What type of learner are you?

In the summary of tasks for part 1c we are asked to look at 'how you might use the programme YouTube to support your developing professional practice'. I know we are still in the early stages but it has become apparent to me that I have surprisingly used YouTube on numerous occasions and led me to question why?

I feel this a reflection of the way I learn most.

After not studying for a while I decided to re-take the test 'what type of learner are you?'. Below are my results-

Taking the test confirmed I am predominately a visual learner. I feel YouTube is going to be a very valuable programme for me in my developing practice to help with my understanding of ideas, thoughts and theories. This is something I am going to keep in mind as I continue on in my practice.

Why don't you take the test today and see what type of learner you are?

http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

Task 1c: Audio-Visual

For Task 1c we are asked to look at using Youtube as a tool and make a video about our time on the course so far.

Whilst reading reading further into the web 2.0 after reader 1 I discovered at how popular You Tube is-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11610959/Is-your-daily-social-media-usage-higher-than-average.html

I was quite shocked with these figures and feel I have under estimated how useful and widely available youtube is.

Youtube is a tool I have used extensively over my professional practice as a performer to market myself. As I feel very compliant with this tool I have taken this opportunity to update my showreels rather than making a new video. As I have come to the end of my career performing I thought it would be a perfect time to do this and have them to look back on... (or show the grandkids? back when I was dancer.....)

I have decided to keep within the terms of what a showreel should be like as if I was to send to a casting director.

https://www.starnow.com/help/14/

After talking with a casting director for a production company I asked their views on what makes a good showreel. They emphasised that casting directors are often sent 100's a day therefore it is important to make yours stand out. They are very busy people and are limited on time so the first 30 seconds are the most important as sometimes that is all they will watch.

After spending along time trying to cut down my showreels I decided to opt for two showreels. The first showreel being a brief overview of my skills and the second being an extended version for if an employee wanted to see more.


When uploading these I also revised my security settings. Previously I had my videos set to public and included tags so employees could easily find my showreel and increase my opportunities of employment. But now as my practice has changed and I am not actively seeking for work as a performer I felt it necessary to change my settings to 'private'.

I am interested to see how 'YouTube'  as a programme will support my developing professional practice.

Task 1b: Developing ideas

As I discovered from my initial reaction of the reader to then relating it to practice their is a blurred line between personal/social and professional/social boundaries with web 2.0 and crosses over with that of ethical issues. As I am now within teaching I was shocked to discover what 'Kuhen' stated 'teachers are the most vulnerable group in danger'. This has led me to do more reading into the topic.

I particularly enjoyed reading Kuhens article on 'manage your digital footprint'.
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2012/02/osos106_Digital_Footprint.pdf

I was pleased to see when I did google my name that nothing came up. But this made me question is it a good thing to hide everything? In an article from Huffington post 'according to research , a huge 91% of employers, use linkdln, twitter, and Facebook to screen candidates'. So if you have nothing on your social media sites does that underline you have something to hide?

I always have and always will be careful of what I post on social media. But how safe are we really? and what is the boundary? who creates these boundaries? is there a way we can distinguish the professional and personal boundaries?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/25/social-media-job-prospects-impact-should-we-be-scared_n_2550921.html

One idea of the reader is that of 'harnessing collective intelligence' but are we really? don't we tend to like or follow people that we are interested in or have similar thoughts, feelings and interests with. i.e. other performers will follow other creative arts people rather than say footballers, builders, politicians. Although you may think we are being open minded are we really?

Heres an interesting read from CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/22/health/facebook-study-narrow-minded-trnd/index.html

This made me question within my practice as I have changed from being a performer to a teacher do I need to start using different communication technologies and discover how do teachers communicate? what technologies do they use? should i start follow them on social media sites?

Task 1b: Initial thoughts

As I started to look at reader 1 I initially got very angry.... why you ask?

As I discovered web 2.0 refers to a generation of web based technologies and social networking sites such as Facebook. For someone reason Facebook makes me very angry. I am bit of a traditionalist and I hate how much time as a nation people spend on there. Initially the only ideas that came to mind where the negative effects that Facebook has on us, particularly that of a younger generation. I have reason to believe that web 2.0 has an adverse effect on-

Language skills- A video posted by National Opera House, 2011 made me question can you imagine if we did talk in Facebook language?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDycZH0CA4I&t=123s



Loneliness/isolation-
As it allows people to communicate with people they don't know its creates 'virtual friendships' are these real friendships?

