work on my art but also in order to meet other dancers and network that way. However, some dancers go to follow a specific teacher's class because that teacher is affiliated with dance companies which the dancers themselves would like to work for.
e) My ideal network would be a casting website specifically geared towards show jazz dancers like myself. I am interested in work such as casino shows, cabaret shows and cruise ships. I am unlikely to audition for musicals as I am not a strong singer nor will I ever audition for say a contemporary company because it isn't a style I am very practised in. Therefore, for me a website which incorporates the type of work I'm interested in and less of the work I am not, would be ideal.
It would need to have a profile page for each member with a place for C.Vs, show reels, photos and personal information and easy access to casting advertisements. The website should be free for users because if you are looking for a job it is likely you are not currently working so why should you be made to pay? Another feature my ideal network would have would be the ability to write a review on a dancer you've worked with or has worked for you, if you are an employer, which would appear on their profile page. However, prior to the comments being displayed on the website they should be checked by admin staff and negative comments should not be allowed to be displayed. There should also be an anonymous forum where dancers can comment on their experiences working for dance companies. I have had bad experiences in the past which could have been avoided if I'd have read reviews about unprofessional companies. I have also had great experiences which I'd love to recommend to other performers.
f) To work towards my ideal network I could approach other dancers I already know and ask them if they would be interested in a website which incorporates my ideas. I could also write to existing casting websites with some of my ideas and see if they'd be interested in making some changes. I could create a group on facebook or a blog about my ideas to see if anyone else is interested and other performers could give their input too.
g) The most crucial tool I would need is the internet. This task would require a lot of research into existing casting websites and the needs of other dancers. I don't know if anybody else shares my feelings about a website like this. But I know that if I made a facebook group I could invite all my 'friends' to join who are dancers and ask for their feedback on my goals for the website. However, out of everyone I invite to this group not everyone will join and those who do may choose not to give their input. I also do not know how to actually create a website so if I were to take the project that far I would need help from someone who does.
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Inquiry
a) One aspect of dance that I am particularly enthused by is how dance relates to different cultures around the world. Two years ago I was working in Egypt and learned belly dancing and Egyptian folklore dance as part of my job. I was learning variations on dances that had been passed down through the centuries in Egypt, very different to the western styles I was used to such as Ballet, Tap and Jazz. Good belly dancers sometimes become famous, Mona Said and Naima Akef are examples of Belly dancer royalty in Egypt. Folkloric dances from every country have such stories and history behind them that is why I am enthusiastic to find out more about them.
I am inspired by the pop star Shakira because she is as much of an accomplished dancer as she is a singer. She is Latin American, in an interview for 'Tina' magazine she said,
"Yep. I am very proud of my roots. Because they always remind me of who I am and where I come from"
This pride is visible in the choreography she performs on stage. She holds on to traditional dances from Columbia and gives them an up-to-date twist. She also integrates other traditional dance styles from around the world. Belly dancing is often featured in her shows and performances http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJsZR3w776E and she has recently used African dancing in her shows too. We are so used to seeing the same type of 'pop-star' dances and I think that it is good that someone as famous as her is exploring different styles of dance from other countries.
A line of inquiry I am interested in is: in what way have traditional dances from around the world shaped western styles and also whether choreographers are choosing to use traditional styles in their modern works?
b) Unfortunately, I didn't have to consider my answer to this for very long. The aspect of my profession that makes my angry and sad is the sheer number of dancers with eating disorders. I have witnessed friends and colleagues become so obsessed with weight loss and it is very upsetting indeed. I have never experienced a disorder myself but I have often found myself, as I am sure most dancers have, thinking about my weight. Most dance schools/colleges, mine included, give parents and students a guide book on eating disorders and what that particular school's policy is. This excerpt is taken from the Royal Ballet School's eating disorder policy,
'The likelihood of these [eating] conditions occurring amongst students at The Royal Ballet School is increased because of a common tendency amongst young aspiring dancers to conform to a perceived stereotype of the ‘perfect dancer’,'
Students aspiring to be classical dancers like the ones at the Royal Ballet School possibly have the hardest battle to stay thin because of the pressure from the ballet companies they wish to work for. There is a tragic story of a ballerina named Heidi Guenther who died aged 22 from complications connected to anorexia nervosa. She, along with the 24 other corpse de ballet dancers for Boston Ballet, had been told to lose 5lbs. She was already only 115lbs. In an article for the Boston Globe Anna-Marie Holmes who was then artistic director of Boston Ballet and the person who advised the dancers to lose weight said,
"She [Heidi] was looking a little pudgy - her boobs, her hips, her thighs. You see a girl on stage, her butt is going up and down, it's not attractive. It's a visual art. Because it's a visual art, I can advise what looks good."
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1999/04/04/MAGAZINE2036.dtl&ao=2#ixzz17RXtz5Po
Now, as shocking as what Holmes said is its no more shocking than things that are being said currently to dancers all over the world. It was just that Holmes was cold enough to be documented saying it after Guenther's death. I was once told to lose 7lbs by an employer. I am slim with a healthy BMI and my diet is good so I wasn't about to become unhealthy by desperately trying to lose weight. Did the suggestion I needed to lose weight make me feel fat? Yes. Am I fat? No! Thankfully, I am comfortable enough in my own skin to know what is right for me and know that this is what employers will say so that you keep an eye on your weight. This, I understand but I do not condone. It is unlikely a dancer will gain weight on a contract anyway because when we are working by the very nature of our jobs we are exercising.
Singer-Dancer-Choreographer, Paula Abdul has spoken very publicly about her battle with bulimia and I hope that more people in the public eye chose to speak out because I am sure there are more famous people with disorders than we know about. Abdul said of her eating disorder in an article from 'Jet' magazine,
"I learned at a very early age I didn't fit in physically. I learned through years of rejections from auditions .... I would ask myself, "Why can't I be tall and skinny like the other dancers?"
