tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21956241046312620682024-03-13T14:06:45.656-07:00Community Media - Interactive WorldDr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.comBlogger117125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-11488122930760447402022-11-13T14:18:00.001-08:002022-11-13T14:18:37.392-08:00Mastodon: Fossil or Future?<p><br /></p><p><!--[if !mso]>
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</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaVr3huleHpvHV9ZMH0l1v_VjSxGSdHCj3BgQvY0wzSVjMXtGfx3OYBfLwOP9C-_Q6ESTzbZ0idUdDAyjucWeVnGW7Y-HMadhWYTD0y7X_G80qPW8WNrSWAYSIQVEnulh-DaIlIZmdbP4BRwSv0MRYcx1MXFo6Xc-JR_bDM0-iCLvkTOwiThXkBBk/s1139/Mastodon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1139" data-original-width="940" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaVr3huleHpvHV9ZMH0l1v_VjSxGSdHCj3BgQvY0wzSVjMXtGfx3OYBfLwOP9C-_Q6ESTzbZ0idUdDAyjucWeVnGW7Y-HMadhWYTD0y7X_G80qPW8WNrSWAYSIQVEnulh-DaIlIZmdbP4BRwSv0MRYcx1MXFo6Xc-JR_bDM0-iCLvkTOwiThXkBBk/s320/Mastodon.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The richest
man<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
on earth bought the most influential social media platform. The richest man on
Earth told millions of Twitter users to vote Republican. The richest man on
earth proclaimed the reign of absolute freedom, then closed down accounts that parodied
him. The richest man on earth sacked half his staff.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
There are many reasons to dislike Elon Musk’s public persona and his actions.
There are many more reasons to leave Muskworld. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s not
clear to me whether Musk bought Twitter as an investment, as a propaganda unit,
or a plaything. Perhaps he really does believe he can rescue it through
innovation. However, the fear that content moderation and authentication were
being jettisoned has sparked fears of a racist, misogynistic, fascistic
free-for-all. The highly-principled and often nomadic members of the Wokerati
began to experiment with rumoured alternatives, such as Mastodon, and were
suddenly aware of something radical called <i>The Fediverse</i>. Although the free
Mastodon software dates back to 2016, the exponential growth in micro-blogging
accounts has been most evident in recent weeks. Currently, there are almost 7
million Mastodon Accounts, increasing at the rate of 60K daily, 660K weekly.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">New users are
attracted to the pleasant community feel of this relatively new, open-source,
advert-free social media platform. Many dissidents and social media critics are
now discovering that there is a revolutionary alternative to Muskworld. Rather
than relying on advert-greedy corporations or billionaire-led patronage,
Mastodon is an anarchic, decentralized <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>federation of servers (instances), largely financed
through volunteer effort and individual donations. Gone is the Twitter algorithm
that selectively promoted tweets and exploited your data for corporate gain. On
Mastodon, capitalism has been muzzled.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What’s most remarkable
is the nostalgic sense of a return to the early days of the internet, when
people would tell you that advertising was not allowed. Remember the time when
the network was dominated by co-operation, collaboration, and a public service
ethos, rather than narcissism, self-promotion, and corporate exploitation? In
particular, new users of Mastodon are encouraged to mark posts that are
potentially distressing, divisive or controversial with a Content Warning (CW).
New users are encouraged to mark photos with ALT text to make them more
accessible. New users are encouraged altruistically to boost significant posts of
value, rather than boosting personal follower counts and their own ego-driven
exhibitionism. It feels like the glory days of old internet 1.0. Or the faint
glimmering dawn of a new age?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">However, the
arrival of so many newcomers has not been without tension. Established “natives”
have complained about new arrivals bringing with them their bad Twitter habits:
seeking celebrity, failing to observe the local lore and customs of polite and
civilized behaviour. Are there any lessons to be drawn from imperialism and colonial
ideology? On a technical level, many small-scale servers were suddenly
overwhelmed by the burden of millions of new arrivals and dramatically increased
traffic. Moreover, some of the newbies rudely complained that the user’s experience
was worse than Twitter, stating that they were alienated by arcane terminology
and the outlandish site navigation. Did they forget that new
software/technology requires a bit of effort? The mythology of Mastodon’s difficulty
has been widely promoted, especially by those who dislike change. For many, the
Mastodon migration has been nothing more than a temporary protest, or more pragmatically,
an insurance policy against the demise of Twitter, perhaps even its bankruptcy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Having escaped
the dark trauma of Muskworld, many enlightened Mastodonites were delighted to
discover old and new friends. They began to notice the absence of adverts; they
began to notice that the cult of celebrity was gone; they began to notice that
the new culture was supportive rather than antagonistic, co-operative rather
than competitive. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Are we
witnessing the unleashing of human creativity? How long will the euphoria last?
We need to keep a sense of proportion. Mastodon’s 7 million account make it a
mere minnow compared with Twitter’s 486 million or Facebook’s 2,936 million.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
With social media users now spending 2.5 hours on screen we need to care about
the quality and diversity of those experiences which are now shaping global
consciousness. Let’s hope that Mastodon is a contribution to global health and sanity,
rather than the latest and last fossil of the Anthropocene era.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Further
Information</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">How it all
works: <a href="https://fedi.tips/">https://fedi.tips/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Copy Tweets
to Mastodon: <a href="https://moa.party/">https://moa.party/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Find Twitter
followers who have joined Mastodon: <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-find-twitter-friends-on-mastodon/">https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-find-twitter-friends-on-mastodon/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">List of
Mastodon Servers: <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/servers">https://joinmastodon.org/servers</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">My invitation
to join Mastodon: <a href="https://ieji.de/invite/hbTi4RuB">https://ieji.de/invite/hbTi4RuB</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">My Mastodon Handle:
@postfilm@ieji.de</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">My Twitter Handle:
@postfilm</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Notes</u></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a> "Bloomberg
Billionaires Index". Bloomberg L.P. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/elon-r-musk/">https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/elon-r-musk/</a>
Retrieved 13 November 2022. "Real Time Billionaires". Forbes. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#175b89a93d78">https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#175b89a93d78</a>
Retrieved 13 November 2022.</p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a> “Twitter
slashes nearly half its workforce as Musk admits ‘massive drop’ in revenue.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/04/twitter-layoffs-elon-musk-revenue-drop">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/04/twitter-layoffs-elon-musk-revenue-drop</a>
Retrieved 13 November 2022.</p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Current statistical updates are available “User Count Bot for all known
Mastodon instances” from @mastodonusercount@bitcoinhackers.org.</p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a> Dave
Chaffey, “Global social media statistics research summary 2022.” 22 Aug 2022. <a href="https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/">https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/</a>
Retrieved 13 November 2022.</p>
</div>
</div> <br /><p></p><p><br /></p>Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-46594076070177427642018-03-03T04:50:00.005-08:002018-03-03T04:50:42.644-08:00The Comedy of Community Film<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-whfL2KlSGRM/WpqW2H-iWhI/AAAAAAAAB1g/f2SjVAX9LiA0IhrLjCLXOEH9QOewf6k9ACLcBGAs/s1600/brigsby%2Bbear.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-whfL2KlSGRM/WpqW2H-iWhI/AAAAAAAAB1g/f2SjVAX9LiA0IhrLjCLXOEH9QOewf6k9ACLcBGAs/s320/brigsby%2Bbear.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Comedy
is often associated most strongly with laughter, with those 'laugh out
loud' moments. However, comedy also often includes elements of
sentimentality and anguish. On the darker side, the underbelly of comedy
is a response to cruelty and dehumanization. Accordingly, how a
comic production is to be classified or placed along a spectrum is a
difficult task, not least because tastes vary with different people. <a href="https://youtu.be/_YE0NNaVHZc" target="_blank"><i>Brigsby Bear</i></a> (2017) provides an intriguing case study. In this blog, the film also provides an opportunity to discuss the role of community film making that is depicted in this poignant and sometimes absurd story.<br />
<br />
At
the outset, geeky James Pope (Kyle Mooney) is leading an infantilized life
that is safely insulated from the outside world. His obsession is a
children's show called <i>Brigsby Bear</i>, hundreds of episodes of which he has watched on VHS tapes.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kZDYMufMOOk/WpqW-EvdUqI/AAAAAAAAB1k/ftGwPmioO0ESN_7FGVAlUd30g0bzGEolgCLcBGAs/s1600/brigsby%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1299" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kZDYMufMOOk/WpqW-EvdUqI/AAAAAAAAB1k/ftGwPmioO0ESN_7FGVAlUd30g0bzGEolgCLcBGAs/s320/brigsby%2B2.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
However,
[SPOILER ALERT] his 'parents' are actually his kidnappers; they had snatched
him as a baby, so he has known no other life. When he is rescued and
re-united with his birth parents he must rebuild his life and adjust to a
world that he never knew existed.<br />
<br />
The film creatively and uncomfortably
blurs the boundary between the old and the new world: James is
determined to perpetuate aspects of his past (the <i>Brigsby Bear</i> film sequel), while his father wants his son to follow the conventional male trajectory of sport and cars.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, James attends a party and meets Spencer (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Lendeborg_Jr." title="Jorge Lendeborg Jr.">Jorge Lendeborg Jr.</a>
), who shares an interest in film-making. Thus begins a community
collaboration that eventually includes a reluctant Detective Vogel (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Kinnear" title="Greg Kinnear">Greg Kinnear</a>)
who supplies props confiscated from the abductors' home. Vogel also
ends up acting in the film (he had previously played Prospero, which was
a nice touch --- "What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm
of time?).<br />
<br />
Even the imprisoned 'paternal' abductor agrees to provide a
voice recording, perhaps revealing how comedy stretches improbability.
The more profound point is that creative community media enable the
protagonist to manage his heroes and his demons, and to negotiate his
connections with the world <i>on his own terms</i>. His regeneration
(and escape from perceived mental illness) is achieved by working with
others; crucially, mental health is presented in communitarian terms.<br />
<br />
<i>Brigsby Bear</i> presents contemporary social media in the most positive terms. At the same
time, face-to-face engagement is also demonstrated in terms of bringing people
together to participate in a project. The notion of the audience as
co-creators is also touched on. Collective activity turns out to be
regenerative and emancipatory. In a heavily sentimental twist at the end of the film James and
his father find common ground through the lens of the camera. Film throws
back the critical challenge to engage and to connect.<br />
<br />
<br />
As
an assertion of life, love and the human spirit, comedy sometimes
operates as a defence against the sinister and the cynical. There is a
commonly used formula that states 'comedy unites, tragedy divides'. <i>Brigsby Bear </i>shows
that comedy and community can overcome trauma and tragedy, allowing for
creativity through connection <i>and</i> connection through creativity.<i><br /></i>Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-55351570799721277532017-05-30T19:15:00.000-07:002017-05-30T11:30:19.273-07:00The 32 Dangers of Collaboration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A38F4M0JP1I/ThIzsUJK65I/AAAAAAAAAGE/bYJsd4gw4Mc/s1600/Collaboration+Inside+Out.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A38F4M0JP1I/ThIzsUJK65I/AAAAAAAAAGE/bYJsd4gw4Mc/s320/Collaboration+Inside+Out.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In all walks of life collaboration is very fashionable: as a practice, a theory, or a goal. But do we ever really think through the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dangers</i> or <i>disadvantages </i>of collaboration? If it really works, why does it so often encounter cultures of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resistance</i>? <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we are to believe its main exponents and its evangelistic supporters collaboration unlocks creativity; improves inclusion; reduces costs; increases efficiency; delivers more effective and responsive services. It sounds like a win-win scenario.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Collaboration is a fashionable way of doing business and it is the rallying cry for governments and public service reformers. Being more networked, connected, co-operative, joined up… the collaboration industry is the dominant mode of discourse in the participatory world of Web 2.0. In a circular motion, new media and social media is built upon - and leads to - more collaboration. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is collaboration sometimes a downward spiral of depreciating values? Or sometimes a virtuous cycle of inclusion and innovation ?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does it mean to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resist</i> collaboration; to become a collaboration <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">denier</i> ?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(If you’re still reading, I should think that you’ll be able to find counter-arguments or solutions to each of the dangers and problems outlined below). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s enter the danger zones of collaboration. Here are mu thoughts:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration is undermined when the participants are too busy with other work. Joint working may be stressful when it is supplementary to existing work rather replacing it. Making it work may involve a lot more effort than initially anticipated.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may be hindered if there is a lack of genuine incentives for being involved. Incentives may be individual gains; financial advantage; material resources; time in lieu; professional career development etc</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration is often accompanied by a lack of evidence for its effectiveness: benefits do not materialise. In the field of business ample evidence suggests that the main beneficiaries of acquisitions and mergers are the consultants rather than the monstrously conjoined enterprises.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may not achieve it desired goals if it is motivated by opportunism. Funding councils award generous grants for collaborative work; in a competitive environment the lure of money may exceed a genuine desire for partnership and co-operation.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The vision may not be strong enough to sustain the collaboration, or may be damaged permanently by unsuccessful attempts at joint work.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may fall apart because too much information is shared between the parties. Participants are overloaded by the quantity of the data or paperwork, much of which may be foreign to their specialism or competence. On the other hand participants may withhold crucial information, sometimes unwittingly, or as a mode of resistance.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Moreover, there may be unthought-of or irreconcilable conflicts and overlaps in the reporting styles and mechanisms, especially where these are prescribed by bodies with different kinds of accountabilities or competing professional status issues.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">If knowledge transfer between parties is obstructed by approaches which depend on models of intuition, or where systems and practices have not been explicitly articulated collaboration may fail or be damaging. Let’s remember that methodology and systematic clarity is a social science <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aspiration</i> rather than a human reality; especially in situations which are fluid, transitional, or embryonic.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may be imposed or dominate in such a way that it becomes a threat to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self-reliance</i>, and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">option</i> for individuals to be confident to make decisions without constant permission and consultation. Relatedly, there may be an impact on an individual’s capacity to respond spontaneously </li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="10" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The excessive use of team work and joint decision-making can be slow and time-consuming; burning resources in interminable committees; delaying business and postponing actions. The outcomes are frustration and disenchantment</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="11" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may lead to a fear that weaknesses will be revealed. Sometimes it is more effective and efficient for weaknesses to be addressed internally. At stake here is also the issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vulnerability</i>. Collaboration will fail where the notion of insecurity and trust has not been addressed. Again it is worth noting that building trust takes time, as well as preparedness for temporary or lasting setbacks.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="12" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In unequal collaboration resentment occurs because there are more takers than givers.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="13" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In certain collaborative scenarios there is an impact on perceived status for some parties. Linked to the vulnerability issue is the idea of being the weaker or junior partner; especially where joint working ends up in being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">told</i> how we do things. </li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="14" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Remember that collaboration is not necessarily equal and democratic. The collaborative burden of work may fall on some partners, more than others, and in unanticipated ways</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="15" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration is weak where there are few common frames of reference, or little motivation to establish shared vision and mutuality of interests.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="16" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In unbalanced collaboration there is the risk that cliques form, or that sections of the community start to talk shop rather than addressing issues of mutual concern in a common language.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="17" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">For some collaborators there is a fear that sharing may mean a loss of power or resources; that a cherished or minority function will be lost to the large partner after the collaborative work has been concluded.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="18" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">For other collaborative projects there may be anxieties about the ownership of outcomes, attributions of authorship, or wider ethical concerns.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="19" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Where there is anxiety in collaboration a situation may occur where there are few contributors, minimal contributions, or statements that are too cautious and tentative to form a ground for future work.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="20" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may fail where the initial contacts and networking have been weak. Key partners have not been adequately engaged or identified, leading to resentment and a sense of injustice, or unfair representation.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="21" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may be taken for granted, a routine rather than a special opportunity for creative work. The 9 AM team meeting is a typical example of the institutionalisation of team work rather than goal-oriented, problem- or project-based actions. Keeping to routine agenda items stifles creativity and innovation.