New Year, New Module

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!

It's the eve of Chinese New Year and we are on the cusp of our second semester. "Merde!" as they say in Theatre Land.  Hopefully everyone has made the grade, registered, and sorted their fees! 

I've been reading like a beaver the last few weeks.  Some has gone in, some hasn't!  I've discovered questions, found answers, had moments of realisation... and as usual, periods of huge confusion!  My motto for this semester is read, read, and read again.  

How is everyone else finding Reader 4?  And does anyone know when last semesters results come out?!

Second link in Reader 4

Dear All

I contacted Paula yesterday regarding the following link: http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/argyris.html redirecting to another site, and not knowing where to find the information on that new site. 

Paula send me an incredibly speedy response with the correct link:http://www.aral.com.au/resources/argyris.html.

I hope this helps anyone else who was confused by what to read.

Take care

Notability....Late to the party?

Following the Holiday I'm back in China.  Getting back to China obviously involved a flight, and during that flight I had the pleasure of sitting next to a really interesting man who was on a CRAZY 3 flight 24+ hour journey just to attend a meeting.

He introduced me to Notability, and given my absolute obsession with everything Apple I cannot believe I didn't already know about it!  So, just in case I'm not the only one here's a clip on the functions of Notability.  

I'm currently just playing around with it, but really thinking about using it as my journal from now on. We'll see...

Happy New Year one and all!

Hopefully everyone got their submission in on time and was happy with their work, despite the distractions of the holiday.  Fingers crossed for you all.  I wasn't brave enough to upload mine to my blog, but I have huge admiration for those of you that did.

Here's to a successful Module one and everything 2014 brings.

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”

For those that didn't manage to see, hear or read 'The Speeches' yesterday, I found both of the following interesting and relevant to our current course:

This year in the Queen's Speech there was much talk of reflection and its benefits, whether these are to be seen in the long or short term, and within it, moments for pause and reflection, where video footage took over from the main dialogue.

It was interesting to see some of the technologies and ideas/theories we have been learning about broadcast on such a large scale. The Speech has been an annual event in our household since I was a child however I do not remember ever identifying with it so quickly and nor could I (if asked) recall any points for previous years speeches.  I immediately wondered why?  Was my connection to this speech one of maturity? One of understanding?  One of currency/relevance?  I believe a little of everything.

The second of yesterday's speeches (for me - initially heard on the radio) was Channel 4s Alternative Christmas Speech.  The basis for this speech is the issue brought to light by Snowden's Whistle Blowing story: the extent to which Governments monitor and track our movements. 

Within the speech Snowden says:

"...The child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought.  And that's a problem..."

Even taken out of context, as a stand alone statement, this has relevance and meaning to our current and future levels of interaction within the world of Web 2.0.

The speech also touches on how solitary reflection (under the guise of privacy) helps to determine who we are and who we want to be.  He goes on to question the amount of trust we should place 

"...in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it..."

Whilst the Queen's Christmas Message (2013) flicked a switch of recognition, enhancing confirmation in the importance of reflection, The Alternative Christmas Message (2013) once again brought me back to my thoughts in a previous blog posts. As many have over recent years, Snowden makes reference and to George Orwell's Dystopian Novel '1984' - a world in which such things as Big Brother and Thoughtcrime were referenced - not having yet read the book (something I will do) I am led to believe the story takes place in a world not dissimilar to the one we continue to enter into. But are things so different now to that of 100 years ago - Or is history, like fashion, just remodelling itself for the 21st century?

** I have taken the above videos from YouTube as opposed to their original sources in a bid to maintain longevity of this post.  Programmes are often removed from iPlayer or 4OD after a period of time**

Task 3c

This blog refers to the theory of connectivism. 

According to education 2020 and the course material Siemen's Principles of connectivism are:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
  
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
  
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
  
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
  
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
  
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
  
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
  
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
  

Interestingly, neither the Concise English Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary Online, nor the dictionary on my computer recognises the word 'connectivism'.

I have approached this in the same way I have approached all of the tasks in unit 3, by creating mind maps to help me channel my thoughts. However, whilst writing this my ideas changed again, in some cases I had identified individuals as a source, where on reflection they might be the centre of that resource but there is a bigger picture.

The five sources I have identified as being most important to my current practice are:

The I.S.T.D
The ISTD is the awarding body in which I hold my qualifications. They provide the examination system with which I enter students and provide further training and development opportunities for their members. Without the ISTD I would not be in the position I am in, both professionally and personally. The training and qualifications it has provided me with has afforded me the freedom to live a life that I find both rewarding and fulfilling.

