3a and 3b- developing current networks based on the various concepts

I feel like I am just starting to become more aware of my current networks and what they consist of. I have looked at how they stand at the moment and after looking more closely at the various concepts I would like to look at how I can improve them.

There seems to be an ever increasing number of tools available to us to engage in professional networks. Firstly there is the art of talking to people either face to face or on the phone and secondly there is now the increasing use of technology. I have realised that now I mainly use e mail for communication and am often contacted via e mail by an employer. For example, the other day I received an e mail from someone who owns an after school club company asking if I was able to do some street dance classes at a school in the area and of course I accepted the job offer. I have realised that this is a network I am going to work to maintain by keeping in contact with the owner as this could lead to more teaching work. For me this seemed to relate to the theory of connectivism and that our networks have changed and developed due to the expansion of technology. It involves the theory that there are certain nodes within our network which are the main points that provide information, communication and opportunities. For me, one of these nodes is e mail. Without this technology I would not be able to communicate so easily with as many people as I do at the moment. I probably would not have been contacted by this company so would not have gone on to meet the other people involved and the students which could lead to a further expansion of my networks. When researching connectivism, this helped my understanding;

‘Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn. Learning needs and theories that describe learning principles and processes should be reflective of underlying social environments.’ (Siemens 2004)

It can be seen that with the development of technology there are now more nodes available to us. These nodes are completely different to those of previous generations who did not have the technological luxuries that we have now. The theory also reiterates that there are so many more ways available to us to help us network due to technology. Everything is much faster and we are able to find out about people and jobs at the click of a button. This helps us to create, develop and maintain our networks and connect with more people and information than was previously possible.

There are also many other tools such as casting sites, facebook and the contacts book which all help us expand and maintain our networks. They help me find out names of important people such as casting directors and it is also easier to try and get in contact with them. Things like facebook also help to remind people in the industry that you are still there and allow us to create our own reputation for others to see.

Social skills help to develop a professional network. It seems that it may be beneficial to sometimes blend the barriers between personal and professional networks. Often, the people that go on to get another job are the people who went out for coffee with the choreographer after the rehearsal and became ‘friends’ with them. This is a skill which helps to maintain a network as you would be at the forefront of the choreographers mind when they are casting for their next job. This seems to be very important now and it is people who expand their networks like this that get more work. I would really like to be better at this and I think it is something I need to work on as sometimes I find it hard to mix personal and professional networks as you are always taught that there are professional barriers between ‘teachers and students’ and a certain hierarchy you have to respect. However, I now realise that we are adults and you can still observe this hierarchy and maintain respect but still be friendly on a social level.

When I was reflecting on my networks I realised that people have varying motives for wanting to be in the network. There are so many potential outcomes of being part of a network and the benefits are different for everyone. This relates to the notion of cooperation and the possible benefits of cooperating with others. When researching Axelrod I came across a question he posed which was ‘How can cooperation emerge in a world of egoists without central authority?’ (Axelrod 1992). This led me to consider whether everyone in my network was only interested in being part of the network to get benefits for themselves. I think that the original motive for wanting to network with someone is probably based on a selfish desire but once you begin to affiliate with that person and get to know them I think most people are genuinely willing to help. Obviously, there is always the possibility that if you help someone they will help you but I don’t think this is the first thing on everyone’s mind when they give you a piece of advice or put you in contact with someone else who may be able to help.

For me, an example of Axelrod’s notion of cooperation in my network is when I went to the gym to do an exercise class. I had no other desire apart from to do an hour’s exercise but I ended up talking to the teacher at the end of the class. She was also a dancer so we had a common interest and she took my number. She was giving me information on the best place to get my exercise to music qualification as I said it was something I was interested in. The next week I got a text from her saying she was going on holiday and couldn’t get cover for some of her classes and was in desperate need of someone to do the Sunday classes otherwise she had to cancel them. Of course I said yes and after doing the classes I was sure I wanted to get the qualification. This new network was beneficial for me as I got paid work, a useful experience, and a chance to network with the manager of the club who has now asked me back to teach other classes. It was also beneficial for her as she didn’t have to cancel her classes and upset the clients and she is now going away on a yoga course as she knows I can cover her and she trusts I will do a good class. There is also a mutual benefit in that we are now friends! This shows that cooperation in a network is beneficial for all participants.  If I hadn’t made an effort to network with her, I would have lost out on an experience and paid work. I don’t think that maximum benefit from cooperation has been reached yet and I think we can help each other more in the future on a personal and professional level.