It is very sad but very true that in this profession looks count as much, if not more than ability, but why? A line of inquiry I am interested in is why do dancers HAVE to be very thin?
c) The very reason I became a dancer was so that I could perform for a living. Some dancers are very technical and thrive inside a classroom environment and gain the top marks in examinations. I was never this dancer. Yet, when it come to doing shows I come in to my own. I have always had the ability to perform, it just comes naturally to me and there is nothing that excites me more than dancing on stage to an audience.
I can't give an example of a person who inspired me because I think the desire to perform comes from within. When I perform I feel good about myself and full of confidence. That is all very well and good for when I have a job but what about finding one? I have in the past been so nervous in auditions that I haven't performed my best ans subsequently missed out on jobs. However, I have now trained myself to keep nerves to a minimum. I do this by pretending to feel confident and brave, even though I'd love to hide at the back of the group I force myself to dance at the front. I think nerves are one of the hardest thing to get over as a performer. I am lucky because I do not suffer from severe stage fright like I know many performers do and it would be interesting to find out how others deal with their nerves.
A line of inquiry which interests me is: How do people overcome stage fright and serious nerves in order to succeed?
d) One aspect of my profession I have had little experience in is teaching. I have taught before but not a great deal and I don't fully understand how a good teacher gets the most out of their pupils. This may come from me having to have more experience in the field, a hands on approach so to speak. But I think it is interesting how some teachers just know the right way to help their student flourish and other just don't.
When I was at college I had a teacher called David Needham. I know their are some other Hammond graduates and maybe some Northern graduates doing this course and I'm sure you will all recall your first class with him. I certainly do! I was scared stiff and filled with dread. At Hammond, unless you were superbly gifted, he wouldn't teach you until second year. So, until this point he had just been this scary enigma residing in studio five.
At first I dreaded his classes because I would be terrified of messing up and having to perform the sequence be myself. It certainly was character building thats for sure! However, I have never known myself progress faster in my life. His method of teaching, as frightening as it seemed to begin with, really helped me become the dancer I am today. And given time we all realised that he wasn't scary at all, just passionate about ensuring we left college the best we could be.
A line of enquiry I am interested in is: What makes a good teacher?
e) An experience I have had whilst living here in Amsterdam is how different classes are in the Netherlands than in the UK. At home, if you attend a Jazz class you will expect to do a standard warm up, turns, kicks, corner work and maybe learn a routine. Here, Jazz isn't the same discipline at all, it is closer to what I think of as Contemporary dance. The class has a lot of floor work, relaxation and flowing movements and the routines we learn are all about 'feeling' the music in our bodies. Unlike the arm here, leg there, placed Jazz I am used to. During my career I have worked with dancers from many different countries; USA, Canada, Holland, Egypt, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Spain.
I want to know about how dance training differs depending on what country you are from. What a standard class involves in different places too. Could the training in fact be very similar but we just call it different names? Or is it entirely different?
A line of inquiry I am interested in is: How does dance training differ from country to country?
I am inspired by the pop star Shakira because she is as much of an accomplished dancer as she is a singer. She is Latin American, in an interview for 'Tina' magazine she said,
"Yep. I am very proud of my roots. Because they always remind me of who I am and where I come from"
This pride is visible in the choreography she performs on stage. She holds on to traditional dances from Columbia and gives them an up-to-date twist. She also integrates other traditional dance styles from around the world. Belly dancing is often featured in her shows and performances http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJsZR3w776E and she has recently used African dancing in her shows too. We are so used to seeing the same type of 'pop-star' dances and I think that it is good that someone as famous as her is exploring different styles of dance from other countries.
A line of inquiry I am interested in is: in what way have traditional dances from around the world shaped western styles and also whether choreographers are choosing to use traditional styles in their modern works?
b) Unfortunately, I didn't have to consider my answer to this for very long. The aspect of my profession that makes my angry and sad is the sheer number of dancers with eating disorders. I have witnessed friends and colleagues become so obsessed with weight loss and it is very upsetting indeed. I have never experienced a disorder myself but I have often found myself, as I am sure most dancers have, thinking about my weight. Most dance schools/colleges, mine included, give parents and students a guide book on eating disorders and what that particular school's policy is. This excerpt is taken from the Royal Ballet School's eating disorder policy,
'The likelihood of these [eating] conditions occurring amongst students at The Royal Ballet School is increased because of a common tendency amongst young aspiring dancers to conform to a perceived stereotype of the ‘perfect dancer’,'
Students aspiring to be classical dancers like the ones at the Royal Ballet School possibly have the hardest battle to stay thin because of the pressure from the ballet companies they wish to work for. There is a tragic story of a ballerina named Heidi Guenther who died aged 22 from complications connected to anorexia nervosa. She, along with the 24 other corpse de ballet dancers for Boston Ballet, had been told to lose 5lbs. She was already only 115lbs. In an article for the Boston Globe Anna-Marie Holmes who was then artistic director of Boston Ballet and the person who advised the dancers to lose weight said,
"She [Heidi] was looking a little pudgy - her boobs, her hips, her thighs. You see a girl on stage, her butt is going up and down, it's not attractive. It's a visual art. Because it's a visual art, I can advise what looks good."
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1999/04/04/MAGAZINE2036.dtl&ao=2#ixzz17RXtz5Po
Now, as shocking as what Holmes said is its no more shocking than things that are being said currently to dancers all over the world. It was just that Holmes was cold enough to be documented saying it after Guenther's death. I was once told to lose 7lbs by an employer. I am slim with a healthy BMI and my diet is good so I wasn't about to become unhealthy by desperately trying to lose weight. Did the suggestion I needed to lose weight make me feel fat? Yes. Am I fat? No! Thankfully, I am comfortable enough in my own skin to know what is right for me and know that this is what employers will say so that you keep an eye on your weight. This, I understand but I do not condone. It is unlikely a dancer will gain weight on a contract anyway because when we are working by the very nature of our jobs we are exercising.
