Interested in continuing SIG Discussion?

Thanks to a post from Rosemary, we all now know that Facebook has removed the discussion and reviews tabs on the BAPP Facebook page.

If like me, you did not get round to saving any important or revlavent information from our dicussions, you might be frustrated too!

The BAPP Arts Programme have a philospohy to use 'Social Media for learning and communication', and we all know the purpose of an SIG is to engage ourself with a wider professional community networks to explore topis and questions further.

Is anyone else keen to continue discussion similar to what we had started?

From a personal stance, I am very interested in homing in on the sociological role of engagement in Dance, this seems to incorporate lots of topics others may be looking in to (Dance in Education/ the effect of culture on Dance/ how can we enourage involvment in dance and theatre etc), so I was wondering if anyone would be interested in setting up a Facebook page that this time we make sure we document for future reference. Also, please feel free to exchange thoughs via email. I have also noticed Nicole and Stephanie are potentially planning to blog what they can recollect about issues that were raised on the Facebook discussion boards, great idea there. I shall contribute what I can also!

SIG

I have decided to set up a SIG on the BAPP facebook page. Reading various blogs from Steph, Nicole and Mark I have realised specifying too much too soon will not be effective for promoting discussion of thoughts on my subject material. As I and Nicole want to explore very similar subjects, no doubt our SIG’s will intertwine with one another occasionally.

I think that sharing opinions from other dancers, but also from other practitioners perhaps concentrating on different elements of performing world such as drama, or singing will all be very valuable. Our basic principles are no doubt the same that we have knowledge in our specific domain, and therefore surely we all have thoughts on what transferrable skills we may have as performances wanting to diversify into teaching in the Arts in some way.

Whilst doing some further reading (specifically some literature entitled Practitioner research and Professional Development in Education,  Anne Campbell) , I came across an explanation into the benefits of sharing discussion and not becoming a ‘Lonely Researcher’. I feel sometimes carrying out research alone can feel isolated and often I would struggle with where to begin.  Individuals working by themselves, writing, reading and reflecting in lonely isolation were referred to in the reading as suffering from ‘loneliness of the long distance runner’ (Campbell, 2009). By learning about how to create a SIG, and then continual development of it, I hope everyone in the BAPP community will avoid this syndrome! I also feel strongly in regular updates to the discussion topics to show we recognise the value of involving others. I hope to collaborate thoughts and opinions by using peers to review the role of others in providing challenges and different perspectives when researching into professional practise.

In reference back to my SIG, although my previous post has highlighted some initial questions, I have decided on a topic discussion coming from a slightly different angle. Sonal and Adesola commented on my blog some helpful points which reminded me that when composing the questions into an enquiry, that thinking of the answers is not necessarily the main point. Rather, are they the right questions, do they provoke intend, is the resolution measurable, who and how will it be of benefit into developing professional practise? The inquiry into these initial questions has now developed into further questions due to my perspective changing all the time. Therefore, I am entitling my SIG ‘What is the role of Dance In Education’. I have opened with a discussion on peoples thoughts of a YouTube clip I came across from Ken Robinson and his thoughts upon whether schools are ‘killing our kids creativity’, I found it incredibly interesting and really admire his passion for stressing the importance of encouraging creativity in all areas of education, please have a watch and let me know what you think!

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html