Monday, March 26, 2012
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Call for papers - women in sound art
Care of Lisa Whistlecroft :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: www.terz.cc.
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.'
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.'
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The value of an anchor
advice from @alexiskirke Alexis Kirke (who has just completed his second PhD)
As I'm writing up my thesis (and as it is taking such a long time) I asked him for some tips.
This was his advice in a brief tweet:
As I'm writing up my thesis (and as it is taking such a long time) I asked him for some tips.
This was his advice in a brief tweet:
'be clear about ur motivations, be clear what ur trying to demonstrate,
relate to past lit, and don't try to be perfect'
With this in mind I produced a document and pinned it on the wall above my desk.
It reminds me of:
- my research questions
- significant points being made in my thesis
- their relationship with fundamental theoretical ideas
- not to make everything perfect (whatever that is I tend to overwork things)
- my motivations
It sounds obvious but having it there has proven to be a real anchor.
Ever have days when you just can’t focus on a task?
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.
Tips to help get your brain working again
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.
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.
Breathe deepMore 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.
Sit up straightPosture 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.
Take a short breakWhen 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.
Mix up your environmentIt 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.
Avoid sugarSimple 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.
Speed readContrary 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.
Make a planWhen 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.
De-clutterCluttered rooms and offices can contribute to cluttered thinking. Organise a clear space for mental work.
Eat fishScientific 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.
Don’t skip breakfastHaving 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.
Snack on blueberriesA 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.
Drink lots of waterDehydration can be detrimental to the brain. Drink lots of water, particularly before a potentially stressful situation.
DoodleDrawing stimulates the right hemisphere of the brain and inspires creativity. Doodling can kick start your brain when it’s bored.
LaughLaughter 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.
Think positiveTake 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.
Switch handsTry using your less dominant hand for tasks such as eating or writing to stimulate your brain.
YawnIt is thought that a yawn works to send more oxygen to the brain, cooling it down and waking it up.
Do something newIf 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?
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.
Breathe deepMore 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.
Sit up straightPosture 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.
Take a short breakWhen 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.
Mix up your environmentIt 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.
Avoid sugarSimple 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.
Speed readContrary 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.
Make a planWhen 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.
De-clutterCluttered rooms and offices can contribute to cluttered thinking. Organise a clear space for mental work.
Eat fishScientific 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.
Don’t skip breakfastHaving 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.
Snack on blueberriesA 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.
Drink lots of waterDehydration can be detrimental to the brain. Drink lots of water, particularly before a potentially stressful situation.
DoodleDrawing stimulates the right hemisphere of the brain and inspires creativity. Doodling can kick start your brain when it’s bored.
LaughLaughter 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.
Think positiveTake 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.
Switch handsTry using your less dominant hand for tasks such as eating or writing to stimulate your brain.
YawnIt is thought that a yawn works to send more oxygen to the brain, cooling it down and waking it up.
Do something newIf 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?
Friday, March 25, 2011
A short note on sociocultural theory and observing creative process. Some theoretical ideas that inform my research
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.
(Please note I've removed page numbers for quotes however I can provide upon request).
Key words: social psychology – creative process - collaboration - music composition
(Please note I've removed page numbers for quotes however I can provide upon request).
Key words: social psychology – creative process - collaboration - music composition
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:
- That knowledge is a social construct.
- That human activity is shaped by physical and psychological tools, which are in turn developed in human activity
- That there is a temporal genesis which means that what happens is framed by what happened before, and it is understood in a context [1] by what happens next.
This is a crude summary and I strongly urge anyone interested in Vygotsky’s theories on Human Activity to read:
Lev Vygotsky’s (1978) Mind in Society: Interaction Between Learning and Development. London: Harvard University Press
and
Harry Daniels’ (1996) An Introduction to Vygotsky Routledge
Socioculturally framed research is concerned essentially with the development of knowledge; as Eva Vass explains: ‘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.’ (Vass, 2004).
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:
“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)
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 http://ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/~ksawyer/groupgenius/ 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.
Sociocultural researchers look at the inter-relationships that mediate what happens in co-creating, as Karen Littleton, Sylvia Rojas-Drummond and Dorothy Miell explain: ‘…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.’ (Littleton, Rojas-Drummond and Miell, 2008).
