The Networked Professional

What is a Network? In general, I understand its meaning but have never seemed familiar with its function. Until I came across to the networked professional reader and the additional readings, I started to think what is my current network? How it is important to my professional life? Sadly, I was unable to attend the campus session about this mode as I was engaging in the practical workshop for my styling project at London College of Fashion. So it sort of ended up with no-one to share thoughts with and discussed ideas were raised during the session. I felt I was in the middle of the road and unsure of whether I was on the right track, I looked at Natalie Less’s blog as someone whose ideas and thoughts I always respect and trust, as I looked her blogs all the way through the course. After reading her blog, I found it was really insightful to view the interesting ideas she discussed in her blog and I knew I could rely on her blog for a thorough analysis of the sessions. Also, I looked at Stephanie Thomas’s blog, a peer who started the course on January. Interestingly, she did exactly the same thing as looking at other peer’s blog about networking. From this, I immediately realized that this is the network I am in and these people who stand at the same level as me and their blogs are sources for receiving information/ideas from. This led me on to consider the importance of networking and how it is playing or will play in my current and future professional life. I feel I am just starting to become more aware of my current networks and what they consist of. In the reader, there are various concepts of professional network to help me identifying my networks and how I can improve them.

Before going in to details of the concepts of the reader and applying theories in to practices, I thought it would be better to follow the advice of Alan as since the beginning of the course, I hadn’t really thought of my networks in this way so I decided to draw myself a ‘mind map’ of my current professional networks. Below it is:

While looking at the ‘mind map’, I realized that I have more networks than I thought and I am part of networks that I didn’t really realize I was a part of. Most importantly, to keep contacting with these networks, there are number of tools that I use every day to maintain the connection as much as possible to expand my networks. Also, the number of tools available to us to engage in professional networks seems is increasing, such as the increasing use of technology. It is obviously to see that technology and the world wide web is progressively becoming the most important tool in participating and discovering networks. Here below are the tools I currently use to keep connection with my networks on a day-to-day basis:

• Email
• Mobile phone
• Facebook
• Model Mayhem Web
• Blackboard
• Web 2.0 

I have realized that now I mainly use these tools for communication and am often contacted via email and facebook by an employer or someone who studies at the same college and seeks for help or any other cooperation purposes. For example, on other day I received an email from someone who is a film producer asking if I was able to do some prosthetic make-up for his fight scene and I accepted this job offer. I have realized that is a network I am going to work to maintain by keeping in contact with the film producer as this could lead me to more work opportunities. I could say this example relates to the theory of connectivism and in relation to professional networks, it proves that the expansion of technology has changed and improved the way that individuals to connect and learn from and within the network. While reading the reader, extract from Siemens, G. (2004) helped me to understand more in depth of the theory:“Over  the  last  twenty  years,  technology  has  reorganized  how  we  live,  how we communicate, and how we learn. Learning needs and theories that describe learning principles and processes, should be reflective of underlying social environments”. For me, I would probably not have been contacted by an employer if I don’t use email so could not have gone and meet the other people or the other students who could lead me to a future expansion of my networks.”

There are also many other tools that I mentioned earlier, such as facebook, mobile, and the contact books which all help us to expand and maintain networks. They help me to get contact with people quicker and easier. Apart from these technological tools I use often, the traditional way of connectivism is still another important tool for me and I find talking to someone face to face allows two sides better to communicate, also it can answer questions easily and immediately. 

A critical reflection on reflective practice

Part 2

After going through my experience and Dewey’s theory of reflective thought, I then went on to study and consider Kolb’s learning cycle, to see the importance of being able to identify you have had an ‘experience’ and the importance of having tools to be able to reflect on that experience. This learning cycle seems like a hard process to tell because all of the stages link together and is an on-going process or activity which leads to the next. Though, it seems more straightforward to just understand all the stages of the cycle, the difficulty is to know or find the stage at which I start to learn new thing or enter into the learning process and distinguish the difference between stages. It seems that everyone has individual way to the learning cycle and at first I found it was confusing as there were situations that happen all in one time and I felt difficult to figure out which stage was my entry point into the learning cycle. After thinking, studying a long time and experimenting with applying it to different experiences, I’ve realized that I am a multi learner which means I always seem to start in a different place/stage depending on the nature of the experience and this is my learning style. As a make-up artist and a styling student, the nature of my working environment is diverse as I always work with different people (photographers, models and art directors). For example, when I engage working in a photo-shoot or a styling project I start to learn at concrete experience as I always need to contact the people first to confirm things of the shoot and use Facebook to keep this contact and track progress. When I do someone’s make-up or create a styling I prefer to start learning with active experimentation, I actually find it comfortable to test it out on a friend or my sister before I can do it properly; when I am offered a work placement or asked to do a styling design for a group, I can only learn by abstract conceptualization as I always need to work out in my head first so I draw, collage and photograph my ideas first for myself rather than doing on the person’s face and body. For blogging, I created it by writing journals while I see reflection from my day-to-day activities and reading other people’s blogs to get ideas so active experimentation or reflective observation is the entry point into to the cycle. Having talked so far, from this I can conclude that I am a capable learner who can adapt the style of learning to any situations and I think my work and my study need this capability. From my professional to what I have been doing (writing journals), I can see I am a versatile learner and if one learning technique doesn’t seem working to me or not helping me at first I know I can always alter myself and try another one, I think this is an advantage to reflect on my on-going experience and learn from it.