Singer-Dancer-Choreographer, Paula Abdul has spoken very publicly about her battle with bulimia and I hope that more people in the public eye chose to speak out because I am sure there are more famous people with disorders than we know about. Abdul said of her eating disorder in an article from 'Jet' magazine,
"I learned at a very early age I didn't fit in physically. I learned through years of rejections from auditions .... I would ask myself, "Why can't I be tall and skinny like the other dancers?"
It is very sad but very true that in this profession looks count as much, if not more than ability, but why? A line of inquiry I am interested in is why do dancers HAVE to be very thin?
c) The very reason I became a dancer was so that I could perform for a living. Some dancers are very technical and thrive inside a classroom environment and gain the top marks in examinations. I was never this dancer. Yet, when it come to doing shows I come in to my own. I have always had the ability to perform, it just comes naturally to me and there is nothing that excites me more than dancing on stage to an audience.
I can't give an example of a person who inspired me because I think the desire to perform comes from within. When I perform I feel good about myself and full of confidence. That is all very well and good for when I have a job but what about finding one? I have in the past been so nervous in auditions that I haven't performed my best ans subsequently missed out on jobs. However, I have now trained myself to keep nerves to a minimum. I do this by pretending to feel confident and brave, even though I'd love to hide at the back of the group I force myself to dance at the front. I think nerves are one of the hardest thing to get over as a performer. I am lucky because I do not suffer from severe stage fright like I know many performers do and it would be interesting to find out how others deal with their nerves.
A line of inquiry which interests me is: How do people overcome stage fright and serious nerves in order to succeed?
d) One aspect of my profession I have had little experience in is teaching. I have taught before but not a great deal and I don't fully understand how a good teacher gets the most out of their pupils. This may come from me having to have more experience in the field, a hands on approach so to speak. But I think it is interesting how some teachers just know the right way to help their student flourish and other just don't.
When I was at college I had a teacher called David Needham. I know their are some other Hammond graduates and maybe some Northern graduates doing this course and I'm sure you will all recall your first class with him. I certainly do! I was scared stiff and filled with dread. At Hammond, unless you were superbly gifted, he wouldn't teach you until second year. So, until this point he had just been this scary enigma residing in studio five.
At first I dreaded his classes because I would be terrified of messing up and having to perform the sequence be myself. It certainly was character building thats for sure! However, I have never known myself progress faster in my life. His method of teaching, as frightening as it seemed to begin with, really helped me become the dancer I am today. And given time we all realised that he wasn't scary at all, just passionate about ensuring we left college the best we could be.
A line of enquiry I am interested in is: What makes a good teacher?
e) An experience I have had whilst living here in Amsterdam is how different classes are in the Netherlands than in the UK. At home, if you attend a Jazz class you will expect to do a standard warm up, turns, kicks, corner work and maybe learn a routine. Here, Jazz isn't the same discipline at all, it is closer to what I think of as Contemporary dance. The class has a lot of floor work, relaxation and flowing movements and the routines we learn are all about 'feeling' the music in our bodies. Unlike the arm here, leg there, placed Jazz I am used to. During my career I have worked with dancers from many different countries; USA, Canada, Holland, Egypt, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Spain.
I want to know about how dance training differs depending on what country you are from. What a standard class involves in different places too. Could the training in fact be very similar but we just call it different names? Or is it entirely different?
A line of inquiry I am interested in is: How does dance training differ from country to country?
Friday 19 November 2010
Reflective Theory
Last week, I was asked to choreograph a dance to for a pilot for a new video game. The game is to be aimed at non-dancers of all ages and the idea is that they can play it in their living rooms. Therefore, the choreography had to be simple to follow and relatively compact in order for people to play at home. Yet, it also had to be fun and challenging enough so that people have the desire to play the game. This was like nothing I had ever done before, I knew it would require a lot of research into similar, pre-existing games in order for me to deliver what the client was looking for.
John Dewey describes 'reflective thought' as 'active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge' (Dewey, 1933)
When choreographing this piece I used 'active consideration' primarily to reflect on existing dance games. I viewed and played many of these games before I got to work on my own creation and considered what I liked and didn't like about each one. I was 'persistently' reviewing what I was creating while I was creating it, I changed the piece from its original form many times before I was satisfied. Finally, I had to 'carefully consider' every movement in order to ensure it fitted the brief I was given.
I can also clearly see Lewin's notion of the spiral steps reflected in my learning process.
PLANNING (Researching existing games)
ACTION (Creating the routine)
EVALUATION (Reflecting on what I thought worked and what I wanted to change)
PLANNING (More research and brain-storming ideas)
ACTION (Changing the routine and improving it)
and so on....
Lewin's 'steps' refer to having an experience as a continual or 'persistent' upward cycle finally reaching the finished result. In my case these 'steps' lead me to a routine I was contented with.
Lewin and Dewey's ideas on learning inspired Kolb to create his 'Learning Cycle'. His cycle consists of the different stages we go through when we are having an experience.
VISUAL - When researching (i.e viewing existing games)
In this case I was aware that I was using 'Reflection-In-Action' while taking dance class. It is common for dancers to use this type of reflection as we need to correct ourselves on the spot. However, in the video game project I was doing and indeed all types of choreography I think that 'Reflection-On-Action' is used a lot too.
John Dewey describes 'reflective thought' as 'active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge' (Dewey, 1933)
When choreographing this piece I used 'active consideration' primarily to reflect on existing dance games. I viewed and played many of these games before I got to work on my own creation and considered what I liked and didn't like about each one. I was 'persistently' reviewing what I was creating while I was creating it, I changed the piece from its original form many times before I was satisfied. Finally, I had to 'carefully consider' every movement in order to ensure it fitted the brief I was given.
I can also clearly see Lewin's notion of the spiral steps reflected in my learning process.