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:
‘…joint activity has multiple agendas, goals, contexts, tasks, and actors with different intentions. It involves dynamics of agreement, disagreement, and coordination of participants’ contributions.’
(Eugine Masutov, 1996).
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: ‘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.’ (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: ‘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.’ (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.
In collaborative creating situations contributions for creative content and direction come from different people. '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.' (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. '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.' (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:
In collaborative creating situations contributions for creative content and direction come from different people. '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.' (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. '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.' (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:
‘…history is not just an event in the past but it is alive in the present and may shape the future.’ (Pettigrew, 1990).
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.
Footnote 1: A note on context in sociocultural terms
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).
Bibliography
Amabile, T. M., (1982) The social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 997 – 1013
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
Gardner, H., (1994) The Creator’s Patterns in M. Boden Dimensions of Creativity MIT Press
Lantolf, J.P., (2000) Introducing Sociocultural Theory In J.P. Lantolf (ed.) Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning 1-26. Oxford: OUP
Linell, P., (1998) Approaching Dialogue: Talk Interaction and Contexts in Dialogical Perspectives John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Masutov, E., (1996) Intersubjectivity Without Agreement Mind, Culture and Activity 3(1) 25-45
Miell, Littleton & Rojas-Drummond (2008) Editorial Introduction International Journal of Educational Research 47(1)
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
Pettigrew, A. M., (1990) Longitudinal Field Research on Change: Theory and Practice Organizational Science 1(3)
Sawyer, K. R., (2006) Group Creativity: Musical Performance and Collaboration Psychology of Music 34(2) 148-165
Sawyer, K. R., (2008) Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration Basic Books
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
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
Vygotsky, L. S., (1978) Mind in Society: Interaction Between Learning and Development. London: Harvard University Press
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Being in a community - #Phdchat
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.
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.
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...
Do a search for this on twitter.
There is a group that meet on Wednesday evenings 7.30 for an hour. I wish I wasn't busy at that time.
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.
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...
#Phdchat
There is a group that meet on Wednesday evenings 7.30 for an hour. I wish I wasn't busy at that time.
Also visit http://twtpoll.com/gfbxlw to vote on the topic that is to be discussed.
Writing analytic approach - current challenge
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.
So research questions are revised:
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?
How is the process of co-constructing creative work mediated through an interrelationship with the tools used? ('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)
How does talk shape the genesis and negotiation of creative contributions in different contexts and across time in socially mediated creative collaboration. (Language is a psychological tool that mediates joint activity)
If these questions interest you I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. 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.
The document I'm working on now has to show the following:
Useful exercise I think for anyone dealing with a large amount of data.
So research questions are revised:
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.
Interesting?
...more specifically...
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?
How is the process of co-constructing creative work mediated through an interrelationship with the tools used? ('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)
How does talk shape the genesis and negotiation of creative contributions in different contexts and across time in socially mediated creative collaboration. (Language is a psychological tool that mediates joint activity)
If these questions interest you I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. 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.
The document I'm working on now has to show the following:
- What I'm interested in (the above)
- What analytic choices I've made and what theoretical ideas, materials and theories have motivated them - so what they connect with.
- What is distinct about my contribution
Useful exercise I think for anyone dealing with a large amount of data.
This cartoonist MUST know me!
Ok, I aim to be known as Dr Elizabeth - I teach music technology - I own two cats!
Software for Research
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.
Scrivener - http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
NVivo - http://www.qsrinternational.com/#tab_you
Transanna - http://www.transana.org/
Audacity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity
Selfcontrol - http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/
Scrivener is extremely interesting and I'll publish a blog post on that at some point soon.
Scrivener - http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
NVivo - http://www.qsrinternational.com/#tab_you
Transanna - http://www.transana.org/
Audacity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity
Selfcontrol - http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/
Scrivener is extremely interesting and I'll publish a blog post on that at some point soon.
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.
More soon!
Please contact me with questions since I would rather post things here that you're interested in than throw paint at the wall.
tra for now.
PhD Blogging
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 a research blog!
Things to be thrown at the keyboard in the coming weeks:
- links or good advice I've had
- 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)
- info on writing and method related tools I'm using
basically, anything I think that might be useful and/or just interesting to other PhDers.
