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!!

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

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.

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.'

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/

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

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. 

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.

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!

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!