The ISTD issue a quarterly magazine, as well as regular emails, updates to their website and Facebook/Twitter. It keeps me informed on syllabus, CPD, residential courses and competitions they are holding, as well as keeping me up-to-date with what they as an organisation are doing as well as what is happening within the industry as a whole. In addition to this they regularly post interesting articles on various aspects of dance.

I believe the ISTD to be of benefit to me professionally.  I feel as an organisation it does its utmost to fight for recognition of its members in an ever expanding creative world, to implement structures for the  development of the fundamental principles and longevity of dance education, furthermore working to enhance our professional spectrum.  
Despite the above, how can I be sure the ISTD is the right organisation for me? The ISTD was not an organisation I made an active decision to become a part of initially but one my dance school immersed me in. I have firsthand knowledge of the RAD, and know of many organisations such as IDTA, BBO and BTDA, why have I not looked further into what these could offer me?  I have based my assumption of my consideration of the ISTD (along with the RAD) being the leader in its field on the following reasons, which, on reflection seem flawed and poor:

• The ISTD (and RAD) syllabus is taught in some of the best vocational colleges in the country
  
• The majority of schools/teachers I have come into contact with teach the syllabi ISTD (for Tap and Modern)
  
• It is the syllabi (along with the RAD) that I have always studied.

The internet
The internet is an important source of information because it allows me to keep in touch with people, no matter where they are in the world, allows me to research projects and allows me to function within my current professional requirements. There has been some discussion in previous tasks from other students regarding the internet being a fainéant vehicle for research however, even after some thought I still disagree with this idea. Irrespective of your thoughts on this, we would not be able to be participating on this course without the internet. Below are some sites I regularly use.

Middlesex University and other sites related to my degree, specifically Feedly and Blogger
I use these sites to communicate and maintain connections with other members on the BAPP course and the University itself. Feedly and Blogger enable me to acquire diverse opinions on central topics or individual’s thoughts on a chosen topic, providing thought and reflection on one’s own views and opinions. Whilst my Uni Hub allows me to maintain contact with the university departments, and access all course material.

The Ballet Blog
Lisa Howell's blog is fascinating. I also receive regular updates via email and Twitter. I found Lisa's blog via Deborah Vowel's site. Howell has various question and answer sections on her website, where you are able to see her interaction with others as well as the problems they have/are encountering additionally commenting on their experiences.

YouTube
I use YouTube for various reasons. I have recorded videos at courses and uploaded privately, allowing the sharing of any information/new syllabus work between my close network (those I choose to share the link with). I use it in class to show children various aspects of dance – sometime clips I think they will find interesting, sometimes a great example of execution of movement. I also use YouTube to research dance.

Facebook/Twitter and Whatsapp
My primary use of Facebook and Twitter is social; however I use Facebook in a professional capacity to keep in touch with other professionals I have met and Twitter to keep up-to-date with the goings on of others within the industry.

I regularly check my security settings on Facebook to ensure that others can only see what I wish them to, with different groups able to see different things. However I have to admit to not doing so on Twitter as last time I checked this there were only two options, to have your twitter account open or closed. Given that the point of Twitter is to be able to reach out and engage with those you might not normally, I decided on the former.

Whatsapp is an application that works much like text messaging, but uses the internet. It allows me to keep in touch with everyone, via the internet, via my phone number for free. Living in Beijing this has truly proved invaluable. In addition to this, my boss and I constantly send picture messages regarding costumes or videos of choreography instantly to each other.

Despite the internet being such a good vehicle for many aspects of communicative life in the 21st Century and my involvement with/in it, care still needs to be taken in its use.  Many of the issues surrounding the rise of 2.0 technologies have been raised in Task 1 and we should not forget the importance of online security both in our professional and personal interaction. Just as the internet has the ability to allow us to make connections, it has the ability to break them and in a much more dramatic fashion than ever before.  There is also the issue of quality when using the internet for research.

A local school
The school is an important source of information to me because they have and do help me in every aspect of establishing myself in Beijing.

The school employs many bilingual and Chinese/English speaking staff who have been invaluable to me since my arrival in Beijing, always on hand to interpret and deal with many things I am unable to due to language barriers, cultural differences or not knowing or understanding my location or resources and really have been a great support.

My main contact within the school and reference for everything in Beijing is a British lady who (following residing in many countries in her life) has lived in Beijing upwards of 15 years, is heavily involved in Performing Arts and can point me in the direction of quite literally anything. If she does not have the contact she is able to find me someone who does.

The school supports the dance studio I work for. The staff are incredibly good and always try to help us when there is a problem whether that be with our venue (they have some great studios) or music (they teach music technology) or with involvement in outside events.

