tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51933134659061713622024-03-14T10:45:48.505+00:00Creativity through collaborationA meeting place for creatives and collaborators. Authored, Dr Liz Dobson, Open University PhD graduate and music technology lecturer at The University of Huddersfield. Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-69382097312434965072013-07-12T11:37:00.001+01:002013-07-12T12:36:36.873+01:00Scapple - simplicity at its best<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEcj9VaQMm3uGaNuJx9BbDN0_6znYQKrk00aF9sf2v7AezN0Xe-O8JEb8B0ceS21NkFEaayv4BqIq4Xkq1Op6UdZFaKSdGZYtJSeM_cdHPk8RRMW0z-r2w6jN48QKIzrEdK5eRcPea5TM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-07-12+at+11.41.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="97" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEcj9VaQMm3uGaNuJx9BbDN0_6znYQKrk00aF9sf2v7AezN0Xe-O8JEb8B0ceS21NkFEaayv4BqIq4Xkq1Op6UdZFaKSdGZYtJSeM_cdHPk8RRMW0z-r2w6jN48QKIzrEdK5eRcPea5TM/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-07-12+at+11.41.39.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple.php</div>
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As I ease back in to academic writing at the start of the summer I recognise familiar bad habits and blocks to finding my 'zone'. Finally I find a piece of software that can handle my tendency to shoot off in too many directions and become incredibly indecisive when writing.<br />
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Scapple is like having a piece of paper, pencil and rubber - but much faster because I can copy move paste passages of text, colour code them and link ideas together. It is like a writing workboard, so much much easier than the rather linear arrangement of a regular word processor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNAFfXUsB04hNQBup8bSeSHwRnb7phMGekhwQ-NJ-vc_vxo4m4Ol-rIQRXHNReLsYBjH-aHFLbYyNe1t8lTlFvvHuDOT6dfvbpg_sPdlCXYcara_bxtnXP6Zhyphenhyphen02RX0tC45qufTVX4ej0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-07-12+at+11.27.33.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNAFfXUsB04hNQBup8bSeSHwRnb7phMGekhwQ-NJ-vc_vxo4m4Ol-rIQRXHNReLsYBjH-aHFLbYyNe1t8lTlFvvHuDOT6dfvbpg_sPdlCXYcara_bxtnXP6Zhyphenhyphen02RX0tC45qufTVX4ej0/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-07-12+at+11.27.33.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Reading this desktop from the left you can see that I have a few research plans, but felt inspired to develop ideas around the first one. The peach box contains information from the HEA about seminar proposals, then you see various areas of brainstorming and information. It really helped me to bridge from my messy thought processes on to the page, freeing me up to focus on specific things.<br />
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You can insert pictures and screenshots, and export as .pdf, .txt, .rtf, .rtfd and easily copy text to their other (excellent) writing software: Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener_pages/screenshotcommentary.php) a tool that I used extensively to assist me with my PhD.<br />
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The next is purposefully small as it is just an illustration of notes for a paper that I'm writing.<br />
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In the top left you see my first thoughts about the key points that need to be included, to the right, an old abstract and below (in light brown), headings and short paragraphs for an abstract. As I chop sentences they are simply dumped on the right and I can juggle text to build the abstract. </div>
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For me, this is a dream approach. </div>
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One note, if you purchase it retain your serial number because if you're using the software across two machines (home and office) then you'll need it and it is difficult to recover. </div>
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If you're using Scapple I'm interested to know more about how you're using it as I'm looking for examples to show my students, please do tweet me @lizdobsonUoH</div>
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Thanks L&L!</div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-11905448443906735662013-07-10T12:30:00.001+01:002013-07-10T12:30:51.469+01:00Interdisciplinarity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
With a few days off I'm working on a paper and also planning a HEA proposal for a seminar on interdisciplinarity. Following this "Collaborative Arts Practices in HE" report (http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/disciplines/ddm/Collaborative-Practice-Report-Final-July2011.pdf), created collaboratively between myself, Dr Rob Wilsmore, Dr Christophe Alix and others, I'm planning to bring academics together to discuss the challanges and value of fostering interdisciplinary practices in HE performing arts.<br />
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If you're interested, I'm running a #collabchat on Monday July 15th at 16.30. Please click on this link to consider topics and vote: http://twtpoll.com/stqnhk<br />
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Chat soon!</div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-37856296728472336762013-05-19T17:00:00.000+01:002013-05-19T17:06:55.081+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>‘…as a group of people engage in an activity together, their ability to carry it out effectively resides not only in their individual knowledge and skills, nor just in their ability to collaborate; it is distributed across the artifacts that are to hand and the ‘affordances’ (and also the constraints) provided by the environment.’</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Gordon Wells & Guy Claxton (2002)</span></div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-57127165218976287012013-05-19T15:44:00.002+01:002013-05-19T16:14:37.372+01:00#collabchat <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Please join us on May 28th at 7pm<br />
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To share your work and meet other's interested in sharing their's and discussing collaboration.<br />
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All you need to do, is vote on one of the following or suggest a topic for our chat, then use the # to follow and join the conversation.<br />
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We will have regular chats so popular topics will be revisited. </div>
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<script src="http://twtpoll.com/js/ibadge.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" id="twpw_if" name="twpw_if" onload="TwtpwFm.registerFrame(this);" scrolling="no" src="http://twtpoll.com/badge/if/?twt=z27598&b=1&bt=1" width="100%">Your browser doesn't support iFrames :( Vote for this poll <a href="http://twtpoll.com/z27598" title="here" target="_blank">here</a>.</iframe></div>
Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-76838633159304781432013-05-19T15:16:00.000+01:002013-05-19T16:13:15.920+01:00Twittering in education and beyond. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When I started to use Twitter I honestly couldn't see the benefit in having another social network that I needed to check. Now I consider it to be a powerful tool for making connections and starting real longterm conversations and relationships.<br />
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I'm not an experienced blogger, and to be honest I couldn't see the benefit of that either. But when you combine Twitter with blogs and other resources their combined value begins to emerge out of a tweeting fog of hashtags and virtual noise.<br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">I am...</span></b></h2>
a HE lecturer, writer and composer of music. Also creator of a group called <a href="http://collabhub.org/">CollabHub</a>, developed to help students connect and create work across disciplines. I have 3 twitter accounts! This isn't uncommon either.<br />
- @lizdobsonuoh - my professional identity. I follow academics and education related tweeters<br />
- @Eddienosbod - my personal account. I follow anything else that interests me<br />
- @Collabhub - an account to help share information relating to collaboration and co-creativity.<br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">Twitter opens real doors...</span></b></h2>
<b>A) when I was a PhD student I discovered #phdchat. </b>This group was set up by Nasima Riazat and she schedules regular meetings for PhD students to come together and discuss a topic. Topics have ranged from discussion about methodologies, writing up software, viva preparation, phd/life balance. This also introduced me to <a href="http://thesiswhisperer.com/">Dr Inger Mewburn and her fantastic blog</a>. SO in short the benefits of participating in a scheduled chat have been:<br />
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- introduced me to <span style="color: #990000;"><b>experts in my field</b> </span>and more knowledgeable others<br />