PLANNING (Researching existing games)
ACTION (Creating the routine)
EVALUATION (Reflecting on what I thought worked and what I wanted to change)
PLANNING (More research and brain-storming ideas)
ACTION (Changing the routine and improving it)
and so on....
Lewin's 'steps' refer to having an experience as a continual or 'persistent' upward cycle finally reaching the finished result. In my case these 'steps' lead me to a routine I was contented with.
Lewin and Dewey's ideas on learning inspired Kolb to create his 'Learning Cycle'. His cycle consists of the different stages we go through when we are having an experience.
It is easy to see how Kolb developed his ideas from Lewin's 'spiral steps' the stages are similar:
CONCRETE KNOWLEDGE - Doing something (Action)
REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION - Reflecting on what you've done (Evaluation)
ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION - Learning from what you've done (Evaluation)
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION - Trying out new ideas (Planning/Action)
What makes this an expansion on Lewin's 'steps' is the idea is that everybody's way of learning is different and depending on who you are and your particular learning style determines at what point you enter the learning cycle and gain new knowledge.
After much deliberation I realised how my experience of choreographing for the video game fits into Kolb's cycle. My learning process went like this:
CONCRETE KNOWLEDGE - Watching and playing dance video games for research
REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION - Reflecting on what I liked and didn't like from the games
ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION - Evaluating what I learned from reflecting on the games
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION - Putting what I've learned into action and coming up with my own creation
CONCRETE KNOWLEDGE - Doing the routine I created
REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION - Reflecting on what I liked and didn't like from my creation
ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION - Evaluating what I've learned from reflecting on my creation
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION - Putting my evaluation into action and changing parts to make it better
and so on...
I think I entered Kolb's 'Learning Cycle' right at my first bout of 'concrete knowledge'. By actively watching and physically playing the video games myself I learned exactly what kind of routine I was aiming to create. Next came the 'reflective observation' where I thought about what aspects of the existing games I wanted to incorporate in my routine. Then, using 'abstract conceptualisation' I evaluated my reflections. I already knew it had to be simple enough for non-dancers to follow but from playing them myself I found they often used some harder steps to keep players interested. Then I used 'active experimentation' to put my evaluation into action and create a routine which incorporated what I had learned from the previous three stages of learning. Then the entire cycle was repeated several times but with reference to my own creation.
Although I can see how my process fits into his work, some critics have voiced problems with Kolb's learning cycle. Tony Jeffs and Mark K. Smith (2005) wrote,
"(Kolb's) steps are shown as a circular movement. In reality, these things may be happening all at once. Furthermore, if learning has taken place then, as Kurt Lewin put it, such a process could be seen as a spiral of steps,"
From my own experience with the dance video game I must disagree with their first criticism that all the steps may be happening at once. I feel that I found each step to be separate from the last and that I gained further understanding with each step. However, the second part of their argument, that Kurt Lewin's spiral steps is more in keeping with the idea that learning is taking place, I find to be quite true. As I have already said I found that I repeated the 'learning cycle' a few times before I was satisfied with what I had created. Therefore, I visualise this as more of a steady progression upward like spiral stairs rather than a continuing cycle because each time I completed a cycle I felt closer to achieving my goals. This idea of there being no sense of achieving goals links to another critics work. Rogers (1996) writes,
"learning includes goals, purposes, intentions, choices and decision-making, and it is not clear where these elements fit into the learning cycle'
I must agree that within Kolb's cycle there is not really a sense of reaching goals. However, I feel that his cycle does in fact incorporate intentions and choices. Particularly in the evaluation and planning steps i.e Abstract conceptualisation and Active experimentation where I looked at what needed to be done to improve my piece and why. Therefore, I had both intentions and I made choices.
I found each step of Kolb's cycle to be important because with each step I learned something new. This now opens the door to to idea of 'Multiple Intelligences' (Gardner 1983) because each step of the 'learning cycle' is a different approach to learning. Gardner introduced the idea that people can engage in learning from many different view points or 'lenses' (Gardner 2005). 'VAK' is an abbreviation of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning. In terms of my project I think I most definitely learned using all three intelligences of 'VAK':
VISUAL - When researching (i.e viewing existing games)
AUDITORY - When listening to the music I had been sent and deciding on what choreography would fit to it
KINAESTHETIC - When researching (i.e playing existing games) and when choreographing the piece
Dewey, mentions the idea of 'present' and 'future' reflections in his work (Dewey 1934). However, Donald Schon took this a stage further and developed the concept of 'Reflection-In-Action' and 'Reflection-On-Action' (Schon 1987). The difference being 'Reflection-In-Action' is reflecting in the moment as the experience is occurring and 'Reflection-On-Action' takes place after the event.
Below, is a post I made to my blog on 11-11-2010 about 'Reflection-In-Action,
"Reflection - In - Action
Today, I was taking a dance class at Amsterdam Dance Centre, which is like the version of Pineapple here. As I was following the class I was very aware of how I was learning in a way I had never considered before. Every time I corrected myself I knew I was engaging in what was named 'Reflection-In-Action' by (Schon 1984). I would never have thought before that I was reflecting at this point. We often think of refection solely as something we engage in after an event and this is why it is thought of as tacit knowledge. Our careers are very physical and if we say fall out of a pirouette we have to reflect there and then using our bodies in order to improve. Leaving it and thinking about it later or even writing it down later would not work because next time you go to do that pirouette then chances are it won't work again because we 'think' with our bodies."
While I was creating the routine I would correct myself while I was dancing because ways to improve the piece would come into my head during the process, an example of 'Reflection-In-Action'. Yet, I would also use 'Reflection-On-Action' afterwards when I wasn't dancing through the routine to think of ways to improve it. I think a mixture of the two was essential to me being contented with my creation.
There has been some criticism on Schon's theory. Eraut (1994) wrote,
"when time is extremely short, decisions have to be rapid and the scope for reflection is extremely limited.'
