It's Good To Talk

I'll be honest, I connected to Tuesday's 12.30 group discussion Skype call hoping that there would be advice on exactly how or where to start. Suggestions of what books people had read that they felt were really useful, tips on what people might focus their essays around. However this is far from what actually happened, and I'm glad. Instead I took away a lot more, the reassurance that there is no definitive answer, and that it's ok that one train of thought may lead to many others. 

From now on I will take comfort in my supervisor Adesola's comment that -
" Learning doesn't happen when you are told what to do"

At the beginning of the discussion I commented that I felt I may be missing something from my list of networks and asked if anyone had any thoughts outside of the usual Facebook network groups? I felt that after reading through the handbook, and listing ideas for each lens, my list for networks, community and Connectivism were rather short.  Through our discussions and then later through my own reflection I realised the following -

• I shouldn't be trying to separate each lens in list form, I should be exploring them all as subjects that mould into one other, so it's not necessarily wrong that my discussions on networking will be entwined with my ideas of how web 2.0 is related to my professional practice.
• The majority of all my networks are all dance teaching based and mostly on social media. As a now 34 year old I was in the peek of my professional career before Facebook was part of our everyday lives. There for it wasn't as easy to keep in touch with fellow professionals, it was often emails swapped on pieces of paper that now 14 years down the line have been lost or email addresses no longer in use. Grabbing an addition of The Stage newspaper is how I got some of my first auditions, where there are now apps with attached forums. I only have a handful of contacts from dance college where as if I had graduated a few years ago I would most likely be "friends" with everyone from my year. This realisation has brought me much contentment, while my networks may be small and mainly all dance teachers, these small networks have served me well, providing me with an abundance of knowledge and job opportunity's. Reminding me again that this is about my personal professional practice and my community is personal to me. But also making me think, how will our networks continue to change in the future?
• A very important network that I didn't initially think of was our newly formed BAPP network, we are now connected via our being on this course, through our blogs and through us being professionals in the creative arts industry. Also not just those on module 1, but also students on other modules, those that have already completed the course and our supervisors and advisers. 

 
There was also some great discussion on Ethics. I feel in my role as a dance teacher I have lots of different ethical considerations, however some of these also cross into safe guarding which I will be looking into further as an interested area of learning. I found the following link useful in my initial brain storming on ethics http://www.ethicsdance.co.uk/downloads.html

At the beginning of the call there was also a lot of mention of the reading list. I took away from the discussion that a recommendation from the reading list from a fellow student may not have been helpful due to them having a slightly different practice or them exploring a different stream of thought. I am pleased with how my thought processes are now changing and instead of worrying that I haven't read a book for the sake of reading it, I will use the bibliography to start finding quotes and explanations that resonate with me and then explore further chapters within those books or writings.

I feel our group call has helped with my confidence and given me more direction, instead of looking at fellow students blogs for answers I will be searching for ideas. I am planning to start with the suggested study activities in the handbook, simply to get used to blogging more and building up my relationship within our BAPP network, however if a particular task leads me in a different direction I look forward to not only embracing the idea but also discussing it further in the coming group calls.