Task 3b: The Networked Professional

When reading “Reader 3: The Networked professional”, it made me understand the psychological differences within the “Social Mind”. This has allowed me to compare all of the psychological differences between what I do within my networking.

The definition of professional network within this document, alone, gave me a great insight.

“A work related community held together by either close working affiliation or more distant but common work interests or needs”.

The theory of “affiliation” was an interesting concept and made me establish in which situations I tend to network more and what levels of “affiliation” I require.

I use “Facebook” and “Twitter” on a daily basis and as stated in previous blog posts, these are used mainly for personal networking. When deciphering the extent of my usage of both of these forms of social networking, I tend to use them a great amount when I am alone. This is linking to the extract from “Crisp, J & Turner, R. (2007), pages 266-268) which begins on page 6 of the reader. This is my mind choosing when I need to “Affiliate” or seek some form of human contact.

If I am at work, I tend to use a more formal way of networking (as stated in task 3a), therefore affiliating on a professional basis and whereas my mind is in a “working” mindset, the psychological need for human contact is minimal, however there are occasions where I check my social networks throughout the day, however, not to the extent that I would if I was on my own.

Reading further on through the reader to the “Social Constructionism” section (this begins on page 8), I found that I very rarely include this theory in any of my social networking posts, however I come across people that have, however, due to confidentiality I cannot share these but, I have seen posts that state only one meaningless word or sentence and it is not until I read the comments other people have left on the post, that I fully understand the story.  Referring to the extract “Crotty, M. (2005) pages 42-44” and the part where it states:

“In the constructionist view, as the word suggests, meaning is not discovered but constructed. Meaning does not inhere the object, merely waiting for someone to come upon it”.

My “working network” differs from “social network” when it comes to “Social Constructionism”. There may be occasions when some information is passed over to me, or I pass some information and it is not until questions are asked, or more information is added, that the full story is constructed and understandable.

“Connectivism” was the main section of the reader that I was struggling understanding the nature of theory. After reading several blog posts, I have come to the understanding that it is based upon learning from others.  

“Connectivism is the concept of continual learning and learning from others ”Kelly Everitt”

As I work in education, I try to encourage learners to work together when trying to solve a technical problem with a piece of equipment they may be using. I also try to get them to share any experiences they may have that can help them develop their mindset of their futures.

After trying to get to grips with this theory and once I research into it more, I am aiming to set up some form of “Network” that will allow the students to share their experiences (similar to the way that we are doing on BAPP), also allowing me to post things that would be helpful to them.

“Communities of practice” is a theory that I feel is used within my work place all of the time. This part of the reader refers to:

“Members of a community of practice, whether work place, special interests, virtual or of any other form, come together because of mutual interest and generate a shared experience of engagement in the community of practice” (Page 16 of the reader).

There are several occasions that this theory is used, in particular, if there is a “Creative Education” course that is funded by the college I work for, everybody on that course has a significant interest in the subject at hand, this leads to discussion and a professional relationship being established within the group.

The theories within this reflection have allowed me to identify different ways in which I use professional network and extract some psychology from this.

Mitchell Wood- Saw (Dance)

Mitchell Wood & Terry Sole- She Doesn't Mind (Dance)

This is a segment of the dance show I have edited, "Inspired 2012".

This may be of interest to some people, feel free to comment.

I will be uploading at least 3 more segments from the show, I hope you enjoy! :D

Choreographed by: Terry Sole and Mitchell Wood

Task 3a: Current Networks

Establishing all of the different networks I use on a daily basis was quite a revelation as to why I use certain networks in the first place.

Throughout my working day, I tend to use e-mail to network with my colleagues, sending them important information and receiving it. This is a crucial part of my job as this allows me to document conversations and keep a “paper-trail” of anything of importance that is occurring. This is also relating back to journaling.

I have to make sure that when I am e-mailing something of importance that the language I use is correct and that the e-mail is structured correctly. This adds a sense of professionalism to the network.

I also do a lot of my networking during work via the telephone. I use this when I need to share information quickly, especially if something is urgent. The telephone call is then put into an e-mail as a record of the conversation had.

I have both “Facebook” and “Twitter” and tend to use both for personal networking. There have been occasions where I have used these on a more professional basis, for example, when I have had to do some filming I found this the best way to communicate with the cast and crew.