- helped me to<span style="color: #990000;"> <b>connect with people</b></span> who can also benefit form my new experience<br />
- linked me to some fascinating<span style="color: #990000;"> <b>blogs</b></span><br />
- helped me to <b><span style="color: #990000;">contextualise my own work in a relevant community</span></b><br />
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<b>B) it breaks down barriers of geography and status, making more people available. Here are some examples:</b><br />
Several of my students have managed to start conversations with studio producers, film makers and other composers which have led to shared materials and then professional work. Linking in with blogs, soundclouds, vimeo etc. students can really show off their work to communities beyond their University. This is so much more relevant to creative industries than the CV isn't it? If getting work is all about who you know, Twitter helps you to know more people!<br />
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Also, only this week I spoke with @creativehuddle on the phone, and will be talking with a PhD student at The University of Cambridge on Monday to share thoughts on various topics.<br />
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<b>C) Promotion</b><br />
I noticed something very interesting when trying to promote our local interdisciplinary collaboration hub. On the CollabHub weblog I can see the number of visits and how the site is used. When our local posters and flyers went out there was almost no change, but when I sent messages and news out on Twitter and Facebook people started to visit the site. It's seems pretty obvious to me that twitter has the power to connect our students, our scientists, artists and thinkers with people all over the world. I'm slow to catch on, so <span style="color: #990000;"><b>maybe I can be a bit of a springboard for others who are also just catching on to this now.</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">#collabchat</span></b></h2>
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To help our distributed communities to connect, I'm going to run regular live chats on Twitter. Following the #phdchat example, there will be an opportunity to vote on topics for chat focus. My hope is that this will also help to foster more interdisciplinary collaboration.<br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">Blogging</span></b></h2>
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140 characters obviously isn't enough so this is an excellent opportunity to share more using a blog. As my own work is focused on creativity, creative process and collaborative creativity I will be offering materials about these kinds of subjects on my blog.<br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">Any impact on you?</span></b></h2>
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I'm interested to know if there is any real interest and value in something like #collabchat. When we have had a few meetings I may seek bit of feedback on that.<br />
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-32482069145584825032013-03-28T13:02:00.002+00:002013-05-19T17:05:35.448+01:00CollabHub - Expo & Symposium call<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The 1st CollabHub symposium was held on May 11th 2013. </div>
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There were 50 delegates from The University of Huddersfield and also from our wider community. </div>
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<b>For more information about CollabHub click <a href="http://collabhub.org/">here</a></b></div>
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<b>To see the Symposium Facebook wall click <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/CollabHub2013/">here</a></b></div>
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<b>To see the general Facebook wall for this group click <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/collabhub/">here</a></b></div>
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<b>This was the call (below), and the schedule is <a href="http://collabhub.org/test/">here</a> </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKklLElYfPrrjYylNYX7E9tpHC-Ip9e7Xnzh-uxKAdBGu8j3ExSzckSJItDdW4q5y8TiMXqSQnlhvFDWi3HY4e1aUuqAzq-BsGIOPrGsLgDaE5Bh06ce4IKv06_C4_nY0X8mL5-ATibK4/s1600/Collabhub+Call+March+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKklLElYfPrrjYylNYX7E9tpHC-Ip9e7Xnzh-uxKAdBGu8j3ExSzckSJItDdW4q5y8TiMXqSQnlhvFDWi3HY4e1aUuqAzq-BsGIOPrGsLgDaE5Bh06ce4IKv06_C4_nY0X8mL5-ATibK4/s640/Collabhub+Call+March+2013.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-4898478727968321382013-03-28T12:28:00.002+00:002013-03-28T12:28:17.757+00:00Displaced:Life after the PhD and the Collaboration Hub<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Honestly I thought that I would have a lot of time available after the PhD but oddly those hours quickly filled with other things. </div>
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Lesson to my past PhD student self: Keep up that excellent routine afterwards</div>
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Note from past PhD student self: I'm exhausted and as soon as I finish this I want to sleep for a year!</div>
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Note to myself now: chillax!</div>
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Since completing I've presented at one conference (iFIMpac at LCM, see academia.edu) but feel an urgency to get published and present more. That's natural, I know of others who have secured book deals and been prolific writers. Well I'm presenting at Research in Music Education in 2 weeks and writing a paper for the Journal of Music Technology in Higher Education... </div>
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My main project since completing has been to set up an interdisciplinary Collaboration Hub for undergraduates. As the PhD was an investigation in to this topic it felt important to do something real after such a long time with the books. </div>
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So I decided to set up an informal meeting on October 3rd 2012 (my birthday). I invited the students to come along and pitch ideas, take a chance and set up something new. Now, March 28th, we have almost 300 Facebook members, a logo,<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5cXzothiOf8X4oQxAs4g0ADxu5uhZ0jT-X87scyXGehIE-bpQGDITkYcJ9iGycIFyLyPICgXRrSnGapFhvYgAsWCzhZ3qXb0j3K3hYWNx9YiAosIjmu2-p3PKZdfYl3qtRAt2ib4UaBg/s1600/Colour.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="68" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5cXzothiOf8X4oQxAs4g0ADxu5uhZ0jT-X87scyXGehIE-bpQGDITkYcJ9iGycIFyLyPICgXRrSnGapFhvYgAsWCzhZ3qXb0j3K3hYWNx9YiAosIjmu2-p3PKZdfYl3qtRAt2ib4UaBg/s200/Colour.png" width="200" /></a></div>
a brand, a healthy number of multi-disciplinary groups working on project, an UnLimited grant of £5k to spend, 2 people doing paid work to administer and market CollabHub (the name we gave the group). We have met almost every month (roughly 30 people attend each meeting) and we're planning our first Symposium and exhibition of work on May 11th!</div>
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1st CollabHub meeting October 3rd 2013 </div>
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Huddersfield University Creative Arts Building</div>
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So, maybe I've not accomplished what I should have in terms of research but this is my investment, in the students. In their feeling of freedom to collaborate without risk (assessment or financial), to learn new skills and grow their networks. </div>
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Huddersfield University won the Times Higher 20012 Entrepreneurial University of the Year and it was our Enterprise Team (Phill Clegg, Barry Timmins </div>
and the wonderful Kelly Smith) who have given me the confidence to push out with CollabHub, try for the grant and see how I can secure its future.<br />
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I'll offer a few more CollabHub posts here when I have time</div>
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- what the students have taught me</div>
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- examples of collaborations</div>
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- collaborations beyond the university </div>
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- thoughts on funding for social enterprise</div>
