Learning Domains and MAPP

We have talked about Connectivisum as a principle that this course responds to. Module One Handbook discusses this and it is worth going back to again and again when you are in other Modules (we see the handbooks as working documents you access across the whole course – not manuals for what to do in the moment.) 

Hopefully you have also read Knowing Knowledgeby George Siemans– the recommended reading at the start of the course.  

Here are two (over)views on connectivism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8kqcs2aR9c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyF5k2ab9qI   (2013)

One of the things we value is Learning Autonomy and Connectedness which we feel are key concepts learnt when we carry out the activity of being an artist. (So you already know about these in the arts setting). 

We also value Diversity, Openness (which can be present by their absence in the arts setting!)

We know of things but when do we identify what we know as learning. Each Module you have to ask yourself how to make ‘things happening’ into learning. At one level you have to decide for yourself what the value of learning is to you. We insist that learning is more than just being told exactly about it and doing exactly it. In learning there is something about truth, belief, being gullible, being wrong, and for me most importantly kindness. (Kindnessis a massive idea. For me not a neo-liberal act, but being willing to… be brave and respectful, learning while not contributing to the lack of opportunity for others to do the same). I will write a separate blog on truth and kindness later this term. 

In his book Seimens talks about Learning Domains

In this course, we create the situation for all four of the domains he discusses in this course. But it is the combination of the four that is the Learning Environment of MAPP. The dance, the music, the play, the yoga class are made of a combination of elements and so is the learning environment of MAPP. 

Transmission Learning- The learner is brought into a system through lectures and exposed to ‘facts’.  The Unihub and Module Handbooks do this.

Emergence Learning– involves greater emphasis on the learner’s cognition and reflection. What you do with the UniHub and Handbooks and Blogs, and Skypes and conversations with your Supervisor.

Acquisition Domain– learning is exploratory and inquiry-based. This has to be self-directed (because it is your practice not anyone else’s) but self-directed does not mean alone you need to remain connected through sharing ideas (on blogs, in Skype discussions etc…). You explore this domain through looking at what you have done in the past (and writing AOLs about it), looking at your current practice and how the course and ideas you encounter connect with it, through carrying out a project based inquiry. Sometimes you are considering all three at once (if you are in Module Three for instance).

Accretion Learning– is continuous, the learner forages for knowledge when and where it is needed – Real life and ongoing. This is shared through your blog – which is why your blog is so important to keep contributing to and why commenting on others people’s blogs is so helpful to them. 

Across all this ‘relevance’is crucial to look at critically.  This returns us to thinking about what truth, deception, distraction and fact mean to you/do to you. 

Lastly feedback (to each other on blogs and back and forth with your Supervisor) becomes a conversation - ongoing and not as set of instructions to get an 'A'. Go back to 'The Test'  in my blog on September 16th 2019 for John Green to explain that again...

Looking forward to your comments...

Feedback - not alone

Throughout the course we see you as 'In conversation...' with us, with each other and with the handbooks. So how does feedback fit in with this?

How do we stand with feedback - 
Firstly, feedback is not about telling you how to get an 'A' it is about helping you develop your ideas and work from the place it is when you receive the feedback. So it is not about correcting the work in terms of telling what to do but it is about developing your work. This means that where ever your work is we will always support you in developing it further. Of course as Supervisors we will let you know if you are working at a level that will not pass. We will not be letting you march of the edge of a cliff!! but the Supervisors role is about working with you to go further so feedback will not likely ever be 'Yes, this is right.'!!

Secondly, so feedback is a conversation and on-going process which is why have a 'Feedback response sheet'.  This is so that we can document the conversation in brief. It is also so that you can direct your own feedback.
The feedback response sheet is sent with any drafts you send for feedback - you should use the sheet to ask questions that direct feedback such as
'I have used quotes to give examples of XXX but I wonder if too much of the essay is in the voice of others because of it.'
or practical questions
'I was not sure how to quote an interviewee I have used "" instead of '' for quotes from interviewee and put them I the bibliography but their interviews are not published so should they be in the bibliography?'

The Feedback response form should also be used after a Skype Supervisor tutorial (one-to-one) summarise the discussion and inform a blog about the tutorial.

The Feedback Response Form is therefore a document of learning, discussion and conversation for you to refer to as you study.  It supports the idea you are not alone in your study (you are in conversation) but not being alone does not mean you are just waiting to be told what to do.

A note: emailing your tutor should not be your first response to not understanding something!! First go back to the Handbook that is what they are for to explain the course, ideas and direct, then read some blogs of people who have done the Module you are on. Then have some time to think.

Knowledges ... (AM discussion group conversation)

AM conversation journey:

We made statements about communication of ideas (the topic of the discussion for today): 

• Ideas build a community – the responses back 
• There is a ‘Code’ used that is built up between the people communicating
• You have to reflect on and find the best ways to communicate your ideas to the ‘communicated’ 

We talked a bit ….

 ..And a bit more…. Cultures have particular ways to communicate and particular values in the languages they use…

We touched on things …

…We came to the University is a culture. Therefore,

• There is a community the university expects you to engage with (one of the members of that community is the literature). Understanding that community is part of having an MA.  

• There is a particular ‘code’ (format lexicon) the university expects you to use 

• You have to work at the best way to communicate your ideas within the relationship of the being ‘in the university’. In a way you are responding to the culture of the university.

The 'Professional Artefact' in Module Three throws the doors open on this an allows you to communicate using your professional community as the starting point.

But regardless of what community of people all looking at dance that you are communicating with you need to balance their needs and expectation with your own values. You need to question how you communicate what is being looked for buy the community with what you can’t leave out of the communication because of your own values and come to some justification for the route you take in your communication (essay, plan etc…) 

At MA level you are not doing something just because you are being told to do it. In writing your essay to hand-in it has to be more than doing it because you were told to do it that way. The essay has to involve an understanding of the community you are communicating to (the university). The understanding has to happen in order for you to negotiate what values and codes you use in the essay. Therefore the essay itself displays an understanding of University MA level culture. The ability to communicate something (anything) displays an understanding and a negotiation between yourself and the community of the ‘academic’.  There is an art to this. 

…the above suggests that the content is only part – showing you understand something is not just the context  it is embedded in being able to choose the appropriate modes for communicating it to the community you are in conversation with. 

We ended re-igniting our inner  ‘question-everything-flames 

Maria suggested if dance is a shape (like the picture) then there are groups of people looking at it through different facets (sides) of the shape. Just because you are not used to looking at dance through a particular side doesn’t mean part of the construction of dance isn’t also that facet. You might have looked at dance through one facet for a long time and now looking at it (for instance) through a dance-scholar facet is not what you are used to but in doing this you come to know the whole stone (dance) better. What makes it beautiful is there is more than facet to it. 

Please comment below ...

See below to for links to other peoples posts on the conversation too