Task 3b Theories relating to networking

Task 3b Theories relating to networking

The reader defines professional networking as ‘a work related community held together by either close working affiliation or more distant but common work interests or needs’. For example, I have a group of close friends at a studio in Bolton who are part of my networking system. We are all able to work together and help each other, with our skills and abilities, to help one of another with goals and tasks we wish to accomplish in order to become successful within our practice. Within this group consists of dancers, choreographers, studio owner, event organisers, promotional staff, mentors and other people who obtain useful assets, which enable us to improve on our practice. Having a social networking group like this helps us to improve our success, promotion, development and sense of worth. I believe that there is a strong amount of trust in this group and as long as we all work together and maintain that trust, our practice will develop and our success will become greater. It is also important to have “many” social networking groups, the more people you know who can help, especially in different areas, the more opportunities you are likely to gain.

Cooperation

The Reader, explains a “Game Theory” where one player will succeed at someone else’s expense.  This “Game Theory” reminded me of a TV programme named “Golden Balls”. For this game to work players, at the beginning, of the game must cooperate and trust each other. The more they trust each other the more money they will be entitled to win at the end of the game. The last round of the game consist of only 2 players who get to decide whether to “Snatch” or “Share” the money, then write it down on a card, which nobody is allowed to see until the game show host asks. They then discuss with each other what there are going to do, and it becomes another game of trust to whether you believe what your opponent is going to write on the card.  If one player decides to “Snatch” and the other player “Shares” then the player who decided to “snatch” takes home all of the money. If both players “Share”, then the money is split equally in half, between the two players. If both players “Snatch” then they both lose all the money.  This game relies on some degree of trust for the game to be worth playing. However people’s greed can mean them losing out of the competition, out used at the right time it can consequently enable them to win a large sum of money. We see in this game some players gain trust and partnerships with other players and other players trust each other at times but don’t want to give too much away, and other don’t trust certain people at all. I believe this is the same in the industry we are in today. Sometimes as artists we don’t want people knowing our weaknesses, as if people know what we are not good at or what gets us down then other people can use this as an advantage to advance on us. Sometimes we see players within this game trust each other and they usually end up getting quite far into the game. Recently I was working with another choreographer and I believed we trusted each other a lot when trading our thought processes we used when choreographing and consequently, I think that this was one of the most beneficial times I have worked with another choreographer as I felt I learned a lot, which I can now use to help progress my practice, in the future. Robert Axelrod (1984) described this theory as “TIT FOR TAT” or some people say “YOU SCARTCH MY BACK I’LL SCRATCH YOURS” This is the idea that two people work together equally to help each other out.  Axelrod states that the winner of the game theory which was conducted in…. used the strategy TIT FOR TAT and further on in his research he began to see people try to advance on this system. I learned from this what you put in is what get out. If two people are able to work together and equally distribute their knowledge to each other the results can be amazing. However just like explained in the game above their must be a great deal of trust as if who you’re working with doesn’t equally help you out like who were able to previously then you may lose out yourself.

Affiliation

Another concept that was explained in the Read was “Affiliation”, which is the idea of working with others, and why we as humans enjoy the benefits of this.

When looking back through my journal, I noticed a few weeks from now I collaborated with a choreographer from London. We chose a song to create a dance to, taught it at a workshop in Manchester and filmed it for our YouTube channel. I felt I benefited from this experience in many ways as it was interesting to acknowledge someone else’s, thought process whilst choreographing. Also as this choreographer is from London it enabled me to improve my networking in another city, as city where work that would benefit my practice, is more popular. Furthermore I got to teach I was given the opportunity to teach at a studio where I haven’t taught very often and as a result of this this whole experience enabled me to improve my network system yet again as even more people such as other dancers/ choreographers/ studio owners were able to acknowledge my practice. Recently this choreographer asked me to if I was interested in performing in Israel at event, where my flight, food and accommodation was paid for and also a very respectable wage on top of that but unfortunately I was unable to accept the work I as I had already accepted workshops in Wales, Norway, London and potentially Germany. This proves that the network I am doing at the moment is currently helping me produce a successful future.

Social Construction

Social Construction can be defined as our own interpretation of meanings / definitions of things in life. In other words, how we may need to rely on other people’s opinions, in cases where we haven’t yet experienced these “things in life” for ourselves.