Cause of mental health- I don't even know where to start? as the reader suggests that web 2.0 allows emancipatory practice. They allow us to present our own filtered sense of reality. How much of what we see from others is actually real? are they really that happy? or have that body? eat that amount? or is it an edited version? This allows people to critically compare lives and measure success and failures in their own lives causing depression, anxiety, eating disorders, low self esteem, body dysmorphia.

Cause of obesity- a recent survery from the Telegraph states that an average person spend 1 hour and 40 minutes each day managing an average of five social media networks (Davidson, L. 2015). With obesity rates in the UK at an all time high what if we stopped as long on these sites and instead did some exercise?

Violence and crime- does having that freedom to voice opinions more widely lead to a conflict causing crime and violence?

As I begun to read further in I slowly discovered that all these negatives where related to using these technologies for social purposes and not as 'professional communication technologies' within the workplace or professional practice. Is this because the personal/social boundaries and professional/social boundaries are blurred on web 2.0?


The reader discuses three competencies that are relevant to the positioning of web 2.0 within professional practice and the workplace. I particularly found the architectures of participation thought provoking. "Participation is a function of our ability to actually participate" (MDXa, 2017). This statement took me back to a film I recently watched (I, Daniel Blake, 2016). In this film the movie highlights how web 2.0 is used a professional tool to help get people back into work. They are required to create a professional profile on the job centre site and use the internet to advocate they are looking for work. However in this film the man looking for work 'Daniel Blake' doesn't have the skills, money or infrastructure to do this. He is from the older generation or after a discussion with mum about this 'lost generation' , he isn't computer literate and or have access to a computer. The scene in which he goes to the job centre to create his profile broke my heart and brought lots of thoughts to mind, which I can now relate to my practice. Is enough being done to educate people about new technologies? are we becoming to reliant on the use of technology particularly web 2.0? how time consuming is the use of tools? is it wrong that we presume everybody nowadays has access to these facilities? whose reasonability is it to keep up to date with the technologies, an individual? or the company in which you work for?


As Hamilton notes "participation is a function, in part, of the reduction of barriers to access (such as time, skill and financial commitment)" (MDXa, 2017). Is enough being done to reduce these barriers? A lot of the skills I have are because I have grown up in the era of technology and before my professional career had started so I was aware of how to use them. But as Ulrich suggests they are "constantly evolving" (MDXa, 2017). Am I also going to get left behind when new features develop? is it up to yourself to develop to keep up to date? but what if I don't have the time to do this? I find it hard enough to keep up to date with my Instagram account, let alone adding twitter, Pinterest etc. but then is this my own fault? is this something as a professional if I choose to use these technologies as a tool to dedicate specific time for?

A report I saw yesterday on BBC Breakfast also highlights one of the architectures of participation. They where looking at how the BBC uses Facebook as a platform for its journalism. One watcher connected them about this -

(BBC, 2017)
Have the BBC been ethical about their decision to embrace new digital technologies and social media as a way that it reaches its audiences? or do they need to take into consideration that not everyone can access or skills to use digital devices? Is it wrong that we just presume everyone nowadays has the skills, time, and money to use these professional technologies? should we make allowances for it?

BBC news interview about use of Facebook

Just a quick post 

There was a really interesting and relevant interview on BBC Breakfast News Watch this morning about the use of Facebook for the BBC if anyone has chance to watch it on iPlayer before it expires- 

The link is below and it is from 1:52:44

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08dwfy4/breakfast-18022017

Lauren 

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Task 1a continued...

Since updating my profile I have used the feedback from fellow students 'Eleanor Byrne' and 'Jennifer Simm' and updated one of my online profiles further.

Elenaor's comment said 'we should make the most of it and allow more of ourselves to come through'. I decided to embrace this opportunity and enhance my profile further with a bit more information about myself.

Please see below how I have developed my profile further-

In the past I have always used my online professional profiles to market myself as a practicing performer of the Arts however as my current situation has changed and no longer performing I need to look at marketing and networking myself in a different manner. This I feel is something may take a while to get used to.