This led me on to consider the notion of affiliation which I also think is linked to the concept of communities of practice. Affiliation describes our psychological need to interact with other people who can help us. It is said to vary between individuals depending on their personality traits, culture and situation at the time. I don’t think that I belong to either extreme- introvert or extrovert. I think I change between the two depending on where I am and who I am with. This apparently alters the degree to which I want to affiliate with others. I agree with this theory as generally the people I know who are ‘extrovert’ seem to know so many people and have incredibly large networks and it is often the more ‘introverted’ people who only seem to affiliate with a few people who they know well and don’t feel the need to meet new people all the time. I think I am somewhere in the middle. I think my networks are quite developed but I have moments of shyness where I get scared to talk to new people depending on what mood I am in. Perhaps if I was able to eliminate this I would be able to expand my networks even further.

This seems to relate to the notion of communities of practice. This involves a group of people with a common interest or situation. By thinking of a network as being part of a community gives a greater sense of belonging.

‘Communities of practice have been around for as long as human beings have learned together. At home, at work, at school, in our hobbies, we all belong to communities of practice, a number of them usually. In some we are core members. In many we are merely peripheral. And we travel through numerous communities over the course of our lives.’ (Wenger 2006)

I really like this theory as it makes the networks seem secure by highlighting common ground between members. People in the same network always have something in common otherwise they would not be able to benefit and help each other in their chosen field. However, sometimes having too many things in common could lead to the breakdown of a network as it creates competition between people. Obviously it depends on the industry and the situation but especially in the dance world there is a lot of competition. While everyone may share the same interest (dance) if there is a casting call for a tall girl with dark hair, a girl who matches this description probably won’t tell her friend who also matches the description. However if there was a casting for a short girl with blonde hair, the girl might tell another friend who matches this description as she herself would not be appropriate for it. So if you have too much in common with someone in your network you will be direct competition for that person. Therefore a community can give a sense of belonging but possibly also lead to rivalry. However, everyone has to belong to a community in order to have support.

It seems that networks are an essential part of our professional practice and life as a whole. Without networks we would have no communication, interaction or sources of communication. We develop our own nodes which lead us on different paths. Our paths are determined by our networks and people we meet. Good networking skills can lead to long lasting relationships and careers. The concepts of networks include; cooperation, affiliation, social constructionism, connectivism and communities of practice. While they all describe networks in different ways they all maintain that a network is formed by a common interest or situation between people and in order to benefit from the network you have to cooperate with it. As humans we need to affiliate with people and even though this can vary between individuals it is a common need. We can connect with people through various methods, the most popular at the moment being the internet and social networking sites. The development of technology had made it easier for us to network with others and in turn develop our professional practice. Networks need to be created, developed and maintained.

References:

Axelrod, R, 1992, ‘citation classic commentary’ University of Michigan, available from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm (accessed 16th November 2010)

Siemens, G, 2004, ‘Connectivism-a learning theory for the digital age’ available from http://www.cscs.umich.edu/Software/CC/ECHome/ECCitationClassic.html (accessed 16th November 2010)

Wenger, E, 2006, ‘communities of practice- a brief introduction’ available from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/ (accessed 16^th November 2010)

The Networked Professional- campus session 10/11/10

At the campus session on Wednesday we started to look at our current networks. Alan told us to write down various points about our network and suggested using a mind map as a way to set it out.  Some of the points included; the role of technologies, the points of interaction between our networks, their value, the benefits, possible outcomes, interacting with different people and the meanings we derive from our networks. We were given some time to individually think about our personal networks and how we view them. We then had a short discussion in pairs about what we had thought about and then came together and discussed a few points as a group.