I understand what Eraut is saying but the fact is that that is what Schon's theory is all about and understanding that you are in fact reflecting even when time is short is the break through Schon made.
So, when I am creating a piece it is vital for me to write things down because often a rush of ideas will come to me and I need to jot them down before I forget them. However, if I were to learn a routine that isn't my own creation I wouldn't consider doing this. Once I have learned the steps, through repetition of the movements, I no longer need to think 'whats coming next?' as my body knows what is coming next.
Twyla Tharp explains how a dancer can falter if she tries to think about the steps she is dancing because, "Her memory of movement doesn’t need to be accessed through conscious effort" (Tharp and Reiter 2006). This muscle memory is a form of tacit knowledge i.e knowledge which is hard to put into words.
I remember when I was performing in a show in Spain last year. We did the same two hour show five nights a week for six months. One night towards the end of my contract I just 'forgot' a step. Now, when I say I forgot it wasn't my brain that was in control but my body, and so it was body that 'blanked'. When I came off stage and tried to recall what I had forgotten I couldn't. I couldn't do it because I was forcing myself to think about it. Then I asked a friend to see if she could help me, she couldn't remember either because I was forcing her to think about something which normally came naturally to her. In the end we had to physically go through the entire routine and the 'missing' step just flowed back into our bodies. It took us doing it physically to remember because it was all in our muscle memory by that point.
(Moon 1999) and (Osterman and Kottcamp 2004) have written of the importance of articulating tacit knowledge in order to gain understanding from it. Moon particularly has written a lot about how journals are a good way to help professionals in the area of the arts to reflect. It does not have to be written. It can be drawings or poems. Anything that will help us to tap into the underlying understanding within tacit knowledge. A journal is meant to help us use 'critical thinking'.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Journal Writing Experience
From doing the reflective writing (task 2b) I learned some valuable things about the day that I didn't notice on first consideration. I found that the best way of reflecting for me was the 'list' because it meant I just threw down events, thoughts and feelings from the day. Then, the 'evaluation' method meant I could expand on what I had listed. I am going to continue to use this technique when writing my journal and see if it suits me. Also, I started writing my original journal entries on in Microsoft Word. I have now changed that and opted for old style pen and paper. There is something raw when I write this way which I feel I miss when using the computer. I feel my thoughts need to be in my hand writing complete with crossings out and misspellings.
Today, was a very ordinary day. I did normal everyday things which I would have thought of as not really worth reflecting on. however, by doing so I learned so much! For example, although I really enjoyed my dance class this morning I wasn't paying attention as well as I could. Sometimes, I think it is hard to criticise oneself in this way but we can learn a lot from it. I wasn't engaging as well as I should have because my mind was on other things. When I considered what I was distracting me I realised that I am feeling stressed about this getting all the work done for this course. I am also nervous because I have to present my dance for a video game tomorrow.
Before doing this exercise maybe I'd have just said I wasn't feeling 100% and may not have really pin-pointed why. This task made me really look at how I was feeling and why and now I can see it objectively and find ways of preventing stress and nerves.
Today, was a very ordinary day. I did normal everyday things which I would have thought of as not really worth reflecting on. however, by doing so I learned so much! For example, although I really enjoyed my dance class this morning I wasn't paying attention as well as I could. Sometimes, I think it is hard to criticise oneself in this way but we can learn a lot from it. I wasn't engaging as well as I should have because my mind was on other things. When I considered what I was distracting me I realised that I am feeling stressed about this getting all the work done for this course. I am also nervous because I have to present my dance for a video game tomorrow.
Before doing this exercise maybe I'd have just said I wasn't feeling 100% and may not have really pin-pointed why. This task made me really look at how I was feeling and why and now I can see it objectively and find ways of preventing stress and nerves.
Reflection - In - Action
Today, I was taking a dance class at Amsterdam Dance Centre, which is like the version of Pineapple here. As I was following the class I was very aware of how I was learning in a way I had never considered before. Every time I corrected myself I knew I was engaging in what was named 'Reflection-In-Action' by (Schon 1984). I would never have thought before that I was reflecting at this point. We often think of refection solely as something we engage in after an event and this is why it is thought of as tacit knowledge. Our careers are very physical and if we say fall out of a pirouette we have to reflect there and then using our bodies in order to improve. Leaving it and thinking about it later or even writing it down later would not work because next time you go to do that pirouette then chances are it won't work again because we 'think' with our bodies.
Monday 8 November 2010
Learning Styles
While reading the course reader on Reflective Practices I was fascinated by the different learning styles we all have. When considering how I approached my blog, with regard to Kolb's 'Learning Cycle', I realised that I entered the cycle at the stage of Reflective Observation because I viewed other people's blogs and decided what I liked about theirs and what ideas I'd use when doing my own and what I wouldn't choose to use.
Then, after reading Howard Gardner's (1983) ideas on different intelligences I wanted to learn what kind of learner I am. http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm points out that people who choose to be dancers, such as myself, are likely to be Bodily/Kinaesthetic learners. However, when I took a learning styles test on http://www.acceleratedlearning.com/method/test_flash.html. I found that I learn using a number of Gardner's said intelligences. My top learning style being Linguistic followed by Musical, Inter personal and Intra personal. After Linguistic I scored the same for the following three methods.
What I found interesting was that the Bodily/Kinaesthetic method of learning for me was very low so I asked my boyfriend who is an actor (another profession which lends itself to the Bodily/Physical learning style) to take the test and see what styles of learning he uses the most. His outcome was Musical first, followed equally by Linguistic and Visual/Spatial and then by Bodily/Physical. So he uses the Bodily/Physical method more than a lot of other learning styles but it still isn't the main one he uses.
I wonder what learning styles other entertainers use? I understand that it is only a guide line that dancers and actors are Bodily/Physical learners but I think it is interesting that a group of people in the same profession can learn so differently. It is interesting, when in a rehearsal process, how different dancers need to learn things. Some dancers have to write what they have learnt in the session down right away, others have to film the routine just learned to practice at home.