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.
As you can see - I work hard!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Imagine being 17 now
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9276000/9276699.stm
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.
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 do 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.
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.
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 do 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.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Our Vice-Chancellor Bob Cryan write to us today:
The text below is an extract from an e-mail from our VC.
"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."
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.
Sad Day
Just two words?
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.
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.
I have sympathy those caught in it, last night and in the long painful run. Lets be realistic about who is in the crowd:
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.
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.
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.
Finally, which muppet/genius approved that the Royal car should be driven into the area?!
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...
Sad day
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).
Where is Education in this? The word ‘my fees pay your salary’ will not be heard in my lecture room. Now I preface everything with my philosophy for teaching and learning.
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. 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.
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.
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.
What next?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Day 1 - Arrivals
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.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
21 pages of Chapter 1
Feeling extremely encouraged today. I've just finished the penultimate edit for the first draft of the first 21 pages of Chapter 1 (grin). Had some extremely positive feedback about the analysis and feel that there is some momentum gathering now (grin again).
Finally!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Intermental Development Zone
Following Vygotsky's concept of Zone of Proximal development [ZPD], Fernandez, Wegerif, Mercer and Rojas-Drummond introduce the concept of the Intermental Development Zone [IDZ].
ZPD - When a non-expert works with an expert (so a child with a teacher), this concept refers to the zone in which the non-expert can achieve more with help from the expert than they could have without it. Often accompanied by the concept of Scaffolding; a teacher may set up a frame in which a child can lead and progress their cognitive development.
4 stages of ZPD (From Mercer and Littleton... I can provide full references if anyone is interested)
1 capable other scaffolds for the student
2 the student takes over scaffolding
3 task activity becomes automatic
4 can return to previous stages 1 or 2
The emphasis however is on cognitive development
‘…The zpd is now seen as providing a way of conceptualizing the many ways in which an individual’s development may be assisted by other members of a culture, both in face-to-face interaction and through the legacy of artefacts that they have created.’ (Gordon Wells in Dialogic Inquiry in Education: Building on the Legacy of Vygotsky
But ZPD as a concept is too static. The expert and non-expert create a space for communication (Mercer and Littleton) IDZ embraces how teacher and learner embrace changing states. It focusses on the nature of communicative processes.
IDZ - '...is represented in talk by references to shared experience, but can also be sustained by tacit invocations of common knowledge.' (Littleton & Mercer)
ZPD - When a non-expert works with an expert (so a child with a teacher), this concept refers to the zone in which the non-expert can achieve more with help from the expert than they could have without it. Often accompanied by the concept of Scaffolding; a teacher may set up a frame in which a child can lead and progress their cognitive development.
4 stages of ZPD (From Mercer and Littleton... I can provide full references if anyone is interested)
1 capable other scaffolds for the student
2 the student takes over scaffolding
3 task activity becomes automatic
4 can return to previous stages 1 or 2
The emphasis however is on cognitive development
‘…The zpd is now seen as providing a way of conceptualizing the many ways in which an individual’s development may be assisted by other members of a culture, both in face-to-face interaction and through the legacy of artefacts that they have created.’ (Gordon Wells in Dialogic Inquiry in Education: Building on the Legacy of Vygotsky
But ZPD as a concept is too static. The expert and non-expert create a space for communication (Mercer and Littleton) IDZ embraces how teacher and learner embrace changing states. It focusses on the nature of communicative processes.
IDZ - '...is represented in talk by references to shared experience, but can also be sustained by tacit invocations of common knowledge.' (Littleton & Mercer)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
TaeKwon-Do info about belts
If you read the posts about the TaeKwon-Do summer camp (below) and you don't do TaeKwon-Do here is some information about the belt system following sensible feedback from a good friend :-)
The colour belt students have to progress through a sequence of Kups in their training towards black belt. There are practical applications:
- the instructor can see from your belt colour what you should know and what you should be able to do at your level, helpful in larger classes or when attending seminars in other locations)
- you line up in the Dojang (training room) in belt order with white belts at the back and seniors in front of them. This means that you are able to see more experienced practitioners performing techniques.
I'm sure there are more but I'm supposed to be working on my PhD!