I realised that I have more networks than I am aware of and I am part of networks that I didn’t even realise I was a part of. I have a network of professionals at Harlequins cheerleading including; the other girls, the choreographer, the manager of Harlequins and the people in charge of LV promotions. I am also part of a network of fitness professionals who are helping me get my qualification, teaching me new things and have also become friends. I also have a network of an agent and people I have been talking to in this industry. We also discussed networks of friends and colleagues in the industry who are often a source of job information and people we have worked with in the past such as choreographers, directors and old teachers from college who are also often a source of help for employment purposes. We also discussed the use of casting sites such as dancers pro and the contacts book as a source of networking and finding out people who we should be networking with. There are also tools like facebook which we discovered has led to employment for some people when friends have recommended them to an employer and they have been contacted via facebook. We realised that these tools have made networking much easier for us and we should use them as much as possible to expand our networks. Then there are obviously networks of family and close friends. These networks help us on a personal level but sometimes can be of use on a professional level as well.

At the campus session we were put in to groups to discuss networks and then we gave a short presentation. After all groups had done their presentation we had a group discussion. We made a number of points and Alan told us to choose one to write a post on for our blog. I am going to talk about one of the points that my group discussed and shared in our presentation. This is the idea of our networks being categorised in to; people we receive from, people we give to and people who are on the same level as us. We decided that people we receive from include; teachers, choreographers, directors, agents, family, people higher up  in the industry, casting sites, face book and the contacts book. People we give to include; friends, people who are below us in the industry or just entering it and are asking for advice, younger students, community work, people you may teach. People who are equal to us are; other students (BAPP), friends, colleagues on a personal and professional level.

This idea was originally suggested by Joanna and we then developed as a group. We found it much clearer to think of our networks in these categories as it was easier to think about how we use them, their benefits and how we can improve and develop them. We realised that our networks are seasonal and can change depending on what we are currently doing e.g. at the moment our network of BAPP students and teachers is very important to us but when the course is over it won’t be as beneficial to everyone to make contact frequently via blogs etc. However, this led us on to think that we have to take the time to maintain networks which can help us progress. By maintaining a network which may not have an immediate value we could benefit from it in the future. It seems that in this industry you have to constantly remind people you are there in order for them to acknowledge you and use you for something in the future which may lead to employment

We obviously get the most benefits from the people we ‘receive’ from as these seem to be people with more information that ourselves who can help and teach us new things and possibly introduce us to new networks. However, we then realised that there also benefits for the ‘giver’. People are usually much more willing to help you if you help them. The receiver may help the giver in the future as roles and hierarchy can always change. We discussed that the power in a network relationship is initially held by the giver but the benefits work both ways. We felt that as we progress in the industry and further establish ourselves, our role within our networks may change. At the moment we are receiving from more people than we are giving to but in the future we may be able to give to more people through increased expertise and work we may have gained from the people that are giving to us at the moment.

Our networks help us to build a reputation and this is something which has to be maintained and developed as well as just established. Our networks heavily influence our reputation and if you are associated with the right people in the right situation at the right time this could immediately help your reputation. The quality of our reputation depends on the quality of our networks and the thinking and teaching we have experienced. The creation of new networks can help build a reputation. We are now fortunate in that the internet can help us build a reputation as you can create things for people to find by promoting yourself e.g. putting a show reel on you tube, photos on flick, linkden etc.

Our network of equals is also very important to us as these are often the people who help us. Friends from college or in the industry are often in direct contact with producers, choreographers and agents and there have been so many stories where someone has needed an extra dancer so one of the dancers has called their friend and they have got the job. It is always good to maintain contact with people currently working as they could help you build your network. This may lead to a mix of personal and professional networks as you could be working with your best friend. We decided that is was a good thing to try and mix the networks as it helps you stay in touch and establishes a more solid relationship. It was suggested by one group that this can be done by simply going for a coffee after a rehearsal.

For people who couldn’t make it to the campus session, here are some of the other points we discussed:

·         Jobs can be obtained through good networking skills

·         Ways of networking have changed over time- we now have the internet to help us

·         Maintaining networks with close friends gives you the support you need when you don’t get the job

·         Don’ presume that a paid job is the ideal out come

·         Your networks define who you are

·         Networks can be described as a tube map- there are nodes which branch off on different journeys to different destinations

·         There are different routes to the same destination

·         The journey is as important as the destination

·         A network can explain a social system

·         Frequency of  communication doesn’t necessarily lead to crucial communication

·         Take time to maintain networks

·         Think about what you need to do to make you sought after

·         It is your qualities which make you attractive not what previous jobs you have done

Task 2d...inquiry into how our health and nutrition affects our career and what problems can arise from this in dancers and other professions.