Then, after reading Howard Gardner's (1983) ideas on different intelligences I wanted to learn what kind of learner I am. http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm points out that people who choose to be dancers, such as myself, are likely to be Bodily/Kinaesthetic learners. However, when I took a learning styles test on http://www.acceleratedlearning.com/method/test_flash.html. I found that I learn using a number of Gardner's said intelligences. My top learning style being Linguistic followed by Musical, Inter personal and Intra personal. After Linguistic I scored the same for the following three methods.
What I found interesting was that the Bodily/Kinaesthetic method of learning for me was very low so I asked my boyfriend who is an actor (another profession which lends itself to the Bodily/Physical learning style) to take the test and see what styles of learning he uses the most. His outcome was Musical first, followed equally by Linguistic and Visual/Spatial and then by Bodily/Physical. So he uses the Bodily/Physical method more than a lot of other learning styles but it still isn't the main one he uses.
I wonder what learning styles other entertainers use? I understand that it is only a guide line that dancers and actors are Bodily/Physical learners but I think it is interesting that a group of people in the same profession can learn so differently. It is interesting, when in a rehearsal process, how different dancers need to learn things. Some dancers have to write what they have learnt in the session down right away, others have to film the routine just learned to practice at home.
Thursday 4 November 2010
I created a LinkedIn page a couple of days ago and I have already found it useful to connect with companies and employers. I would have never thought to use this website before this course began but I now realise the more you put into into these Web 2.0 platforms the more you get out of them!
The link to my profile is:
http://nl.linkedin.com/in/eleanorsykes
The link to my profile is:
http://nl.linkedin.com/in/eleanorsykes
Web 2.0 in the workplace - Harnessing Collective Intelligence
This is the final of O'Reilly's core competencies to look at with regard to Web 2.0 in the work place.
Collective collaboration is the idea of users working together to build a better Web 2.0 platform. It is the basic notion that two parts on their own can come together to create something better as a whole.
Without this collaboration social networking sites would not exist. Reading the statistics for Facebook is very thought provoking. I can look at it in the form of numbers, for example, the leap from 1500 users in 2004 to the 400 million that use it now. Or that 160 million objects that people interact with such as groups and events (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics). However, how I'd like to look at is that how in 2006 I had no idea what facebook was, and nor did possibly 50% plus of the people now using it. I didn't even get a facebook page until late 2007. Now, everyday I check my facebook along with millions of people around the world who are all collaborating to the information shared on the website to create a massively intelligent Web 2.0 platform.
Gruber (2007) 3 components that help to harness collective intelligence are:
1) A Social System
2) A Search Engine
3) Intelligent Users
All three of these components help make Facebook the powerful information tool it is today. It is a social system with billions of interactive objects and pieces of content with masses of information to look at. It has an intelligent search engine which recommends pages, friends and photos which it calculates you may be interested in due to other information you have viewed. No wonder a user can spend hours clicking away on facebook when it keeps predicting objects you are going to want to view and interact with. Which is, in fact, the exact point and brings us to the final component of 'Intelligent Users'. Without users logging on, interacting (commenting, posting photos etc.), using the system on a regular basis it wouldn't work nearly as well. The more interactions a user makes with a Web 2.0 platform the better it becomes.
The collective intelligence that millions of users have put into facebook via groups and events means that we all benefit from a system with more information and easier links.
When considering how this benefits my life as a performer. The best way I can describe how is through a recent occurrence in my working life.I met an Estonian girl while working on a job here in Amsterdam. She has worked here for a while and knows the dance world here far better than me. Also, I felt we had a good 'neither-of-us-are-from-here' connection. I wanted to find her through facebook because not only did I think she would be a good contact to have, I also liked her very much! However, all I had was a first name. I thought I'd give it a go anyway and she popped up right away. The reason? We both had updated our 'current location' to Amsterdam and we had one mutual friend. The combination of the intelligent search engine plus myself and the girl plus our mutual friend updating our profiles (being intelligent users) made the process very easy indeed.
Collective collaboration is the idea of users working together to build a better Web 2.0 platform. It is the basic notion that two parts on their own can come together to create something better as a whole.
Without this collaboration social networking sites would not exist. Reading the statistics for Facebook is very thought provoking. I can look at it in the form of numbers, for example, the leap from 1500 users in 2004 to the 400 million that use it now. Or that 160 million objects that people interact with such as groups and events (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics). However, how I'd like to look at is that how in 2006 I had no idea what facebook was, and nor did possibly 50% plus of the people now using it. I didn't even get a facebook page until late 2007. Now, everyday I check my facebook along with millions of people around the world who are all collaborating to the information shared on the website to create a massively intelligent Web 2.0 platform.
Gruber (2007) 3 components that help to harness collective intelligence are:
1) A Social System
2) A Search Engine
3) Intelligent Users
All three of these components help make Facebook the powerful information tool it is today. It is a social system with billions of interactive objects and pieces of content with masses of information to look at. It has an intelligent search engine which recommends pages, friends and photos which it calculates you may be interested in due to other information you have viewed. No wonder a user can spend hours clicking away on facebook when it keeps predicting objects you are going to want to view and interact with. Which is, in fact, the exact point and brings us to the final component of 'Intelligent Users'. Without users logging on, interacting (commenting, posting photos etc.), using the system on a regular basis it wouldn't work nearly as well. The more interactions a user makes with a Web 2.0 platform the better it becomes.
The collective intelligence that millions of users have put into facebook via groups and events means that we all benefit from a system with more information and easier links.