Journal writing and critical reflection 


As I mentioned in the beginning, writing is always the part that I am afraid of and have never had this habit, even in my first language! Before I began the journal writing activity I started to think and write some random words in my mother tongue language and mixed them with some other English words which I felt confident. Once having all the words I wanted to write in my journal I started to organise and translate them into a full sentence. After doing a couple time of thinking and writing by this way, I felt writing journal was not as boring as I thought before and it seemed fun! Until I practiced a little, I began to do some research in to thinkers who had written about journal writing and critical reflection. While doing the research I firstly came across to Jenifer Moon’s theory of journal writing and I found many similarities between us, as well as that many people have got a lot from journaling. Moon wrote that “A journal is a friend that is always there and is always a comfort. In bad moments I write, and usually end up feeling better. It reflects back to me things that I can learn about my world and myself. It represents a private space in my life, a beautiful solitude…” (Moon 1999:14-5) Well, I think it is true, when I write journal, it is all about my personal life and activities I do every day. It is a private world to record my experiences, thoughts and things that make me feel less stressed as there nobody will look at it and only myself have the key to enter it. At first, I found difficult to express my experience into words and flow them properly. Until then, I went on to looking at Gibbs model which I found helpful as it was clear and I could relate to it from looking at the frameworks of Reid and Moon. All these categories in the model seemed to give me some sort of structure or some guidelines to start and come back.

After studying Gibb’s reflective cycle, I thought it would be helpful if creating a ‘reflective learning log’ to approach the reflection from my experiences, several questions included and I put them in a particular order which suits me. Below is the log:

1.      What was the event/the experience/activity?

2.      What was I expecting to learn?

3.      What have I learned?

4.      What is significant about this learning for me?

5.      How will this learning change my practice?

6.      What were my feelings about what happened?

7.      What went well?

8.      What didn’t go so well?

9.      What were the feelings of others involved?

The idea of creating a reflective learning log was to help me to identify the process of experience, from this, I can explore my feelings, make sense of what I know or what I don’t and combination of other purposes. I realized this approach of leaning also relates to the model by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, the four stages they created which happens every time when I am involved in an experience. While looking at Gibbs reflective cycle and reviewing Honey and Mumford’s model I found that learning is not just a one go thing, it is an ongoing process and writing journal is seen as a form of reflective practice, on a whole, I think it is a tool to clear my minds to concentrate on the details or importance of the experience, it is also a safe and private space for emotions and a training ground for improving my writing skills.  

Mary Louise Holly (1989: 20) makes this point well:

It is a reconstruction of experience and, like the diary, has both objective and subjective dimensions, but unlike diaries, the writer is (or becomes) aware of the difference. The journal as a 'service book' is implicitly a book that someone returns to. It serves purposes beyond recording events and pouring out thoughts and feelings... Like the diary, the journal is a place to 'let it all out'. But the journal is also a place for making sense of what is out... The journal is a working document.

Participating in blogging has been the most evidence to show me that this has given me a relationship with reflection which I have never considered before. As said earlier, it is a space which only belongs to me and for me to make reflection on things I experience every day. Writing blogs for this course, for me, has seemed the most useful way to know what I am heading to and who I am. It is a mirror to reflect how I cope and progress through parts and parts. Another important aspect I have found helpful by using this tool is reading other people reflections, they are not only helpful in my own reflection, also lead me to consider new things/ideas. As I put in my You tube video earlier, I hoped I could change my way of thinking by using these tools (blog, journal, diary), after having a short period of these experiences and researching into reflective practice thinkers and theories has made me realized that reflection plays a key role in learning and is an important part of progressing in professional practice. So therefore, I could say that so far, the reflection through my blogs has changed my way of thinking and given my reflection much more depth.

Finally, I am glad I pushed myself, like Adesola said at the beginning: “I won’t be able to see the depth of the pool until I jump into it”. Yes, it is true, though it made me feel really sick and scared at times but comparing the beginning to now, I’ve learnt so much from this experience and I really value this short period of time in my life!

References:

Writing and keeping journals

http://www.infed.org/research/keeping_a_journal.htm#benefits    Accessed: 01/05/2011