I find that I am really enthusiastic about nutrition and health especially in relation to dance. I find it fascinating how most aspects of our lives can be affected by what we put in to our bodies and how a lack of food or over consumption of food can have such dramatic effects on our minds as well as our bodies, both in the short term and in the long term. While I was at college I had a few difficulties of my own. This used to make me angry and sad but now I have finished college I am able to view everything from a completely different perspective. I want to work towards one day being able to help people with food or health problems.

I am currently completing my exercise to music qualification which will enable me to teach dance and aerobics in gyms. This involves an anatomy unit which I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. This has made me even more enthusiastic to further develop my knowledge of nutrition and the body and I have enjoyed this unit much more than I was expecting. While completing this qualification I am able to continue with my life as normal. I love what I am doing and I feel I am extremely lucky to have such a varied lifestyle as I hardly ever do the same thing for two days running. As well as doing this course and my exercise to music qualification I am also teaching in a gym fairly regularly as cover and for experience, cheerleading for Harlequin rugby team and working on a show reel to get in to television presenting with recent interest from a television agent. I love that everything seems to be so exciting at the moment and I look forward to each of these aspects of my life. I am so lucky in that there is nothing in my life that I dread and no part of my week that I hate or wish to be over.

Cheerleading for Harlequins further fuels my enthusiasm for health and nutrition. Our uniform doesn’t leave much to the imagination but it is a very professional situation and I have no problem with it. It does however make me consider what the most important criteria for the job are? Are they more concerned if you have a flat stomach or if you can dance? Or are they both as important as each other? Does our physical appearance in the uniform make spectators at the matches think we can dance because we look as if we should be able to due to our physiques? Unfortunately this is sometimes the case. The rugby fans on the whole don’t seem to have an extensive knowledge of dancing and seem to think we are ‘amazing’ in their words but would they notice if our legs were not stretched and our feet not pointed? By looking at us on pitch from so far away I think it would be impossible for them to watch our technique! Therefore they are only judging us on our physical appearance and not our talent.

This led me on to think about whether talent and weight were connected or if they are mutually exclusive. Surely if a talented person gains weight they will still dance in the same way but this could lead to them losing confidence which could lead to them dancing differently, perhaps not as freely or expressively due to being self conscious. I personally would never assume that someone was not a talented dancer if they were not stick thin but is this opinion the same with the general public? Even though people may say that the ‘dancers body’ is now less stereotypical I think some people may make assumptions about a dancer’s talent based on weight without even realising they are doing it.

While I was doing research for my anatomy module I came across a nutritionist called Debra Wein who was the nutritionist for the Boston ballet company, has worked with many different clients and has now set up her own company to help and advise people on health and nutrition and make individual plans for clients to help them maintain their health. http://www.sensiblenutrition.com/Our_Founder.html

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I admire her but I have found it very interesting to research her work. She obviously understands a lot that I do not yet know about health and nutrition and her articles have been informative and insightful and have once again encouraged me to keep learning and researching this subject. There are many other people who I admire but unfortunately they are not famous. My family and close friends are the people I admire as they are the ones who help and encourage me the most. I also love Pilates and am looking to do my Pilates teacher training in the future. I really admire my Pilates teacher due to her strength, power, physique and attitude as well as her talent.

I did a one day intensive television presenting course a couple of weeks ago which prompted me to think about image in that industry as well and how many of the same principles are carried over. A presenter is constantly being judged by the audience on their appearance as well as their presenting skills. Everyone always has an opinion on whether the presenter looks good or not that day so surely presenters must feel the same pressure as dancers even though they are not looking at themselves in a leotard and tights every day. A large amount of a presenters popularity seems to be based on how they look which in turn affects how they come across and whether people like them. When I was watching back my tapes, the first thing I was looking at was my appearance. Therefore, health and nutrition would seem to be just as important in this industry. If I am going to try and pursue a career as a presenter I need to make sure I am able to take criticism on a physical level.

