Task 2B: Reflective Writing

Journal Writing Experience 

After initially finding my journal a useful tool I began looking into the different methods as suggested by Reader 2. I have been doing this for just over a week, using a different methods to record my thoughts at the end of each day. 

Having got quite used to the general keeping of a journal I was hoping this exercise would help to expand on the experiences I had already started recording and get me looking at my workings within my practice in a new light. 

Description 

This is probably the style I found easiest. Simply describing my day with full freedom, no particular structure is something I found actually quite therapeutic.  

Initial Reflection 

At first I was unsure how this technique would differentiate from the 'description' method I had used previously. However with the 'description' technique I found my journal read like a story, with full sentences and paragraphs and that wasn't how 'initial reflection' needed to be structured. So when reflecting on my day in this way I simply wrote down the very first things that popped into my head, whether that was one word, one sentence or a whole chain of thoughts. 
Again I found this quite a simple method of journal writing that I actually quite enjoyed using.  

Lists

This is the one method of journal keeping I knew I would be good at! I am forever keeping list on a daily basis. Somedays I have lists for other lists!

I think I find list writing particularly helpful as it is a very methodic way of arranging your thoughts. It can feel quite hectic when all my feelings and thoughts are flying around my head. So I write a list. It's a quick and easy way to jot down things down and get it out of your head onto paper. 

Evaluation

This was one method I found quite challenging. I seem to be quite happy writing down my experiences in different formats but when it comes to what I had learnt from those experiences it suddenly became a lot more difficult. It really got me thinking. It sparked questions within me, why did I do that and how can I learn from it? How can I use this to better my practice? 


Graphs, charts, diagrams 


Being quite creative I thought this would be a good method for me but I actually found it quite frustrating! I just wasn't happy with how any of the diagrams I created came out and what they showed about my day. 

I tried documenting all sorts of things, my energy levels throughout the day, my current situation vs this time last year, how much fun I was having etc. But unfortunately I just didn't find it a useful tool for me personally. 


What if?

I found the “What If?” journal day the most interesting. 
I am quite a methodical person by nature (hence lists!) but thinking about all the “What If”s of a day really pushed me out of my comfort zone and had me thinking about the possibilities of, not just my day, but also how I could improve on my general practice at work. 
Sometimes I find it difficult to break out of the way my mind wants to naturally think, but in writing about my day creatively, creating almost fiction, I found it very rewarding (and that was only after the one day!) I will defiantly be reusing this technique. 

Another view

Writing from a objects post of view just isn't something that I found particularly helpful. The only object that is with me throughout the entirety of a day is my mobile phone and its perspective is generally just the inside of my pocket! 
But I did gain some insight when thinking about my day from the point of view of other people that I spend time with. It helped me look at my attitude and actions in term of how they might come across to others, which I found sometimes varied from how I had intended.  

Other

The last method of journal keeping I have decided to try using is to keep an audio visual diary. 

Filming myself on my phone to video record my thoughts and experiences from the day. I chose to do this knowing it will defiantly push me out of my comfort zone and, so far, that seems to be where I gain the best self reflection!
Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel for any material I'm happy to upload. 

skyetupholmeYouTube

In conclusion, I have found this whole exercise very interesting. It has opened my eyes to how many different and varied styles of journal keeping there are and how individually each of them can help self reflection and evaluation. But even more effective is using all methods to make the most of your journal. With this in mind I will be keeping up a daily journal mostly using the descriptive and initial reflection style of writing but I am also going to continue to sum up each entry with an evaluation section where I will continue to deepen my thought process and learn about how I can improve in my practice on a daily bases. 

I will then be experimenting making a comparison between my written journal and my video diary. I'm hoping this will really help highlight different areas of my practice and enable me to develop and explore my strengths and weaknesses.  

Task 2A: Reflective Practice

So last week after studying Reader 2 I began to keep a journal of my daily comings and goings. 

Why? 

My first worry was that writing about my daily life surely wasn't going to be any help for my Professional Practice in Arts as on a daily bases I don't necessarily practice it! I no longer go to auditions or perform in shows on the daily bases. I want to be a teacher and I'm currently working as Manager of a cafe in order to fund my education to get there. 

So, how could keeping a log of my work-a-day life be of any use? 

To help answer this question I found chapter one of "Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education" by David Boud extremely comforting. 

"Journal writing is as varied as those who engage in it"

 "Journal writing can be used to enhance what we do and how we do it. As a vehicle for learning, it can be used in formal courses, our pro- fessional practice, or any aspect of informal learning."

These quotes from chapter one: "Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice" are just a few that helped me realise it not about the content of what you write, its about a personal journey and what you take from it. There are infinite ways a journal can be a useful tool to anyone and can especially aid the development of a Professional Practitioner, no matter what area they choose to focus on. 