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- the theories and research that inspired CollabHub, and how opportunities for further research in to undergraduate collaboration and enterprise.</div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-62622303918193813352013-02-25T17:07:00.000+00:002013-05-19T17:07:43.790+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>‘…as a group of people engage in an activity together, their ability to carry it out effectively resides not only in their individual knowledge and skills, nor just in their ability to collaborate; it is distributed across the artifacts that are to hand and the ‘affordances’ (and also the constraints) provided by the environment.’</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Gordon Wells & Guy Claxton (2002)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This quote from Wells and Claxton bridges ideas about individual knowledge, or 'funds of knowledge' (Moll & Greenberg, 2005) which are social constructions, and pushes past the issue of collaborative skills engaging directly with the issue of how tools (physical like the violin, virtual like Second Life or symbolic like language used) are not separate from those engaged in the activity. They make meaning through use of these tools, and refine the tools as they are used, building their contexts of practice at a social level. </span></span></div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-8334547018819500322012-06-22T11:41:00.003+01:002013-07-12T11:51:00.175+01:00PhD viva<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This post is for the wonderful people of #PhDchat :-) You have kept me sane, I just want to offer this blog post in return in the hope that it helps other PhD students develop confidence in their work as they prepare for the viva.<br />
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Firstly, I was terrified. It didn't matter now many people told me that they had confidence that "you'll be fine", it made little difference. Knowing that I had such wonderful support did help, a lot, but I have become very aware of the strengths and weaknesses of my own thesis.<br />
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I did a number of things to prepare for the vivia -<br />
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<b>- 2 independent critical readers from the Open University read my thesis and offered written comments. </b><br />
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While it made me nervous to have others look at it, they were extremely constructive and I found that the comments really helped to improve the thesis. So, I urge you to talk with your supervisors about asking at least one independent academic to do this for you, it is painful but extremely worthwhile.<br />
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<b>- mock viva (after submitting my thesis, 2 weeks before the real viva)</b><br />
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The two critical readers then gave me a formal mock viva. I felt extremely underprepared (following a month of marking undergraduate assignments). I marked every chapter with a sicky-out post-it so that I could at least navigate the thesis, and read the thing in preparation. I also read the central studies that informed my research and design of the methodology.<br />
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I arrived in Milton Keynes the night before. Relaxed by Willen Lake at dusk and just read and re-read a few core papers. Above all I was worried about 2 things:<br />
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<li>That they would ask me about a field, area of research I'd not covered at all. </li>
<li>My memory would fail me and I'd struggle to answer questions because of it. </li>
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Neither of these things happened by the way. </div>
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The mock viva was 2 hours long, and they asked 40 questions. I know this because my amazing supervisor (Prof Karen Littleton) wrote down every question and my response. </div>
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<b>Here is a summary of what happened:</b></div>
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<li>general question about what led me to research my topic (I talked about my professional interests, I was advised to talk more about the theoretical reasons... gaps in prior knowledge).</li>
<li>explained that they would work through the thesis chapter by chapter. </li>
<li>Literature chapter (ch2) - asked to talk about the key studies that influence my work. Asked to outline gaps in sociocultural research of collaboration. </li>
<li>Methodology chapter - Asked to describe the core concepts, and explain the process of developing my methodology. They were genuinely interested and sometimes genuinely confused by something that I'd not made clear enough in my work. </li>
<li>Findings chapters - They asked me to summarise each chapter and the core take home points. </li>
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There were other questions so I'll put a full list in a separate blog post. </div>
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<span style="background-color: black;">Occasionally</span> they broke out of viva mode to suggest how I might answer a question differently, and even how I might show confidence in presenting my answers. I was being too cautious and too modest. </div>
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It was both stimulating and really enjoyable! Of course that depends on who you do this with but I strongly urge you to give it a go. It gave me such a lot of confidence. I could see areas of weakness in my defence and I knew what I needed to do in preparation for the viva. </div>
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<b>Feedback summary: </b></div>
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<li>to really own my research, and be confident about the contribution that it is making</li>
<li>that I could take papers into the viva with me. For example, I couldn't discuss the strengths or weaknesses of my methodology, I just stalled. I decided to write this out on one page and I took it to the actual viva. As it happens I didn't need to really refer to it. </li>
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<b>Preparation for the viva</b></div>
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Following the mock I decided to summarise each chapter - just the core points. I used mnemonics to help me. In the viva I sketched out the mnemonics while answering their questions, this helped me to slow down and think, and also feel confident that I wasn't missing anything I felt to be important. The examiners described my thesis defence as 'robust', I think this may have been the reason. </div>
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<b>The following things also happened in the actual viva</b></div>
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<li>I took in a mug of mint tea</li>
<li>Tried to appear calm but panicked for about 10 minutes (just as my supervisors said I would) </li>
<li>The external examiner opened with the following sentences 'I think that we both agree that this work is worthy of a PhD.'...then shortly after this 'We also agree that it is worthy of a PhD with minor corrections'. </li>
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I think at this point he may have been expecting me to look happy, relieved, something, anything other than terrified... I'm not sure it has sunk in yet but he was trying to help me to relax. The viva would focus on what those corrections were going to be. </div>
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<li>I stopped attempting to drink the smelly tea because my hand was shaking too much!</li>
<li>The examiners went through the thesis chapter by chapter - here are the broad questions they asked (my supervisor Prof Dorothy Miell wrote it all down for me):</li>
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(I've paraphrased some questions as it was more conversational that this indicates)</div>
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<li>What attracted you to this area of work?</li>
<li>A more pressing question about the situation of undergraduate collaborative creativity. </li>
<li>Is multi-disciplinarity a distinctive new area? (pressing to see if I'd identified a gap I think)</li>
<li>Have I experience in designing these types of courses... (topic relevant to my thesis, to learn about the relationship between my research and my professional context I think)</li>
<li>Summarise 2-3 key points (from the literature review) and know they informed the research questions. </li>
<li>How did particular ideas (relating to improvisation in collaboration) inform the research questions. </li>
<li>Where did the multi-disciplinary aspect come from? How do they collaborate without shared practice?</li>
<li>Methodology chapter - there was a lot of theoretical material included, this made it quite tricky to follow. Could you summarise the pragmatic details of what you actually did. </li>
<li>question about when choices were made</li>
<li>Question about how I decided what and when to record, how much etc. </li>
<li>How did I distill data down?</li>
<li>Did I consider other ways of coding? What that have revealed something else?</li>
<li>What type of discourse analysis was used?</li>
<li>More specific questions relating to what I was interested in, not interested in. </li>
<li>Pragmatic questions about analysis - how easy was it to analyse sequences when I wasn't present?</li>
<li>Did I consider (asking participants to check, help with interpretation of analysis)?</li>
<li>What are the main take home messages for chapters 4-6 (main body of my thesis)?</li>