When considering how this benefits my life as a performer. The best way I can describe how is through a recent occurrence in my working life.I met an Estonian girl while working on a job here in Amsterdam. She has worked here for a while and knows the dance world here far better than me. Also, I felt we had a good 'neither-of-us-are-from-here' connection. I wanted to find her through facebook because not only did I think she would be a good contact to have, I also liked her very much! However, all I had was a first name. I thought I'd give it a go anyway and she popped up right away. The reason? We both had updated our 'current location' to Amsterdam and we had one mutual friend. The combination of the intelligent search engine plus myself and the girl plus our mutual friend updating our profiles (being intelligent users) made the process very easy indeed.
Sunday 31 October 2010
Starting 'The Reflective Practitioner'
I have been unable to blog for over a week now due to commitments and I feel out-of-the-loop so to speak. Its crazy how fast one can get this feeling! Anyway, I still need to complete task 1b but for now I feel compelled to begin writing my journal and particularly about a day in my life. I am currently in rehearsals for a show so I couldn't imagine a better time to start this. I can already see how this course is going to benefit me as a professional performer. After a long day rehearsing I have never wanted to pick up a pen and paper and write down what I learned that day even though I know it would help me if I did. Now, I have no excuse!!
Monday 18 October 2010
Delicious
After reading Stacey Wilson's blog I decided to follow her lead and set myself up with a Delicious account. I think its a great website to help organise us on this course. Especially because our careers often mean we can't rely on a fixed base with internet connection. So, if you are picking it up when you can instead of having to upload each page and finding where you are up to its all on there waiting. Fantastic!
My username is sykes_ellie
My username is sykes_ellie
Web 2.0 in the workplace - Remixable data and Transformations
I found O'Reilly's competency 'Remixable data and Transformations' harder to relate to my career than 'Architectures of Participation'.
From the course reader I can understand the fundamental aspects of the competency to be; enabling many users to access information which can be pictures, music, text etc and then participate in the information and build on and 'remixed' to make something of their own, which can then be 'remixed' by someone else and so on and so on. A good example of this is the YouTube phenomena which was Star Wars Kid. This video got downloaded and changed from the original video so many times that its hard to know which the original actually is and therefore 'the consumer is also the producer...the prosumer' Valtyson 2010.
There is a lot more to discuss on this topic not to mention linking this competency to my career but I think I need to first I need to do some further reading in order to get my head around it.
From the course reader I can understand the fundamental aspects of the competency to be; enabling many users to access information which can be pictures, music, text etc and then participate in the information and build on and 'remixed' to make something of their own, which can then be 'remixed' by someone else and so on and so on. A good example of this is the YouTube phenomena which was Star Wars Kid. This video got downloaded and changed from the original video so many times that its hard to know which the original actually is and therefore 'the consumer is also the producer...the prosumer' Valtyson 2010.
There is a lot more to discuss on this topic not to mention linking this competency to my career but I think I need to first I need to do some further reading in order to get my head around it.
Saturday 16 October 2010
Web 2.0 in the workplace - Architectures of Participation
I have already blogged briefly and superficially about my initial thoughts on the use of Web 2.0 as part of our Professional Practice Course. I now intend to look in more detail at each aspect of Tim O'Reilly's core competencies which relate to networking as a professional performer.
The first competency is 'Architectures of Participation'. Unlike Web 1.0 systems where there is often one creator and publisher of a web page and then many who will read the page but will be unable to interact with it, Web 2.0 allows and persuades readers of the data to, for example, comment on what they have just read and 'get involved' with it. Participatory actions such as commenting on a blog are known as emancipatory practices. These emancipatory practices are the reason why Web 2.0 is more sophisticated than what has preceded it. Instead of having 'one to one' or 'one to many' communications it is now possible to have and participate in 'many to many' communications.
Now, when thinking of how this benefits me as a professional performer I can see that being able to reach more employers, for the same amount of work, is always going to be better than only being able to reach one. For example, I have my show reel uploaded onto the Web 2.0 device YouTube, so that when I have made profiles on websites such as dancerspro.com I have added the link to my page and employers looking at it can easily access the information online. Also, this way I can get a larger number of people viewing it and it is so much more cost effective than if I were to mail it to each employer individually. Therefore, I am benefiting from a many to many communication.
Hamilton 2000 notes that the fewer barriers in the way the more people will want to participate. These barriers include time, money and skill. I will take Facebook as an example for this; there are recurring rumours on Facebook that the owners of the website are going to make the users pay for use of it. When these rumours arise users of the site use 'groups' to partition against it, saying they refuse to pay for the site and will leave Facebook if the rumours become true. This backs up Hamilton 2000's point that if barriers come between the user and the system the system will lose participants. Subsequently, the faster, cheaper and easier the Web 2.0 system is the more people will partake in it, referred to as 'architecture of assembly' by Ullrich et al (2008). Networking is an enormous part of being a professional performer, its that age old saying 'its not what you know but who you know.' Therefore, when networking this 'architecture of assembly' is greatly needed to help us communicate effectively due to it being quick, cheap and 'user-friendly.'
The first competency is 'Architectures of Participation'. Unlike Web 1.0 systems where there is often one creator and publisher of a web page and then many who will read the page but will be unable to interact with it, Web 2.0 allows and persuades readers of the data to, for example, comment on what they have just read and 'get involved' with it. Participatory actions such as commenting on a blog are known as emancipatory practices. These emancipatory practices are the reason why Web 2.0 is more sophisticated than what has preceded it. Instead of having 'one to one' or 'one to many' communications it is now possible to have and participate in 'many to many' communications.
Now, when thinking of how this benefits me as a professional performer I can see that being able to reach more employers, for the same amount of work, is always going to be better than only being able to reach one. For example, I have my show reel uploaded onto the Web 2.0 device YouTube, so that when I have made profiles on websites such as dancerspro.com I have added the link to my page and employers looking at it can easily access the information online. Also, this way I can get a larger number of people viewing it and it is so much more cost effective than if I were to mail it to each employer individually. Therefore, I am benefiting from a many to many communication.