This led me to consider how many other professions there are where image is of upmost importance? I would like to explore how many areas are directly or indirectly affected by health and nutrition? How can our health and nutrition affect our professional success? If an individual had a different attitude towards food would they be more or less successful? How many of our achievements are linked to how healthy we are and could we go about our everyday lives in the same way if we were not that healthy? Therefore I would like my line of inquiry to be; how our health and nutrition affects our career and what problems can arise from this in dancers and other professions. I would also like to consider the pressure and importance of maintaining fitness in dancers and to what extent we are judged by image and the possible repercussions of this.

Task 2c...A critical reflection of reflective practice

After going through the reader, on initial thought it seemed that in the most basic of terms reflection is the process of analysing and evaluating an event after it has happened. This way we can discover things about the event and learn from our mistakes. It seems that all the thinkers have individual definitions of reflection as they all concentrate on different aspects or ways to go about the process. Obviously this is a very simple and general assumption of reflection but I felt that the only way I was going to get anywhere was to start at the beginning. This led me on to think about what the word ‘reflection’ meant to me before I went through the reader and did research of my own. The first thing I thought of was reflection in a physical sense;

‘Something, such as light, radiant heat, sound, or an image, that is reflected and the image so produced, as by a mirror.’

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 2009, Reflection, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, available from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reflection (accessed 30th October 2010)

At first I dismissed this definition of reflection as not being the sort of reflection we were looking but then I realised that it was in fact the same thing but just with a physical analogy. We can only see a reflection of ourselves in the mirror if we actually look in to one. The mirror will always be there but will not reflect our image if we don’t find one and stand in front of it. If we stand in front of it with our eyes closed we will not see our reflection so will not know what we look like. We then actively think about what we look like and learn from our reflection by changing things we may not like. We are constantly changing or improving ourselves in some way by putting on makeup or wearing different clothes but we have to consider our reflection before making a decision. This really helped me think about mental reflection as it showed me the importance of it and how you have to actively participate in it in order to get anything from it. If we didn’t look in a mirror we wouldn’t know what we looked like, if we didn’t mentally reflect we wouldn’t learn from our experiences.

This thought led me on to consider how some of the theories of various thinkers may apply to me and how I reflect. Firstly I looked at John Dewey’s theory of reflective thought which I found particularly appropriate for our experience of this course. His theory involves education as an experiential action and the higher the level of engagement with the education, the higher the quality of the education. This made me immediately think of this course and how it has been reiterated to us from the beginning that the more we get involved with the ‘blogging community’ the more we will get out of the experience. This is a direct example of his theory so I felt I could relate to it. It is only by being involved in the experience can we reflect and solve any problems we may have. Through reflective thought of my experience with this course so far for me it has been true that when I have been involved I have got more out of the course than times when I have not been as involved for whatever reason. I cannot dispute Dewey’s definition of active thought as ‘active, persistent or careful consideration of any belief’ (Dewey 1993) as my experiences have supported this theory. Even though it is quite a general statement, any reflection surely has to begin with a thought or consideration of an activity or a belief.

I then went on to consider Donald Schon’s (Schon 1987) theory of reflection in or on action. This seems to be a particularly poignant theory and extremely applicable to a performers profession. It seems to easily lend itself to the difference between reflecting when dancing to reflecting when singing. When I am dancing there is no doubt that I use reflection in action as I am sure any dancer does. It can be simply referred to ‘thinking on your feet’ which is always necessary in a performance. No matter how much you practice a dance something will be different every time i.e. your weight placement, slight change of force in a turn etc. This means we are constantly readjusting everything so it looks the same to the audience even if we don’t realise it. Schon has described this as;

The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. (Schön 1983: 68)

Smith, M, 2001, donald schon (schön): learning, reflection and change, infed website. Available from: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm (accessed 30th October 2010)