</ol>
I was asked several questions about these chapters, there was an emphasis on understanding the intellectual narrative and structuring of them because that wasn't clear enough in my particular thesis. Obviously, every viva is likely to be extremely different but perhaps you can see that there is quite a systematic approach here. </div>
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We got into a really interesting discussion about the parts of the thesis that interested the examiners. </div>
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My suggestion to you therefore, is definitely to know how to summarise the key points for each chapter, be able to summarise the key contribution of your work and read your thesis before the viva. I found it much easier to talk about my findings because I'm naturally excited about that part of them. Finally the last question: Imagine you're on the Today Programme, please could you summarise why this research is important and what you found. </div>
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I was asked to leave the room for about 10 minutes and when I returned, with 2 of my supervisors, they gave me the result: 'Excellent defence, robust, articulate. Great Job. Awarded pending one or two minor changes.' </div>
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Now I'm telling you all of this because the week before I had an incredibly dim view of my work despite lots of corrections, encouragement and the confidence of my supervisors. I had to believe in it to defend it and fortunately on the morning of the viva I decided that it really wasn't so bad. You may feel that your work is fantastic, or you may not, I suggest that you <i>have</i> to believe in it. All of the hard work has been done before the viva, and you really really do know it much better than anyone else. I know, these are just words. I never imagined this result though, up to the very last day I was anticipating the worst... well I'm being honest at least. </div>
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Oh, afterwards, I slept. A lot. </div>
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Supervisors, Examiners and an extremely relieved Dr E Dobson in the middle </div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-24801133462950259802012-04-16T20:25:00.000+01:002012-04-16T20:25:44.149+01:00Welcome to my Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I've decided to start using the blog for teaching and also to share aspects of my research.<br />
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If you're interested in my research, for now click on the PhD tag.<br />
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If you are one of my students then you are warmly welcomed here. Once the PhD is done I will start posting information that is hopefully useful to you too!<br />
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For now I leave you with this from xlcd<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxx38GY2WaC22wOOzIvto_AZOwIr7t-hHt6CBgHXreInccXMQxOsM-IG0zxJI4ZT_HO33yrv2PafcC8aN7TFY-lj8STx5FTlvgwXVpDB2avWQcH4Wh-V58-TvRKC-FURIBYzuUcS2lN7o/s1600/xlcd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxx38GY2WaC22wOOzIvto_AZOwIr7t-hHt6CBgHXreInccXMQxOsM-IG0zxJI4ZT_HO33yrv2PafcC8aN7TFY-lj8STx5FTlvgwXVpDB2avWQcH4Wh-V58-TvRKC-FURIBYzuUcS2lN7o/s320/xlcd.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-188785869280690322012-03-26T11:51:00.002+01:002012-03-26T11:54:18.771+01:00Customising Apple Magic Mouse for text editing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWxGPuCHSpGF7LWqbi_qc3zR7_WATejcHY7MAsriI6dlIWI9qhOzmOzAx_X6zR7Af4LsaCLD45eX5Nh183UU3-QLpVgvgoQsemLwKDUeA1uC7u1_CcYeBt8adTfmy_ycVuGMgsoTNDa3M/s1600/magic+mouse+settings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWxGPuCHSpGF7LWqbi_qc3zR7_WATejcHY7MAsriI6dlIWI9qhOzmOzAx_X6zR7Af4LsaCLD45eX5Nh183UU3-QLpVgvgoQsemLwKDUeA1uC7u1_CcYeBt8adTfmy_ycVuGMgsoTNDa3M/s640/magic+mouse+settings.jpg" width="451" /></a></div><br />
</div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-18572871003189349612011-12-15T15:00:00.003+00:002011-12-15T15:01:19.434+00:00Call for papers - women in sound art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Care of </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=657327329" href="http://www.facebook.com/lisa.whistlecroft" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">Lisa Whistlecroft</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"> :For info: An Austrian on-line magazine is calling for articles on the topic "Women in Sound Art". Submit essays in English or German. Deadline 26 March 2012. E: office@terz.cc WEB: </span><a href="http://www.terz.cc/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.terz.cc</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 14px;">Translation of call (thanks to Thomas Schmidt) reads: 'Sound Art is an area of New Music in which an especially large number of female musicians and performers are active. We want to pursue the question of why Sound Art is more feminine than other areas of New Music; we want to portray its female protagonists and analyse their music.'</span></span></span></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-38847627687298772642011-12-14T17:38:00.000+00:002011-12-14T17:38:52.722+00:00The value of an anchor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">advice from @alexiskirke Alexis Kirke (who has just completed his second PhD)</span><br />
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As I'm writing up my thesis (and as it is taking such a long time) I asked him for some tips.<br />
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This was his advice in a brief tweet:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">'be clear about ur motivations, be clear what ur trying to demonstrate, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">relate to past lit, and don't try to be perfect'</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">With this in mind I produced a document and pinned it on the wall above my desk. </div><div style="text-align: left;">It reminds me of:</div><div style="text-align: left;">- my research questions</div><div style="text-align: left;">- significant points being made in my thesis</div><div style="text-align: left;">- their relationship with fundamental theoretical ideas</div><div style="text-align: left;">- not to make everything perfect (whatever that is I tend to overwork things)</div><div style="text-align: left;">- my motivations</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It sounds obvious but having it there has proven to be a real anchor. </div></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-25151454424348277662011-12-14T17:34:00.000+00:002011-12-14T17:34:00.808+00:00Ever have days when you just can’t focus on a task?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<h1 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">This post is taken from the Unilever website. Whilst we already know these things it does no harm to see them all together and remember them. </span></h1><h2 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tips to help get your brain working again </span></h2><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><div style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We all sometimes find it hard to concentrate a task or even get started. Some people function better in the morning, others in the afternoon. Most have a point during the day where they temporarily run out of energy. And some jobs – because of their scale or complexity – are often simply difficult to progress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">If you ever find yourself struggling to focus, here are a few things to consider that may help get your brain functioning better and more creatively.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Breathe deep</strong>More air in means more oxygen in the blood and therefore in the brain. Several deep breaths can help relax you, which is conducive to clearer thinking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Sit up straight</strong>Posture affects your thought process. Prove it to yourself. Think through a maths problem in your head while slouching, looking at the floor and letting your mouth hang open. Then do another sitting up straight, keeping your mouth closed and looking forward or slightly upwards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Take a short break</strong>When you find your concentration waning, take a walk around the office or, better still, outside. This will get your heart rate up, increase your alertness and give your mind a chance to work on the problem. Try walking up and down the stairs a few times.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Mix up your environment</strong>It can also help to work in different places. A change of scenery – even another part of the office – can refresh the mind and give you new stimulus.