I am not sure about the following points so I hope that someone will post the correct information below.
White belt signifies the beginner and no previous knowledge of TaeKwon-Do. I'm not sure if there was always a belt system, it just became darker (you should never wash your belt) until you'd been training for so long it became black.
Now the system is as follows
White
Yellow tag
Yellow
Green tag
Green
Blue tag
Blue
Red tag
Red
Black tag
Black
You are permitted to take a grading after 3 months with your instructor's permission. If you manage to pass with a strong pass then you can do your next grading sooner than that with permission. I'm not sure but I think that the waiting time get's a little longer after blue belt anyway. It is possible for someone to reach blackbelt in 2 years or even less time however I personally plan to consolidate now and take my time. I have trained for 18 months and plan on taking at least 2 years before grading for a black belt. It is a motivating and very well structured system however as you progress through the beginner grades it becomes clear that TaeKwon-Do is fosters personal feeling and understanding about movement. There is a lot of conditioning and my view is that it should be enjoyed in the moment, not as ambition for achievement; there is always something to work on.
Once you have reached Black you are considered first degree, or first dan as it is often called.
If you are below the age of 13 and a half your belt has a white stripe running its length which is removed at that age.
The black belt has a lot of things written on it. The tenets of TaeKwon-Do, your name, the signature of our first Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha. Anything else anyone? I'm not a black belt yet so I'm not sure.
After a year, if you are considered ready, you can take your second degree grading.
2 years your 3rd degree
3 years your 4th degree (4th degree means international instructor)
4 years 5th degree
5 years 6th degree
6 years 7th degree (and become a Master)
7 years 8th degree (and become a Senior Master)
There is only ever one 9th degree and that is our Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha
Please correct me if any of this is not right. Also if you know of a good website that explains the system please post it so that others can look at that for reference.
Senior Master Paul Cutler has been training for 36 years (if I heard him correctly at the weekend)
The colour belt students have to progress through a sequence of Kups in their training towards black belt. There are practical applications:
- the instructor can see from your belt colour what you should know and what you should be able to do at your level, helpful in larger classes or when attending seminars in other locations)
- you line up in the Dojang (training room) in belt order with white belts at the back and seniors in front of them. This means that you are able to see more experienced practitioners performing techniques.
I'm sure there are more but I'm supposed to be working on my PhD!
I am not sure about the following points so I hope that someone will post the correct information below.
White belt signifies the beginner and no previous knowledge of TaeKwon-Do. I'm not sure if there was always a belt system, it just became darker (you should never wash your belt) until you'd been training for so long it became black.
Now the system is as follows
White
Yellow tag
Yellow
Green tag
Green
Blue tag
Blue
Red tag
Red
Black tag
Black
You are permitted to take a grading after 3 months with your instructor's permission. If you manage to pass with a strong pass then you can do your next grading sooner than that with permission. I'm not sure but I think that the waiting time get's a little longer after blue belt anyway. It is possible for someone to reach blackbelt in 2 years or even less time however I personally plan to consolidate now and take my time. I have trained for 18 months and plan on taking at least 2 years before grading for a black belt. It is a motivating and very well structured system however as you progress through the beginner grades it becomes clear that TaeKwon-Do is fosters personal feeling and understanding about movement. There is a lot of conditioning and my view is that it should be enjoyed in the moment, not as ambition for achievement; there is always something to work on.
Once you have reached Black you are considered first degree, or first dan as it is often called.
If you are below the age of 13 and a half your belt has a white stripe running its length which is removed at that age.
The black belt has a lot of things written on it. The tenets of TaeKwon-Do, your name, the signature of our first Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha. Anything else anyone? I'm not a black belt yet so I'm not sure.
After a year, if you are considered ready, you can take your second degree grading.
2 years your 3rd degree
3 years your 4th degree (4th degree means international instructor)
4 years 5th degree
5 years 6th degree
6 years 7th degree (and become a Master)
7 years 8th degree (and become a Senior Master)
There is only ever one 9th degree and that is our Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha
Please correct me if any of this is not right. Also if you know of a good website that explains the system please post it so that others can look at that for reference.
Senior Master Paul Cutler has been training for 36 years (if I heard him correctly at the weekend)
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