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="22" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may fall apart when there are weak ties between the participants. Conversely, strong ties may mean that there are insufficient tensions and challenges, with groupthink replacing the strenuous effort to forge new lines of thought or action.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="23" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">There are dangers in short term collaboration under special circumstances – such as response to emergency or crisis – where the work may turn out to be time-specific, ephemeral, or unsustainable when the temporary pulling together becomes less pressured or urgent.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="24" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In online collaboration there is a risk of individuals not showing their true feelings or personality; identity concealed behind an avatar or persona. While anonymity may facilitate people being more honest and outspoken the side-effect may be a decrease in trust and mutuality.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="25" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration is much more than simply having lots of teams, or indeed a dominant culture of team-working. Although team approaches may be relevant to collaboration they are only part of the story. And group work has its own practices, starting points, and outcomes. Collaboration may helpfully involve the risk of moving beyond the familiar group or team, with the all risks and uncertainties that that runs.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="26" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may inhibit or alienate the role of maverick individuals, lone workers, and the solitary genius.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="27" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may create an opportunity to hide behind the collaborative wall; with no one individual or cluster taking adequate responsibility for actions.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="28" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Institutional or competitive pressures may also threaten options for collaboration. Increasingly, Universities are in competition for scarce resources, leading to a fear that one’s inputs or outputs may be diluted by joint work.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="29" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Relatedly, external partners such as businesses may exercise an unfair leverage on their public sector partner (or vice versa)</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="30" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration may alienate others if it is perceived to be hierarchical or exclusive – the senior ‘round table’; the world ‘experts’ enforcing their collective ‘wisdom’.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="31" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Alternatively it is easy for individuals or splinter groups to write off the failed collaboration as not their work, not my doing. The collaboration again serves as a defensive wall to mask poor engagement or weak participation; intractable disagreements, and/ or failed outcomes.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="32" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Collaboration fails if it is just working with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">enemy</i>. If our actions are undertaken in bad faith, the best outcome is an existential crisis, if not a loss of identity. And we all know what happens to collaborators when the invading army is at last repulsed. We fall victim to the sabotage or the revenge of the stout-hearted resistance. The war metaphor may appear on first analysis exaggerated, but we should not underestimate how often <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forced</i> collaboration fails because of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">internal</i> resistance to an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">outside</i> force.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But don’t let any of that stop you. And if you have time, I'd like to hear about <u>your</u> experience of <i>the resistance to collaboration</i>.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is, if you want to work with me as a <i>collaborator</i>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Connection-Secret-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank">The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</a><br />
(Quibble Academic, 2013) ... also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Connection-Social-Life-Sentences-ebook/dp/B00GS5TYQ2" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, or to <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379552" target="_blank">download</a>. A best-seller and a bargain!</span> </div>
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-49020349517617463912017-01-26T12:16:00.002-08:002017-01-26T12:16:22.447-08:00Vocabulary Learning - Warm-Up Exercises<br />
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</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-35c0cDowyJ4/WIpWk9Q2h-I/AAAAAAAABv8/K0vBGbinGY87Yvrg3aclwbpsssScyXdhACLcB/s1600/Thinker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-35c0cDowyJ4/WIpWk9Q2h-I/AAAAAAAABv8/K0vBGbinGY87Yvrg3aclwbpsssScyXdhACLcB/s320/Thinker.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4>
<b></b></h4>
This is a warm-up exercise. Test your word power!<br />
<br />
How many words start with "T" and finish with "R" ?<br />
<br />
(You can find the answers <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31074989/Vocabulary_Skills_Game" target="_blank">here</a>)<br />
<br />
Perhaps
a wide vocabulary is one part of intelligence? Intelligence takes many
forms: understanding and applying rules, ability to generate patterns,
lateral thinking, inter-personal, intra-personal etc. Granted: word
skills are certainly not a test of emotional stability or spiritual
values or ethical awareness.<br />
<br />
Use this exercise in pairs — as a
group exercise — for the best results. Ideally use this game as a
warm-up exercise at the start of a class. <br />
<br />
You can use a whiteboard, or just practise as an oral/aural activity. <br />
<br />
It can be time-limited. Try 1, 3, 10 or 15 minutes, and compare results.<br />
<br />
Actually,
it's most effective as a collaborative social media game that might
help to bring less frequently used words to the surface. <br />
<br />
When I
posted this verbal mind-game on Facebook it went viral, with lots of
people participating. It was also a self-policing game that tended to be
supportive and inclusive as it combined individuals of different ages,
background, and ability.<br />
<br />
There are over 300 correct answers if you are playing this game in English. <br />
<br />
As
a follow-up activity ask students to create a story using at least one
of the words they found in each sentence. This works best with an
element of absurdity, humour, or surrealism.<br />
<br />
You can also use the words as a rhyme scheme for a poem.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, employ the words that students have listed in an oral Q&A format to develop conversational skills.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lCcV8b8_heg/WIpVLhY67ZI/AAAAAAAABvw/50UqYIAFOzcNmei9RTntPFTmsxGjpcX6gCLcB/s1600/monkey%2Bpuzzle%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lCcV8b8_heg/WIpVLhY67ZI/AAAAAAAABvw/50UqYIAFOzcNmei9RTntPFTmsxGjpcX6gCLcB/s320/monkey%2Bpuzzle%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
For the warm up above there are over 700 English words. Answers <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31049217/D-Word_Exercise_Answers" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Enjoy!<br />
<h6 class="taggings" itemprop="keywords">
<b>Research Interests: </b><div class="profile_research_interest_list" id="research_interest_list_2105" style="display: inline;">
<a class="research_interest_link" data-id="1007" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Teaching_English_as_a_Second_Language">Teaching English as a Second Language</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="1601" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Teacher_Education">Teacher Education</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="3457" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Learning_and_Teaching">Learning and Teaching</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="3979" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/English_language">English language</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="5591" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Vocabulary">Vocabulary</a>, <span class="invisible_research_interests"><a class="research_interest_link" data-id="6223" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/English">English</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="15439" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Teaching_English_As_A_Foreign_Language">Teaching English As A Foreign Language</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="22023" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Vocabulary_Acquisition">Vocabulary Acquisition</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="25994" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Vocabulary_Learning_Strategies">Vocabulary Learning Strategies</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="29524" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Vocabulary_Learning">Vocabulary Learning</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="42190" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Second_language_vocabulary_acquisition">Second language vocabulary acquisition</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="46596" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/English_language_teaching">English language teaching</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="50024" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Language_Teaching">Language Teaching</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="61550" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Vocabulary_Learning_in_ESL">Vocabulary Learning in ESL</a>, <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="99517" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/English_as_a_Foreign_Language_EFL_">English as a Foreign Language (EFL)</a>, and <a class="research_interest_link" data-id="827606" href="https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/English_As_a_Second_Language_ESL_">English As a Second Language (ESL)</a></span></div>
</h6>
<br />
<br />Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-78214973553963139802017-01-19T11:01:00.000-08:002017-01-27T13:43:43.169-08:00Tate values and Community theory<div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">I was delighted to read that </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38582411" target="_blank">Maria Balshaw</a> has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jan/17/maria-balshaw-tate-appointment-confirmed-by-prime-minister" target="_blank">appointed</a> as the new director of the UK's most famous art galleries: the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/maria-balshaw-appointed-new-director-tate" target="_blank">Tate</a> .</span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">I had the
pleasure of working alongside Dr Maria Balshaw at “Nene” or “University
College” in the late 1990s, which was an immensely exciting time to be a
Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies. </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">The undergraduate course was
very ambitious in terms of its academic complexity and its diversity of
ideas about the relationship between Theory, the Arts, and Society. </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">As
collaborators in an innovative institution we felt liberated to take
risks and to embrace creative challenges within the “Combined Honours”
degree programme. At the same time, tutors such as Maria played an
influential personal and academic support role with students who were
sometimes surprised to find that they had been fortunate to have been
awarded an opportunity to study for a degree. </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">As a tutor, Maria inspired
students to have the confidence to explore representations of race,
gender and sexuality and to challenge media stereotypes. </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">Subsequently
Maria moved away and established a successful career in the community
and public arts field. But Maria was not a stranger to Northampton. By
2007 we were establishing the practice of cultural regeneration and
social enterprise at the centre of the core values of the University. At this time we established the Institute of Urban Affairs and I was appointed as the first ever Professor in Community Regeneration and the Arts.</span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">Although professionally in high demand, Maria kindly agreed to
participate in our programme of external speakers who were exploring the
transformative potential of the arts. Maria delivered a public lecture
which was a memorable inspiration to a new generation of staff and students
who were starting on their life journey through creative ideas and
professional work. </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">As Maria takes
up her prestigious post as Director of the Tate she will undoubtedly
continue to stimulate debate and provoke deeper and wider engagement
with the role of the arts in society. Anyone who shares in those values
will be delighted to celebrate Maria’s new position at the centre of
British life and international artistic endeavour.</span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">Dr Ian McCormick (Staff, University of Northampton, 1994-2009)</span></div>
</div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-36516802327767534442016-05-09T11:11:00.000-07:002016-05-10T01:21:58.065-07:00Digital Storytelling and Mind-weaving Women<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Op8iwskcHwY/T48GaSN3q1I/AAAAAAAAAgA/mkSNAAPBzqo/s1600/Penelope+weaving+Homer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Op8iwskcHwY/T48GaSN3q1I/AAAAAAAAAgA/mkSNAAPBzqo/s320/Penelope+weaving+Homer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The words 'textus' and 'contextus' in Latin were associated with weaving, plaiting, interlacing, wrought together, interwoven ...<br />
<br />
Weaving was a complex process that was often the work of women as part of their domestic duties. The most famous weaver in Western classical culture was Odysseus's wife Penelope. To fend off unwanted suitors during her husband's absence, she tells them that she will marry only when she has finished weaving a funeral shroud for her husband's father Laertes.<br />
<br />
But each night she undoes part of her completed work in order to delay being forced to accept one of the suitors. Her 'cunning' (<i>metis</i>) is a form of knowledge, a kind of artifice, and therefore demonstrates the relationship between the craft of the storyteller and the weaving of the narrative cloth. She is similar to and different from the character role of Helen, who also weaves; but in this case the heroic deeds depicted are a representation of <i>her</i> story.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n-wVATHjR3U/T4767wFwGkI/AAAAAAAAAf4/qd6aOxqce_A/s1600/Punch+Card+Digital+Storytelling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n-wVATHjR3U/T4767wFwGkI/AAAAAAAAAf4/qd6aOxqce_A/s320/Punch+Card+Digital+Storytelling.jpg" width="320" /></a>The complex weaving process began to be automated during the nineteenth century and it was from that technology that the first punch card 'program' was developed. Punch cards were used in early computing, and I still recall using them at my high school in Leeds UK in 1982.<br />
<br />
So gender, weaving, and computing are actually intertwined. Moreover, the multiple timelines in our digital editing software also allow us to weave together multiple strands.<br />
<br />
Today, digital storytelling is being explored as the most meaningful and
memorable way of organizing knowledge (curating), as well as a means to
motivate and inspire others in business and in education. Storytelling builds on trust and may involve a 'storylistening trance' if it is successful in gaining the reader or listener's full attention. Effective storytelling requires sustained immersion. Listeners sometimes report being in a timeless state when they are wrapt by the story.<br />
<br />
Digital storytelling weaves together sequences of digital images, layers of music or sounds, and /or voiced commentaries. It is these multiple elements working together that making digital storytelling such a powerful means of communicating a multi-media message. Easy-to-use software means that complex and intricate or detailed narratives can be composed deploying material gather from a variety of people or sources.<br />
<br />
At its most powerful effective storytelling depends on familiarity and novelty, on enchantment and surprise. Elements of good storytelling can be learned as a set of craft skills, but great storytelling is quite rare, and is quite difficult to define or explain.<br />
<br />
Both in terms of the variety of source materials and the multiple authorship roles that can be accommodated, digital storytelling presents opportunities for collective and collaborative community activity. There is also the risk, with intricate materials and infinite subtlety passing through too many hands that the core message(s) is lost.<br />
<br />
If your aim is advertising or advocacy, or promotional fund-raising then you will want to have one clear message that has a lasting impact. Remember that Penelope devised a simple story that was quite effective in its own right. Her husband also, as we later learn, was the brilliant narrator of own his own fantastic and marvellous adventures. Both genders participate in the weaving of narrative.<br />
<br />
But Penelope's weaving is part of a larger weaving on an epic scale. So enjoy complexity, take your time and weave a delightful, multi-stranded, marvellous canvas. Tapestries (see Bayeux) recorded history and served as a collective memory in much the same way as the oral epic poem which served as the memory and memorial of a culture's history, its customs and traditions.<br />
<br />
We now know that the great foundational classics of the Western tradition - Homer's <i>The Iliad</i> and <i>The Odyssey</i> were in fact the amalgamation of a range of storytelling. In ancient times, 'Literature' was more collective and collaborative than the romantic notion of the solitary genius.<br />
<br />
With modern technologies digital storytelling opens up opportunities for collaboration, parody, transmedia transformations, mashing and mixing. Mind weaving is the warp and weft of digital storytelling.<br />
<br />
* * * * * * * * * *<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of </span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "tahoma";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Connection-Secret-Life-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</i></a> (Quibble Academic, 2013)</span></b><br />
<br />
<b>Dr Ian McCormick</b> is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Sexualities-Sourcebook-Century-Writing/dp/0415139546" target="_blank">Secret Sexualities: A Sourcebook</a> (London and New York: Routledge) and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sexual-Outcasts-1750-1850-Subcultures-Subversions/dp/0415201462" target="_blank">Sexual Outcasts 1750-1850</a> (Four Volumes. Subcultures and Subversions. Routledge). He has recently contributed a chapter on gothic sexuality published in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Eighteenth-Century-Literature-Routledge-Studies/dp/0415640032" target="_blank"><i>Sex and Death in the Eighteenth Century</i></a>, edited by Jolene Zigarovich (Routledge, 2013). A new book on <i>Shakespearean Tragedy</i> will be published in 2013.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
© Dr Ian McCormick. But please do contact me if you want to
use this article as a guest post on your blog.With attribution offered I seldom refuse!<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>Bibliography of Recent Research Articles and Book</b>s</h2>
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alexander, Bryan.
<i>The new digital storytelling: Creating narratives with new media</i>.
ABC-CLIO, 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alexander, Bryan, and Alan Levine. "Web 2.0
storytelling: Emergence of a new genre." <i>EDUCAUSE review</i> 43.6
(2008): 40-56.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Benmayor, Rina. "Digital storytelling as a signature
pedagogy for the new humanities." <i>Arts and Humanities in Higher
Education</i> 7.2 (2008): 188-204.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Benson, Samantha, Rosa Solorio, and Allen Cheadle. <i>Exploring
Digital Storytelling Applications in the Community</i>. Diss. Masters Thesis.
University of Washington School
of Public Health, 2012.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bidwell, Nicola J., et al. "Designing with mobile
digital storytelling in rural Africa." <i>Proceedings
of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</i>. ACM, 2010.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Burgess, Jean. "Hearing ordinary voices: Cultural
studies, vernacular creativity and digital storytelling." <i>Continuum:
Journal of Media & Cultural Studies</i> 20.2 (2006): 201-214.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coventry, Michael. "Engaging Gender Student application
of theory through digital storytelling." <i>Arts and Humanities in Higher
Education</i> 7.2 (2008): 205-219.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ekelin, Annelie, Pirjo Elovaara, and Christina Mörtberg.
