Writing Workshop (September)

Peter’s workshop lectures were really helpful and informative last week. Here's a video on MDX Play. This overviews what we did at the beginning (free-writing & reviewing). (https://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/media/Generative+Writing+%28or+using+writing+to+generate+new+ideas%29/1_kudr70i2) 

Feel free to post that on the blog.

Peter says: 

“In terms of the main points of the session, I was trying to emphasise the idea that writing comes in many shapes, and is used for all sorts of different purposes. The most important purposes, I think, relate to finding our own voice, through exploring thoughts, generating new ideas and trying out ways of relating them to the ideas of other people, in our field but also outside it.

 

I hope this is a reassuring message to counter concerns that many students have at university that writing is just about assessment and fitting in with other people's conventions and expectations. While it is important to be aware of the expectations of others, it's also important to feel that we have choice over the extent to which we adhere to them.”

 

Peter also sent some slides these and the video of the workshop are on your Programme Page on UniHub in the folder called 

'Middlesex Student Resources: dyslexia and academic writing support, questions about finance, Student Union'

Please comment below to share ideas and experiences from the workshops...

Sunday - a rich discussion

Sundays discussion group – last night – was really rich. Everyone on the call beautifully held a space together for the conversation to wander and explore a range of themes. As a group we came from professional practices of performing and writing music, teaching within the performing arts, performing dance and theatre. We also ranged from those in their late 20s to those in their late 50s, and lastly people joined from around the time zones of the world(!) – Singapore, South Africa, USA, and UK… We drew on these varied careers and perspectives to have an inspired talk that ranged from epistemological questions, ‘discussing what knowledge is’ to Ethical questions ‘the right to see ourselves’ to pedagogical questions ‘the use of film in the arts classroom.’ I am really looking forward to reading everyone’s post. Please put a brief overview of the conversation and a link to your post in the comments below. 

First weeks back

 It is Friday of the second week back. I am excited to be in a new term. We have added a couple of new ideas: 

The new email for myself and Helen with the 'PPACI' in the address: the idea of this email was so all student emails have their own mail box. I am getting my head around the second email now but it has taken a couple of weeks. I thought all of the emails sent to my new email address were coming to my computer but I have just found they are not all coming! So I am now starting a routine of checking them twice (on my computer and on-line!!). This is annoying because the whole point of the new email address to try to avoid missing emails !! If you have not had a response from me and were expecting one maybe resend. 

The second change seems to be working really well. That is to book tutorials you can go to UniHub programme page > Tutorials folder  and under your Supervisors name is a doodle poll link where you can see openings for tutorial over two week blocks. I will renew my doodle every two weeks across the term. 

It has been great talking to everyone on in the Skype one-to-one welcome (back) tutorials and the first group skypes. There have been some great blog posts starting us off thinking and discussing also. I am looking forward to reading what people are finding, exploring and discovering through your blog posts as the term progresses. 

Adesola

Wednesday 30th September - Research terms, what are you doing?: Module Three focus

Wednesday Sept 30^th 2020

Online session with DAN4760 Module Three focus ,Research terms – what are you doing!? 

8pm (time in London) 

Discussion groups with Module focus are informal but important because these discussion group Skypes are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. Please write below to indicate which group time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).

Writing workshop with Peter Thomas - Monday 28th September

Monday Sept 28^th 2020

Online session talking about academic writing practice with Peter Thomas (guest speaker). Peter is a Senior Lecturer in Academic Writing and Language with the Learning Enhancement Team coordinator for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, Middlesex University.

9am (time in London)

or 

5pm (time in London)

Please write below to indicate which workshop time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. 

Sunday Discussion group September 27th

Sunday is our first Discussion group we will be looking at the ideas of 'knowledge', 'learning' and 'information'. We are asked to be prepared to talk about this together. Use the module handbook and links along with your own research into these ideas to start to explore the topic ready for Sunday. Discussion groups are informal but important because these discussion group Skypes are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. Please write below to indicate which group time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. 

Sunday 27th September 8pm (time in London) 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).

Networks of observation, Networks of information

We have looked at social media and Web 2.0 as part of the professional networks around us (we look at this particularly in Module One). Over the last ten years, since BAPP (which the MAPP courses grow out of) started in the form it is today, social media(s) and Web 2.0 has changed and developed and created cultures of their own. Back then Alan Durrant and I re-shaped the BAPP course to include blogging and social media platforms following ideas of Connectivism*.  Connectivism is still at the heart of the courses however the implications of the internet are not static and requires continued critical thinking about what knowledge and information manifests as ( and what they do!). I just watched the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma (Director Jeff Orlowski, 2020). It raises interesting questions about the networks we develop around us. Interesting ethical considerations about what knowledge, information and learning manifest as in the 21st Century.

*Connectivism is a theoretical framework for understanding learning in a digital age. It emphasises how internet technologies such as web browsers, search engines, wikis, online discussion forums, and social networks contributed to new avenues of learning. Technologies have enabled people to learn and share information across the World Wide Web and among themselves in ways that were not possible before the digital age- see the recommended book on our reading lists - Knowing Knowledge by George Siemens

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/ 

What are your thoughts?  - please comment below.

Wednesday 23rd September Seeing your Practice and self: Module One focus

Wednesday Sept. 23^rd h 2020

Online session with DAN4510  Module One focus Seeing your Practice and self.

4pm (time in London)

Discussion groups with Module focus are informal but important because these discussion group Skypes are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. Please write below to indicate which group time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).