Reflective Practice

http://www.devon.gov.uk/reflectivepractice.pdf               Accessed: 30/04/2011

http://markgraemeiles.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

http://mina-firststeps.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

A critical reflection on reflective practice

Part 1

After writing almost two weeks diaries, it is now coming to the reflection stage where I can start ask myself on what have I learnt by this experience? what can I see from the journey? what is the part I am still missing? and what the others I need to explore? There are so many things come to my mind. After going through the reader, it takes me to the initial thought, ‘Reflection’, a process of analyzing and evaluating an event/an experience after it has happened. It is a way to make thinkers to discover things about the event/experience and find out the missing part. It seems that all the thinkers have individual definitions of ‘Reflection’ as they have different aspects to experience the process. Many of them have looked at how to turn experience into learning and written about the tools they feel can be used to do this. I think I was very confused at the beginning of where to begin my journey, until I started writing diaries on the technologies I use every day. I accept his way of learning helps me to figure out the process of experience and the process of turning information into knowledge. Before went through the reader, I was asking myself the question ‘why is reflection important for learning’? Well, the first answer came to my mind was people learn and change things from their experiences, like things in life, we don’t know what kind of food we like until we eat, we don’t know what style of clothes suits us until we buy and wear them on, as well as looking ourselves in the mirror, we won’t know what we will look like until the we see the reflection from the mirror. It is “a form of mental process – closely related to thinking and learning”, said Moon, 2001.

Why is reflection for learning important?

It is important for professionals; and those training to be professionals; to reflect on their learning experiences. Just experiencing an event is not enough, without taking time to review the experience and consider future implications we are likely to repeat our actions in other future situations. This can mean that we are likely to repeat the same mistakes again!

Reflection course genie.doc

University of Leeds, School of Medicine

This thought led me on to think about what is the word ‘Reflection’ meant to me? It also led me on to consider how some of theories of the thinkers apply to me and how I reflect. After reading through the reader on reflective practice, I firstly felt that John Dewey’s theory of reflective thought is particularly appropriate for my experience of this course and my photography and styling course at London College of Fashion. He saw education as an experiential action and his theories involves that the quality of the education was linked to the level of engagement with, which means the more time we spend on our studies the better result we get from. His point led me on to think about this course and my photography & styling course. I start with my BAPP course first, I remember at the beginning of this course, blogging was the first thing come to us and it has been always emphasized and encouraged, to get ourselves involved and the more we spend in this community the better we get used to the experience. As the same as my photography & styling course, I mentioned earlier in my previous blog, the typical learning management system ‘Blackboard’, the higher the level of frequency we engage with it, the higher the quality of the education and the higher the chance to collaborate with others to enhance my course experience. So I think these two examples could be relevant to Dewey’s theory. Through Dewey’s reflect thought concept to my experience so far, it has been true when I use these tools and have been involved I feel I am on the way of finding new things or finding a place which belongs to me.

References:

http://missnicolecarman.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

My You Tube Video

You tube: a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos. I found this web technology is very useful because it is a source to information and there are many videos I often watch for make-up & styling references. After watching others’ You tube videos, I’ve decided to create my own one. Very often, I find things such as pictures and sounds are easier for me to remember things so creating my own video is the process to record my thoughts, my actions and my plans. I also realize it can be a reminder to get my work on progress if I get lost in the middle of the journey. My video is slightly different from others, which I added my work (portfolio pictures) and my favorite track as the background, with these extra personals, I believe every time when I watch it, I can always feel the support that leads me to move toward the goals. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHFg1mXQsS4

Day 6

The Web Culture

The Web has changed our habits, expectations and norms, we have come to view the internet as the information universe and it has become part of our culture. From what I am experiencing every day, it is obvious to see that the web technology has not only changed the tools we use in daily life—it is changing our social habits, behavioral norms and expectations. Similar to the fashion industry, a currently popular style or practice, a product of the modern age and anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person. It is a culture which has a huge impact on what a group of people wear. Similarly to the web, how we interact with it, which has become part of our culture. With the reduced barriers, users and creators take every opportunity to participate in the community and these explicitly users make contributes to build up the site or implicitly user activities on the site are used for adapting its content. Examples such as Wiki, Amazons, Blogs, Facebook and other sources. According to the reader, Feenberg & Bakardjieva identified that web 2.0 allowed communities to develop beyond their existing professional networks and offer a social space for people, strangers and almost strangers with diverse backgrounds to come together as equals, as generators of ideas, to deliberate and act collectively (Feenberg & Bakardjieva 2004, p. 38).

It seems that the internet is a new world where everything looks unique and original. Well, think at the specialization and the extent that the internet has reached, nowadays we have almost every imaginable kind of service available online. For example, as a make-up artist and stylist, I have the need to create a portfolio which I can use services such as Flickr, Behance and others not only to create it but also to promote it. For example, if you want to make money from your portfolio or work, Apple and its app store for the iPhone is a really good example. The only thin to worry is creating a nice app, which is quite expensive! But I think it is worth to try, and the rest such as hosting and selling will be done for you. All these services which the web provides have a main goal to allow the users to focus on their own potentials to able to evolve and improve their own activity and productivity. I found this quote is very relevant to what we have been participated in, said from Adam Smith “In civilized society he stands at all times in need of the cooperation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons.”

As a summary, we expect to use the web to buy, sell, learn, communicate and entertain. Using these services to access to information, as well as communication, is assumed to be instantly accessible. Our choices for what, when, and how we access information are almost unlimited. Web technologies have not only changed the tools we use in everyday life, it is mostly changing social habits, behavioral norms, expectations and I view this phenomena is a culture.

References: 

The web culture explained by Adam Smith

http://abduzeedo.com/web-culture-explained-adam-smith

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3008.pdf