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Avoid sugar</strong>Simple carbohydrates can give you a sluggish feeling that makes it hard to think clearly. It results from insulin rushing into the bloodstream to counteract the sugar high. So avoid pasta, sugars, white bread and potato chips (crisps) before any important mental tasks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Speed read</strong>Contrary to what many believe, your comprehension of material often goes up when you speed read. You get to learn a lot more in less time and it’s a good brain exercise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Make a plan</strong>When you sit down to work without a plan, it’s easy to get caught up in activities like checking email. So make a clear plan of action beforehand. If you need to check email, do so but then close your inbox – or at least the ‘new mail’ pop-ups – while you work on the task.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>De-clutter</strong>Cluttered rooms and offices can contribute to cluttered thinking. Organise a clear space for mental work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Eat fish</strong>Scientific studies suggest that eating fish can help improve concentration. Research in the US found that older people who eat fish regularly have quicker and better memories.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Don’t skip breakfast</strong>Having breakfast improves concentration, reaction time, learning ability, mood and memory. A breakfast high in fibre helps slow down the absorption of food in the stomach, so you have more energy for a longer period of time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Snack on blueberries</strong>A study in the US found that eating blueberries can slow and even reverse age-related brain decline, as well as improve short-term memory loss.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Drink lots of water</strong>Dehydration can be detrimental to the brain. Drink lots of water, particularly before a potentially stressful situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Doodle</strong>Drawing stimulates the right hemisphere of the brain and inspires creativity. Doodling can kick start your brain when it’s bored.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Laugh</strong>Laughter causes a natural release of the brain’s endorphins – chemicals that drown out pain and increase overall well-being. Laughter is a well-known natural stress reducer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Think positive</strong>Take ten minutes each day to think more positively and you’ll begin to notice an improvement in thinking abilities and problem-solving skills. It will also make you feel empowered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Switch hands</strong>Try using your less dominant hand for tasks such as eating or writing to stimulate your brain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Yawn</strong>It is thought that a yawn works to send more oxygen to the brain, cooling it down and waking it up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Do something new</strong>If you get stuck following the same routine every day, your brain won't ever be challenged. Do something different for a change. For instance, why not take a different route to work?</span></div></div></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-88466749003255200912011-03-25T16:05:00.013+00:002013-05-19T16:57:56.449+01:00A short note on sociocultural theory and observing creative process. Some theoretical ideas that inform my research<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">This was produced in under an hour so please excuse the slightly casual referencing. This provides a summary of some key principles that relate sociocultural concerns in creative research. It doesn’t focus on my own research much or share my methodology. So hopefully it raises lots of questions. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Please note I've removed page numbers for quotes however I can provide upon request).</span></span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e69138;">Key words: social psychology – creative process - collaboration - music composition</span></b><br />
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My research looks at the factors that shape creative process, and creative results produced when students from different disciplines (music technology, dance and theatre) making new work collaboratively. The research focus and methodology is framed by a sociocultural ontology of human activity that stems back to the Russian psychologist Vygotsky and his work on the development of human knowledge. The key principles carried forward from his research into socioculturally framed studies of learning and more recently creativity are:</div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">That knowledge is a social construct.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">That human activity is shaped by physical and psychological tools, which are in turn developed in human activity</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">That there is a temporal genesis which means that what happens is framed by what happened before, and it is understood in a context </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">[1]</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;"> by what happens next.</span></li>
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This is a crude summary and I strongly urge anyone interested in Vygotsky’s theories on Human Activity to read:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">Lev Vygotsky’s (1978) Mind in Society: Interaction Between Learning and Development. London: Harvard University Press</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">Harry Daniels’ (1996) An Introduction to Vygotsky Routledge</span></div>
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Socioculturally framed research is concerned essentially with the development of knowledge; as Eva Vass explains: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">‘Socio-cultural approaches seek to understand how cultural tools are created and used, and how they transform human life, including processes of knowledge building and creating new contexts for teaching and learning.’</span> (Vass, 2004).</div>
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Keith Sawyer explains however that the idea that knowledge emerges from social situations (rather than out of the individual) is reflected by contemporary theories around creativity as something that comes out of social activity (See Teresa Amabile’s work from the 1990s as the earliest example of this). Before this we saw creativity being studied as an individual attribute, but then as something shaped by cultures. There was an important shift in where to look for creativity as Howard Gardner explains:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">“If one wants to understand phenomena of creativity, one cannot simply focus on the individual-his brain, her personality, their motivations. Instead, one must broaden one’s focus to include a study of the area in which that creative individual works and the procedures by which judgments of originality and quality are rendered.” (Howard Gardner, 1994)</span></div>
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Societies evaluated where creativity was to be found and so the process of creative work was mediated by the societies in which it was happening. Socioculturalists take this a little further by looking at how creativity emerges out of interaction social situations. Keith Sawyer’s book Group Genius <a href="http://ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/~ksawyer/groupgenius/">http://ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/~ksawyer/groupgenius/</a> looks at creativity emerging from social situations through a sociocultural lens. His work observes the emergence of creativity out of Jazz improvisation and live theatre improvisation, and quite a bit of work has now been done, looking at how the emergence of creativity is characterized in socially situated/collaborative practices.</div>
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Sociocultural researchers look at the inter-relationships that mediate what happens in co-creating, as Karen Littleton, Sylvia Rojas-Drummond and Dorothy Miell explain: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">‘…if researchers are to understand and characterize collaborative creativity they need to examine the nature and significance of the interactions, relationships and cultures which constitute and sustain such activity, as well as the mediational role of cultural artifacts, including tools, sign systems and technologies.’ </span>(Littleton, Rojas-Drummond and Miell, 2008).</div>
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The immediate social context of collaborative working provides challenges as individuals with different histories and ‘funds-of-knowledge’ (Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 2001) come together. Masutov really explains the situation collaborative effort very well:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">‘…joint activity has multiple agendas, goals, contexts, tasks, and actors with different intentions. It involves dynamics of agreement, disagreement, and coordination of participants’ contributions.’ </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">(Eugine Masutov, 1996).</span></div>