Since doing this course, I have realised the extent of networking within my daily life, whether it be within my workplace or just general social networking. I have come to realise how important networking has become and how it has developed without even realising.

I also feel that social networking in general is so common nowadays, that people do it without thinking, it has just become common nature. 

I'm Going on a Bear Hunt

Here is a youtube link to a short film adaptation of the book "We're going on a Bear hunt" which I directed last year during my time on the Summer School Digital Film Making course at Middlesex.

The voice over isn't the best I wanted, but this had to be created within 2 days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSMrv2NLvZU&feature=youtu.be

The past weeks editing: Inspired 2012

On March 13th HRC took the students to an off campus venue to perform their Variety show "Inspired 2012". I had the pleasure of working with the media students, filming the whole event. I finally found some free time this week to begin editing the production ready for distribution onto DVD for the performers.

On Monday when I went into work, the worst thing that could have happened, happened. The hard drive that contained all of the footage seemed corrupt and I could not access any of it. So, for the whole of Monday and Tuesday I was trying frantically to retrieve the footage and finally succeeded. 

Since retrieving the footage, all week I have been editing it and finally finished on Friday.

I will try and get permission to post some of the footage on her so that you can see some of the variety of performances that took place and maybe even comment on the way in which it is filmed and edited.

I hope this would be of some interest to you.

Task 2c: Reflective theory task

Upon reading “Reader 2”, I struggled to find any relevance to myself as it seemed to relate to performers. As I got further into the document, I found myself relating more and more to the way I identify my experiences as it states in the reader.

I particularly found my experiences relating to “Donald Schon’s” idea of “Reflection-in-action” and “Relection-on-action”. Both of these ideas relate to many aspects of what I do within my profession, for example, if I were filming something such a single camera drama, I would be using “Reflection-on-action” because I would be able to plan the shoot using current knowledge and past filming experiences. There is also the opportunity, if cast members are available, to correct anything filmed that has gone wrong. In addition, some mistakes may be rectified in the editing process.

An example relating to “Schon’s” idea of “Reflection-in-action” is, if I were filming a live event, I would have to make sure that everything was going well throughout the shoot and if anything were to go wrong, I would have to “think on my feet” so to speak, and rectify the problem there and then.

 When reading further into the reader, I also found myself questioning what type of learner I was, Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic. As part of my teacher training I had to identify these learning styles using different methods, however I never thought about what type of learner I was.

Thinking about it, If I am learning something technical I am one hundred percent Visual, learning a lot quicker when being shown a new piece of technology.

I found “David Kolb’s” idea of a “Learning Cycle” interesting in this reader, and it was a particular point that got me thinking for the future of my journals.  It seems to me that the four steps, “Concrete Experience”, “Reflective Observation”, “Abstract Conceptualisation” and “Active Experiment” would be an extremely good technique for breaking down my experiences and help myself learn from them. (The learning cycle is on Page 6 of the reader).

Now that I have read “Reader 2”, I feel more confident about the future of my journals and have also realised how much of the techniques and ideas throughout I have used, even before doing Professional Practice.

Task 2b: Journal writing experience

I feel that I am not the best at writing, struggling in some ways to make anything make sense and thought that it would be easier to either voice record my journal or film it, however this turned out to be more difficult than it first seemed. Eventually I decided to take a chance at writing.

When I began writing my journal, I found it difficult to pick out important points of my day. Eventually I found that the best way was to list everything that happened throughout my day and then write about each aspect individually, keeping anything that was actually important.

I found that the initial breakdown of my day’s was somewhat irrelevant to what I am trying to achieve in my career, so I had to really think about what I had achieved and what relevance this would have to my profession.

In my current job role, unless there is a major event or some filming/ editing that I am required to assist with, my days just become repetitive as I would normally be editing a show that has recently been filmed or fixing damaged equipment. If I found that my day was repetitive I wrote about it in smaller chunks, however not dismissing the day completely as it is still a part of my path into my future career.

I also found it quite difficult to keep a journal everyday, due to my somewhat busy schedule within work (even though I may sometimes only be doing some video editing I am always working to a deadline).

Beyond this process I am going to make sure that I continue with writing a journal, as I find it useful to break down what I am able to achieve within a day. I am travelling the USA in the summer for five weeks and have decided that I will journal my trip every step of the way.