However, I have realised that this type of reflection is not quite as necessary in singing. It seems that you can perform a song just as it has been rehearsed and things are far less likely to go wrong if your reactions are not that fast. Obviously we react to the sound of our own voice and if we hear that we are slightly under a note we immediately correct it if we can. However, I am not entirely sure if this can be considered as reflection? Is it not just a natural response or reflex that we have been taught to do. We are not really actively reflecting and then changing something but then is a reflex a form of reflection in action? I have found it helpful to reflect on action after a singing performance. By thinking back to the performance or watching a recording you use a completely different perspective to evaluate yourself. I have found from keeping my journal that when reflecting on action of a performance I am much more self critical as you have more time to think about every element of the performance and go in to a deeper reflection. This could have positives and negatives as I have recently found from my journal that I have learnt a lot about myself and the activities I engage in from reflection on action after an event but then at the same time I think maybe I am analysing everything too much now. I used to just get up and do it but now I am taking more time to think about what I thought needed correcting and what I have learnt from my reflection. However, in the end this can only be beneficial as it will become more of a habit and require less conscious thought as I use more reflection (in and on action) in my everyday life.

A theory which I have been slightly struggling with but yet keep coming back to is David Kolb’s learning cycle. While I understand all the stages of the cycle I have been finding it hard to firstly see where I start a learning process or activity and secondly distinguish between the different stages. There are so many situations that I have tried applying where I feel like the beginning point fits in to all of the stages! After studying it for a long time and experimenting with applying it to different experiences I have had I have come to the conclusion that I am not just one type of learner as I always seem to start in a different place depending on the nature of the activity or experience. For example; when I am learning a new dance I start to learn at abstract conceptualism as I always need to work it out in my head before I can do it properly, when I learn a song I can only learn by concrete experience so by actually singing it first for myself rather than going through the music or listening to other people and when I created my blog I only properly learnt or got anything from the exercise when I was trying out different things and looking at other peoples to get ideas so therefore entering the cycle at active experimentation or reflective observation. From this I concluded that I must adapt my style of learning to the situation I am presented with. I think this must be of an advantage to me as surely it means I am a versatile learner and if one learning technique doesn’t help me at first I know I can try another one and I should be able to get in to the cycle and start learning from my experience.

Before I began the journal writing activity I did some research in to thinkers who had written about journal writing and critical thinking. While researching Jenifer Moon (Moon 2006) I came across another thinker Gibbs (1998). When looking at Gibb’s model I found many similarities between that and the frameworks of Reid and Moon from the reflective writing task of writing about a day based on specific points. Below is Gibbs model:

Wikipedia, Reflective practice (online), last modified November 2010. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice (accessed 1st November 2010)

I found this model helpful as it was clear and I could relate to it from looking at the frameworks of Reid and Moon. I found those templates helpful when doing the journal writing task and these categories seemed similar. I found that even though no one was going to read my reflection in my journal I needed some sort of structure or something to come back to. While I understand sometimes it would be good for your writing to be untamed as you may discover something new I felt that it helped me more to stick to rough guidelines. I still found that I could write in depth and I didn’t feel restricted. This journal writing was particularly helpful and seeing the categories in a cycle in Gibbs model (1998) was a good visual analogy to make me think of reflection as an ongoing process rather than something that finishes at the end of an experience. I also feel that the Gibbs model forces you to learn from your experience and look at possible improvements.

I have also found that simply participating in blogging has given me a relationship with reflection which I have never before considered. Just having a space to write something seems to make me want to reflect. Reading other peoples reflections also helps my own reflection and leads me to consider new things. This reflection through blogs has changed my way of thinking and given my reflection so much more depth. The blogging community combined with journal writing and research in to reflective practice thinkers and theories has made me realise that reflection is an important part of progressing in professional practice.

I feel that I have read and researched enough about various theories to make an informed opinion of my own about my relationship with reflection. I have realised there are so many different ways to reflect and many of these we do every day without realising or making a conscious effort i.e. thinking in action during a performance. Reflection seems to be an in depth and considered thought process which helps us progress and improve. I have found that some theories are more applicable to my life than others but the majority of them seem to match my experiences in some way. They have enhanced my thought processes and I am looking forward to putting my newly accomplished skills of reflection in to practice more often so I can improve my way of thinking, deepen my analytical skills, evaluate my actions and hopefully improve myself within my professional practice.