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So in joint activity people have to negotiate shared understandings about what they are doing together and how and all of this is contextually framed in the ways described. With this in mind I am looking at joint activity as characterized by situations where there is a commitment to developing a common ground in the way that Crook describes: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">‘To be a collaborator is to enter into an interpersonal exchange in which it is understood that there should be sustained investment in constructing shared meaning.’</span> (Crook, 2000). Sociocultural studies consider language to be a particularly important (psychological) tool for establishing shared meaning about what is happening, informing and shaping what happens in joint effort. Language facilitates our understandings within society, also influencing our relationships with other people (Lantolf, 2000) as Neil Mercer explains: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">‘From a sociocultural perspective… humans are seen as creatures who have unique capacity for communication and whose lives are normally led within groups, communities and societies based on shared ‘ways with words’, ways of thinking, social practices and tools for getting things done.’</span> (Mercer, 2004, p139). Indeed language is a tool that is mediated and developed in dialogue. A dancer and a composer may form ways of communicating that are unique to their collaboration. Sociocultural research looks to understand how tools, like language, or physical tools such as objects that come to hand mediate and are mediated through activity.<br />
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In collaborative creating situations contributions for creative content and direction come from different people.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;"> 'Group creativity involves distributed cognition – when each member of the team contributes an essential piece of the solution, and these individual components are all integrated together to form the collective product.'</span> (Sawyer, 2006). Sawyer (along with DeZutter 2009) describes how group creating can be unpredictable, and constantly evolving in the sense that each contribution emerges out of what has come before, and is reframed by what comes afterwards. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">'A wide range of actions is possible at each moment; the actors do not know what is going to follow an action, and they do not know how their actions will be interpreted and elaborated.'</span> (Sawyer & DeZutter, 2009, p83). In sociocultural terms, joint making is framed by tools and physical contexts but also by history. Actually it is sometimes known as ‘socio-historical’ or ‘cultural-historical’ (Mercer 2004). You see as Andrew Pettigrew explains:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #76a5af;">‘…history is not just an event in the past but it is alive in the present and may shape the future.’ (Pettigrew, 1990).</span></div>
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My research looks at the moment-by-moment interactions to observe the mediating inter-relationships that occur over time (several months) when two studio based composers (who have a close creative relationship with their computer based tools) collaborate with each other and with theatre students (who specialize in dance and video production). The work focuses on looing at how the tools, contexts and language mediate and constitutes joint achievements over time. </div>
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<b>Footnote 1: A note on context in sociocultural terms</b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a2c4c9;">In sociocultural terms human activity happens in a nest of contexts as Per Linell described (1998). These include local and non-local contexts. Examples of local contexts are the physical environment but also the ‘co-text’ (Linell, 1998) meaning the sequence of interaction formed incrementally in interaction. Non-local contexts include beliefs and knowledge, future projects, knowledge and assumptions about collaborators involved, the frame of a type of activity (such as an improvisation session), an organizational context, the socio-historical context (cultural history for example, general background knowledge (cultural collective memory). He explains that ‘By invoking such sociocultural knowledge and routines, actors make sense in their communicative projects.’ (Linell, 1998).</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Bibliography</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Amabile, T. M., (1982) The social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 997 – 1013</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Crook, C. (2000) Motivation and the Ecology of Collaborative Learning in Joiner, Littleton, Faulkner and Miell (ed) Rethinking Collaborative Learning 161-178 London: Free Association Books</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Gardner, H., (1994) The Creator’s Patterns in M. Boden Dimensions of Creativity MIT Press</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Lantolf, J.P., (2000) Introducing Sociocultural Theory In J.P. Lantolf (ed.) Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning 1-26. Oxford: OUP</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Linell, P., (1998) Approaching Dialogue: Talk Interaction and Contexts in Dialogical Perspectives John Benjamins Publishing Co.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Masutov, E., (1996) Intersubjectivity Without Agreement Mind, Culture and Activity 3(1) 25-45</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Miell, Littleton & Rojas-Drummond (2008) Editorial Introduction International Journal of Educational Research 47(1)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., González, N., (1992) Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms Theory Into Practice, XXXI (2) Spring 1992</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Pettigrew, A. M., (1990) Longitudinal Field Research on Change: Theory and Practice Organizational Science 1(3)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Sawyer, K. R., (2006) Group Creativity: Musical Performance and Collaboration Psychology of Music 34(2) 148-165</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Sawyer, K. R., (2008) Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration Basic Books</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Sawyer, K. R., & DeZutter, S., (2009) Distributed Creativity: How Collective Creations Emerge From Collaboration Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts 3(2) p81-92</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Vass, E., (2004) Understanding Collaborative Creativity: Young Children’s Classroom-based Shared Creative Writing in D. Miell & K. Littleton (ed) Collaborative Creativity: Contemporary Perspectives. London: Free Association Books</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Vygotsky, L. S., (1978) Mind in Society: Interaction Between Learning and Development. London: Harvard University Press</span></div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-78083131266838813902011-03-17T10:00:00.003+00:002013-05-19T16:58:17.693+01:00Being in a community - #Phdchat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For some time I've worked in a fairly isolating way - I'm a part-time PhD student with the Open Uni who lives too far away from Milton Keynes to attend a lot of the seminars and workshops that are presented there.<br />
Having made more of an effort to find others with similar research domains and interests locally however I see huge benefit in being involved in communities.<br />
One particularly interesting development came out of some chance meetings with a fellow part-time PhD student who works at the same University as me. I'm excited to have the opportunity to meet again and talk about our respective work however she pointed me towards twitter...<br />
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Do a search for this on twitter. <br />
There is a group that meet on Wednesday evenings 7.30 for an hour. I wish I wasn't busy at that time. <br />