"Exploring digital storytelling as a method for participatory
design." <i>Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary Conference on
Participatory Design 2008</i>. Indiana
University, 2008.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Figa, Elizabeth. "The emergent properties of multimedia
applications for storytelling pedagogy in a distance education online learning
community." <i>Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal
of Storytelling Studies</i> 3.1 (2007): 50-72.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Frohlich, David M., et al. "StoryBank: mobile digital
storytelling in a development context." <i>Proceedings of the SIGCHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</i>. ACM, 2009.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Göbel, Stefan, et al. "80days: Adaptive digital
storytelling for digital educational games." <i>Proceedings of the 2nd
International Workshop on Story-Telling and Educational Games (STEG’09)</i>.
Vol. 498. No. 498. 2009.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Göbel, Stefan, et al. "Serious games for health:
personalized exergames." <i>Proceedings of the international conference on
Multimedia</i>. ACM, 2010.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gubrium, Aline. "Digital storytelling: An emergent
method for health promotion research and practice." <i>Health Promotion
Practice</i> 10.2 (2009): 186.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guillory, Dayle, Walter Gonsoulin, and Robin Ward.
"Igniting Your Imagination Through Digital Storytelling." <i>Society
for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference</i>.
Vol. 2006. No. 1. 2006.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hansson, Thomas. <i>Handbook of research on digital
information technologies: innovations, methods, and ethical issues</i>. Hershey,
PA: Information Science Reference, 2008.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hill, Amy L. "8 Digital storytelling for gender
justice." <i>Confronting Global Gender Justice: Women’s Lives, Human
Rights</i> (2010): 126.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hopkins, Candice. "Making things our own: The
indigenous aesthetic in digital storytelling." <i>Leonardo</i> 39.4
(2006): 341-344.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hull, Glynda A.,
and Mira-Lisa Katz. "Crafting an agentive self: Case studies of digital
storytelling." <i>Research in the Teaching of English</i> (2006): 43-81.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hull, Glynda A.,
et al. "Many versions of masculine: An exploration of boys' identity
formation through digital storytelling in an afterschool program." <i>The
Robert Bowne Foundation: Occasional paper series</i> 6 (2006): 1-42.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jenkins, Henry. "Transmedia storytelling and entertainment:
An annotated syllabus." <i>Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural
Studies</i> 24.6 (2010): 943-958.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jenkins, Martin, and Phil Gravestock. "Digital
storytelling synthesis." (2010).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jetnikoff, Anita. "Digital storytelling, podcasts,
blogs and vlogs: exploring a range of new media texts and forms in
English." <i>English in </i><i>Australia</i>
44.2 (2009): 55-62.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kafai, Yasmin B. "Considering gender in digital games:
Implications for serious game designs in the learning sciences." <i>Proceedings
of the 8th international conference on International conference for the
learning sciences-Volume 1</i>. International Society of the Learning Sciences,
2008.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Klaebe, Helen G., et al. "Digital storytelling and
history lines: Community engagement in a master-planned development." <i>Proceedings
of the 13th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia:
Exchange and Experience in Space and Place, VSMM 2007</i>. Australasian
Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design Pty, Limited, 2007.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Klaebe, Helen Grace. "Sharing stories: problems and
potentials of oral history and digital storytelling and the writer/producer's
role in constructing a public place." (2006).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lambert, Joe. <i>Digital storytelling: Capturing lives,
creating community</i>. Routledge, 2013.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lotherington, Heather. "Digital epistemologies and
classroom multiliteracies." <i>Handbook of research on digital information
technologies: Innovations, methods, and ethical issues</i> (2008): 263-282.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Page, Ruth, and Bronwen Thomas, eds. <i>New Narratives:
Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age</i>. U of Nebraska
Press, 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Powell, Timothy B., William Weems, and Freeman Owle.
"Native/American Digital Storytelling: Situating the Cherokee Oral
Tradition within American Literary History." <i>Literature Compass</i> 4.1
(2007): 1-23.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Roby, Teshia. "Identity, Efficacy, and Inclusion in the
Classroom through Digital Storytelling." <i>Society for Information
Technology & Teacher Education International Conference</i>. Vol. 2010. No.
1. 2010.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scott Nixon, Althea. "Mediating social thought through
digital storytelling." <i>Pedagogies: An International Journal</i> 4.1
(2009): 63-76.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Skains, R. Lyle. "The Shifting Author—Reader Dynamic
Online Novel Communities as a Bridge from Print to Digital Literature." <i>Convergence:
The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies</i> 16.1
(2010): 95-111.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stanley, Nile,
and Brett Dillingham. "Making learners click with digital
storytelling." <i>Language Magazine</i> 10.6 (2011): 24-29.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thue, David, et al. "Interactive Storytelling: A Player
Modelling Approach." <i>AIIDE</i>. 2007.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vivienne, Sonja. "Trans digital storytelling: everyday
activism, mutable identity and the problem of visibility." <i>Gay and
Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review</i> 7.1 (2011): 43-54.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Youngs, Gillian, ed. <i>The Digital World: Connectivity,
Creativity and Rights</i>. Routledge, 2013.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yee, Nick. "Maps of digital desires: Exploring the
topography of gender and play in online games." <i>Beyond Barbie and
Mortal Kombat: New perspectives on gender and gaming</i> (2008): 83-96.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yuksel, Pelin, Bernard Robin, and Sara McNeil. "Educational
uses of digital storytelling all around the world." <i>Society for
Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference</i>.
Vol. 2011. No. 1. 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-11286340586812710002015-12-27T07:00:00.000-08:002018-03-03T02:28:18.530-08:0021 Symptoms of Social Media Addiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LJBNb8v9qnQ/UNNSiStJHJI/AAAAAAAAA4s/wW_OL0zVCsA/s1600/social+media+addiction+harm+psychology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LJBNb8v9qnQ/UNNSiStJHJI/AAAAAAAAA4s/wW_OL0zVCsA/s320/social+media+addiction+harm+psychology.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
A recent <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/why-social-media-should-be-banned-under-16s" target="_blank">article</a> argued that Social Media should be banned for those under 16. Outrage!<br />
<br />
What are the warning signs that we have been <i>imprisoned</i> by our screens? Is it possible that the addiction to social media could be harming our physical, mental and spiritual world? I would be the first to admit that there are worse activities such as mindlessly TV channel-surfing.But I have noticed the addiction in <i>others</i>!<br />
<br />
You all make so many excuses for spending so much time online. For many
people this is not a cause for anxiety at all. We are increasingly
cyborgian, and any wish to return to the old ways (3-5 years ago) is
nothing but a futile, hopeless and romantic nostalgia.<br />
<br />
Having allocated myself a timetable that now stipulates a progressive <i>increase</i> in my time <i>away</i> from the screen I have noticed an improvement in my general health and sense of well-being. Perhaps the experience of having recovered from cancer last year has led me to rethink the primacy of direct interaction with people, rather than digital mediation. I'm certainly not a luddite by any means, but I may well be a social media recovering addict.<br />
<br />
Don't take this too seriously. You may even object to the use of addiction in this regard. I'm interested to hear your thoughts, online or <b>off.</b><br />
<br />
So here is my personal and rather intuitive list of symptoms that might be associated with an unhealthy addiction.<br />
<br />
Have you experienced any of these symptoms in the last year?<br />
<br />
Or perhaps you have noticed these characteristics in <i>other</i> people?<br />
<br />
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<br />
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Repetitive
Strain Injury</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 3.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Back
Pains and other discomfort associated with a screen-based lifestyle</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Delusional
sense of exhilaration associated with the online flow of interactions</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Being
online is my first activity of the day</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Being
online is my last activity of the day</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Spending
an hour or more online without being aware of the passage of time</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Less
comfortable with face-to-face encounters</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Sense
of being awed or overwhelmed by the abundance offered by the internet</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Being
online while you are speaking to friends or family on the phone</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="10" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Being
online while watching TV, or listening to music</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="11" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Convinced
that multi-tasking is an effective way to work</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="12" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Decreased
length and frequency of direct encounters with people</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="13" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Increase
in weight, BMI, or change in body shape
and general fitness</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="14" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Constantly
mobile connected and status updating</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="15" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Missing
deadlines for work, or failing to meet your own objectives</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="16" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Increased
tendency to procrastinate, with less efficient productivity</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="17" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Increase
in irritability, stress, and anxiety; decrease in patience and listening
skills</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="18" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Frequently
checking in online, at every opportunity</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="19" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Sense
that life is becoming fragmentary or hollow</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="20" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Decreased
attention span and ability to focus on major project requiring sustained
effort</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="21" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Preference
for micro-engagement rather than in depth reflection.</li>
</ol>
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I'd be delighted to hear your views, <i><b>or meet with you face--to--face</b></i>.<br />
<br />
Perhaps you could keep a note of how much time you spend online and then question its genuine value to your life?<br />
<br />
<b>Dr Ian McCormick</b> is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Connection-Secret-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank">The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</a><br />
(2013) Also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Connection-Social-Life-Sentences-ebook/dp/B00GS5TYQ2" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, or to <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379552" target="_blank">download</a>.<br />
<br />
Also worth a look: The PhD Roadmap: A <a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/phd-roadmap-9-tips-for-successful.html" target="_blank">Guide</a> to Successful Submission of your Dissertation / Thesis.<br />
<b>Further Reading</b><br />
<br />
<div id="gs_cit0">
Young, Kimberly S., and Robert C. Rogers. "The relationship between depression and Internet addiction." <i>CyberPsychology & Behavior</i> 1.1 (1998): 25-28.</div>
<br />
<div id="gs_cit0">
Park, Namsu, Kerk F. Kee, and Sebastián Valenzuela.
"Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses
and gratifications, and social outcomes." <i>CyberPsychology & Behavior</i> 12.6 (2009): 729-733.<br />
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
Indeok Song, Robert Larose, Matthew S. Eastin, and Carolyn A. Lin. "Internet Gratifications and Internet Addiction: On the Uses and Abuses of New Media." <b> </b> <i>CyberPsychology & Behavior</i>.
August 2004,
7(4): 384-394.<br />
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
O'Keeffe, Gwenn Schurgin, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson. "The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families." <i>Pediatrics</i> 127.4 (2011): 800-804.</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Correa, Teresa, Amber Willard Hinsley, and Homero Gil
De Zuniga. "Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’
personality and social media use." <i>Computers in Human Behavior</i> 26.2 (2010): 247-253.</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
LaRose, Robert, Carolyn A. Lin, and Matthew S. Eastin.
"Unregulated Internet usage: Addiction, habit, or deficient
self-regulation?." <i>Media Psychology</i> 5.3 (2003): 225-253.</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Baudrillard, Jean, and Marie Maclean. "The masses: The implosion of the social in the media." <i>New Literary History</i> 16.3 (1985): 577-589.</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Stern, Steven E. "Addiction to technologies: A social psychological perspective of Internet addiction." <i>CyberPsychology & Behavior</i> 2.5 (1999): 419-424.</div>
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Yen, Ju-Yu, et al. "The comorbid psychiatric symptoms
of Internet addiction: attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), depression, social phobia, and hostility." <i>Journal of adolescent health</i> 41.1 (2007): 93-98.</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Watkins, S. Craig. <i>The young and the digital: What the migration to social network sites, games, and anytime, anywhere media means for our future</i>. Beacon Press, 2009.</div>
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Ehrenberg, Alexandra, et al. "Personality and self-esteem as predictors of young people's technology use." <i>CyberPsychology & Behavior</i> 11.6 (2008): 739-741.</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
</div>
<div id="gs_cit0">
<div id="gs_cit0">
<br />
Park, Woong. "Mobile phone addiction." <i>Mobile Communications</i> (2005): 253-272.</div>
<br />
<div id="gs_cit0">
Wang, Wei. "Internet dependency and psychosocial maturity among college students." <i>International Journal of Human-Computer Studies</i> 55.6 (2001): 919-938.</div>
</div>
<br />
<div id="gs_cit0">
LaRose, Robert, Dana Mastro, and Matthew S. Eastin.
"Understanding internet usage A social-cognitive approach to uses and
gratifications." <i>Social Science Computer Review</i> 19.4 (2001): 395-413.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
© Dr Ian McCormick. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-10783345516136937052015-11-01T04:40:00.000-08:002015-11-19T16:16:19.390-08:00Recommended Books - Fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QSsDtt40DMw/UA07PdmA_QI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/-kfEjNg6B8A/s1600/leakeys%2Bbookshop%2Binverness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QSsDtt40DMw/UA07PdmA_QI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/-kfEjNg6B8A/s320/leakeys%2Bbookshop%2Binverness.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<br /></h4>
<h4>
Carson McCullers, <i>The Member of the Wedding</i></h4>
<br />
With delicacy of perception and memory, humour and pathos, Carson
McCullers spreads before us the three phases of a weekend crisis in the
life of a motherless twelve-year-old girl. Within the span of a few
hours, the irresistible, hoydenish Frankie passionately plays out her
fantasies at her elder brother's wedding. Through a perilous skylight we
look into the mind of a child torn between her yearning to belong and
the urge to run away.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007JZW73W/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B007JZW73W&linkCode=as2&tag=commmediintew-21"><img border="0" class="urdetkimocknvhzbeloz doxrlsdhovfikkizbsuv pfsnzofcaxixmdwjiwmv hufaitevabpxskwubqfk" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B007JZW73W&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=GB&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=commmediintew-21" /></a><img alt="" border="0" class="urdetkimocknvhzbeloz doxrlsdhovfikkizbsuv pfsnzofcaxixmdwjiwmv hufaitevabpxskwubqfk" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=commmediintew-21&l=as2&o=2&a=B007JZW73W" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<h4>
<script charset="utf-8" src="http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822/GB/commmediintew-21/8005/0d4e1519-0383-43a4-aeea-81ecf7dc9529" type="text/javascript">
</script><noscript></noscript>
<br />
Indra Sinha,
<i>Animal's People</i></h4>
'I used to be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but
people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a
human being'.....But now Jaanvar - Animal - walks on all fours, the
catastrophic result of what happened on That Night when, thanks to an
American chemical company, the Apocalypse visited his slums. He lives a
hand-to-mouth existence, with a crazy old nun called Ma Franci; Nisha,
the daughter of a local musician; and his dog Jara. Each of them had
their lives irreversibly changed on That Night.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1416526277/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1416526277&linkCode=as2&tag=commmediintew-21"><img border="0" class="urdetkimocknvhzbeloz doxrlsdhovfikkizbsuv pfsnzofcaxixmdwjiwmv hufaitevabpxskwubqfk" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1416526277&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=GB&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=commmediintew-21" /></a><img alt="" border="0" class="urdetkimocknvhzbeloz doxrlsdhovfikkizbsuv pfsnzofcaxixmdwjiwmv hufaitevabpxskwubqfk" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=commmediintew-21&l=as2&o=2&a=1416526277" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<h4>
Lionel Shriver, <i>We Need to Talk about Kevin</i></h4>
"'Once in a while, a stunningly powerful novel comes along, knocks you
sideways and takes your breath away: this is it... a horrifying,
original, witty, brave and deliberately provocative investigation into
all the casual assumptions we make about family life, and motherhood in
particular' Daily Mail 'This startling shocker strips bare motherhood...
the most remarkable Orange prize victor so far' Polly Toynbee, Guardian
'One of the most striking works of fiction to be published this year.
