Summary of Part 1, Module 1

I just had my first feed back session with Paula Nottingham. It felt good to check in and see where I'm at. I had a list of questions for her from my journal that I wanted to work through.

Questions.


Because the course is self managed, how do I know its time to move on to part 2?


I think I'm ready and I've done the tasks, but there is a sense that the tasks and indeed the whole module never stops, they are ever growing. Its constantly subject to comments and different views and my job is to reflect on these comments and allow my ideas to develop and live on through these comments. I then I remember my blog titled, My first campus session, its not about getting the job done, there is no tick list and right or wrong.  It's about opening yourself up to new ideas that might effect your work, it's about looking how you and others carry out their practice, learning about you as a practitioner. This cannot be capped and ideas are all subject to time, I now understand this.

Do I do a summary to mark the move on to part 2?

All the above is great, but still I'm not comforted that I've done enough and need to move on. So I have decided to right a summary of each part in a module, as a sort of marker of my journey on the BAPP programme. Not that this will give me closure on the part, this blog allows my tasks to breath online and  enables me to constantly refer back to them, thus becoming apart of one big collective reflection at the end. But for me I need a point where i stop, notice, conclude and then carry on.

I've read some sections from the list of the additional reading. Should I be recording this?

I now know this is a silly question. But I've have developed a critical curiosity. Being told an idea on a reader isn't enough, I want to read about it and have my own take on it. So of course I record it. It's my blog and here is where I store all of my ideas and findings, I'm reading and learning about my practice so naturally I would record my thoughts here.

Referencing. I've read the programme handbook over and over again, but I'm not getting it. What's the point?

Paula Nottingham said something really interesting, "It's like the recipe to your ideas". I now understand its about a new level of thinking, a higher level of thinking. It's now time to make statements that stand up strong within an argument. It's about backing up your ideas and showing the world you know what your are talking about. It would be like telling the story of an interesting journey without saying where you went. Paula said, "an appendix is like the recipe to your learning." If you want somebody to bake your cake, you have to tell them what's in it.

Pressure. I put myself under a lot of pressure with the course. Is this a bad thing?

I'm 30 and there is a definite feeling that I just haven't got the time to mess this up. I realise of course this pressure comes from me, but still I'm worried that it could be a hindrance to my studies. I then notice that the key to solving any issue is first to have an awareness of it. I notice that I have developed the ability to look outside myself and notice the presence of pressure. I may never really solve it, but when there is an awareness of something you can begin to understand what it is and choose your reaction to it. "Awareness is the greatest agent for change." Tolle, E, 2006, A new earth, London: Penguin.


Additional reading.


I thought the best place to start was with What is web 2.0. Tim O'Reilly came up quite a few times in reader 1 so I thought it was only fair that I did some investigating. At the first glace, I was put off my the 'computer talk'. It contained things like double click, synchronise and bit torrents, I thought this all sounds lovely, but where is the relevance to my professional practice. Later on I found some great quotes...

"Hyperlinking is the foundation of the web. As users add new content, and new sites, it is bound in to the structure of the web by other users discovering the content and linking to it." This really pinpoints the idea of interaction is the key to Web 2.0. The very foundations of the structure is built on people communicating.


"It's easy to see how Web 2.0 will also remake the address book. A Web 2.0-style address book would treat the local address book on the PC or phone merely as a cache of the contacts you've explicitly asked the system to remember. Meanwhile, a web-based synchronization agent, Gmail-style, would remember every message sent or received, every email address and every phone number used, and build social networking heuristics to decide which ones to offer up as alternatives when an answer wasn't found in the local cache. Lacking an answer there, the system would query the broader social network." I thought this really displays the fact that we, as a world communicate like this now. It's about a new era of networking.

"In exploring the seven principles above, we've highlighted some of the principal features of Web 2.0. Each of the examples we've explored demonstrates one or more of those key principles, but may miss others. Let's close, therefore, by summarizing what we believe to be the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models."   

This really highlights some of the key factors of Web 2.0 and it's relevance to my practice.

O'Reilly, T, 2006, What is Web 2.0, Design patterns and business models for the next generation, view at http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228, accessed on 1st Feb 2012.

My next additional reading takes me to a study by Feenberg and Bakardjieva. 'Virtual community: No Killer implication' was mentioned in my first blog on task 1b. So keeping with this theme of backing up my statements and showing where my ideas have come from, I thought it a sensible choice for additional reading. I felt more comfortable with the style much more than the previous ebook, mentioned above by O' Reilly.

"it is a good time to remind ourselves that online groups are indeed a qualitatively new medium." This really hits home the concept of reaching people of a certain quality on one single web platform, as appose to searching through a high quantity of contacts. This claims that online groups are a new more effective way of communication.

"Communication technologies stand interface between the technical culture of those who create them, the commercial interests of those who produce and market them, and the everyday life world of ordinary users." I touched on this in my first blog on task 1b (hyperlinked above), the quote really cements this theory of one equal platform for the 'prosumer'. Who ever you are and no matter what background, be it producer or consumer, we all interact and connect through communication technologies.

Feenberg, A. & Bakardjieva, M. 2004, Virtual community: No killer implications, New Media & Society, viewed at http://nms.sagepub.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/content/6/1/37.full.pdf+html, accessed on 3rd Feb 2012. 

Final Summary

I think the most important thing I have learnt is about myself. Yes I think have a good understanding of Web 2.0 and the relevance to communication technology to my professional practice. I have also learned the great web tools available to me to aid my practice. But I made a great realisation last week. I have been directing a theatre in education project at CPA college. In the past, I would dread the last dress rehearsal as the head of department would watch and criticise my work. I would always take it personally and see it as a personal attack on me. This time, I found myself thinking in a different vain. I decided I wanted more than just one person to watch, I wanted a more qualitative opinion on my direction. I asked for all heads of department and any other members of staff to be present and then held a note session after to take on what they had to say. I now remove myself form my work and look at my working position as a professional practitioner, I want to discuss and grow my work. I am developing the ability to stop, notice and critically reflect in a way I couldn't comprehend before. It's a new level of thinking, a higher level of thinking.