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Also visit <span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #244061; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><a href="https://mail.hud.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=72601bd579de4cdf8a57a717d9ab7a88&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftwtpoll.com%2fgfbxlw" target="_blank">http://twtpoll.com/gfbxlw</a> </span>to vote on the topic that is to be discussed. </span></span></div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-6202068337894505162011-03-17T09:47:00.004+00:002011-03-17T09:51:42.973+00:00Writing analytic approach - current challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Having reworked the literature review several times, and started analysing the potentially richest moments in the data recordings (two composers working out how they will write the same soundtrack for the dance film piece that they are collaborating on), I have reached a point where a tidy analytic rational is needed.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e06666;">So research questions are revised:</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>How is the process of collaborative creativity mediated by social and cultural contexts when computer-based music composers collaborate with each other and peers from other disciplinary backgrounds, in small group settings and across time. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Interesting?</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">...more specifically...</div><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b>How are contextual resources used by the students to develop a shared meaning of what they are making together over time within and across different creative disciplines?</b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> <br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b style="font-weight: bold;">How is the process of co-constructing creative work mediated through an interrelationship with the tools used? </b>('tools' needs clarification: physical tools such as the studio but also conceptual tools linked to creative disciplines i.e. styles of dance, composition philosophy or sound theory)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><b>How does talk shape the genesis and negotiation of creative contributions in different contexts and across time in socially mediated creative collaboration. </b>(Language is a psychological tool that mediates joint activity)</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">If these questions interest you I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. </span>I've developed an analytic method that looks at the incremental moment-by-moment events to understand what is happening and this approach is stimulated by research that focusses on process in creativity in other (mainly music making) situations. This should reveal a more macro-level perspective of how creative work can be mediated by collaboration over time. </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The document I'm working on now has to show the following:</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">What I'm interested in (the above) </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">What analytic choices I've made and what theoretical ideas, materials and theories have motivated them - so what they connect with. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">What is distinct about <u>my</u> contribution</span></span></li>
</ul><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Useful exercise I think for anyone dealing with a large amount of data. </span></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-12234853459814893982011-03-17T09:17:00.000+00:002011-03-17T09:17:27.471+00:00This cartoonist MUST know me!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIBm9-1G_J56P5G04p5No-fsd-Jp7X4oyOEHd2ETOhxS2dVDJ7oQEXdbk33Ef8KEIs8_PkAS6NogQ1R_u62HAUP_uDoninI0mF2EdsJCV8xihuauykqQHjw8BOWILiBohItef_q2dAik/s1600/Picture+9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIBm9-1G_J56P5G04p5No-fsd-Jp7X4oyOEHd2ETOhxS2dVDJ7oQEXdbk33Ef8KEIs8_PkAS6NogQ1R_u62HAUP_uDoninI0mF2EdsJCV8xihuauykqQHjw8BOWILiBohItef_q2dAik/s320/Picture+9.png" width="320" /></a></div>http://xkcd.com/26/<br />
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Ok, I aim to be known as Dr Elizabeth - I teach music technology - I own two cats!<br />
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</div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-77556406152599108322011-03-17T08:57:00.001+00:002013-07-12T11:45:52.365+01:00Software for Research<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've used a range of software packages (beyond the obvious) over the last few years. I might review some of them if anyone is interested in anything specific so this is just a list for now.<br />
<br />
Scrivener - http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php<br />
NVivo - http://www.qsrinternational.com/#tab_you<br />
Transanna - http://www.transana.org/<br />
Audacity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity<br />
Selfcontrol - http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/<br />
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Scrivener is extremely interesting and I'll publish a blog post on that at some point soon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNgCe5NeQU4CtwsckxTj9Lmoi9VwO64bEmLLMzTT52Wd0vqvur8yp7jQeKkgYJS2DOT5T644jz5k7xKzKVJrV_ytVoedNd3NkliD17ZtHkdZS6525biwD9RVXS3dSfA7vb6jbCWvRT_0/s1600/Picture+8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNgCe5NeQU4CtwsckxTj9Lmoi9VwO64bEmLLMzTT52Wd0vqvur8yp7jQeKkgYJS2DOT5T644jz5k7xKzKVJrV_ytVoedNd3NkliD17ZtHkdZS6525biwD9RVXS3dSfA7vb6jbCWvRT_0/s320/Picture+8.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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It is a tool for writing large documents (play, book... thesis). It works well for people who need to navigate a lot of materials and keep them stored in one place. Considering the price in particular I would urge anyone writing a thesis to think seriously about using it. Actually, I picked this up from observing how music postgrads and post-docs in our department work. </div>
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More soon!</div>
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Please contact me with questions since I would rather post things here that you're interested in than throw paint at the wall. </div>
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tra for now. </div>
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Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-1971388928262017772011-03-17T08:47:00.002+00:002011-03-17T09:01:19.067+00:00PhD Blogging<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I've changed the function of my general blog - because the PhD takes over pretty much everything... so I've decided that it is about time I develop it as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">a research blog!</span><br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Things to be thrown at the keyboard in the coming weeks:</div><div><br />
</div><div>- links or good advice I've had</div><div>- thoughts about my research (eureka moments, spirit crushing experiences, stories, and reflections on creativity as I push through a mountain of audio and video recordings)</div><div>- info on writing and method related tools I'm using</div><div><br />
</div><div>basically, anything I think that might be useful and/or just interesting to other PhDers. </div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCJ8z4__MbkbyhPCHQGILd-VdEBvFPMpF9uqwwcQzjUaabZSZMmLCKCTswlj8OOEkC2gkvqQ7YQ3fliBKoVUll77k6DAfcRtIiIZNfofjrF4e7jUByK6NQF6ZRmIG9n8Z459-7JQ1zFk/s1600/phd061206s.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCJ8z4__MbkbyhPCHQGILd-VdEBvFPMpF9uqwwcQzjUaabZSZMmLCKCTswlj8OOEkC2gkvqQ7YQ3fliBKoVUll77k6DAfcRtIiIZNfofjrF4e7jUByK6NQF6ZRmIG9n8Z459-7JQ1zFk/s320/phd061206s.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So my first enjoyment as a PhD student is PhD Comics (above). Well it makes me smile almost as much as watching my cat looking for mice in and behind my laptop after 5 minutes of mouse videos on youtube. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As you can see - I work hard!</div><div><br />
</div></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-64616993940931632912010-12-11T14:14:00.000+00:002010-12-11T14:14:29.636+00:00Imagine being 17 now<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9276000/9276699.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9276000/9276699.stm</a> <br />
This is the story of a group of 17 year old girls who wanted to protest and planned to leave if things became violent... and what happened when they found they couldn't. I find it difficut not to weep just looking at the picture but to read these words. <br />
<br />