It is Desperate Housewives as written by Euripides... A powerful,
gripping and original meditation on evil' New Statesman"<br />
<br />
<h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1846687349/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1846687349&linkCode=am2&tag=commmediintew-21"><img border="0" class="urdetkimocknvhzbeloz doxrlsdhovfikkizbsuv pfsnzofcaxixmdwjiwmv hufaitevabpxskwubqfk" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1846687349&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=GB&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=commmediintew-21" /></a><img alt="" border="0" class="urdetkimocknvhzbeloz doxrlsdhovfikkizbsuv pfsnzofcaxixmdwjiwmv hufaitevabpxskwubqfk" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=commmediintew-21&l=as2&o=2&a=1846687349" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
Dai Sijie, <i>Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress</i></h4>
In 1971 Mao's campaign against the intellectuals is at its height. Our
narrator and his best friend, Luo, distinctly unintellectual but guilty
of being the sons of doctors, have been sent to a remote mountain
village to be 'reeducated'. The kind of education that takes place
among the peasants of Phoenix Mountain involves carting buckets of
excrement up and down precipitous, foggy paths, but the two
seventeen-year-olds have a violin and their sense of humour to keep them
going. Further distraction is provided by the attractive daughter of
the local tailor, possessor of a particularly fine pair of feet. Their
true re-education starts, however, when they discover a comrade's hidden
stash of classics of great nineteenth-century Western literature -
Balzac, Dickens, Dumas, Tolstoy and others, in Chinese translation.
They need all their ingenuity to get their hands on the forbidden books,
but when they do their lives are turned upside down. And not only
their lives: after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings
of Balzac, the Little Seamstress will never be the same again. Without
betraying the truth of what happened, Dai Sijie transforms the bleak
events of China's Cultural Revolution into an enchanting and unexpected
story about the resilience of the human spirit and the magical power of
great storytelling.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Don DeLillo,
<i>The Names</i></h4>
Reading the fiction of Don DeLillo is an utterly original experience:
powerful, prescient, perceptive. Writing in a prose that is both
majestic and muscular, his unerringly accurate vision penetrates deep
into the soul of America and consistently leaves readers with a fresh
perspective on the world. Since the publication of his first novel, in
1971, he has been acknowledged across the globe as one of the greatest
writers of his generation. DeLillo’s seventh is an exotic thriller. Set
mostly in Greece, it concerns a mysterious ‘language cult’ seemingly
behind a number of unexplained murders. Obsessed by news of this
ritualistic violence, an American risk analyst is drawn to search for an
explanation. We follow his progress on an obsessive journey that begins
to take over his life and the lives of those closest to him. In
addition to offering a series of precise character studies, The Names
explores the intersection of language and culture, the perception of
America from both inside and outside of its borders, and the impact that
narration has on the facts of a story. Meditative and probing, DeLillo
wonders: how does one cope with the fact that the act of articulation is
simultaneously capable of defining and circumscriptively restricting
access to the self?<br />
<h4>
J. D. Salinger, <i>The Catcher in the Rye</i></h4>
<div>
The ultimate novel for
disaffected youth, but it's relevant to all ages. The story is told by
Holden Caulfield, a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked
out of his fourth school. Throughout, Holden dissects the 'phony'
aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves: the headmaster whose
affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores
with girls using sickly-sweet affection. Lazy in style,
full of slang and swear words, it's a novel whose interest and appeal
comes from its observations rather than its plot intrigues (in
conventional terms, there is hardly any plot at all). Salinger's style
creates an effect of conversation, it is as though Holden is speaking to
you personally, as though you too have seen through the pretences of
the American Dream and are growing up unable to see the point of living
in, or contributing to, the society around you. Written
with the clarity of a boy leaving childhood, it deals with society,
love, loss, and expectations without ever falling into the clutch of a
cliche.</div>
<h4>
Louis de Bernieres, <i>The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman</i></h4>
When the economy of his small South American country collapses,
President Veracruz joins his improbable populace of ex-soldiers, former
guerillas, unfrocked priests and reformed - though by no means inactive -
whores, in a bizarre search for sexual fulfilment. But for Cardinal
Guzman, a man tormented by his own private demons, their stupendous,
hedonistic fiestas represent the epicentre of all heresies. Heresies
that must be challenged with a horrifying new inquisition destined to
climax in a spectacular confrontation<br />
<br />
<h4>
Flann O'Brien, <i>The Third Policeman</i></h4>
‘Flann O’Brien learned from Joyce the art of tuning language to a
lyrical pitch, which he could then turn to his purpose, whether it was
to be plain foolery, unconcealed indignation or high comedy. The best of
his contemporaries and many subsequent Irish writers have much to thank
him for.’ <i>Sunday Times</i><br />
‘Flann O’Brien is inventive, his
storytelling is swift and sure, making the eccentric seem natural and
the commonplace hilarious.’ <i>The Times</i> ‘Even with “Ulysses” and “Finnegans Wake” behind him, James Joyce might have been envious.’ <i>The Observer </i>‘Wonderful. “The Third Policeman” is a great masterpiece of black humour.’ George Mackay Brown<br />
<br />
<h4>
Kazuo Ishiguro, <i>When We Were Orphans</i></h4>
Christopher Banks, the protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel, <i>When We Were Orphans</i>,
has dedicated his life to detective work but behind his successes lies
one unsolved mystery: the disappearance of his parents when he was a
small boy living in the International Settlement in Shanghai. Moving
between England and China in the inter-war period, the book,
encompassing the turbulence and political anxieties of the time and the
crumbling certainties of a Britain deeply involved in the opium trade in
the East, centres on Banks's idealistic need to make sense of the world
through the small victories of detection and his need to understand
finally what happened to his mother and father. <br />
This new novel,
however, is the deliberate antithesis of the classic English detective
story--the hermetic country-house worlds of Agatha Christie, the classic
"locked room" puzzles in which order and sanity is restored at the
story's end. Ishiguro mimics the functional style and clipped speech
patterns of the genre, ironising its reliance on melodrama and
stereotype, while developing a narrative of subtlety, great emotional
depth, and political and cultural acuity: what we get is a negative
image of classic detective fiction, in which the solved crimes are
mentioned in passing and the real mystery is played out in the
psychology of the detective himself. The act of detection, Ishiguro
suggests, is one we all perform on our own past, struggling to marshal
clues and evidence whilst trying to construct the story of ourselves;
the one mystery Banks seems unable to solve is his own. <br />
<h4>
Marina Lewycka, <i>Two Caravans</i></h4>
And sitting in it two caravans – one for the men and one for the
women. The residents are from all over: miner’s son Andriy is from the
old Ukraine, while sexy young Irina is from the new: they eye each other
warily. There are the Poles Tomasz and Yola, two Chinese girls and
Emanuel from Malawi. They’re all here to pick strawberries in England’s
green and pleasant land. But these days England’s not so
pleasant for immigrants. Not with Russian gangster-wannabes like Vulk,
who’s taken a shine to Irina and thinks kidnapping is a wooing strategy.
And so Andriy – who really doesn’t fancy Irina, honest – must set off
in search of that girl he’s not in love with.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Bernhard Schlink,<i> The Reader</i></h4>
For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads
to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and
before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which
leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she
seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany,
Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The
woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the
trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does -
Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also
desperately concealing an even deeper secret. 'A tender, horrifying
novel that shows blazingly well how the Holocaust should be dealt with
in fiction. A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of
a German conscience' INDEPENDENT SATURDAY MAGAZINE<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Patrick Suskind, <i>Perfume</i></h4>
Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He
is abandoned on the filthy streets as a child, but grows up to discover
he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any
other human’s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in
Paris. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite,
magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And
kill. And kill …<br />
<br />
<h4>
Rose Tremain, <i>Music And Silence</i></h4>
<div id="outer_postBodyPS" style="height: auto; overflow: hidden; z-index: 1;">
<div id="postBodyPS" style="overflow: hidden;">
<div>
In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter
Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal
Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform
in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire
understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light
and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death.<br />
<br />
Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds
himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the
King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties
fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the
path that will realise his hopes and save his soul?</div>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
John Banville,
<i>The Sea</i></h4>
<br />
Max
Morden has reached a crossroads in his life, and is trying hard to deal
with several disturbing things. A recent loss is still taking its toll
on him, and a trauma in his past is similarly proving hard to deal with.
He decides that he will return to a town on the coast at which he spent
a memorable holiday when a boy. His memory of that time devolves on the
charismatic Grace family, particularly the seductive twins Myles and
Chloe. In a very short time, Max found himself drawn into a strange
relationship with them, and pursuant events left their mark on him for
the rest of his life. But will he be able to exorcise those memories of
the past? <br />
The fashion in which John Banville draws the reader into this hypnotic and disturbing world is <i>non pareil</i>,
and the very complex relationships between his brilliantly delineated
cast of characters are orchestrated with a master’s skill. As in such
books as <i>Shroud</i> and <i>The Book of Evidence</i>, the author
eschews the obvious at all times, and the narrative is delivered with
subtlety and understatement. The genuine moments of drama, when they do
occur, are commensurately more powerful. --<i>Barry Forshaw</i> Incandescent prose. Beautifully textured characterisation. Transparent
narratives. The adjectives to describe the writing of John Banville are
all affirmative, and <i>The Sea</i> is a ringing affirmation of all his
best qualities. His publishers are claiming that this novel by the
Booker-shortlisted author is his finest yet, and while that claim may
have an element of hyperbole, there is no denying that this perfectly
balanced book is among the writer’s most accomplished work.
</div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-63888531799165732732015-04-24T01:45:00.000-07:002016-03-24T06:40:40.611-07:00How do academics read so many books?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ogROzrAvaBo/UA-pYa_C_eI/AAAAAAAAAoc/zbT2kfHPyko/s1600/famous+academic+library.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ogROzrAvaBo/UA-pYa_C_eI/AAAAAAAAAoc/zbT2kfHPyko/s320/famous+academic+library.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="st">Scientia imperii </span></i><i>decus et tutamen est</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
First, let's interrogate the truth apparently proposed or implied in the titular question. Would it not be more accurate to state: it is <i>believed </i>that academics read lots of books. Is this true?<br />
<br />
For many undergraduates the notion that their Professor has read more than fifty books secures her a place in the same league as Wittgenstein or Dr Johnson. Far out! Strange! A living geek-book. So, the revered state of <i>being widely read</i> is a relative judgment.<br />
<br />
But let's grant that academics do 'read' rather a lot; perhaps more than average, perhaps <i>excessively</i>. For teachers in the arts, and in the social sciences, academic books are their primary tools and resources. Text is a living laboratory. Surely they spend every moment of their lives <i>reading</i>. That is to say, they might entertaining the possibility of reading in those great vistas of time the yawn like chasms between teaching, assessing, writing, and generally administering.<br />
<br />
In part, it is true that academics <i>delve</i> into books, gingerly excavating their contents, rather than ploughing through them word by word (pencil in hand). In most cases, skimming is superior to delving. Academics are capable of attentive close reading; they are also into the business of <i>Further Reading</i>. But they have their gaps, their silences, their weak points. Mastery of the secondary literature, even in our chosen specialist field, is always slipping away from us. So many new books are <i>waving</i> to us on the horizon of the <i>sea of erudition</i>. But there's often the sense of a <i>deluge</i> of print.<br />
<br />
Bearing in mind that every career depends on publication, it follows that the quantity published has been increasing rapidly since the 1960s when one article on kinship ties in <i>Beowulf</i> was enough to secure a life journey through academia. Every year, for instance, several hundred 'new' articles are written on gothic monsters. This is the <i>Frankenstein industry</i>, a monster of academia's making, a grotesque outpouring supplied daily with books cobbled together from the dead remnants of their recent predecessors.<br />
<br />
For serious academics, the detailed dissection of books is an honour afforded only to the books that are absolutely crucial to their work, or that they have been asked to formally review. This is where close reading flexes its muscles and surgically inspects the inner workings of the textual body.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, it would <i>generally</i> be more true to say that academics BUY lots of books, rather than reading them, in the strict sense of a sensitive and appreciative cover-to-cover engagement.<br />
<br />
Academics also BORROW lots of books (as you will recognise if you have any academic friends visiting...)<br />
<br />
For academics it is not an uncommon experience for the piles of academic books to WAIT<br />
<br />
on their desks,<br />
on their chairs,<br />
on their kitchen floor,<br />
beside the bed,<br />
in the lavatory,<br />
in the garden shed,<br />
left on the bus,<br />
bulging in a recycled bag, &c<br />
<br />
... just waiting for that UTOPIAN moment when<br />
<br />
all students vanish from view,<br />
when term is over,<br />
when that article is finished for the Journal of Unread Studies,<br />
when the last meeting is over,<br />
when the Head of Department stops talking<br />
when the head of exam administration stops calling,<br />
when they've watched the last episode of <i>The Wire</i> <br />
and the last essay is marked,<br />
and the children are fed ...<br />
<br />
(I'm not including doctoral students in this category. Obviously they have sufficient time to wade through the complete works of Aquinas or John Dewey in order to research and craft an exemplary footnote.)<br />
<br />
SO, rather than reading a book from cover to cover, which is frankly a little OLD-FASHIONED,<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>memorise the title - some are self-explanatory, witty and memorable. Knowing what books to recommend with accurate reference is the sign of absolute professionalism.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>digest the summary (publisher's blurb on the back of the book). At this stage you are able to discuss the book in some detail and you will be able to position it in relation to the main intellectual currents of our time.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>skim through the acknowledgements (how much money did they
'secure' from the Leverhulme Trust in 2001); how many research libraries
did they visit; who read the final drafts and offered help...</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>leaf through the index and check the most cited authorities (Habermas, Deleuze, Zizek, Lacan, Spivak, Foucault, hooks ...). Now you are really getting into the detail and to progress to expert status you need to notice who has been oddly missed out. What? a book on diversity in education and no bell hooks? scandal! check out any reviews to gain a diversity of insights and critical opinions</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>explore the footnotes (actually these are now typically the annoying endnotes that will have you dizzy with see-sawing from back to front) are where you really dig deep into the reading. This is a great opportunity to investigate the scholarly use of primary and secondary sources. In fact, I have met academics who spend most of their time working through the footnotes, spotting gaps, missing links, inaccuracies and occasional triumphs of erudition. A whole reputation can fall in a footnote.</li>
</ul>
By now you will be really hooked, so be cautious.<br />
<br />
It's time to risk a critical examination of the Preface, or even the Introduction, where you will often discover a convenient summary of the treasures still locked up in the main body of the book.<br />
<ul>
<li>Locate the most significant chapter by reading the chapter titles. Getting stuck in the wrong chapter could be a disaster and hinder your progress through the Gothic 'PILES of the UN-READ.'</li>
</ul>
<br />
Put a date in the DIARY.<br />
<br />
Schedule some quality reading time, free from distractions.<br />
<br />
As I wait for the day to arrive I sometimes risk a random page from a random book. This is SERENDIPITY and it is recommended when you have lots of miscellaneous books and writer's block has kicked in.<br />
<br />
READING DAY has arrived.<br />
<br />
Returning to the TARGET book, at this point I make an assessment of the elegance of the prose, the inventiveness of the ideas, the ingenuity of the argument, the weight of the evidence, and the authority of the scholarship.<br />
<br />
Is this an author who is WELL-READ ?<br />
<br />
I am now ready for the SUBLIME experience of reading a book from beginning to end.<br />
<br />
Until the PHONE rings ...<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1847080561/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1847080561&linkCode=as2&tag=commmediintew-21">
</a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Connection-Secret-Life-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</i></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">(Quibble Academic, 2013)</span><br />
</div>
<br />
<u><b>Further reading</b></u><br />
<br />
University Students share their<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/how-seriously-read-scientific-paper" target="_blank"> tips</a> on How to Read a Paper<br />