I have decided not to name this school for various reasons, the main one being I do not want to compromise anyone's position within this company.

Dance Station, Bristol
Kathy is the principal of 344 Dance School and Dance Academy South West, a full time professional dance college, and registered centre for teacher training (ISTD). Kathy holds her Licentiate Diploma is Modern Theatre and Tap Dancing with the I.S.T.D and is also the area organiser for the Bristol centre. Kathy has a strong understanding of the ITSD's work and syllabus.

I first met Kathy at the age of 18 and she has always been a great help to me. However during April 2012 I decided to return to training and further my qualifications – Kathy has been my Oracle ever since. Her wealth of knowledge and experience is invaluable and I go to her with all my professional questions - even down to help with sourcing suitable music! If she did not have the answer, there are plenty of others in the building to converse with.

Aside from Kathy herself, her skills as a teacher and her wealth of knowledge she has an abundance of material she makes available to all who ask – books, articles, works, performances, summer schools etc and a vast array of 'past pupils' who both come back to share their experience and who she can call upon to help others, all over the world.

In addition the 'traffic' through Kathy's studio has allowed me to form and maintain some great friendships and create a wonderful network of like minded people – some performer, some teachers, all at different points in their journey and witness some truly phenomenal students. Kathy also knows a large percentage of teachers in the local area (due to her school being the ITSD 'centre') and is therefore able to put people in contact with each other.

My friends, and in particular Adrian
Adrian is not only a personal trainer and scientist but a great friend. His knowledge on various aspects that interest me, for example, nutrition, massage and anatomy are strong and he has helped me in these areas enormously, pointing me in a good direction (his networks) for much of my research in these areas. In addition to him being important source of information he is an invaluable sounding block and voice of reason, and often gives me insight into other views allowing me to challenge my current perspective and become more open to different opinions. 

Task 3b

It is my understanding that this task is based on two concepts of the professional network; Affiliation and Co-operation and our reflection on this. I will look at both of these topics separately.

The reader defines professional networks as 'a work related community held together by either close working affiliation or more distant but common work interests or needs'

Affiliation
Crisp and Turner describe affiliation as “A network of support that will help us when we are in need” and go on to say that "we all benefit from affiliations", a point I am certainly in agreement with.

Viewing affiliation subjectively lead me to contemplate my interaction within my current professional networks, and assess whether I have decided to engage on different levels with each of my networks, and if so how those levels differ and my reasons behind those choices. Having approached Task 3 as a whole unit and not as individual tasks I have already established my five important sources of information and it is true that my interaction within each of these networks is very different.

In the excerpt from Essential Social Psychology, Crisp and Turner note meaningful social interaction as requiring four main points:

• Affiliation
  
• Friendship
  
• Attraction
  
• Love
  

Looking at these words within the realms of Professional Practice I suggest they could be changed to:

• Affiliation - A network of support that will help us when we are in need
  
• Interaction – The determinant amount of time spent with such affiliations
  
• Connection – How we feel about the affiliation and their worth
  
• Passion – How we feel about the subject matter the affiliation produces

The reader raised the question: Why are we social creatures? Two quotes immediately sprang to mind:

The first by Aristotle:

“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ”


The second a poem by John Donne:


"No man is an island,
 Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.
 If a clod be washed away by the sea, 
Europe is the less.
  As well as if a promontory were.  
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
 Or of thine own were: Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind,
 And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
It tolls for thee."

It also suggested some theories on this:

Privacy regulation theory
The Privacy regulation theory is a theory about our need for privacy by Irwin Altman.  This theory looks at why people choose solitude at one time, choosing interaction at others. It relates to the levels of privacy required at a given time as opposed to the levels of interaction. Encompassed within this are the dialectic principle – where our desire for privacy can fluctuate, and the optimization principle – the attempted alignment of desired contact with that of actual contact. This blog posted by Mak Wai Hong explains further: 

Social affiliation model
The Social Affiliation Model theory is a theory by O'Conner and Rosenblood (1996) regarding our need for contact and the levels of sociability required, linking in with Granovetter's (1973) concept of “strong ties”

Privacy versus affiliation is an enormous issue which I consider on reflection to have a huge effect on my level of engagement within particular groups. For example there are networks that I am a spectator in, ones which I engage in and a myriad of those in the middle.

Looking at the examples from Task 3c:

ISTD - my involvement with the ISTD is engaged but peripheral. I am an active member, but my engagement is not such that I am well known amongst its 7500 plus members, staff and lectures. This is not down to a privacy versus affiliation issue, but instead down to logistics.

