2d - Inquiry Web2.0 - Facebook

This course has been very challenging for me. As a dancer and after my car accident I have been working in an office and had a lot of time to sit back and evaluate and learn more about myself day to day.

With my passion for dancing lost, I want to look into why that is. An inquiry into the nature of myself; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures, rights and responsibilities; and ways that things can change and how I can improve.

Questions I find myself asking;

• How can I improve professionally 
• How can I have a work/life balance
• How am I changing with reflection 
• How relationships with other around me effect me
• Exploring social and emotional characteristics
• How people build lasting relationships
• Social media and the effects it has on society

When looking at emotions like sadness or anger. I find myself looking at the affects of social media such as Facebook and web2.0. I have a love hate relationship with Facebook, consistently finding it causes more negative issues than good. Social networks are massively addictive. Most people I know check and interact on social sites constantly throughout the day. And they have no idea how much actual time they spend on social media. Always posting the best bits, being defined by how many likes your profile picture gets. I get so wrapped up in my virtual self that I forget sometimes to live. I look around my friends at a social gathering and everyone is glued to their phone - completely addicted to the virtual world. I admire people that have managed to disengage with this addiction only use social media such as Linkedin for professional usage only.

Recent research has shown that using social networking sites, namely Facebook, can increase people’s stress levels, produce anxiety and negatively affect a person’s sense of self. Using these sites might even cause a person to develop a mental health disorder or exacerbate an existing one. Social media even has the power to quickly spread moods around the world.

There are benefits to Facebook, Today almost every internet user uses Facebook. Using Facebook you can find your old friends and colleagues whom you have lost contact and connect with them online again. Facebook’s friend finder feature allows you to find your friends with their names or email addresses. Many people I know found their very old friends they never knew they will ever contact again. Now they have connected again through Facebook. I have kept in touch with lots of old collage friends.

Mark zuckerburg says:

 "We can help connect the next five billion people. Over the next five to ten years, most people with feature phones will get smart phones. Some of them will get smart phones just so they can use Facebook to stay connected with family and friends."

Why do we need to connect with five billion people? This is a worrying thought. Looking at my friends list I have 1500 friends - half of these are just people I have met in passing. 

"Fast Facts about Facebook

• 1 in every 13 people on Earth is on Facebook.
• 28% of 18-34 year olds check their Facebook account before they get out of bed.
• On a daily basis there are 350 million photos uploaded, 4.5 billion likes, 10 billion messages sent and 22 billion times that the Like or Share buttons are viewed.
• Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage.
• Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times a day.
• There are about 30 million dead people on Facebook.
• A third of all US divorce filings in 2011 contained the word "Facebook" in them"

 http://hubpages.com/technology/Collateral-Casualties-of-Facebook

2c - Reflective Theory Evaluation

It has been a while since my last blog - I have been very busy personally and professionally with a lot to reflect on.

After trying out different ways of writing journals - it has been an interesting journey and I have found out more about myself as a practitioner. 

"Turning experience into learning"  - (Boud 1995) - before I began this course I would spend the majority of the time going through the motions. Not really reflecting or turning any experience I had into learning. The different methods I have applied this past month have really made a difference and not only made me learn from my experiences, but learn more about myself as a professional.

I found Gibbs cycle very helpful - The constant cycle of reflection means that we constantly find ourselves improving/learning. I no long see processes as "failing" but and opportunity now to do better and learn from the experience.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard gardner looked into the ways that people engage. It is interesting as I feel as people we all develop and learn in different ways. I decided to research this further.

After looking on other blogs and the ideas of other students on the module I can see we all adapt to ways that work for us. Honey and Mumford (1982) have built a typology of Learning Styles around this sequence, identifying individual preferences for each stage (Activist, Reflector, Theorist, Pragmatist respectively)

• Activist - Learning by doing and experiencing
• Reflector - observes and reflects 
• Theorist - wants to know the theory behind things
• pragmatist - Likes to trial things and see if they work

I believe I took the approach of an activist by way of personality and approach - even as a child I have always preferred doing and experiencing. Although this is how I would describe myself, during this course I have learnt to adopt other approaches. I have started using the Pragmatist approach in many ways as I do like to trial different things and see if they work both for example - trying out new sales techniques at work - a new running technique at the gym and seeing what works for me best. By writing my journals I have reflected on my day to day professional life and used the Gibbs learning cycle to learn from my experiences. Learning the theory behind my reflection and all the different theorists I have come across has made me apply theory to every day life.

Going back to Gardner and his theory of  having different "lenses" I agree that you don't have to be one specific type of learner but you can adopt all types of learning to benefit you.



Online reflection and offline reflection 

"Reflection - on - action is accomplished "offline" at a time where full attention can be given to analysis and planning for the future without the imperative for immediate action" (kottcamp, 1990) 

This is important to us as performers as Kottcamp points out that it is harder for us to reflect in the moment as we use to adapting in the moment.

There are many who would disagree with Kottcamp's view that 'reflection-on-action' is easier than 'reflection-on-action'. Dance teachers and choreographers, for example, often find it easier to implement changes to choreography as they go along. This might be because they can see that their initial idea is not working on their pupils, or  it might be because they have had a new inspiration during the lesson and want to explore it.
Many in performing arts might find 'reflection-in-action' easier because they are used to adopting 'on the spot'. I emphasis the word 'might' because, like Gardner, I agree with the concept of multiple intelligence leading to different ways of learning; we all think and act in different ways.