<br /><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1847080561/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1847080561&linkCode=as2&tag=commmediintew-21"><img border="0" class="umvsudlknefxckawuqxv yzzzghvqwjrgvjpkoisy kfsobbvfzzmsmdouvnrb uesgkzihksreaotgdwan" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1847080561&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=GB&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=commmediintew-21" /></a><img alt="" border="0" class="umvsudlknefxckawuqxv yzzzghvqwjrgvjpkoisy kfsobbvfzzmsmdouvnrb uesgkzihksreaotgdwan" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=commmediintew-21&l=as2&o=2&a=1847080561" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-78574955560470605762014-07-22T14:28:00.000-07:002014-07-25T08:42:45.665-07:00Deadly Cinema and Secret Cinema<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fXV9wSnCYME/TmfePzZPn_I/AAAAAAAAAOA/VL65spKGqvs/s1600/secret.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fXV9wSnCYME/TmfePzZPn_I/AAAAAAAAAOA/VL65spKGqvs/s1600/secret.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
At the weekend I picked up in a charity ("thrift") shop a short book by world theatre director and experimenter Peter Brook called <i>The Empty Space</i>, first published in 1968, with a Pelican paperback in 1972. There have been several reprints and it's still a thoughtful discussion of the state of theatre.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Where he speculates on 'Theatre' I found myself reflecting on 'Cinema.' It's a curious exercise to displace and compare terminologies and discourses. Sometimes it's quite shocking and sobering as a thought experiment.<br />
<br />
What did the theatre mean to him in 1968, and what does it mean to us in 2011?<br />
<br />
How have our ideas about the value(s) and function of cinema evolved alongside, or in opposition to 'theatre' ?<br />
<br />
If you're curious, his four chapters are titled<br />
<br />
The Deadly Theatre<br />
The Holy Theatre<br />
The Rough Theatre<br />
The Immediate Theatre<br />
<br />
I also found myself dreaming about a <i>Secret Cinema</i>. Perhaps a lost chapter of the Brook's book ?<br />
<br />
- An echo perhaps of composer Harrison Birtwistle's <i>Secret Theatre</i> ?<br />
<br />
Or, perhaps, more lyrically, a borrowing from the Robert Graves poem <i>Secret Theatre</i>:<br />
<br />
When from your sleepy mind the day's burden<br />
Falls like a bushel sack on a barn floor,<br />
Be prepared for music, for natural mirages<br />
And for the night's incomparable parade of colour.<br />
<br />
It is hours after midnight now, a flute signals<br />
Far off; we mount the stage as though at random<br />
Boldly ring down the curtain, then dance out our love.<br />
<br />
I confess that there are always piles of books around me, some not yet read, delights waiting to be opened, uncovered, discovered. One book on my desk was a novel by Carol Shields called <i>Unless</i> (2002). The novel opens with an epigraph from the great nineteenth-century English female novelist George Eliot:<br />
<br />
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.<br />
<br />
There's something in these books and quotes that would constitute my Secret Cinema. A place perhaps to find Wordsworth's 'still sad music of humanity'; a space for film to have rhythm and intensity, overheard visioning; but also laughter and dance; something rough and grotesque, something holy, sublime and degenerate.<br />
<br />
I'm wanting a secret cinema with a living drama of <i>individuation</i> rather than the crude trappings of a consuming and hollow individualism. A living cinema, not a deadly cinema.<br />
<br />
My <i>Secret Cinema</i> could be a projection of visionary communion <i>and</i> failed community; a drama of flows and conflicts; laughter and life-worlds; struggles and victories. A spectacle <i>of</i> people, <i>for</i> the people<br />
<br />
And I'm not objecting to being entertained either; it would be a valued alternative to cinema as recreational paralysis.<br />
<br />
That's the end of my part of the blog, really. I was not intending to write it up until I heard Mark Kermode speaking about his book <i>The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex: What's Wrong with Modern Movies </i>on the BBC Radio 4 tonight. An edited version also appeared recently in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/28/mark-kermode-multiplex-blockbuster"><i>The Guardian</i></a>. I agree with much that he has to say in his criticism of the the big budget blockbuster, the decline of cinema and the rise of commercialism at the expense of a thinking and feeling audience who deserve more than they are offered by the marketing machinery of the film 'industry' and the 'entertainment business'.<br />
<br />
But I just wanted to end with some quotes from Peter Brook. He's was worried about theatre. We need to worry about cinema. As the public space declines I'm falling back on my <i>Secret Cinema</i>. See you there?<br />
<br />
Deadly Theatre / Deadly Cinema<br />
<br />
"The theatre has often been called a whore, meaning its art is impure, but today this is true in another sense - whores take the money and then go short on the pleasure." (12)<br />
<br />
" [...] the theatre has become a deadly business and the public is smelling it out. In fact, were the public ever really to demand the true entertainment it talks about so often, we would all be hard put to know where to begin." (12)<br />
<br />
"We expect the so-called hit to be livelier, faster, brighter than the flop - but this is not always the case." (13)<br />
<br />
" [...] just the right degree of boringness is a reassuring guarantee of a worthwhile event. Of course, the dosage is so subtle that it is impossible to establish the exact formula - too much and the audience is driven out of its seats, too little and it may find the theme too disagreeably intense." (13)<br />
<br />
" [...] so, tragically, in elevating something bad into a success they are only cheating themselves." (13)<br />
<br />
Broadway is not a jungle, it is a machine into which a great many parts snugly interlock. yet each of these parts is brutalized; it has been deformed to fit smoothly." (22)<br />
<br />
Yet America could easily have a great theatre of its own. It possesses every one of the elements; there is a strength, courage, humour, cash and a capacity for facing hard facts." (23)<br />
<br />
"Deadliness always brings us back to repetition: the deadly director uses old formulae, old methods, old jokes, old effects, stock beginnings to scenes, stock ends..." (44)<br />
<br />
"A deadly director is a director who brings no challenge to the conditioned reflexes that every department must contain." (44)<br />
<br />
"The problem of the Deadly Theatre is like the problem of the deadly bore." (45)<br />
<br />
"When we say deadly, we never mean dead: we mean something depressingly active, but for this reason capable of change. The first step towards this change is facing the simple unattractive fact that most of what is called theatre anywhere in the world is a travesty of a word once full of sense." (45)<br />
<br />
"Not least, the influence of television has been to accustom viewers of all classes all over the world to make instant judgement - at the moment they catch sight of a shot on the screen - so that the average adult continually situates scenes and characters unaided, with a 'good craftsman' helping with exposition and explanation." (42)<br />
<br />
"Why theatre at all? What for? Is it an anachronism, a supernatural oddity, surviving like an old monument or a quaint custom? Why do we applaud, and what? Has the stage a real place in our lives? What function can it have? What could it serve? What could it explore? What are its special properties." (45-6)<br />
<br />
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-17736511888713584892014-07-02T17:35:00.000-07:002014-07-14T10:33:01.792-07:00Gender and Communications in International Development<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dlR6r0NMUTY/UCWoO5v5cfI/AAAAAAAAAq4/_u8QaQ26Kl0/s1600/creativity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dlR6r0NMUTY/UCWoO5v5cfI/AAAAAAAAAq4/_u8QaQ26Kl0/s1600/creativity.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>The Communication Initiative</b> is a partnership and networking <a href="http://www.comminit.com/global/spaces-frontpage" target="_blank">space</a> where
people using media and communication strategies for action on poverty
and other major issues share, learn and converse. See <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comminit.com&h=XAQHk9rPc&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">www.comminit.com</a> and register. The Communication Initiative Network also has a useful <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Communication-Initiative-Network/344005148956579" target="_blank">page</a> on Facebook that lists new projects.<br />
<br />
Here are some features on gender and equality that appeared in their recent newsletter.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.comminit.com/entertainment-education/content/mucho-corazon-lot-heart" target="_blank"><b>1. Mucho Corazón (A Lot of Heart)</b></a><br />
The
purpose of this Mexican television drama series is to help spread the
word about the MDGs and the importance of sustainable development,
gender equity, and respect for Indigenous Peoples. The 35-episode drama
tells the story of Maruch, a young woman from a rural community in
Chiapas. It is complemented by: a weekly TV talk show, ongoing promotion
through the State of Chiapas radio and television networks, and
community action campaigns to encourage viewers to adopt behaviours
modelled in the drama.<br />
<img alt="content_separator" src="http://www.comminit.com/files/newsletter/three_quarter_HR.gif" height="14" width="99%" />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/34046766" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/34046766">MUCHO CORAZÓN (SUBTITLED)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/mediaimpact">PCI Media Impact</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.comminit.com/media-development/content/communication-development-c4d-workshop-pacific-media-assistance-program-pacmas" target="_blank"><b>2. Communication for Development (C4D) Workshop: Pacific Media Assistance Program (PACMAS)</b></a><br />
In
March 2012, the Pacific Media Assistance Program (PACMAS) held a C4D
workshop in Suva, Fiji, with 20 students from technical and vocational
education (TVET) institutions around the Pacific. The students produced
radio and TV stories linked to the MDGs, including a television story on
a female taxi driver to promote MDG 3: Women's Empowerment and Gender
Equality. "We believe this story can empower young females in their
career path choices and contribute to achievement of MDG 2 - quality
education for all children (including females!)."<br />
<img alt="content_separator" src="http://www.comminit.com/files/newsletter/three_quarter_HR.gif" height="14" width="99%" />
<br />
<a href="http://www.comminit.com/global/content/event-making-noise-mdgs" target="_blank"><b>3. Event: Making a Noise for the MDGs</b></a><br />
This
initiative combined debate and drama in a show of support for the MDGs,
with a focus on the role of women and girls in empowering women,
reducing child mortality, and improving maternal health. BBC listeners,
along with a live audience, discussed the role played by women in
achieving the MDGs. Following the debate, a reception that drew a range
of figures from the arts explored the role of creativity and drama as
tools used to provoke lasting social change. [Sept. 2010, BBC Media
Action and the Southbank Centre]<br />
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<br />
<a href="http://www.comminit.com/global/content/progress-relies-sound-information-philippines" target="_blank"><b>4. Progress Relies on Sound Information in the Philippines</b></a><br />
by Michelle Hibler<br />
The
Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) is an organised way of
collecting, analysing, and verifying information to be used by local
governments, national government agencies, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), and civil society for planning, budgeting, and
implementing local development programmes. The Philippines CBMS team is
testing its use in gender-responsive budgeting. "A pilot project in
Escalante City confirmed the usefulness of CBMS, which had been modified
to capture additional gender-relevant information, such as education
and livelihood skills, in targeting and resource allocation." Data are
available to governments and researchers through a computerised national
repository system. [International Development Research Centre (IDRC),
Jun. 2009]<br />
<img alt="content_separator" src="http://www.comminit.com/files/newsletter/three_quarter_HR.gif" height="14" width="99%" />
<br />
<a href="http://www.comminit.com/global/content/gender-mainstreaming-practice-toolkit" target="_blank"> <b>5. Gender Mainstreaming in Practice: A Toolkit</b></a><br />
This
toolkit provides a detailed algorithm for implementing a gender
perspective in all phases of a development programme/project cycle.
Special attention is paid to: (i) baseline gender indicators that help
monitor: (i) whether a project improves access to development resources
for women and men equally, (ii) principles of civic participation in
project implementation, and (iii) active promotion of gender equality in
information support of the project and communication with national
counterparts. Though global in scope, it is extended as part of United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kyrgyzstan's work to advance gender
equality and empowerment of women as part of the MDGs. [Nov. 2011]Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-9764356555016670922014-05-30T06:48:00.000-07:002014-10-28T05:04:45.121-07:0018 Advantages of visual auto-ethnography for research<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bT5i8BaSztE/Ts0brEL1i3I/AAAAAAAAAXU/ypLMFw5Z3HY/s1600/flip+camera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bT5i8BaSztE/Ts0brEL1i3I/AAAAAAAAAXU/ypLMFw5Z3HY/s320/flip+camera.jpg" height="320" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video is now cheap and omni-present</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>What is it?</b><br />
<br />
Visual auto-ethnography is a form of participant -authored audio-visual storytelling. Still confused? Think <i>video diary</i> and you're almost there. In recent years the availability of more affordable camcorders has meant that researchers and participants can engage in more effective research. <br />
<br />
<b>Real examples of practical use of video</b><br />
<br />
In recent projects I have used flip cameras with participants from ethnic minority communities who were recording their experience of adult learning as enrichment. In another project we used more expensive cameras in a health setting in order to examine what the priorities were for service users. The footage has had multiple benefits and we continue to develop the use of visual technologies and methodologies:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>to empower and support the participation of service users and clients; </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to provide evidence and documentation of outputs and project delivery;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to support the creative personalization of service delivery; </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to inform project evaluation; </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to demonstrate accountability;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to improve the accessibility and awareness of services;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to influence policy and strategic development options;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>to foster dialogue between groups of people - both vertical (client to manager) and horizontal (client to service user)</li>
</ul>
...etc<br />
<br />
<b>What are the advantages of visual auto-ethnography?</b><br />
<br />
1. If the researcher is working with a group that finds reading and writing difficult then it makes sense to tap into their self- or group- expression through <i>visual</i> literacy <br />
<br />
2. Inexpensive cameras are very easy to use. Basic training is all that is required on a technical level.<br />
<br />
3. The researcher will be hearing the world through the voice of the participant.<br />
<br />
4. The research will be seeing the world through the eyes of the participant.<br />
<br />
5. The participant rather than the researcher selects what is relevant - using focus, emphasis, frame, duration of shot etc.<br />
<br />
6. The film product may more successfully encompass a more private world than would be accessible to the external, "other" world of the researcher.<br />
<br />
7. By taking the researcher out of the filming process there is less opportunity for the researcher to influence the proceedings - either deliberately or unwittingly.<br />
<br />
8. Participants are likely to have an understanding of their participation based on their experience of popular genres such as reality TV, or fly-on-the-wall documentary.<br />
<br />
9. Because it's participant-led the researcher may end up with a degree of personalization that cuts through the tired cliches, social prejudices and/ or imposed expectations.<br />
<br />
10. Participants are able to generate a lot of material in a short time.<br />
<br />
11. Participants may have the option to edit or delete the footage that they recorded - giving them more power over the research<br />
<br />
12. Participation in editing may provide additional opportunities for reflective work by the participants<br />
<br />
13. The researcher has a rich database of material on which to work.<br />
<br />
14. The researcher can replay clips in order to capture detailed responses and nuances that might other wise be missed. Similarly, the research may also zoom in on visual details.<br />
<br />
15. Remember that many hand-held cameras are small and portable; they are ideal for working in confined environments.<br />
<br />
16. Camcorders have become so cheap that they will often fit within a tight researcher's budget<br />
<br />
17. Because they are inexpensive the researcher need not fear the risk that some cameras may be lost or damaged. There is less need for supervision and security issues.<br />
<br />
18. Affordability means that a wider or larger focus group of participants can be employed than would be the case if more professional equipment were employed.<br />
<br />
In another blog I will be discussing the practical aspects of setting up a video diary for research. And after that we will be moving on to discuss the dangers and disadvantages of using visual auto-ethnography. We will be discussing ethical issues and the secrets of getting the most out of your participants to create high quality research.<br />
<br />
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© Dr Ian McCormick. But please do contact me if you want to
use this article as a guest post on your blog. With attribution offered I seldom refuse!</div>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Connection-Secret-Life-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</i></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">(Quibble Academic, 2013)</span><b>Further Information</b> <br />
<br />
Watch our for notices regarding future posts on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Community-Film-Forum/165672230129131"><b>Facebook</b></a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/PostFilm" target="_blank"><b>Twitter</b></a>.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.icff.info/" target="_blank">International Community Film Forum</a> showcases participatory video from around the world.<br />
<br />
If you want to read more, there is a short article from <i>The Guardian</i> that is quite helpful:<br />
<div id="main-article-info">
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/26/makingvideo.workshops4">Video diaries</a>. "One of the simplest and cheapest ways to start filming is to make a video diary. These are the secrets of making a good one."</span></h1>
</div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-67065025348849733052013-11-17T16:20:00.000-08:002013-11-17T16:20:11.176-08:00The Art of Connection<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Tdv50fsBDI/Uolco7r7FdI/AAAAAAAABQs/ii2Gr37bibM/s1600/ArtOfConnectionCover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Tdv50fsBDI/Uolco7r7FdI/AAAAAAAABQs/ii2Gr37bibM/s320/ArtOfConnectionCover.JPG" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Art of Connection</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>Do you find that you waste time wondering how to start the next
sentence?</i><br />
<i>Do you find yourself lost for words when you are required to
link your ideas coherently and persuasively?</i><br />
<i>Do your sentences flow
together and support the larger structure?</i><br />
<i>Do you want your writing to
communicate more effectively and efficiently?