The internet – my involvement with the internet professionally is predominantly one of a spectator, with two exceptions: anything to do with BAPP and my Dance Teachers South West page I set up to unite a profession I considered risked isolation. However even with these I am cautious of my engagement. To have ones opinions-in-progress out there in black and white for anyone to read does not make me comfortable, especially as my opinion can change as quickly as my need for more or less or social affiliation or privacy can. This is something that has remained a concern of mine throughout this course. 

Dance Academy South West – I am fully engaged with DASW and spend a lot of my time either there (when in the UK) or interacting with people I have met there. I feel safe and can 100% myself. There is a steady stream of peers, colleagues, contemporaries and examiners alike, all of which are prepared to listen and help when required. There is a great family atmosphere, along with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Maybe I identify so much with this network as the connections are personal, and face-to-face.

However with many people at the studio the boundaries between personal and professional relationships are definitely blurred (as they are a lot in the dance world).  

A local school – My involvement with the school is engaged yet cautious. I am just establishing myself in Beijing and I need to be careful with the relationships I establish. The school is a great establishment to be involved with and has been a wonderful support to me. 

Friends – Obviously my interaction with my friends is extensive. I am a very open person privately and interact with my closest friends daily. I establish a lot of my thinking with my friends.

The idea that the level of social interaction one might have, need or require being determined by multiple factors was interesting and I have noted some below:

• Personality type – Introvert/extrovert
  
• Physiological determinants
  
• Implications of development of professional networks
  
• Cultural differences
  
• Individual collectivism
  
• Individual differences
  
• Social/Psychological/emotional

The idea of cultural differences effecting interaction is an interesting one for me at the moment, giving my location, however I have not experienced any cultural differences that I would perceive as effecting professional interactions.

Another suggestion was the additional idea of not fully engaging due to the worry of rejection and the discomfort/anxiety that would create. I think this is a huge factor in the process behind people not fully interacting in a situation.

We try to constantly live in a state of homeostasis. Homeostasis is the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes or more simply balancing mutual dependency to maintain normal healthy functioning. This links to the idea of cooperation. By cooperating with those around us we are likely to get back what we put in and thus lead more satisfying lives.

Co-operation
The reader states: In an early but seminal work Axelrod (1984) identified the importance of the notion of cooperation, and in particular, the benefits of cooperating fully with others, until you reach a point of maximum benefit and then to 'defect'. All though I can see the truth in this, the optimist in me struggles to believe it. I believe cooperation leads to a harmonious life, both personally and professionally, and I believe that relationships breakdown but I had never thought of this as one side 'defecting', more of two people naturally going their separate ways.


As suggested I played 'Prisoner's Dilemma', a game based on 'Game Theory'. I have to admit to being a little confused over it, but nevertheless persevered. I attempted starting by both cooperating and competing, pretty much with the same outcome realising after the first few goes it was always giving me the same number of chances and always copying my move, leading me to decided to defect at the last minute and see what the outcome would be. After a couple of times of this, the number of 'turns' changed on me again and I had to decide on a different route.

This process of commencing with cooperation and thereafter copying the opponents previous move it called Tit for Tat. I believe this game highlights how in the beginning when trying to find your feet you may be unintentionally more or less cooperative, more as a result of being incompetent at the task in hand than anything and people are sympathetic to this. However after some time this changes to people only being prepared to do for others their interpretation of what they see as equal to others in the relationship having done for them.

Ideas/people I looked into whilst doing my research:

• Game Theory 
  
• Sociobiology
  
• Tit for Tat
  
• Benefits/drawbacks/processes
  
• Defecting
  
• Strategic vs genetic
  
• Robert Axelrod/William Hamilton (could only find Wikipedia biographies)

The excerpt from Axelrod's work The Evolution of Cooperation made me think. Axelrod asks the questions

“When should a person cooperate, and when should a person be selfish, in an ongoing interaction with another person? Should a friend keep providing favours to another friend who never reciprocates?” This could put into many contexts, but I believe the answer to be that after a while the friend would 'defect' linking back to the homeostasis of relationships.

Axelrod's concluding paragraph:

“This led me to an evolutionary perspective: a consideration of how cooperation can emerge among egoists without central authority. The evolutionary perspective suggested three distinct questions. First, how can a potentially cooperative strategy get an initial foothold in an environment which is predominantly noncooperative? Second, what type of strategy can thrive in a variegated environment composed of other individuals using a wide diversity of more or less sophisticated strategies? Third, under what conditions can such a strategy, once fully established among a group of people, resist invasion by a less cooperative strategy?"

I found this paragraph thought provoking and something potentially worth delving deeper into.  However with the dominating thought process running through these being one of the Egoist: an ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality, where does that leave altruism?