Task 3b - Theories Related to Networking

I put this task off at first but I have re-looked at it and think it will be valuable to look into these different concepts.  The task says to give each concept time to settle and that is exactly what I have done, and so I will look at them individually rather than thinking about them all at once.


Cooperation was a great one to start with.  The reader has an Extract from Axelrod, R. (1984) which I found very interesting.  The dance industry is very competitive whether you like it or not.  The extract talks about a project which started with a few 'simple questions', however are the questions simple or do you have to think about them and do the answers differ for a different situation? The questions were: 'When should a  person cooperate, and when should a person be selfish, in an ongoing interaction with another person? Should a friend keep providing favours to another friend who never reciprocates?'  Dancing is very competitive and I remember when I finished college, everyone was out to get a job.  One particular incident always sticks in my mind, most of the time all friends from college would travel down to London to audition, however, there was a time that one dancer decided not to tell anyone about a 'private' audition she went to.  This is an example of when a friend does not reciprocate after favours (continually telling them about auditions).  Cooperation is about working together - in harmony, which means both parties give and gain, so it is not just one sided.  As a teacher, cooperation is necessary.  You need to build up relationships with people and have a good rapport with them so you know you can ask for help and they know you would always help them out.  I am choreographing for a show at present and I needed to mix some music, I asked a contact of mine who said they would help out, it had been a couple of weeks and I was loosing time to work on the dances with my students so I found someone else.  My contact was apologetic and said they actually needed music mixing too and that is why she thought she could help.  I said I would sort it for her, this is a good example of cooperating, as I could have just ignored it but I decided to help her out as I know she tried to help me.  I like Jacobs post on cooperating as it highlighted a situation that had happened to myself.  Jacob said about students moving on when they have learnt all they can from that particular teacher.  I teach an adult class which has been going for around 10years.  I have been teaching there three years now - and I teach mainly syllabus work.  My employer said that this year there will not be a 'continuation' class which is the class the dedicated students went to.  This was because there is no room for people to join and they are taking up the spaces and there is only so much we can teach them.  (this was definitely the case as they had been doing Flamenco for longer than I had!).  There were six students involved and because of the recession and little interest from new starters the class was going to have to end, so I decided I would keep on the class - for my sake as I would loose an hours pay, for the schools sake as that is one less class, and for the students sake as they wanted to continue.  This gained me a lot of respect and I was proud that I could help and cooperate! 


'Affiliation can be defined as a positive, sometimes intimate, personal relationship'.  The need for affiliation is dependant on the circumstance.  Yacov Rofe suggested that the need for affiliation depended on whether being with others would be useful for the situation or not.  So in the case of a professional network, you have to decide who would be useful - so as not to approach the wrong person and to keep you affiliates strong.  You build up connections throughout your whole life, and it is important to maintain those connections, as they may be valuable in the future.  I approached my old GCSE dance teacher as to ask for guidance and to possibly help out at the school with classes to gain experience.  I would hope for the teacher to feel honoured I have asked them and that they would benefit too.  Both parties ideally should benefit from the situation in order to keep a strong relationship.  I have also recently judged a choreography competition for an old friend.  She approached me after no contact for a while but I didn't feel 'used' I felt honoured and proud that she thought of me.  It helped her out and I gained a lot of respect from it, I gained experience, dance ideas and a stronger relationship between the two of us.  I know that if I ever need something, she would be there to help.

Social Constructionism was a hard one to get my head around.  I believe it means that social influences actively create changes in life.  Social Constructionism plays a big part of this course and brings me back to the question 'have you ever known something before you know what it means to you?'  Unlike history which is learning a lot of facts, social constructionism is talking about going away and looking into something and coming up with your own view of it(alike this course!).  This takes me back to learning about web 2.0 tools and how I learnt that Wikipedia is not all factual.  I have searched the internet on these different theories and looked at Wikipedia, with my gathered information I make my own view which is my own impression that could be different to others.   
In the domain of social constructionist thought, a social construct is an idea or notion that appears to be natural and obvious to people who accept it but may or may not represent reality, so it remains largely an invention or artifice of a given society. (Wikipedia)

A clear (visual) example I have thought of is fashion trends.  What is 'in fashion' ? It is something that you believe is the trend but really it is a view that constantly changes in a network.  Throughout the Country there will be lots of different 'fashions', but fashion to each individual is the one that they have chose to follow.  So things are thought up, then accepted, developed, socially interchanged within networks and believed to be true.  Social constructionism is very powerful and makes you think is everything socially constructed?  This Blog I came across is a good read and helped me understand Social Constructionism after lots of research!

Connectivism is something I can definitely relate to.  There is the saying 'It is not what you know, it is who you know'.  I really dislike that saying as I heard it far too much when auditioning.  When you have trained so hard at college and you do endless auditions, spending a fortune on travel and you don't get anywhere.  Then there is someone that took on a job in a shop straight after college and they get offered a job dancing because they are recommended by a friend (connection).  It happened to me too - I had been auditioning a lot and decided to dedicate myself to teaching and concentrate on that, then all of a sudden I was contacted from  various employers saying 'I want you to fly out tomorrow!' This is crazy - they had never watched me dance but through a connection I had been recommended.  Connectivism can sometimes be harsh if you are not involved, but you need to become involved and connect with the professional network to be successful.  I found this interesting from Wikipedia -   

Connectivism was introduced as a theory of learning based on the premise that knowledge exists in the world rather than in the head of an individual.

Thus saying if you need to know something the knowledge will be out there you just need to connect.  You can learn from the connections through your professional network (like what we are doing on the course).

Communities of practice is explained very clearly on Wikipedia: 
A community of practice (CoP) is, according to cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, a group of people who share an interest, 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) 
BAPP is a very good example of a community of practice and I will show how it fits in with the three dimensions Wenger identified.

 What it is about – its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its 

members;

Everyone on the course is hoping to turn their diploma into a degree.

 How it functions - mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity

Everyone has to engage in the tasks set in the modules to get the qualification.

 What capability it has produced – the shared repertoire of communal resources

You will get a BA in Professional Practice.