I like Jennifer how analysed it in her blog.... there is no right or wrong answer but what you write is a possible indicator to potential employers on performers personalities.

Why am I doing the BAPP course?

Already I am starting to ask myself that question. Why am I doing the BAPP course?

After being out of academic education for over 8 years, it is proving more difficult than I expected. I am not lacking motivation as I am desperately wanting to do it but getting my brain to think in a different way other than what colour eyeshadow shall I wear for the show tonight? did I sew up the hole in my fishnets? where in the world am I tomorrow? or what cocktail shall I have after the show?To the outside people they cant understand why I have stopped working as a Professional dancer and I know there are going to be times where I ask myself the same thing. That is why I have chosen to write this blog post, as something I can look back on as times get tough through out the course to remind myself why I have chosen to further and develop my career. During our first Skype induction call Adesola said something that really got me thinking 'If you are professional you will always continue to learn'. This gave me the fire in my belly and flicked the switch my head, I have become complasant over the past few months and it was time to change this.

After picking up an injury on my last contract it got me thinking hard about what I do want in my life. These things included a family, a house, a stable career, being able to go to the cinema, or see my friends more than once a year, be able to cook for myself, eat what I want and when I want.

I am nowhere near that stage of having a family, I don't even have a boyfriend for one, only a small amount of savings and not a clue of where I want to live. But a few those aspects I knew I could put back into my life if I decided to take the plunge and go for the career change.

I thought about a few different career options: setting up my own health food cafe, being a personal trainer, becoming a dietitian or nutritionist, even being a dog walker. But for most of those it resorted back to the aspects of the industry that I didn't enjoy that come alongside being self employed 'when is the next pay check?' being in charge of your own holiday schedule, tax returns!!!! I battled through them for 6 years, and I just wanted a stable job in one place with a pension.

It was my Mum, who suggested going into teaching. At first I brushed the idea of. I have always hated teaching in the past, but as times change people change and I decided to embrace it and give it a go. I returned back to my local dance school, where I started when I was 5 years old, and started applying for jobs as a TA in educational schools. After looking around a school the fire in my belly started again and I knew teaching was the title of my next career chapter.

This leads me to how I have ended up down the BAPP course. In order to progress further it was time to develop my skills and qualifications, and I chose the route of doing the BAPP course with the intention to do my PCGE after.

I like to use affirmations a lot in my life to help keep me motivated and inspired. Here are a few that I think I will need to help me along my way of this course.

'Tough times don't last, tough people do'.

'Education is supposed to be challenging in order to transform'

'If you are professional you will always continue to learn'

If you are struggling to get motivated why don't you write a list of the reasons why you are doing the course, what you intend to gain out of it, think about what can help you along the way to keep you on track and lastly you have to remember

Best Wishes

Lauren

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Task 1 A continued

This evening I have spent some time updating both my StarNow and Talent Cast profiles. These are the two websites I have found to be the most useful at finding and gaining castings without having an agent. 

Below is an image to what my StarNow Profile looked like before updating- 

And here is what it looks life after updating it- 

As you will see my headshot is the same, as this is my most up to date headshot. Although it is 2 years old I do feel it still portrays me correctly now. However after looking into how often you should get headshots updated I found this- 

http://www.headshots101.com/how-often-do-I-need-headshots.html

After reading this i feel I should consider getting new headshots done. 


Changes that I made- 
Added links to other profiles- when I created my profile I was unaware I was unable to do this. I feel this is a very useful tool therefore decided to add links to my youtube channel where you can view my showreels and my Instagram account. I decided not to link to my Facebook account as I use this for personal use rather than professional (something I will discuss when looking at task 1b). Other accounts you are able to link are twitter, LinkedIn profile, personal website IMDb profile. I currently don't have a profile for any of them, but is something I could consider doing. 

Updated my location- When I first made my account I was living in London, I now live back in North Yorkshire and felt it was important to update this I am unable to attend castings in London at short notice. This will also improve my chances of getting work in my area. 

Updated my bio- My bio was displaying incorrect information therefore updated this.I was unable to put my exact location therefore mentioned it in my bio. As the town i live in is very small most work/casting would be in close by cities (York or Leeds)i felt it was important to mention I am close by to them and am able to commute for castings or jobs. 

