Go to the BAPP Libguide and go to the Induction tab and go to 'How to get started' that is posted as a pdf on the right of the page. Read this handout. Start a google account and start a Google blog.
Go to the Module 1 tab on theBAPP Libguide. Read the Module 1 Handbook. The Module Handbook is presented in three parts. For each part , there is a Reader that gives you excerpts to read. Part 1 = Reader 1, Part 2 = Reader 2 and Part 3 = Reader 3. The Readers help with aligning the theories that we suggest you look at and apply to your own professional practice. The tasks in the Handbook mainly go up on your blog.
Get in touch with me by phone or skype for further help. This contact information is on the Libguide and the academic adviser email I sent you.
I have put up the YouTube summaries form the 3 groups form the first Campus Session Alan led on the 4th October 2011. The agenda from that session is up on the BAPP Libguides under Module Campus Sessions (added 8/10/11).
Friday, 7 October 2011
The key features of project management
Many elements of your inquiry require you to manage a process.
Here are some helpful hints from a simple but straightforward source with a few notes added into the text. Everyone is encouraged to find your own sources for the processes and products that make up your inquiry work in your final module.
Key features of project management - focus on priorities, track performance, overcome difficulties, and adapt to change (flexible and responsive approach); may be time consuming initially, but in the long term planning will save time, effort, and reduce the risk of failure.
Defined start and end - start up and close down stages.
Organised plan - planned methodical approach is used to meet project objectives.
Good planning ensures a project is completed on time and within budget - having delivered the expected results. An effective plan provides a template that guides the project and details the work that needs to be done.
Separate Resources - allocated time, people, and money - working within agreed resources is vital to successfully completing the project.
Teamwork - project team [employer, colleagues, professional networks, community of practice] – this might also mean Gatekeepers and your Academic Advisor.
Established Goals - bring results in terms of quality and/or performance. Project may result in a new way of working, or create something that did not previously exist.
Bruce and Langdon (2000) Project Management Essential Managers, London: Doring Kindersley
Steve Jobs and Apple Macintosh computers
Steve Jobs just passed away - he was the inventor of the Apple Macintosh computer and innovations such as the iphone. The Guardian website has put together a number of sites to speak to his importance in today's world of technology.
I remember a time when these were first on the scene. I was doing three part-time jobs: one as an art teacher at an independent high school, one at the university teaching drawing, and one as an assistant at Richmond Printmaking (a non-profit or not for profit art studio). It was at the arts studio that I was first introduced to the first black and white version of the apple computer in 1987. At that time the computers were really word processers as there was no Web much less Web2.0.
Apples led the way in intuitive thinking about this new technology. Many creatives and designers still use apple macs today because of the capacity they have with working with the creative mind. In Britain, the apple macs were often the computer of choice for universities putting in this new way of working for the students in the design industries.
Where would I be without the ipod and the iphone to accompany by iMac? I would be very lonely and most likely unemployed.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
1st Campus Session for Module 3 5/10/11
The 1st Campus Session for Module 3 went very well - everyone who is my advisee - it is time to contact me with an update and discussion if you have not contacted me.... Please see the PowerPoint slideshare that speaks to what we did...
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
What is a WIKI?
What is a WIKI?
Simply put a wiki is just a shared document. Sharing a document can take many forms. In the workplace often several people add to a draft. Someone starts a document about something, a topic such as a Special Interest Group might be discussing. In this case, a WIKI is more of a discussion document. It can take a formal structure, or be more of a collection of words or pictures for a first draft that is later formalised by one or two authors. Generally, all the authors of the work would be acknowledged. People can work in different colours, or simply in the early stages put there initials at the end of sections.
A google wiki is very easy to make, it lives on googedocs, so is in a virtual space. The document can be closed or made public. The convenience of a public wiki is that you will not to give people ‘permission’ to work on the wiki. The wiki can then put linked to a blog so that there is instant access…
Working with authors on a shared document takes the same sort of skills that commenting on blogs takes, and perhaps too many authors might be hard to then evolve into a later cohesive document. But it is also a going way to put up sections of writing that can then be responded to , more like a continuous chat.
For those working at a distance, you can add to this system through the use of skype chats for discussion on particuarly thrilling or tricky bits.
So try a google wiki in its various forms:
- · A discussion document
- · A continuous chat about particular issues
- · A formal document you have shared with a few authors
A brief and incomplete personal introduction to Mike Leigh’s work.
A brief and incomplete personal introduction to Mike Leigh’s work.
I saw Mike Leigh give a talk when one of his earlier films was being showcased as a part of the Surrey Institute film programme. ‘Naked’ was a very hard-hitting film, one that involved a rape scene, so the viewing public needed to be made of stern stuff. Luckily many of the audience members came were film connoisseurs and were keen fans of the director. It made it clear that Leigh is not one to flinch from portraying some of the more gritty aspects of life on film.
Leigh is one of England’s own, and his style of work is quite distinct. Trained as an actor (British Council), 2011), his refinement of the process of writing plays and developing scripts is distinct. I understand that often there is no final script at the beginning of the process, but the development of the script or screenplay is shared with the actors (both men and women) so that their own research on the characters create realistically derived scenes where the dialogue in uncannily true to life because the characters are ‘themselves’. While in production, the actors are not allowed to discuss the project as it s still being formed. Having watched a number of the films now, and at least one of the plays, the ultimately keep your interest because they are not formulaic in the ‘hollywood’ sense, although Leigh’s fascination with the mundane and dark side of life has been a repeated theme for his own work. Risky business for the film industry, but Mike Leigh’s career is a long and successful one in Britiain (BFI, 2011).
British Council (2011 online) Available from http://literature.britishcouncil.org/mike-leigh
[Accessed 4/10/11]
[Accessed 4/10/11]
British Film Institute (BFI) (2011 online) Available from http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/461294/ [Accessed 4/10/11]
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