A good example of this was when I was training at The Hammond and our teachers would explain to us what it was like in the dance industry, however they would always state that the only way we would probably understand the dance industry is when we are in it ourselves. Basically, because we were still in training and wasn’t allowed to accept any jobs within the dance industry we could only relay on other peoples interpretations of the dance industry until we are able to experience them for ourselves. To date, I can now give my own interpretation

Of this industry and I will now pass on my own meanings and definitions to other students that are currently unaware of the industry.

Cotty defines “Construction” as:

“What, then, is constructionism? It is the view that all knowledge, and therefore all meaningful reality as such, is contingent upon human practices, being constructed in and out of interaction between human beings and their world, and developed and transmitted within an essentially social context.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANINGFUL REALITY “

In other words, Constructionist learning is that individual learners construct mental models to understand the world around them.

As I am currently teaching workshops to hundreds of people each year it is my responsibility to provide them with the best knowledge as possible until they themselves decide to experience these “things in life” for themselves. Knowing this I believe I should now ensure that I experience these “things in life” so that I know and understand the information and knowledge I am passing on to my students is reliable and honest.

Connectivism

This next theory I can again link to my career as a teacher as the reader states a clear example of connectivism, which is the idea “that knowledge is ‘transferred’ from teacher to student”.  When studying the reader and the theories being explain I found it very interesting that it is a fact that we are now learning much quicker, than 40 years ago. I believe that this is probably because du e to a huge improvement of technology in the last 40 years it is much easier to distribute knowledge. For example, as I have expressed many times through this assignment and also in my journal I learn a lot from watching YouTube clips of artists/choreographers/dancers from America. 40 Years ago YouTube wasn’t around therefore to gain some of the knowledge I am gaining I would have to fly to America to take class to gain this kind of knowledge. I believe the Web, has had a huge impact on this idea that we are now learning quicker. Also we now have more frequent opportunities to experience “things in life” which enables us to gain more knowledge, so that we can pass this on to others. This is proven by Driscoll (2000) as he defines learning as “a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world”.

When looking through the Reader I noticed that Karen Stephenson also explains an interesting point. She states “Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge. Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge. ‘I store my knowledge in my friends’ is an axiom for collecting knowledge through collecting people (undated).”

“I store my knowledge in my friends” Says to me that people are willing to let others experience these “things in life” and then believe their meanings and definitions of “things in life” instead of experiencing things for themselves. Before, I explained how I watch YouTube clips to gain more knowledge about dance; however I also make sure that once a year I travel to America to take part in classes. I do this as I am aware that I gain far much more knowledge, actually taking part in the class than watching it from my laptop screen. And I also believe experiencing the class properly has more of a benefit on my practice as my body Is getting use to different moments that I wouldn’t usually perform and I definitely wouldn’t perform if I was watching them through my laptop. I believe this statement, is true but however makes me question due to the web are we becoming more lazier and relaying on other people to provide us with knowledge instead of experiencing these things for ourselves?  And also if we are not experiencing things for ourselves therefore is the knowledge we are gaining from others reliable?

Communities of practice

This is the idea of learning, in usually a certain social group and usually consists of informal and social discussions. An example to date would be my team Soar INK. All 10 members of the team have mutual interests and share the same dream and passion and we are able to learn from each other due to the fact, we have all been on separate journeys within our career’s so far as dancers.  Through social discussions our knowledge develops as we inspire each other to create new ideas as well as trading knowledge with each other.  When researching Lave and Wenger theories I came across this descripition of Communities of Practice, which I believe describes the way my team (Soar INK) work very well;

“a group of people who share a craft and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because of the members' common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created specifically with the goal of gaining knowledge related to their field. It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the group that the members learn from each other, and have an opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally (Lave & Wenger 1991).”

Even though I am part of team I also sometimes have to work by myself and Lave and Wenger state above that this community of practice can “develop themselves personally” which I can relate to as what I am learning as a team and off certain individuals within the team I am able to use within my own career. For example,  within this next month August 2012/ September 2012 my personal career seems to be taking me London a lot, teaching workshops, audition, taking part in classes and flying from Airports. One of the members of our team has lived many years in London and understands the best ways of traveling around the large and busy city. Leanne, always advises me ways of getting from place to place in London deciding what tubes and trains it’s best for me to get, so that I am able to travel around London cheaply and more sufficient.

Before this I didn’t really think of my team being part of my social networking system, but actually I have 10 member s in that team that provide me with many opportunities and have a huge impact on my personal career. I now understand networking isn’t just about who is providing you with opportunities but who is also making certain aspects of my career easier and who inspires me with new ideas.

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