Task 4b - SIGs

Special Interest Groups:


In order for me to fully utilize the questions which i produced in Task 4a i have to be able to converse with people studying within my own sector to fully explore them. Issues which instantly occur, being on a work based learning course is finding time to meet with people within my sector and discuss my questions and their opinions and views due to busy time frames. In order for me to delve into my sector and have a deeper understanding through communicating with others i would have to create a SIG.


Social Networks:


To effectively keep a SIG running there would have to be input and reflections as often as possible and a system which is easy to use and access. This is where i have turned to social networks having over 57million users and growing till this day i believe it is the perfect online tool to communicate with people working within my sector and others with conflicting opinions.
Having created my SIG i encored a major problem with using social networks. They have a vast amount of users and have a free service but as the growing popularity for social networks increased so did the amount of social networks being made. 
In order to find out which one is the most effective i have tested and scored each of the top five networks on the Accessibility, Ease Of Use (EOU) and Reliability.


Facebook  :  Accessibility 9, E.O.U 9, Reliability 9 = 27


Twitter: Accessibility 10, E.O.U 7, Reliability 6 =         23


Google+: Accessibility 10, E.O.U 5, Reliability 9 =     24


Myspace: Accessibility 6, E.O.U 4, Reliability 2 =       12


Tumblr: Accessibility 9, E.O.U 7, Reliability 6 =           22


In Conclusion Facebook's Network and U.I (user interface) was most effective and efficient to use having overall the most users and a very short and direct sing up page requesting very little details for a fast setup made it very accessible. Facebook have been know for its effective yet simple U.I  having all your notifications, groups and profiles easy to get to make it a pleasure to use. In terms of reliability facebook allows you to control the privacy of who can write or even access the page or group you created which make this great to filter and control information that you receive. 


The Group:


Now the group is live i am looking for all inclusive practitioners and people in or out side the sector with an opinion or view on inclusive practice feel free to post and answer questions etc.
As the SIG creator i shall be monitoring the groups activities to filter content and also use the great information and valued opinions as part of my research. 


The Link: 
http://www.facebook.com/groups/174475975969845/?success=1




Note: I am now available on most social networks as a result or my search you can contact me on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tummblr, Myspace or on Blogger 

Task 4a: Professional Inquiry (Questions)

To further develop my Professional practice as an inclusive practitioner and performer I must undergo a professional inquiry. This is to find questions within my own practise to explore and clarify any grey areas in my profession, to understand and broaden my knowledge within my practice.


  In order to accomplish this I must identify different types of knowledge, Schon (1983) writes about  knowledge being able to be broken down into four categories Specialized, Firmly Bounded, Scientific and Standardised these four foundations make up the core underneath the umbrella of knowledge.  As I explore further into my professional inquiry I shall refer back upon Schon’s (1983) theories and compare them to my professional inquiry to see if they have any relevance or similarities to my knowledge gain throughout the inquiry. Taking from schon’s theory of breaking down knowledge into sectors, brings me to my first sub question. *What abilities and knowledge dose it take to be professional Inclusive practitioner/performer? 


Breaking down the key skills and abilities needed to fulfil the role allows you to see being an inclusive practitioner/performer ,in a charity based theatre, not only draws upon the sector/domain skills and knowledge but it also introduces the transdisciplinary knowledge. This is knowledge drawn from other sectors or domains and brought into your own sector utilizing them within your professional practise. *If you have transdisaplinary knowledge within your own sector of knowledge does it make you a better inclusive prectitioner/performer?


Within my practise there is always the element of change which can range from a drastic change to a minuet one but having that element of change always keeps my professional practise evolving. Having circulated around schon's theory and the different types of knowledge and skill variety.


*How can I develop me professional skills and knowledge effectively or is there a right/specific way of doing it?




Other Sub-Questions:


* How can I as a professional inclusive practitioner/performer gain professional work without compromising my ethos/ethics?


*When or is there a right time to teach an individual the ethos of a company?
*Will it tain there own originality and mind set?


*If you acquire and utilise too much trasdisciplinary knowledge does it change the definition of you professional practice?

A Critical Reflection on my Developing Professional Practise

Being able to establish yourself as a professional in the 21st century has been quickly adapting and for ever changing, due to the mainstream introduction of the internet(1) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/top25-internet.htm many business and social opportunities have arisen from this mass media/information service and therefore change how we communicate. In terms of professional communication technology the conventional “phone call” has now been replaced with the email in terms of how it is used and how often it is used. Due to its fast and effective way of contacting people and its ease of media sharing, referring to performance and my professional practise it has been use to establish meetings, auditions, script work and workshop details these are key to keep up to date with and having a instant service which can communicate these aspects within my practise enables quick and easy changes and maintains a guaranteed connection to all involved, however compared to other services the email has been floored by its lack of instant communication having to wait for a reply and lack of speech which is very personal and which people prefer instead of writing. 

