Today’s group SKYPE went
well. We had a conversation between 8 people!
We talked about time
management: the tension between MDX work and ‘work’ work. There were thoughts
about how the MA can feed ones teaching and also how it can be emotionally
exhausting leaving you feeling it is detracting from the teaching. Janet talked
about how she shares her learning journey with her students, which has worked
really well for her. We also talked about if you are an ‘am’ or ‘pm’ person –
getting up a bit earlier than everyone else to work or waiting until the
evening when everyone is a sleep to get some work done. A key seems to be the reflective
journal (and the blogs) as a way to keep the momentum of thinking going even
when you don’t have time to sit down and tackle things for a long period.
We talked about peoples
projects (from module two and three) and it was really nice to hear what people
are interested in researching. We made a few connections with each other
discovering that people had
similar issues, ideas and had even worked together in the distant past!
We talked about the AOL’s
and how they are claims for MA level credits. So even if you did something
remarkable when you were at a very early age you need to look it in terms of a
kind of MA level analysis. So past experiences can be recalled to show the
signposts that lead you to the MA level student you are today BUT the
experience in itself as an anecdote is not enough to make your claim. We also talked about how ‘evidence’ or
illustrate items can be used to support and give context an AOL. We spoke about
a simple colour coding reference system to link items such as programmes or
DVD’s to the body of the text of the AOL paper they are supporting.
We also talked about the concept of the artefact (for module three) and how it is another form of communication, other than the academic form of the written report.
We confirmed the next
meeting December 15th at 11am. If have not joined in a group meeting
and would like to in December you just need to contact me with your SKYPE
address before the day of the meeting. You can do this by sending a SKYPE
request to me. If you have problems feel free to email me too.
I felt the meeting went
well. I worried about the dynamic of having 8 people talking to each other, but
it seemed that everyone spoke and shared interesting ideas. I wonder how you
all felt? It is a different platform for communication and while it is not the
only one we use, it is amazing to be talking to people all over the UK and at
times all over the world.
Well I would love to hear
your feedback and thoughts.
Adesola
It was good to speak with others on the course yesterday and to hear how they are feeling and what they are working on and to hear their views and thoughts. I do wish, however, that those of us on Module 3 had had the same access to others when we were working on Modules 1 and 2! Hearing others thoughts about time management, teaching and the other topics we discussed would have been reassuring during the last year. Work based learning can feel isolated - of course the blogs and LinkedIn do offer some interaction and very often good, timely advice but it does feel once removed somehow. I do understand what Deborah said about the ‘face to face’ interaction of actually speaking to someone in the flesh, but logistically that’s a hard one. I feel, at the stage that I am at, I would like someone who has completed the course to chat with as well as those on the earlier Modules. It is very useful to have tutor input, but I think that hearing first-hand experience of completing the course would be beneficial too as Module 3, in my opinion, is the most challenging in terms of load and it can feel overwhelming at times. I know we will all get there in the end…. after all we survived demanding training, work hard, and are eager to know more – surely a recipe for success! Onwards and upwards everyone!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thanks again for feedback Adesola on my AOL. I have a cold at the moment and it seems any extra thing added to the mix doesn't fit in...It was so interesting to hear the comments on our Skype call about this, time management etc. we must listen to our bodies… I am finding this hard as I keep ploughing on as I write, read teach etc I can’t stop thinking about everyone else doing the same thing as we all continue with our journeys. The Skype call for me really merged together the students on different modules. Great
ReplyDeleteI just wrote quite a long comment but somehow lost it when I hit the publish button! Frustrating, but the gist of it was that I found the group Skype meeting useful, especially to hear from people who have completed module 1 about their experiences of it. I was left wondering if anyone would consider it useful to have some sort of loose agenda for the discussion to keep it moving along (it seemed most people had about an hour before they had to go off and do something else) and also in my case, I think it would help focus my thoughts before we all hook up.
ReplyDeleteI find that if I have to prioritise between work and study, it always work that wins out so time management remains a key issue for me. I feel as my work is certainly benefitting from the thoughts and new ideas that I'm coming across but that real progress towards January is extremely slow. From others previous observations I've realised that I need to adjust the way I approach study and try to utilise shorter, more frequent chunks of time, rather then relying on one day per week. I'm finding a long gap between bursts of work not particularly conducive as each week it can be hard to get back to the place you had arrived at 6 days before. So that's a step! Thanks everyone, each discussion and blog comment definitely moves my thinking along in some way.