Hamilton 2000 notes that the fewer barriers in the way the more people will want to participate. These barriers include time, money and skill. I will take Facebook as an example for this; there are recurring rumours on Facebook that the owners of the website are going to make the users pay for use of it. When these rumours arise users of the site use 'groups' to partition against it, saying they refuse to pay for the site and will leave Facebook if the rumours become true. This backs up Hamilton 2000's point that if barriers come between the user and the system the system will lose participants. Subsequently, the faster, cheaper and easier the Web 2.0 system is the more people will partake in it, referred to as 'architecture of assembly' by Ullrich et al (2008). Networking is an enormous part of being a professional performer, its that age old saying 'its not what you know but who you know.' Therefore, when networking this 'architecture of assembly' is greatly needed to help us communicate effectively due to it being quick, cheap and 'user-friendly.'
Flickr Pictures and Header Photo
I uploaded pictures to my blog from Flickr. I found the process quite straight forward. Its amazing how simple using Web 2.0 can be. I also decided to upload a photo onto my header after looking at some other people's blogs such as Stacey Wilson's and Elizabeth Eastham's. I think that it finishes the look of the page off perfectly. This also prompted me to change my background to compliment the colours of the photograph.
The web address for my Flickr photos is http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliesykes/with/5071216350/
The web address for my Flickr photos is http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliesykes/with/5071216350/
Thursday 14 October 2010
YouTube Video
After some, what I'd like to call, research I did my YouTube video. I looked at my fellow students videos to get a feel for what others had dome. I particularly liked Alana Shirley's video. It was well thought out and well edited with interesting use of narration over the video. I also really enjoyed watching Mark Iles's video his was directed straight to the camera and worked well. Some other students like Ross Dunning chose to use a different approach. He filmed words as they came up on the computer screen. I thought this was very effective!
However, finding myself more at home in front of a camera than a computer screen I decided to film my video straight on to the camera. It may be simple but I think its affective in me getting across my aims for the next year on the BAPP course.
Here's the link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FOIVKg2OXk
However, finding myself more at home in front of a camera than a computer screen I decided to film my video straight on to the camera. It may be simple but I think its affective in me getting across my aims for the next year on the BAPP course.
Here's the link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FOIVKg2OXk
Monday 11 October 2010
My Initial thoughts on Using Web 2.0 as part of the BA (Hons) Professional Practice Course
The majority of us are aware of web 2.0 whether or not, like me, we know that we are. I had no idea that every time I logged onto Facebook I was using web 2.0.
I have always relied so strongly on the internet in general and particularly web 2.0 in my line of work: from booking gigs to finding out about auditions to "meeting" other dancers. For networking nothing beats using web 2.0 because its a great way of meeting peers and employers through your computer from the comfort of your own home via an on-line community.
This is why the use of web 2.0 in the form of blogs is fantastic as a part of this course. My fellow students and I can bounce ideas off one another and comment and take others comments on board in what I'd like to refer to as a 'virtual classroom'. As not all of us can attend all/any of the classes at the University then what better way for us all to learn than with help from each other via web 2.0.
Also, its a fantastic way for us further learn how to present ourselves through a web page. As a dancer I have learnt that when it comes to getting a job its often a 50/50 split between technical capability and physical appearance. I believe this is also the case in a web page. It doesn't matter what the page's content is if the page itself looks dull. Therefore, using other web 2.0 devices such as Flickr to enhance the look of the page is very important.
I have always relied so strongly on the internet in general and particularly web 2.0 in my line of work: from booking gigs to finding out about auditions to "meeting" other dancers. For networking nothing beats using web 2.0 because its a great way of meeting peers and employers through your computer from the comfort of your own home via an on-line community.
This is why the use of web 2.0 in the form of blogs is fantastic as a part of this course. My fellow students and I can bounce ideas off one another and comment and take others comments on board in what I'd like to refer to as a 'virtual classroom'. As not all of us can attend all/any of the classes at the University then what better way for us all to learn than with help from each other via web 2.0.
Also, its a fantastic way for us further learn how to present ourselves through a web page. As a dancer I have learnt that when it comes to getting a job its often a 50/50 split between technical capability and physical appearance. I believe this is also the case in a web page. It doesn't matter what the page's content is if the page itself looks dull. Therefore, using other web 2.0 devices such as Flickr to enhance the look of the page is very important.
Editing my 'About Me' section
I changed my about me section after reading some of the other blogs: in particular Ceri Morgan's and Anthony Pickersgill's. I liked their 'About Me' sections because this blog being used as a professional tool and theirs got right in there and were straight to the point with regard to their careers and training. I preferred this approach to my previous one which was far more informal. For the purpose of this profile a more simple and formal approach looks better I feel.
Also, I have now rectified my C.V problems by rearranging the layout of my blog. I am still experiencing some issues with font size because when I type it up it all looks the same but when I view my blog something changes. I will have to try and fix this again.
Also, I have now rectified my C.V problems by rearranging the layout of my blog. I am still experiencing some issues with font size because when I type it up it all looks the same but when I view my blog something changes. I will have to try and fix this again.
Saturday 9 October 2010
C.V
Well my C.V is now visible on my blog page. I had trouble getting it to look right on the page and I am still not happy with it, the different fonts and its position in a big white chunk at the bottom of the page are not particularly aesthetically pleasing. It will get changed again! But for now its staying....
Also, I have to add that I managed to figure out how to give my page a different background. Ahhhh much better!
Also, I have to add that I managed to figure out how to give my page a different background. Ahhhh much better!
Getting Started
So, here is where I make a wonderful Professional Profile....or attempt to! My first attempt has been an absolute FAIL. But from reading other peoples profiles doing this course I feel I'm not the only one. I can see that Ellie Mattley has also had trouble trying to upload and such. Also, my profile looks extremely boring!! I thought that perhaps I could just choose any background etc and then come back to it later and now I'm failing to find how to change that. So, until then boring profile it is. Next step...putting up my C.V on here. Here I go!
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