</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Connection-Secret-Life-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</i></a> is an
innovative practical book that explains the Nine Arts of Connection:
Location, Timing, Comparison, Contrast and Difference, the Supplement,
Disputation, Sequence, Example and Illustration, and the Summary. <br />
<br />
By following the easy to use guides and examples provided in this
book, writers can learn how to write fluently and begin to enjoy the
process of composition.
<br />
<br />
Whether your are a student or learning English for the first time,
this book will assist you to write successfully to achieve your goals.
By dividing the common words and phrases used to signal transition and
connection into nine categories this book guides the writer through the
principles of effective writing and outlines everything that you need to
know about the Nine Arts of Connection. Two thirds of the book are
devoted to tried-and-tested examples of practical usage. This approach
enables the writer to identify the value and effectiveness of
connectvity as an active principle in composition.
<br />
<br />
A thought-provoking critical introduction also outlines in detail
how effective writing employs a balance between creative flow or
spontaneity, and the need to provide coherence, logical and structure.<br />
<br />
<br />
Contents<br />
<br />
1.0 Introduction<br />
<br />
1.1 The Social Sentence<br />
1.2 The Use of Connection<br />
1.3 Understanding the Psychology of Transition<br />
1.4 Style, Oratory, Elegance<br />
1.5 The flow of spontaneity and passion<br />
1.6 Power, Rhetoric and Repetition<br />
1.7 The Philosophy of Association<br />
1.8 Beyond the Logic of Connection<br />
1.9 Écriture féminine<br />
1.10 Openings: the genesis of this book<br />
<br />
2. The Art of Location<br />
3. The Art of Timing<br />
4. The Art of Comparison<br />
5. The Art of Contrast and Difference<br />
6. The Art of the Supplement<br />
7. The Art of Disputation<br />
8. The Art of the Sequence<br />
9. The Art of Example and Illustration<br />
10. The Art of the Summary<br />
Further Reading<br />
<br />
<b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Dr
Ian McCormick served as a Professor at the University of Northampton
until 2009. He holds degrees in English Language and Literature
(University of St Andrews (M.A.) and a doctorate awarded by the
University of Leeds (Ph.D).<br />
<br />
Ian's published work has been featured
on BBC Radio and TV; in the <i>Times Literary Supplement, The Observer, The
Guardian, TimeOut</i> (London), and in several academic journals. Awards
and Prizes include the King James VI Prize (1989); the Lawson Memorial
Prize (1985); British Academy Studentship (1990-93). Ian has also
published and edited books on Gothic literature and Romanticism;
sexuality and gender studies; modern and contemporary literature;
teaching and learning strategies; drama education; and literary,
critical and cultural theory.
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-12789113076093414172013-11-08T11:47:00.000-08:002013-11-29T02:48:15.355-08:00Film Editing for Beginners – Understanding the Process<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_59Mv0rPBUus/TVLsXG6hyDI/AAAAAAAAAEk/RGKIqF77HjQ/s1600/film+edit+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_59Mv0rPBUus/TVLsXG6hyDI/AAAAAAAAAEk/RGKIqF77HjQ/s320/film+edit+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b> PURPOSE</b></div>
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This blog examines problems and solutions for collaborative or participatory film editing. I will be arguing that the time and resources spent on a loving and caring editing of the material filmed is a mark of respect for the community participants.<br />
<br />
I'm saying that we need to value the detailed impact of <i>micro</i>-changes in film editing - it's part of the media butterfly effect.</div>
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Helpful advice on film editing typically focuses on the <i>technical</i> aspects of the process. Familiarity with Moviemaker, Adobe Premiere, AVID, Final Cut etc will be an advantage, but it is not the primary subject of my advice in this blog. </div>
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<b>INTRODUCTION</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Movie editing software may appear formidable to the beginner, volunteer, or amateur, but the reality is that you can learn the basics in half a day. Gaining a professional feel for editing process takes much longer, requires patience, and will not be everyone’s preferred activity. </div>
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Remember that attentive editing will take at least as long as your planning and production time filming added together. </div>
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There are many ways to make the process smoother and more efficient. There are also supplementary and specific problems for community film makers compared to corporate and commercial approaches. </div>
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<b>PROBLEMS</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Let’s admit at the outset that it is usually unrealistic to have all participants crowded around a laptop, attempting to view all the footage, at the end of a project.</div>
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Participants inevitably become disillusioned with the drawn-out discussions, disagreements, micro-changes, and tantalisingly slow pace. Demoralization and boredom is not your goal. No one is really happy with the final product, if you ever get that far.</div>
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<b>TWO SOLUTIONS (for now)</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Realize that the problems with the end points have their origin in the opening stages of the project.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Creative discussion and selection of topic, focus, and angle, need to be defined at the outset. These are a rough map, a sense of direction, rather than a prisoner’s cell.</div>
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(I don’t mean that you have to be too rigid in advance. That would be the death of a project in which, wonderfully, participants embark on a collective journey. But I will say that the characteristic emphasis on process, at all costs, can be disastrous for the quality of the outcome. Are we really aiming for mediocrity in which ‘everyone had a great time’ – do we really have to compromise? I am suspicious of those who police and enforce false binary oppositions such as planning and improvisation, fixed structure and organic evolution, process and product.)</div>
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<b>MORE SOLUTIONS</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Collective energy and community participation productively inform the storytelling and storyboarding of your idea or topic - <i>at an early stage</i>. A storyboard will be a guide-map for a smaller editing team to work from. A weak story or an incoherent sequence of events doesn’t impress anyone, and will alienate the community producers.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Some people like editing, others don’t. Find out early on in the project about people’s skills and preferences, and training requirements – don’t leave it all to the end.</div>
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Edit the film as you go along, in a rough and ready fashion. If you filled half a tape accidentally recording irrelevant chair legs there’s really no point wasting that space on your hard drive.</div>
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Respect people’s wish for their contribution to be deleted.</div>
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Review the day’s shooting with participants, if possible</div>
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Make notes on the best clips of the day. This is called logging. Invent the system that works best for you. Always label tapes or disks at the time of filming. Keep a note of the best clips, and the ‘who, what, where, when’ bits of information. </div>
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It should be possible to create a rough edit based on (1) a selection of the best material actually filmed; (2) the valued work of a trained editing person or small team; (3) referring back to the story and storyboard as guides.</div>
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In community film it is essential to allow participants to view and comment on the rough edit. Misrepresentation is a crime!</div>
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The rough edit screening is an opportunity for creative dialogue between the editor(s) and the other participants.</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>QUESTIONS for DISCUSSION</b></div>
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How can we make our film more relevant?</div>
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Despite our noble intentions - are we trying to appeal to too many disparate groups with insoluble differences between them?</div>
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How can we strengthen the people/character element of the story?</div>
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Is there anything that’s irrelevant, flabby or surplus? Are we lingering tediously over uninteresting shots?</div>
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What’s distracting our attention from the main message?</div>
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How can we make our film shorter? (We seldom encounter a community film that we would wish to be <i>longer</i>)</div>
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If there’s disagreement (excellent); if you can’t resolve it, why not identify an objective focus group for a screening of the rough edit?</div>
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Have the editors gone overboard on special effects? (Children in the sweet-shop syndrome)</div>
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There’s far more advice on editing – one could write a whole book on the subject, but I’m going to save the next cluster of tips until a later blog.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_59Mv0rPBUus/TVLsjFXyNjI/AAAAAAAAAEs/YVwcYE0iI5s/s1600/film+edit.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_59Mv0rPBUus/TVLsjFXyNjI/AAAAAAAAAEs/YVwcYE0iI5s/s320/film+edit.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>CONCLUSIONS</b></div>
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If you are an ‘old-fashioned’ film editor you will be lamenting the turn to digital media and fondly remembering the reels of film, dailies, rushes, the sheer physicality of cutting and sculpting your film. Films and documentaries took years to make and were seldom in reality produced on a low budget. Production belonged to an elite which sometimes produced wonderful works of social consciousness and poetic beauty.</div>
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Today’s world offers free or cheap editing software and non-linear editing which presents creative opportunities.<br />
<br />
I believe that the often missing strand of <i>creativity</i> comes from the <i>quality</i> of the community engagements, as much as it does from the power afforded by a liberating technology.</div>
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Barry Hampe’s excellent book <i>Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos</i> inhabits both old and new worlds. He reminds us of the need for technique and craft.</div>
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He notes that ‘Video editing is an intellectual exercise that is more like running a spreadsheet on a computer than sculpting a work of art […] And I think the best documentaries are sculpted rather than assembled.’ (289)</div>
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But it would be unfair to omit his recognition of the ‘possibilities for playfulness’ presented by new editing systems that allow all footage to be uploaded on your laptop. I absolutely agree with the advice that you need to be familiar with what the footage (digital clips) is saying – on its own terms – rather than what you intended/ planned to record, or <i>thought</i> you had shot. An editor needs to be patient. Take your time. Follow Hampe’s advice:</div>
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Play with the footage and hold off on making final decisions until you are really familiar with what you’ve got. It will make you a better editor. And you will make a better documentary. (290)</div>
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If you’re working with a notion of community participation in your film edit - rather than the solitary romantic master-editor - then patience and the generous allocation of time will be valued post-production aspects of your successful project.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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© Dr Ian McCormick. </div>
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</div>
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But please do contact me if you want to
use this article as a guest post on your blog, or in your community newsletter. With attribution offered I seldom refuse!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Connection-Secret-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank">The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</a><br />
(2013) ... also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Connection-Social-Life-Sentences-ebook/dp/B00GS5TYQ2" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, or to <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379552" target="_blank">download</a>. A bargain!</span> <br />
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-34718389857178278142013-09-04T05:13:00.000-07:002013-12-07T05:06:04.193-08:00Is it really collaborative writing, or fantasy?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2R6SK0POjTc/UimtaLImuRI/AAAAAAAABMw/wN_5KSlopOI/s1600/callot+commediajpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2R6SK0POjTc/UimtaLImuRI/AAAAAAAABMw/wN_5KSlopOI/s320/callot+commediajpg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stock characters in Commedia dell'arte</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Moderately, or potentially ambiguous, this title serves to capture my response to a work of collaborative fiction called <i><b>The Mongoliad</b></i> - "a narrative of adventure fiction following the exploits of a small group
of fighters and mystics in medieval Europe around the time of the Mongol conquests." <br />
<br />
So far as one can tell the work was directed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson" title="Neal Stephenson">Neal Stephenson</a>, with the support of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Bear" title="Greg Bear">Greg Bear</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Galland" title="Nicole Galland">Nicole Galland</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Teppo" title="Mark Teppo">Mark Teppo</a>
. Other collaborators included "filmmakers, computer programmers,
graphic artists, martial artists and combat choreographers, video game
designers, and a professional editor."<br />
<br />
"Stephenson gathered a group of martial arts enthusiasts interested in
studying historical European swordfighting, and this eventually resulted
in some of the members of this group collaborating on a set of stories
that would make use of accurate representations of these martial arts." (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mongoliad" target="_blank">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
Initially there was a serialization deploying a variety of apps (2010-12), then a revised book was published in 2012.<br />
<br />
Not being a knowledgeable fan of historical fantasy genre I came across a reference to this "project" while researching connected learning and the MOOC:<br />
<br />
"Alternatively, parallels between MOOCs and commercial ventures such as the Massive Open Online Novel (http://mongoliad.com) or the “Indigo MBA” (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/Indigo-MBA/indigomba-giz.html) argue that there may be potential for revenue generation that do not unduly compromise the free and open nature of the MOOC model." (See: Alexander McAuley, Bonnie Stewart, George Siemens and Dave Cormier, <i>The MOOC Model for Digital Practice</i>, 2010)<br />
<br />
If you're interested in this sort of stuff it's worth taking a look at the amazon page which explains the process of team, group and community composition; and the shifts in aesthetic strategy employed at different stages. The 370+ comments on the Amazon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_372085022_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1001029351&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1PJ0F7HWF86G4WEYZDV4&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=1578394162&pf_rd_i=1001068551" target="_blank">page</a> are also an element in the critical co-production, as well as a compendium of multi-faceted insights into the process and the product.<br />
<br />
Typically the wikipedia page offers very little in terms of critical evaluation or any controversial commentary on the project. I'd be interested to hear views on whether the book rises above a crude representation of the Mongol as cultural 'other' - displayed and represented purely for the frisson of horror, amusement and consumption offered up as a dainty feast to the American/Western readership.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Connection-Secret-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank">The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences </a> </span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">(Quibble Academic, 2013) ... </span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Connection-Social-Life-Sentences-ebook/dp/B00GS5TYQ2" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, or to <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379552" target="_blank">download</a>. </span></span> </div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-32808340031905008572013-08-23T04:23:00.000-07:002014-01-06T12:06:51.963-08:00Diminishing Returns and the Broken Promise of Participation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r6rU784ij00/UAft_689YPI/AAAAAAAAAn0/D8gF8aCbdSE/s1600/participatory+video+social+capital.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r6rU784ij00/UAft_689YPI/AAAAAAAAAn0/D8gF8aCbdSE/s320/participatory+video+social+capital.jpg" height="320" width="269" /></a></div>
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In this blog I offer thirty-one critical responses to the
current fashion for participatory projects and methodologies. While my main focus is grounded in
playing devil’s advocate to the evangelical exponents of participatory video, I am
very open to being shot down - or at least engaged - in counter-dialogues. (Either
through the comments section below, or privately by email). Please attribute all quotations from this unpaid work. It is my life.