Updated my talents- Previously I was listed as an Actor. I do not class myself as an Actress. In attempt to tick all the boxes I think i felt I should say that I was able to do this but have since learnt that I am I am not only wasting my time but that of casting directors. 

With both of my profiles I updated my privacy settings. Before I had it so if you searched my name in a search engine my profile would come up. As I know teach in an education setting I felt it was appropriate to keep these profiles private for personal confidentiality reasons and not to beak any school policies regarding social media. 

Whilst updating my profiles I looked at others to see what created a good profile. Those that i felt had a good profile included professional images (no selfies, or amateur images; images of professional work not just portfolio pictures; included lots of images, information, credentials, links and was not sparse on information or looking bare; had links to a showreel and clips of work. 

My bio is something I am thinking of adapting further. On some people's they created more of a personal profile talking about-personal skills and qualities where as others just kept it brief and mentioned their art skill set. See my below images for examples. 

I would be grateful if anyone could comment on this idea of what you think is best for a profile bio like this. Do you think it best to keep it short and sweet or maybe develop it a bit further and make it more personalised giving a few of your personal attributes? 

Task 1A

For task 1A we are asked to 'take your current professional CV and re write as a profile'

As I researched through some blogs before setting up my own profile I came across 'Megan Louch's Profile' who is on Module 3 of the BAPP course. I found her research on Task 1a particularly helpful. Like Megan I wanted to be clear in the real difference between a CV and a profile.

Taken from: http://www.mployability.net

With this in my mind and in light of the task I have decided to review my professional profiles. 

Below are the links to my current professional profiles- 

https://www.starnow.com/laurennicoleharper/

http://www.talentcast.co.uk/laurennicoleharper/

Don't look for inspiration be the inspiration

Writing a blog is something I have always loved the idea of doing but for someone reason I have never done it. Why? I had lots of ideas of what I wanted to share. Was I scared of committing to it? What if people wouldn't read it? what if it wasn't good enough? Was I to scared to actually express my thoughts and feelings in the worry of what people thought of me? 

After reading the Module 1 handbook for the BAPP course I was so excited that I could actually start a blog and I had a reason to do it.  My brain instantly jumped on the rollercoaster and ideas of what to write about started flying out. As always I grabbed my pen and paper and started writing a list! (I am one of those who is constantly writing a list for everything).  

Its Sunday 5th February and I set up my laptop to start writing at 9am, its now 2pm and I have just started typing (The word procasination comes to mind). With to many ideas and being to afraid of writing the wrong thing I scrolled for hours looking at other people's blogs becoming non the wiser but discovering there is no right or wrong answer to a blog. Blogs are not to be assessed and I am not going to be marked down because of what I write or how I write. They are a tool in which I can express and explore thoughts and ideas, and instead of a personal diary where only you know what goes on they are an online diary where you can share with like minded people. So welcome to my world. 

This procasination led me to what I have decided to write about as my first blog and back to my life motto, the title of my first post 'don't look for inspiration be the inspiration'. 

This has been a motto of mine for a few years. There is nothing more rewarding than being told you 'really inspired me' or 'you really helped motivate me'. These are a few things that I have been told on numerous occasions but for me I was just going about my somewhat ordinary (if you can call being a performer ordinary) day to day life. 

I find in life today we are constantly looking for inspiration and we have so many more tools to do this 'instagram' 'pinterest' 'vlogging'. But how many of us actually use the ideas we spend scrolling and looking at and put them into action? don't get me wrong I don't think there is anything wrong with scrolling but don't you think there has to come a point where we stop this wondering and looking for ideas and starting putting things into action?

Let that be the food for thought today instead of looking at other peoples life, work, breakfast, dinner, clothes, blogs, or anything else you look at, stop procrastinating and be the one where people look at your life and get people thinking I would like to achieve that or aspire to be like her or him. It doesn't matter what it is that you do someone out there will be inspired. 

I hope you enjoy my first post and it helps to inspire those on the BAPP course to start writing your first blog. I look forward to taking on this journey with you!

Have a lovely Sunday evening!

Lauren 

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