One of the key points that stood out for me after studying Reader 2 was the contrasting ideas of "off-line" and "online" reflection or, as Donald Schön (1987) describes it, "reflection-in-action" vs "reflection-on-action". 
This got me thinking about what I do on a daily bases and keeping a journal this past week has really helped me discover how I reflect throughout my day. 
One extract from my journal this week said "I was making tough decision on the spot" 
Where this was relating to an incident that involved team management during a busy shift at a cafe I soon realised that each day at work as a manager I "reflect-in-action" seeing a scenario develop and adapting to change and improve on it. 
This is the same kind of action I would take say doing a piece of choreography or teaching a classroom full of kids. 
I am starting to see there are many skills I use on a daily bases that are all relevant and extremely useful to a Professional Practitioner in Arts. The use of muscle memory is another  example. 

So far I have found the use of journal keeping very interesting and I'm very excited to see how my ideas develop. 

delving into Reader 2...

This morning I'm delving into Reader 2, something I am excited about as I have really enjoyed all the topics that have been brought to light so far on this course. 

I'm starting to understand this new way of working and really feel some of my ideas are coming along, I know this is just the beginning of the journey so I'm intrigued to see whats up next. 

Part 2 is all about Reflection, something I have never really had to do in a professional practice before. The idea of keeping a journal of some kind is not something I have done since I was a kid writing in my dolphin covered diary! So I am looking forward to seeing how reflection can be used as a tool for a practitioner.

Task 1B: Professional Communication Technology continued...

What I have learned about Web 2.0

Tim O'Reilly defines Web 2.0 using text, memes and questions to help define his concept. 

For me the true understanding of Web 2.0 in contrast to Web 1.0 can be summed up in this simple quote

"Web 2.0 takes communication within a network from a traditional one-to-one basis and the one to many to a many-to-many approach, where thousands of people may read and interact" 

(page 4 Reader 1)    

Having previously blogged about Natalie, a magazine editors assistant and part time blogger I began to think about my own personal use of Web 2.0 platforms and how I use them professionally vs for my own social networking. 

I have been a late comer to all popular social media fashions, I only got Facebook after graduating with A Levels and realising it was going to be the best and most simple way for me to stay in touch with all the classmates and friends I had made during my studies.  
I only got Twitter when I realised I was missing out on a whole online community when I was part of a theatre group that used Tweeting as the main method of communication. 
And I only recently got Instagram when I was told by my work that I was going to have to start uploading photos for promotion. 

Its not until I really started using all of these different platforms that I realised not only are they great for networking personally and professionally but they all work together and enable us as users to gain all sorts of information and contact people and businesses that we would never have had the power to reach before. 

But what are the downside to this?
To start with it can be very addictive, it decreases peoples ability to socialise and  communication face to face, it can also be harmful with online bullying and potentially dangerous fake profiles. 

This article below is one I found of great interest, especially the section on "addressing the disadvantages of social networking"   

http://www.rootsofaction.com/disadvantages-of-social-networking/

"What do you think? How will we ensure the healthy growth and development of children and teens, given the known harmful effects and disadvantages of social networking?"

(Marylin Price-Mitchell, PhD) 

I am embarking on this course with the intent of becoming a teacher and I found the points raised in this article very appropriate for my personal professional development. 

Of course social media can be used in many wonderful ways. It can open doors to the world that wouldn't be opened otherwise but are people seeing the damaging effects it can have too and acting to combat them?... just a thought.  

References 

 http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html 

 http://www.rootsofaction.com/disadvantages-of-social-networking/

Task 1B: Professional Communication Technologies

Learning about Web 2.0 in Reader one has been a real eye opening experience for me. 

Okay so I always knew I wasn't that savvy when it came to technology and social media but I really had no idea how this online world has been developing and creating opportunities for all its users, whether it be for professional practice or personal use.

So when I realised I had to start writing, my initial thoughts were that I wanted to learn more about the real practical use of Web 2.0 from a personal point of view to really understand what the pros and cons of its usage. 

I am very lucky to have a close friend who works for a magazine and uses all sorts of Web 2.0 programs on a daily basis not only for personal use but also in her professional practice. I was eager to hear her point of view on a few of the questions I had found myself asking when studying Reader 1. 
So I conducted a short interview with her to get her opinion on some of the points.

Name: Natalie Keeler

Occupation: Editorial Assistant/part-time blogger

How do you use social media in your professional practice? Which platforms do you use? Facebook plays a big part in both my roles as an Editorial Assistant and a blogger. Day-to-day I work for a fundraising magazine that goes out to PTAs and schools, and we find Facebook is the easiest way to connect with our readers, answer their questions, and share new ideas. Their contributions are a really useful way for us to gauge what makes our readers tick, which ideas are the most popular, and which issues are causing the most problems.

Facebook and Twitter are also great for promoting blog content, so I find them quite invaluable when I’m trying to spread the word about something I’ve written. I don’t think my blog would get much exposure at all without social media there to give it a good boost!

Which is your favourite/ most useful and why? Facebook and Twitter are my favourites, but I think they each have a mixture of pros and cons. With Twitter you’re casting a much wider net and reaching a lot more people than you would with Facebook – but sometimes it can feel a bit crowded, and your tweets can get lost in amongst a load of others also trying to get noticed.