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Please also excuse the rhetorical tendency to exaggerate;
I’m not using this blog to craft a highly nuanced critical essay.In other work I have addressed problems with, and potential solutions to collaborative models of work.</div>
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Also, I’m still working through a projection of what comes after
the promise of participation...</div>
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<ol start="1" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The participatory
field is admittedly quite fuzzy, since arts projects <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in the community</i> may be quite vague about their intended modes
or levels of participation; engagement evidence is notoriously difficult to measure in
terms of impacts and evaluation, and/or the empowerment achieved. </li>
</ol>
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<ol start="2" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">There
is a tendency to exclude those models or practices that are partially, or
not primarily participatory. This may have the effect of potentially
distorting the positive impact ratio of those projects that qualify as
whole-heartedly<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> in</i> the fold.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In
reflective reports on participation, there is often the foggy sense of a
contribution to social capital and community capital, without any sense of
the methodological challenges to, or controversy around, these highly
fashionable policy approaches and agendas. [See the note at the end of this
blog]</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Another
weakness is that an assumption of inequality is often built into the participatory
model, or into the terms of project reference. Typically, this takes the
form of ‘giving a voice to the voiceless’, ‘reaching to the hard to reach’,
or ‘including the excluded.’ Patronising and bourgeois. I've seldom met an angry youth who <i>lacked</i> voice.</li>
</ol>
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<ol start="5" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Following
from the previous point, is there not a residual romantic ideology of
inspiration and failure at work in participatory discourses? Conversely, is there a lack of personalised, romantic intensity at work?</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="6" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Claims
to the effectiveness of projects are frequently or symptomatically inflated because negative outcomes
adversely affect future funding; </li>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="7" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">To
interrogate claims on the level of value also risks offending the romantic
foundations of creative worthiness of individuals in need of encouragement and support and their utopian community life that is just waiting to emerge <i>after</i> the intervention.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="8" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">How
far are active and effective forms of participation specific to a time and
place (Western, enlightened, or romantic) ?</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="9" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The
coherence, fixity, or stability of the methodology is at odds with the
variety, mobility and complexity of social practices.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="10" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Claims
to success are often anecdotal and ephemeral. This feature of the evaluation is then defended as a
quality-led approach, or falls back on romantic notions designed to resist
critical analysis.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="11" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">It is just as
difficult to measure a variety of micro-impacts several years in the
future, as it is to value the impact on one individual where the work had
a major transformative dimension to his or her life’s work and direction. Participatory
outcomes, like the medium term impact of the work of an inspiring teacher,
are fundamentally difficult to qualify or quantify.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="12" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Effectiveness
is often expressed in terms of soft targets achieved such as ‘finding a
voice’ rather than material improvement in people’s lived experience.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="13" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">There
is a danger that participants become ambassadors for the local government’s
unelected officers.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="14" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The
promise of participation is vaguely geared to future possibility or
<i>potentiality</i> sleekly framed so as to remain forever unaccountable. Often there is a narrative turn that measures story rather than material impact.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="15" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The
clarity of the message delivered by participants is confused by the need
to report positive or constructive changes taking place (alienated
facilitator or funder agendas creeping in.)</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="16" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Sometimes it is clear that participants
feel they have not expressed what the funder wanted, or that they have
fallen short of a perceived goal. Such are 'compromised' projects. Is there not a conspiracy of silence about the frequency of these?</li>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="17" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Participants
sense that they have not met the facilitators’ ideals which may be more
ideologically coherent than the collective experience expressed by the
participants. Has political correctness silenced certained voices?</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="18" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Funders
are perceived to be the enemy, they are on the other side, whereas the
reality is that they are tasked with (1) being responsible and accountable
purseholders (2) having to respond to the priorities of their bosses, who
are in turn,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> people elected by the
people</i>.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="19" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Participatory
discourses are stuck in a 1970s crafty-utopianism and fail to adequately
take account of major cultural shifts expressed in postmodernity (Lyotard,
Baudrillard), high modernity (Giddens), liquid modernity (Baumann),
performativity (Butler), Enlightenment and communicative action
(Habermas), Mass communications and culture (Adorno), convergence theory
(Jenkins), ideology and psychoanalysis (Zizek), rhizomatic and intensive
differences (Deleuze), singularities and complexities (teratology and
chaos theory ...) ...</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="20" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In fact,
the promise of the participatory is insulated from most of the major
currents in contemporary cultural theory and tends to confine itself to
narrower sociological, psychology or community work based analytical
frames. </li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="21" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Disciplinary
boundaries are also strictly enforced as a consequence of the need for
specialization and professionalization (Ivan Illich), or in line with
academic career paths and associated research citations and outputs.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="22" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">In
more general terms, where in one sense the participatory dimension <i>lacks</i>
specificity and evidence, in another, it <i>fails</i> to engage with broader
movements at work in society and in intellectual thought.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="23" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Despite
its proclaimed emphasis on communicative actions and contexts,
participatory video practice becomes too rooted in its technology and
IT-related skills rather than ontological awareness. </li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="24" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Often
the issue just mentioned is emphatic because funding has been awarded
based on IT skills-development and employablity issues, narrowly defined.
Instrumentality rules in a materialist-capitalist society (Marx). Taking this one step further leads into a Heideggerian perspective on a failure to think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">being</i>.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="25" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The
participation is confined to an already ghettoized social sub-section,
rather than promoting critical dialogues and creative disseminations <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">between</i> sections of society.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="26" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">As fashions and policies shift, specific
groups are excessively favoured compared to others (e.g. youth) </li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="27" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">And
may groups or localities may suffer new initiative fatigue, or become
disenchanted by yet another innovatory intervention in which the
participants are the ever-ready-made-laboratory-for-life.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="28" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Because
aims and objectives are narrowly project-specific, bounded by a specific
time and locality, products of participation are quickly dated and
disposed of. This represents poor value compared to other forms of
intervention that may grow from within, rather than being professionally
facilitated from above / without.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="29" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Participation
is seldom framed in terms of a wider architecture of a global politics of
the silenced and the disenfranchised. What starts local stays local. Developmental means safely apolitical.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="30" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Because
participatory projects depend on trained facilitators there will in turn
be a dependence on training programmes for facilitators and a reliance on
specialist professionals who need to be paid for their work. As the public funding of social projects at all levels diminishes the viablity of this
model has to be questioned.</li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="31" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">The
participatory project seldom matches (or respects) the existing forms of
organic participation in, and critical distance from, the already
‘present’ forms of popular culture or lived experiences. Looked at another way, there is
a vaguely embarrassing effort on the part of facilitators to co-opt
current themes such as gangs, guns, mobiles and hip-hop, in order to ‘come
closer’ to the ‘life’ of the people. Again this may simply valorize the
ephemeral in a process of collective top-down indulgence, rather than addressing
the critical challenge of the ‘other.’</li>
</ol>
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© Dr Ian McCormick.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Connection-Secret-Life-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</i></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">(Quibble Academic, 2013)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Notes</u></b></div>
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Please see: <a href="http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/problems.html">http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/problems.html</a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Problems with
Conceptualisation of Social Capital</b></div>
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As identified above, the conceptualization of social capital
is the biggest challenge facing proponents of the theory. At present there is a
lack of rigorous conceptualization of social capital (Krishna
and Uphoff 2002). Lin, Cook et al (2001, p. 58) identified that there is a
'danger that we may reach a point where the term might be used in whatever way
it suits the purpose at hand, and thus be rendered meaningless as a scientific
concept that must meet the rigorous demands of theoretical and research
validity and reliability'. Fine (1999) pointed out that social capital is
taking over explanations of economic development, growth, and prosperity, he
also suggest that social capital had other possibilities before being turned
against the other social sciences by economics (Fevre 2000). Hean, Cowley et al (2003) made the
observation that the accumulation of literature on social capital has begun to
obscure the understanding of the concept. The inappropriate measurement
techniques that have been implemented have caused problems for understanding
social capital at the conceptual level and led to debate over whether the
concept is relevant or appropriate (Stone 2001). Or as McHugh and Prasetyo
(2002, p. 1) put it, 'the proliferation of competing definitions, analytical
methods and applications associated with the term is perhaps only dwarfed in
volume by the literature critical of its theoretical ambiguity, ambitious
conceptual scope, and practical over-versatility'.</div>
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© Dr Ian McCormick. But please do contact me if you want to
use this article as a guest post on your blog. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Connection-Secret-Life-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</i></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">(Quibble Academic, 2013)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Further </u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Reading</u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Arnstein, S. R. (1969) "A Ladder of Citizen
Participation" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">JAIP</i> 35 (4)
216-24</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Bandura, A. (1995) “Exercise of personal and collective
efficacy in changing societies” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-efficacy
in changing societies</i>. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 1-</div>
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45</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Barnado’s Report (2001). “Do community-based arts projects
result in social gains? A review of literature.” By Authors: Tony Newman,
Katherine Curtis and Jo Stephens. Available here <a href="http://www.barnardos.org.uk/commarts.pdf">http://www.barnardos.org.uk/commarts.pdf</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Bauman Z. (2006) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Liquid
Times: living in an Age of Uncertainty</i>. Cambridge;
Polity Press.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Bery, R. (2003) “Participatory Video that empowers” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Participatory Video: images that Transform
and Empower,</i> S. A. White (eds.) New Delhi,
Sage publications: 102-</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
21.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Blond, P. (2010) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red
Tory: How Left and Right have broken </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Britain</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> and how we can fix it</i>. London,
Faber and Faber.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Boog, B. W. M. (2003) "The emancipatory character of
action research, its history and the present state of the art" Journal of
Community and Applied Social</div>
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Psychology 13(6) pp. 426-438.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Braden, S. (2004)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
Participation: A promise unfulfilled? Building alliances between</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">government and people</i>.
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Braden, S. and M. Mayo (1999) "Culture, community
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Buckingham, D., M. Pini and R. Willett (2007) “‘Take back
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Carpentier, N., R. Lie and J. Servaes (2003) “Community
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Castells, M. (2009) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Communication
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Chvasta, M. (2006) “Anger, Irony and Protest: confronting
the issue of efficacy, Again” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Text and
Performance Quarterly</i> 26(1) pp. 5-16</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cohen, M.B. and Mullender, A. (2006) “The Personal in the
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Group Work Continuum from Individual to Social Change Goals”
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">With Groups</i> 28
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Cooke, B. (2001) “The Social Psychological limits of
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Kothari (eds.) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Participation:
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Craig,
G. and Mayo, M. (eds.) (1995) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Community
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">participation and
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Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari (1987) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and</i></div>
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Dinham, A. (2005) “Empowered or over-powered? The real
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Ellsworth, E. (1989) "Why doesn't this feel
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-1237804146826572082013-08-21T03:32:00.000-07:002013-12-15T09:38:19.262-08:00Examining the Examination: why Students Pass or Fail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kDzhnf1AymI/UB5ID1voJVI/AAAAAAAAAqI/IRWCP7F4RIk/s1600/exam+sucess+and+resit+advice+and+tips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kDzhnf1AymI/UB5ID1voJVI/AAAAAAAAAqI/IRWCP7F4RIk/s400/exam+sucess+and+resit+advice+and+tips.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Exams are increasingly selected as the 'gold standard' in the debate about raising academic standards.<br />
<br />
Compared to coursework, exams are relative quick and easy to assess. They are also free from the issues of plagiarism and other forms of cheating that have proliferated in coursework. Indeed, my research shows that with the right money ($100) it is now very straightforward to purchase online a plagiarism-proof, first class, or A* Essay.<br />
<br />
In that context I believe that we will be seeing greater reliance on exams in the future, and more of them will be marked by machines in a move toward improved technological efficiency of the educational production line. Their place in the system is secured.<br />
<br />
In my view, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">examination procedures involve a special kind of
discipline and they operate as a regime, such as that which we might encounter in a prison. Foucault was not wrong when he linked knowledge and power at an institutional level.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">And exams are also a theatre of persecution, where the performance is loaded with expectations,
rituals, and associations, most of them negative. For many candidates, the personal experience of the examination is tantamount to sadistic dehumanisation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">As in all power scenarios, the entire event is staged
according to simple rules and queer conventions. With a little effort we can step back from
that and see examination for what it is: the play of institutionalisation and a game of
power. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">But with the right tactics in place you could become a master of the game, and
not its pathetic victim. Yet inevitably those who succeed will become the new advocates for more probing examinations as the only way forward.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">If you learn to play by the rules the whole process can be exhilarating and very rewarding. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It will also be your most unforgettable performance and may affect much of your future life prospects. </span><br />
<br />
In the next blog I will list <b>15 specific reasons </b>why students fail to meet their exam expectations. If you address these issues methodically, you will significantly improve your exam performance !<br />
<br />
What has been your experience of exams? Are you a student, parent, teacher, or an examiner?<br />
<br />
If you have any exam tips, advice, or recommendations, please feel free to comment below.<br />
<br />
For many people, the examination is worse than a trip to the
dentists for a tooth extraction, or an episode of surgical examination that results
in your guts being ripped out. It's the worst form of dehumanisation.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OP4cNYdkBMU/UB5G3nDVlAI/AAAAAAAAAqA/h2ib7rPqbNE/s1600/The+examination+room+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OP4cNYdkBMU/UB5G3nDVlAI/AAAAAAAAAqA/h2ib7rPqbNE/s320/The+examination+room+1.png" width="311" /></a></div>
<br />
How did you get over the trauma of examination?<br />
<br />
<br />
Dr Ian McCormick is the author of<br />
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<tr><td align="left" valign="middle" width="92%"><span class="linkTableHeaderTextsmall"><i>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://mybook.to/TheArtofConnection" target="_blank">The Art of Connection: The Social Life of Sentences</a> </b></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="linkTableHeaderTextsmall"><span style="font-size: small;">(Quibble Academic, 2013)</span></span></td><td align="left" valign="middle" width="92%"></td><td align="left" valign="middle" width="92%"></td><td align="left" valign="middle" width="92%"><span class="linkTableHeaderTextsmall"><span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span><i>
</i>
</span>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
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<td colspan="6"><a href="http://mybook.to/TheArtofConnection" target="_blank"> </a>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-32710022867761078772013-03-06T11:41:00.001-08:002013-03-06T11:41:18.464-08:00Onomastic Pronouncements<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0X4w_7IQP2g/UTeaQarw2RI/AAAAAAAABBw/jEfyEuqYe4E/s1600/Onomastic+Pronouncements+Buccleuch.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0X4w_7IQP2g/UTeaQarw2RI/AAAAAAAABBw/jEfyEuqYe4E/s320/Onomastic+Pronouncements+Buccleuch.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