I also saw another video from a mobile phone at the point when the police charged the kettle... towards the end there is a boy. He looks no more than 13, perhaps younger. Maybe the police <strong>do</strong> have a difficult job, I've seen violence against them and admire them for the work they do... but there needs to be more sensitivity, humanity and better training to deal with the huge range of individuals involved in a crowd such as this. I've read several accounts where people explain being pushed to the front, where they try hard to back away from the riot police and end up getting a beating. I could easily imagine myself in that situation too but there is no possibility for peaceful protest because there will always be a few who want to fight the police.Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-75802048973754544302010-12-10T12:40:00.000+00:002010-12-10T12:40:23.069+00:00Our Vice-Chancellor Bob Cryan write to us today:<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The text below is an extract from an e-mail from our VC. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">"From 2012 our students will have to pay higher fees to compensate for the 80%+ cut in teaching funding that we will receive and they will have 30 years to pay it back. I cannot ask our future students to do this without being prepared to do it myself. I have benefitted from an outstanding education at the University of Huddersfield and so, once we have set our fee levels, I intend to take on the same 30 year tuition fee debt as our future students and will set up a standing order to make payments directly to a student support fund for our University."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">It is clear that there are going to be some significant cuts and we will see dramatic change in every University now, however I present our VC's words here with pride. </span></div></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-42648334410052772982010-12-10T10:05:00.002+00:002011-02-16T08:54:22.336+00:00Sad Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal">Just two words? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t have sufficient to express my feeling on the student or police violence. It takes 1 idiot to throw a snooker ball and light the fuse, so police do what they’re instructed to, and the possibility of peaceful protest collapses. I’m horrified but not surprised. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">True violence happened in Parliament but now public opinion will be against students and Higher Education because of this? This is however not just about tuition fees and the students; subject areas could fold, departments and entire institutions vanish. I don’t support violence at all; the whole sector will loose public support because of it. Well done Clegg, yes, I do blame you for a promise you had no right to make. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I have sympathy those <i>caught</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in it, last night and in the long painful run. Lets be realistic about who is in the crowd: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">1) This affects kids who are not yet students and some would have been swept along with the excitement then caught in the middle of something more than they could have imagined and will never forget.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">2) Who are ‘the students’ anyway? Today (after the previous government pushed everyone they could into HE) ‘students’ represent a large section of our society. Peaceful, intelligent, passionate as well as violent. The violence of course can’t be disputed but the peaceful protest didn’t happen because we don’t see them reported? I meet a huge variety of people in my job and yes there are some who provoke violence but in my domain, many more who would stand peacefully but defend themselves if they feel threatened and frightened. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">3) Non-students. What a great opportunity to just get out there and provoke the police, or to express anger about any number of things! They are clearly not all students. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Finally, which muppet/genius approved that the Royal car should be driven into the area?! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Last night I went to TaeKwon Do –I was studying the disciplined art of fighting, with thoughts of violent clashes and a concern for what happens next in my mind. At the same time a very unique group of individuals, all of them friends of mine who I respect more than I think any of them know, locked horns on Facebook: a teacher, a soldier recently returned from serving our country, a IV Dan international level martial artist and teacher, a philosopher and socialist – my truly inspiring brother, another who is also a lecturer in our own department, and another teacher. I'm not sure why but something about this comment feed struck me profoundly as I know each person here and can hear your voice when you speak. I can't explain that but it will stay with me, and I must add my own voice or at least clarify the status update the prompted your words...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Sad day</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Because of the vote and disappointment with the government, the violence and disappointment on behalf of the future generation of students, and for colleagues all over the country who will meet the students (customers), parents (customers), the cuts (job losses…the most commercial institutions, not necessarily the best, will survive), the government (social engineers), the public opinion of HE and whatever angle the media choose (more often to put pressure on HE). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Where is Education in this? The word ‘my fees pay your salary’ will <i>not</i> be heard in my lecture room. Now I preface everything with my philosophy for teaching and learning. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">What pains me more is that there will be young people missing an opportunity for higher education, not because they should be doing something more directly vocational (learning a trade), but because they can’t face the albatross of debt, or because they might be worried about saddling their parents with it. </span>A student who trains in physics/music/art/maths graduates and studies a PGCE and becomes a teacher is not the only person to benefit from their training. I hear that there are less than 400 PGCE places for music teacher training in England next year... Hull is cutting 100% funding for their local music services. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">All of this is connected and every ounce of it makes me angry, particularly a government who gain a position of power based on promises made without the facts.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">With the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was also announced yesterday and so I remember the sight of a single man protesting in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square in 1989. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What next?</div></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-41886668137054600012010-11-18T08:15:00.000+00:002011-11-18T08:16:54.228+00:00Gran Canaria: from the middle of the island. A very beautiful place.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrM_DyBXKrsWPXp_6YUncZ4PmFZY7ZsW41rE_eccc5ndXZU1sdcATGexYOBBw7-MDBt_KkxdK8NE_0RJ4zm8YJhyphenhyphenHTNZ0um3VgMeafatYlUiv5a-EtnBqZxrRcyIbph0PknH7CTCoK-Dc/s1600/IMG_3300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrM_DyBXKrsWPXp_6YUncZ4PmFZY7ZsW41rE_eccc5ndXZU1sdcATGexYOBBw7-MDBt_KkxdK8NE_0RJ4zm8YJhyphenhyphenHTNZ0um3VgMeafatYlUiv5a-EtnBqZxrRcyIbph0PknH7CTCoK-Dc/s640/IMG_3300.JPG" width="640" /></a></div></div>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193313465906171362.post-14370784736489508052010-10-05T16:14:00.000+01:002010-10-05T16:14:07.831+01:00Day 1 - Arrivals<span style="color: #ffe599; font-size: large;">This part of Egypt is peaceful in such a way that you feel instantly still the moment you’re submerged in her warm rich air. Especially in the middle of the night. The man who greeted us in arrivals was Bedouin. I greeted him with ‘Salaam’ rather than a Westerner’s ‘Hi’ :). He bowed his head, gently thumping his chest twice in respect, and what I now suspect to be sincere gratitude. I’m fairly certain that we didn’t make eye contact again afterwards. He drove us the hour (or so) trip through miles of what look like dark silhouetted quarries, back to Dahab, and my full memory of our last visit returned. It was dark, in its own way this may be a beautiful place (to me it feels as if all the life and colour were washed into the Red Sea as these mounds of rock are pretty barren), so memory came through my other senses this morning. The smell and feel of the air, and then the sounds... it isn’t ever noisy, certainly not at 4am but it is never completely silent here either. To help you to imagine, it reminds me of the opening moments in a film called ‘The English Patient’. There is a collage that includes the most beautifully sung voice against suggestions of bells, movements, memories. I’m always reminded of the mood of that sequence when I travel here; that mystery, suggestions of another world I know is beyond my own life. So we sat in the car as we had done during Ramadan the year before, listening again to the sung prayers mixed with layers of static and talk, not bothering to compete for attention. And with this opening soundtrack we passed slowly through several poorly lit dissinterested checkponts and between the craggy silouettes, and finally arrived at the familiar town and cheap divers hotel that will become our home. Now, after roughly 4 hours of sleep I’ve watched the 9am diving group load tanks for their underwater safari, and imagine that we never actually left this enchanting place at all. </span>Liz Dobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670282996299483558noreply@blogger.com0