This is where ,video calling, ‘Skype’(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Features has taken a big role in the professional world, being used in at homes, classrooms, business meeting and most importantly as a professional means of communication, its uses are endless and there fore it is constantly evolving. In regards to my professional practise finding new way to communicate face to face via different means is key to developing inclusive practice but could ‘Skype’ be an effective way to create a dance sequence with someone abroad or work with a director from another country and could it have the same impact on the piece when perofrmed?  Establishing your professional practise is one of the key elements of becoming a professional, once having established this certain practises and boundaries are set but being able to advance yourself and your practise you must apply reflective practise where you constantly self evaluate everything you do to fine tune it to its best possible setting much like a machine but this process does not happen once and it is then set in stone due to the constant change of work within the professional practise you are constantly evolving and self evaluating to widen your knowledge of your practise. In terms of my professional practise as an Inclusive practitioner/performer reflective practise is key to how I work and perform due to the style and essence of work being created at Chickenshed theatre (3) http://www.chickenshed.org.uk/155/vision/what-we-do.html Networking is key in the professional industry, it allows people to share information and gain access to information/people which might not have been available to them or to create new ideas when combine with another person or set of people.

Networking used to be solely a personal face to face meeting with a range of people, now we have services which open up the networking interface to the whole world the such as blogger, youtube, flickr and skype (4) http://adrian-harper.blogspot.com/ these allow  people with all professional interests to widen there pallet of creation and information by being able to acess written text, songs, pictures, having online meeting where ever you are. These new services are a blessing within my professional practise due to its on going development and changing definition by using blogger, you tube etc. I can learn what other think about inclusion and other views on if it works and also give people a new way of thinking on the practise, these elements are key to my reflective practise and development as a professional inclusive practitioner .

In conclusion I believe the use of all of these social networking and media sharing online services has opened my mind to new ideas and broadened my horizons to online sharing, written, visual or sound with all of the information which is present and how the personal opinions and views, which is accessible through these service, can be utilised to develop and re-enforce my profession practices as an inclusive practitioner, this bring up a vast amount of questions (5) http://adrian-harper.blogspot.com/ which I will explore throughout the course furthermore this drives me on to see how far I can push the boundaries and see how I can utilise these services in the best way possible and even find new or unconventional ways in which to use them and share ideas, thoughts and opinions within my professional practise and the online world.

Youtube.............A new world

I regularly use youtube and look at videos but having an account is a new experience uploading video of my own is very exposing with all the comments, likes, views, subscribers.
As I mentioned in my flickr blog youtube was very easy to set up having a stereotype of the process I  dreaded it but was corrected. 
 Youtube is a great way to access allot of information especially focused on social views and issues. Inclusive practise is still a very impact topic and many people have strong views on  the topic but I believe having a video outlet  I can upload video showing the benefits of my professional practise and also receive peoples views on it allowing me personally and my practise to adapt.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAdrianHarper?feature=mhum

Check it out! Comment, Rate, Subscribe.  :)

Questions…….Hmmmmmmmm:

Having been working with a wide range of people over this term in various situations on a professional level, questions and theories arise which get me thinking on how my professional practise can develop and affect others. Studying inclusive theatre and practise from BTEC/A Level all the way through to Degree Level I have been able to see and experience the advantages and benefits of the practise. Would it be more beneficial to children/community/education to introduce inclusion at a younger age for example secondary school or will it break down independent streak which develops at that age?

More Questions to come.

Flickr!!

Having never used Flickr before i though it was going to need a module for it self having to creat an account giving details, emails and uploading pictures one by one for hours but i realised it was very easy having a yahoo account it was already linked, pictures and video uploading was very simple and time effective.
The photos/videos are of some of the work I have done at Chickenshed, for the Daddycool Project and some personal achievement I would like to share.

Flickr is very easy to get going and will be a frequent user now, as being able to describe my professional practise and for others to understand the concept can be difficult but having a visual aid such as pictures and video on flickr helps the process.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrian-harper

Establishing Professional Practise : Inclusive Practitioner/performer

Establishing my professional practise as an inclusive practitioner within performing arts would have been a very difficult thing to do a long time ago as the definition is not set in stone, I believe inclusive practise must be experience to fully understand apposed to other things which you can define without experience but having five years of exposure and being able to fully amerce myself within the practise I am able to give you my personal definition because I believe everyone who has experienced inclusion will have their own interpretation and views which is one of the great thing about being a inclusive practitioner/performer because the practise is so open which enables it to be forever growing and evolving.

My definition of Inclusive practise covers a range of fields from the initial stages of education to a professional performance. I believe inclusive practise is how you as the practitioner are constantly adapting your method to effectively gain the best out of all you work with but not loosing the key elements to your method through the adaptation for example when delivering an inclusive workshop, if some individuals are not responding to it because of the material, adapt your method of delivery to include them but not loosing the goal or essence of your material.

 Individual, this word is key to inclusive practise although you may think it would be better off associated with exclusive mainstream theatre it is vital in inclusive practise. A major assumption people often make is thinking inclusive practice is about everyone as a whole which would not be wrong but to effectively work with and engage the whole group you must know every individual whether it is a group of ten or a group of one hundred this allows you to gain the most out of the group and also for individuals to gain the most out of you to push them self to the best of their own ability.

Which brings me on to “support” which consists of being able to give those who need extra support or the guidance they need to focus there efforts in the right direction or being able to identify those who do not have the confidence to voice an opinion or even an idea, to be able to give them that support and chance to be heard only add more colour to you pallet of ideas to create and performs in brand new and exciting ways. I believe support is vital and everyone need support but in different measurements when needed.