First Sunday Group chat - November 6th

November 6th is the first Sunday group chat.  Helen will be initiating it (in other words look out for a call from her skype address on that Sunday). We have a morning and afternoon one:
11am (time in London)
or
5pm (time in London)

Please comment below to let us know which one you will join. Remember to also write a tiny bit about what you want to talk about, what you are thinking or what question you are exploring etc... so that we all have sometime to think about each others conversation starter before the call. looking forward to hearing from you

Adesola

A network of information & knowledge

I have been talking to a number of people about AOLs and inquiry projects. A number of people are looking at dance and its relationship with cultures: Dance across cultures, the culture of different dance types, going to a new culture or place and continuing to dance. Please write some blog posts about literature you are looking at so you all can exchange ideas and references.

Also a couple of module Ones are looking at the responsibility of being a Judge of dance - Barbara and Parimala have talked about this to me.

There are people who are looking at literature about starting small businesses or small arts businesses.

Please post ideas and comment on each others blogs. The whole MAPP community has a wealth of years and depth of experience across it. Lets get conversation going.

If you are doing something that seems daunting then share your thoughts with other MAPPs.
As Chanel might say Collaboration is the new Black!!

Please comment here too.
Adesola

Triangulate (and places to see what other people have thought.)

 Thinking about writing:

Areas of Learning, about inquiry plan, or reflecting on your data collection and inquiry = triangulate

Triangulate: as your write mix together (steps of analysis)

• Your experience & stories about learning the topic  – your experience and what you learnt about the topic.
• Theory on learning – so you can talk about your learning to develop your thoughts and practice in this area. (Module One theory will underpin this) – actually how you learnt it, looking back now and knowing the learning theory of Module One
• The theory (publications about the topic: contextualises your experience and thoughts. (other people - people who have been published- experiences and stories) – what other people have learnt about the topic and how what you have learnt sits within this.

Finding the theory – you can look in Middlesex library.

Also Journals:

• Journal of Dance Education –
• Dance Research Journal –
• Dance Education in Practice (JODE) -
• Research in Dance Education –
• Choreographic Practices

Keep up the good work. 

Doing AOL titles and next steps...

AOLs

So module ones – you have been asked to come up with some AOL titles. Here is what’s up next. You would have a list of AOL’s that you send your Advisor. Its ok this list is just a starting place. They are not it. We want to develop things but we need a place to start. Your Advisor doesn’t know the ins and outs of your life so we need somewhere to start. Once you have your list and have a time to chat with your advisor we will talk through the AOL’s if they are perfect and don’t need any development then we have a problem – because being perfect doesn’t leave much room for meaningful pedegogy. What we expect is that by talking to someone else (your Advisor) about your list they will ask you questions that will make you rethink the list a little. Your advisor will also recommend some theory to read in relation to your AOL’s/ this theory might make you re-think a little too.

It is a process: that’s the learning. The learning process of writing the AOL’s also informs the general attention to learning in Module one that you will reflect on in your reflective essay at the end of Module one. However you have to let yourself have the process. You are not going to do perfect from the start but you have to do you from the start. We can’t tell you how to do you but once you have something however small that means something to you we can help. We are not going to watch you mess-up but we have to have something to start with.

So how do you get there: have a look at your cv to remind you what you’ve done. Make job descripotion to help yourself remember what you do. Look across it and make notes where the same type of activity or learning happens. These notes will/could help you identify things you do, you don’t even think about. That’s all the annotated cv is. If you have an impressive cv the university is not going to look at it and give you credit – its not an honouree MA!! If it’s an unimpressive cv the university doesn’t care either. The course is not about what you’ve done but how you’ve understood and learnt from what you’ve done.

So make a list of AOL’s grab a coffee and skype your Advisor for a talk through of the list.

People who have survived Module One AOLs please comment below too.

Sunday pm chat - Reflection

The pm chat was very interesting we had a mix of Modulers. We kept coming back to Reflection, purpose and communication (within self and across to others).  We talked about noticing. How you notice and how we can limit what we allow ourselves to notice. Also how something  ‘noticed’ does not become meaningful until we give it a context of value.

We talked about how the form of how you are reflecting affect what is revealed to you. Sounds simple but it is a fundamental shift, an approach to the lived experience that is transactional: that what we do affects the how we ‘are’ in the world and how we are in the world affects the world we are in.

We asked ourself ‘what we are doing’ and ‘why we are doing it’. Not to get lost in getting it done…

Alanna www.sustainablerisktaking.blogspot.ca is going to post further on the tensions between what we think should happen ‘v’ what is actually emerging.

Davis www.kensdancer.blogspot.com is going to post on perspective, translation and communication

Lisa www.lisanorris76.blogspot.co.uk is going to post on starting to reflect overall rather than just reflecting on what you are expecting. In other words how do we get away from focusing so much on reflecting on something we miss everything but the thing we said we would reflect on!!! i.e. Reflecting so intensely on how big the elephant is and missing the whale on a truck driving by!!! And when this is ok too.

Maite (will put her blog address in the comment below) is going to post on Reflection on your own personal experiences as a starting point for thinking about how to communicate to others.

Sam www.samanthakettle.blogspot.com is going to post on writing reflection as process (as we talked we felt there were many ways to understand reflection and process).

Tamzin  tamzinhoward@blogspot.com  is posting on how reflection can be something to start with, or finish with, or journey with.

Tara www.dancetara.blogspot.com is going to post on expectations and assumptions.

Rachel www.racheleoliver.blogspot.co.uk is posting on noticing  what we think reflection is as opposed to what it can be.  

Helen    is going to share some ideas about improvisation linking past and present.

What do you think? Please comment below. It is important to do more than just comment on things you need like what time you will join a skype group. Actually use the comments to comment on the post you have just read. Looking forward to reading what you feel.

Adesola