Facebook is a bit more intimate, because when you’re posting something like a blog post, you’re sharing it with an audience that you’ve selected yourself, and an audience that has a vested interest in what you do from day to day. I find it’s also a lot easier to participate or follow a discussion/debate in a Facebook post than in a stream on Twitter. Comments on Facebook have a chronological flow, but tweets can often get jumbled.

Do you use them differently for professional work vs. social? 

Yes, I post far less frequently in a social sense than I do in a professional sense. The key to running a successful social media account on behalf of a business or brand means keeping your audience consistently updated with a stream of relevant content that you know will interest them – but this is less important when you’re just posting as yourself. Some social media accounts are so lazy and naïve that they forget to consider things like format, whether their message is clear and coherent, whether it’s even relevant to the demographic they’re targeting. Spelling and grammar checks go amiss more often than they should, even with massive global companies!

How do you think audience participation in social media has changed the way we work? It’s had a massive impact and has completely transformed the way we interact with each other in a professional capacity. I’ll admit that as a blogger, it’s oddly satisfying to receive almost-instant feedback after posting something on social media – there’s something quite pleasing about getting an immediate response, especially when it’s positive! Equally, it’s nice to be able to instantly tell those writers that have produced something I’ve enjoyed reading that I liked their work.

Even in a commercial sense the immediacy of social media has completely altered the way consumers and corporations communicate with each other. It’s a hugely accessible medium. So much so that several companies now exclusively hire social media experts or consultants to manage their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts because they understand how influential these platforms can be.

Interactive social media allows communities to develop beyond their “existing professional networks” and offer a “social space for almost strangers with diverse backgrounds to come together as equals, generate ideas and act collectively.” (Feenberg & Bakardjieva 2004 pg 38)

Where do you find your “collective intelligence” on the web and how has thins helped you professionally? Having a collective intelligence is a concept that’s quite new to me – I understand it as kind of online networking, which is something more suited to the blogging side of what I do. Social media certainly is fantastic for generating ideas and meeting people with similar interests to your own – though I’ll admit it’s something I’m yet to delve into properly. I can definitely see the benefits of it though.

How do you feel about potential employers being able to Google you and what effect has this had on your profession? When you have that kind of information to hand, I can certainly see the attraction of googling a job applicant, but being on the other side of the fence it’s pretty scary how much a person can dig out before having even met you. Some employers make their minds up about a candidate based only on what they find online, but I really don’t think this is fair – often it takes meeting a person in real life to get a grasp on who they are and how they will perform as an employee. My personal experience of this has only come about through what’s on my blog, most of which is harmless, though I’m yet to discover which other gems have been unearthed!

I have found speaking to Natalie extremely helpful, bringing up points I had never even considered. With this all brought to light I will be blogging more about my learnings on Web 2.0 in my next post! 

To find my beautiful friend and learn more about her please follow the link to her blog. 

chataliethenatabox.com

 

Task 1C: Audio Visual

Of all the tasks in module one this is the one that filled me with the most dread. 

During my first few tasks I have tackled several new types of technology that I had not previously experienced but there was something about having to sit in front of a camera, come up with something half decent to say, film myself and then upload it onto the internet for everyone to see, that is just too daunting!

So I began to think about all the different types of media that I have been exposing myself to within the last few tasks, the idea of an online personality and I realised  that there was no need to simply make a video of myself talking, and in fact a video that communicates with images, music and thought posts is much more what Web 2.0 is all about. 

The daily use of social media is the way majority of our generation communicate now and that is the inspiration I used when creating my video. 

I have never had experience creating or even editing my own video so I found this quite a challenge! But once I had got to grips with the program I actually really enjoyed making my video and its defiantly something I'll be doing again. 

I have used YouTube previously to showcase some of my own choreography with videos taken at the end of classes I have taught (videos not edited by me!). It's not something I haven't done for a while but I think it is great to have a small archive to look back on. 

If you want to have a watch you can find some of them in my Playlists under "Contemporary Dance". 

To go to my YouTube channel click on the link skyetupholmeYouTube

  

Task 1D: 2D Images

For this task I wanted to try an alternative method of uploading images, one that I perhaps hadn't used before. 

I'm not the biggest user of social media in general but I do use Facebook to share photos with friends and I have also just opened an Instagram account (I know I'm a bit behind!)

So I decided to open a Flickr account to share some images. 

I started thinking about why people upload photos to sites like Flickr and Instagram. 

Are they telling a story, is it about showing their personality, making some kind of point, sharing a passion or simply just connecting with people? 

Sharing 2D images can do all of these things and more.

However when sharing images do people really think about what they are sharing and how many people it has the potential to reach. So the question to ask yourself is, who do you want your online personality to be? 

So when choosing photos to upload I kept this is mind. I want to keep my online profile looking professional, but accessible. I uploaded images that I think are interesting, mostly they are professional images taken of me during jobs or shows that I feel will give others an insight to my experiences within the performance industry but are also not too personal.    

Once I had got to grips with the site I realised Flickr is a great example of Web 2.0. It's not only an online space where you can store images but it encourages you to be interactive and share with other Flickr users. 

Please have a look at my Flickr account by clicking on the link skyetupholmeFlickr