Did any of you hear Carole Hough, apparenntly Great Britain's only named "Professor of Onomastics" (University of Glasgow) speaking on BBC R4 this morning? Interesting to hear that her own name has three pronunciations: Huff, Howe and Hock!<br />
<br />
So what is Onomastics?<br />
<br />
"<b>Onomastics</b> or <b>onomatology</b> is the study of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_name" title="Proper name">proper names</a> of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: "ὀνομαστικός" (<i>onomastikos</i>), "of or belonging to naming"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomastics#cite_note-1"><span></span><span></span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomastics#cite_note-2"><span></span><span></span></a></sup> and "ὀνοματολογία" (<i>onomatologia</i>), from "ὄνομα" (<i>ónoma</i>) "name".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomastics#cite_note-3"><span></span><span></span></a></sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toponymy" title="Toponymy">Toponymy or toponomastics</a>, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of onomastics. <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroponomastics" title="Anthroponomastics">Anthroponomastics</a> is the study of personal names."<br />
<br />
Some of my favourite weird English names are<br />
<br />
Beaulieu pronounced Bewly<br />
<br />
Cecil pronounced Sissill<br />
<br />
Cholmondeley pronounced Chum-ly<br />
<br />
Derby pronounced Darby<br />
<br />
Gifford pronounced Jifford<br />
<br />
Holborn pronounced Hob'n<br />
<br />
Buccleuch pronounced Buck-loo<br />
<br />
Fiennes pronounced Fines<br />
<br />
StJohn pronounced Sin-j'n<br />
<br />
Rhondda pronounced Ron-tha<br />
<br />
Knollys pronounced Noles<br />
<br />
Drogheda pronounced Droider<br />
<br />
Leuchars pronounced Lucas<br />
<br />
If you want to know more about the <i>English Place-Name Society </i>(EPNS), the <i>Scottish Place-Name Society</i>
(SPNS), the <i>Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland</i> (SNSBI) and
the <i>International Congress of Onomastic Sciences</i> (ICOS) why not consult Prof Hough's entertaining and informative <a href="http://onomastics.co.uk/" target="_blank">website</a>?<br />
<br />
Before long you'll be following the revealing etymologies of place names and you could be taking a linguistic tour of Great Britain's rich, multi-layered heritage.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Buccleuch Foods" id="MainProdImg" itemprop="photo" name="MainProdImg" src="http://www.gourmetbritain.com/cms_images_mailorder/739_1_large.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="350" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buccleuch Foods</td></tr>
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-68278550450392967242013-01-17T05:21:00.000-08:002013-01-23T10:28:00.364-08:00Educational Writings and Skills BlogsSeveral of my blogs on education, study skills, academic writing, exams, English language/literature and creativity have now migrated to my new blog which you will find <a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/52-examples-of-my-creative-writing.html" target="_blank">52 Examples of Creative Writing Activities.</a></h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/creative-writing-5-old-problems-and-14.html" target="_blank">Creative Writing: 5 Old Problems and 14 New Principles.</a> </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/poetry-at-war-with-itself-sound-of.html" target="_blank">Poetry at War with Itself: the Sound of Futility.</a> </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/my-five-day-writing-poetry-1.html" target="_blank">My Five a Day: Writing Poetry 1.</a> </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-vocabulary-of-fear-eg-onomatophobia.html" target="_blank">The Vocabulary of Fear, e.g. Onomatophobia.</a> </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/ugly-urchin-alliteration-poetry.html" target="_blank">Ugly Urchin Alliteration: a Poetry Appreciation Prime.</a></h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/gender-womens-writing-and-feminism.html" target="_blank">Gender, Women's Writing and Feminism.</a> </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-song-for-st-cecilias-day.html" target="_blank">A Song for St. Cecilia's Day.</a></h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/52-favourite-childrens-books.html" target="_blank">52 Favourite Children's Books.</a></h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/light-and-shadow-age-of-kindle.html" target="_blank">Light and Shadow: the Age of Kindle.</a></h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/106-ways-to-avoid-word-said.html">106 Ways to Avoid the word "SAID"</a></h3>
<h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/sound-must-seem-echo-to-sense.html">Sound must seem an echo to the Sense!</a></h3>
<ul class="posts">
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/an-ear-for-poetry.html">An Ear for Poetry</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/your-practical-revision-timetable.html">Your Practical Revision Timetable</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/character-definitions-and-techniques.html">Character Definitions and Techniques</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-gentle-art-of-reading-and-writing.html">The gentle art of reading and writing blogs</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/blogging-before-computing.html">Blogging before Computing?</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/witty-will-power-and-bardic-gender.html">Witty Will-power and Bardic Gender Politics</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/rude-shakespeare.html">Rude Shakespeare</a></h3>
<ul class="posts">
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/all-night-essay-crisis-syndrome.html">All Night Essay Crisis Syndrome</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/turning-exams-upside-down-and-inside-out.html">Turning Exams Upside Down and Inside Out</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/towards-healthy-memory.html">Towards Healthy Memory</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/gcse-sos-q.html">GCSE - SOS Q&A - What to do next</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/myths-of-tough-examiner-explored.html">Myths of the tough examiner explored</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/first-year-university-why-students-fail.html">First Year @ University: Why Do Students Fail or D...</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/strategies-to-avoid-exam-stress-and.html">Strategies to avoid exam stress and anxiety</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ebook-or-xbox-designing-15-point.html">eBook or xBox? Designing a 15-point programme to p...</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/smart-revision-planning-for-exams-16.html">SMART Revision Planning for Exams - 16 Tips</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-school-shakespeare-newspaper.html">The School Shakespeare Newspaper</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-eight-openings-and-blank-page-trauma.html">The Eight Openings and the Blank Page Trauma</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/examination-trauma-and-stress-anxiety.html">Examination Trauma and Stress Anxiety</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/why-english-exams-are-here-to-stay.html">Why English Exams are here to stay</a></h3>
</li>
<li><h3>
<a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-english-exam-and-skills-deficit.html">The English Exam and the Skills Deficit</a></h3>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>
</h3>
</li>
</ul>
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-11987414444598182202012-12-20T03:50:00.000-08:002012-12-20T13:06:50.852-08:00How do you retain teachers and attract them back into the profession?<div class="comment-body">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d63P_HYJkSU/TzeloIUMPSI/AAAAAAAAAZM/7k2AkDiutlU/s1600/work+education+and+bureaucracy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d63P_HYJkSU/TzeloIUMPSI/AAAAAAAAAZM/7k2AkDiutlU/s320/work+education+and+bureaucracy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I suspect that none of this will happen, but we dare to dream.<br />
<br />
<b>My Utopian Manifesto </b><br />
<br />
To retain teachers and attract them back into the profession:<br />
<br />
(1) reduce testing, marking and assessment regimes by 80%. Have we forgotten that education is about learning not testing? Constant externalised evaluation exists to serve the machinery of capitalism insofar as the latter thrives on selection, competition, and elites. Learners, like teachers, are being worn down by intrusive and unnecessary testing.<br />
<br />
(2) cut admin and planning duties by 75%. Let us trust spontaneity and allow teachers to respond to a more participatory, learner-led environment. Education has become a factory production line<i> and</i> a bureaucracy.<br />
<br />
(3) raise starting salary by 25%. Teachers are very poorly paid compared to the business and financial sector. They should be rewarded for their work, and for making a sustainable contribution to human life on the planet.<br />
<br />
(4) trust teachers and schools to design their own curriculum. Let's put an end to the top-down one-size-fits-all approach to education. Radicals take this notion one step further and claim that teachers should be employed to <i>assist</i> the learners to design their own programmes and goals. Notice again the diminished role for teachers to engage in the dreary slavery that dominates the power model of educational control freakery.<br />
<br />
(5) promote training and offer freedom to reflect through sabbaticals. Teachers need time reflect on their practices: in and out of the <i>educational</i> system. Sabbaticals are not holidays; they are emotional recharge and intelligent re-freshment.<br />
<br />
(6) make school optional when students reach 15 years. I'd like to set an even earlier age for leaving school, but you will shoot me. If you have not read it, I recommend Ivan Illich's book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deschooling-Society-Open-Forum-Illich/dp/0714508799" target="_blank">De-Schooling Society</a>.<br />
<br />
(7) protect teachers from children and parents who attack them in any form; learning is a dialogue and a conversation; abusive parents and children should be removed from the formal school environment.<br />
<br />
(8) offer options/ incentives for short placements outside teaching to broaden and enrich teachers' experience. Teachers need time out and also benefit from periods of work that are not part of the <i>educational</i> system.<br />
<br />
But if none of that works, maybe it's time to read Ivan Illich and to commence a radical rethink of the role and effectiveness of our current systems of education. <br />
<br />
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Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-53989594723159026932012-11-27T08:08:00.004-08:002012-11-27T08:08:59.745-08:00Congratulating the 10 New Universities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
As a former Professor at a College (Nene) that became a New University following the award of research degree powers, I would like to congratulate the higher education institutions that will now become Universities.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In my view, we need more <b>creative disruption</b> in higher education in Great Britain, and much of that innovation springs from the new blood that has been running through the system since the major expansion that took place in the 1960s.</i><br />
<br />
In fact, Universities do not have to be super-instiutions that operate on an international scale and bloated global reputation. In order to be vibrant academic cultures what is needed is a capacity to serve the needs of students and their teachers; to value research and scholarship; and to connnect with their local communities.<br />
<br />
<b>I assume that all of that includes <i>wealth creation</i> in a sense that is larger, wider and richer than the familair slogans about business entrepreneurship</b><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: small;">INSTITUTIONS BECOMING UNIVERSITIES</span></span></h2>
<ul>
<li> Arts University College at Bournemouth </li>
<li> Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln </li>
<li> Harper Adams University College</li>
<li> Leeds Trinity University College </li>
<li> Newman University College, Birmingham </li>
<li> Norwich University College of the Arts </li>
<li> Royal Agricultural College </li>
<li> University College Birmingham </li>
<li> University College Falmouth </li>
<li> University College Plymouth St. Mark & St. John</li>
</ul>
The BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20464013" target="_blank">reports</a>:<br />
<br />
Previously, to be called a university, an institution needed to have
4,000 full-time students, and meet other criteria, but now that student
number has been dropped to 1,000. This has opened the gateway for many specialist institutions to gain the university status they had wanted for some time.<br />
<br />
Mr Willetts said: "These well-known and highly-regarded university colleges represent over 1,200 years of history between them. It is right to remove the barriers preventing high-quality
higher education providers like these calling themselves universities
simply because of their size."Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-50632857909384975002012-11-09T05:46:00.005-08:002013-11-24T13:26:31.243-08:0021 Essential Tips for Community Film editing<br />
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<ol>
<li>Some people like editing, others don’t. Find out early on in the project
about people’s skills and preferences, and training requirements –
don’t leave it all to the end.</li>
<li>
Edit the film as you go along, in a rough and ready fashion. If you
filled half a tape accidentally recording irrelevant chair legs there’s
really no point wasting that space on your hard drive.</li>
<li>
Respect people’s wish for their contribution to be deleted.</li>
<li>
Review the day’s shooting with participants, if possible</li>
<li>
Make notes on the best clips of the day. This is called logging. Invent
the system that works best for you. Always label tapes or disks at the
time of filming. </li>
<li>Keep a note of the best clips, and the ‘who, what,
where, when’ bits of information. </li>
<li>
It should be possible to create a rough edit based on (a) a selection of
the best material actually filmed; (b) the valued work of a trained
editing person or small team; (c) referring back to the story and
storyboard as guides.</li>
<li>
In community film it is essential to allow participants to view and comment on the rough edit. Misrepresentation is a crime!</li>
<li>
The rough edit screening is an opportunity for creative dialogue between the editor(s) and the other participants.</li>
<li>
How can we make our film more relevant?</li>
<li>
Despite our noble intentions - are we trying to appeal to too many disparate groups with insoluble differences between them?</li>
<li>
How can we strengthen the people/character element of the story?</li>
<li>
Is there anything that’s irrelevant, flabby or surplus? </li>
<li>Are we lingering tediously over uninteresting shots?</li>
<li>
What’s <i>distracting</i> our attention from the main message?</li>
<li>Your best friend is CUT, not PASTE. </li>
<li>
How can we make our film shorter? (We seldom encounter a community film that we would wish to be <i>longer</i>)</li>
<li>
If there’s disagreement (excellent); if you can’t resolve it, why not
identify an objective focus group for a screening of the rough edit?</li>
<li>
Have the editors gone overboard on special effects? (Children in the sweet-shop syndrome)</li>
<li>Remember that you are editing SOUNDS as well as IMAGES... </li>
<li>
There’s far more advice on community filming and editing and sound tracks elsewhere on this blog.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dr Ian McCormick is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Connection-Secret-Sentences/dp/1493748416" target="_blank">The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences</a><br />
(2013) Also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Connection-Social-Life-Sentences-ebook/dp/B00GS5TYQ2" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, or to <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379552" target="_blank">download</a>.<br />
<br />
Also worth a look: The PhD Roadmap: A <a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/phd-roadmap-9-tips-for-successful.html" target="_blank">Guide</a> to Successful Submission of your Dissertation / Thesis. </span>Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-69740459083848725512012-09-24T07:38:00.003-07:002013-01-17T04:10:14.621-08:00Strategies to Cope with Writer’s Block and Depressive Illnesses<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PDLGWb3BW_M/UGBwMdRkd8I/AAAAAAAAAvo/KsEAIyGDkVo/s1600/writers+brick+block+wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PDLGWb3BW_M/UGBwMdRkd8I/AAAAAAAAAvo/KsEAIyGDkVo/s1600/writers+brick+block+wall.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You do not have writer's block as such. It's a myth! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s far more likely that you are stuck in an unimaginative
rut, and that you are experiencing a shortage of stimuli, or a lack of variety
in the brain and body soup that should be feeding and nourishing your creative
mind. If things are really bad you may be depressed. The good news is that
creative strategies may help to decrease the depth and frequency of your
depressive phases.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other Common Solutions to poor creativity that
you might wish to consider are:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li>Engage in a variety of activities that are uncharacteristic for you. This
may involve taking up a new hobby. It almost certainly means moving away from
the torture of staring into a flickering screen. (See my other blog on internet
and social media addiction, <a href="http://cmactivist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/internet-social-media-addiction-20.html" target="_blank"><b><i>here</i></b></a>.)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li>Start a new project. Sometimes it’s your determination to
stick at a dead project that explains why you can’t move forward. But you can
always return to older projects in the future, equipped with a fresh mind and
new ideas</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li>Learn to meditate. Become human again. Sometimes you are
blocked by having too many thoughts. Too much creative flow is exhausting,
especially if it remains chaotic, or it lacks the sense of an emerging shape or
direction.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li>Read a random page of a random book and underline three
magic words. That wonderful eighteenth-century word ‘Serendipity’ involves the
art of finding what you need while you are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">looking
for something else</i>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li>Take randomness a step further by using Tarot Cards to build
character, or like composer and inventor John Cage, use dice, or the I Ching,
in order to explore patterns beyond conventional expectations, and to help you
to move away from bland stereotypes.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li>Read some poetry. Even better, cut it up and rearrange the
words. Poetry is the ultimate mind-gymnasium for the creative writer.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take a long walk. Take a few words for a walk. Let them go
wander. Many great writers such as Charles Dickens have employed walking as a
way to compose and liberate their creativity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Did you read <br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
52 Examples of My Creative Writing Activities ? <a href="http://english-skills-success.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/52-examples-of-my-creative-writing.html" target="_blank">Here</a>.</h3>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why not change the sex of your main character, and/or make
him/her drastically older or younger? Absurd tweaks should initially be treated
as harmless fun; but they may, nonetheless lead you in an unexpected direction.
Great art involves patterns and destiny, but the aleatory, random dimension
deserves to be better understood. In this case, risk means experimentation with
improbability. One effect of this process is that the initial elements of a
composition are re-constituted. Again, the emphasis is on removing a creative
blockage in the way that you have been working.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why not try transplanting the action of your narrative to
another country, and /or different timezone or historical period. With a word
processor a Search and Replace is a quick solution to this issue. If you don’t
like the result, it is very easy to undo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make your hero into a villain. Show a wicked streak in your
virtuous heroine. Chill out! This strategy of blending good and evil, virtue
and vice, also helps to prevent your characters becoming tedious predictable
stereotypes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A popular exercise that many schools are now using in order
to explore and develop style, and an awareness of a writer’s chosen linguistic
effects, is to re-write a poem as a story, or a story as a poem, or a tragedy
as a comedy, or to parody a fictional text using exaggeration of the stylistic
effects. These can be seen as warm-ups to promote the parts of your brain that
deals with words, thoughts and concepts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Remember that you can start a story from the beginning, the
middle, or the end. Many writers start in the middle (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in medias res</i>) in order to provide suspense. Then they explain how
the characters came to be there (working backwards); finally they proceed to
the end - which may involve another surprise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
e.g. car race; car hanging over a cliff; car falls (dull)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
BECOMES</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
car hanging over a cliff; </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
feelings as the characters consider their selfish dull lives
and learn to love each other for the first time; </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they all die happy, unless there is a miraculous
intervention, as their guardian angels intervene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I often find that the opening is the last thing I write as
it creates too much pressure to impress. Get your story down on paper and then
select a new start by arranging your ideas in a way that is unusual and
creative.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although I strongly recommend that you should distance
yourself from negative thoughts, don’t be frightened of constructive criticism,
or re-thinking how you theorise your practice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Literary criticism is your creative friend, not your
despised antagonist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-27293211438912803422012-08-06T05:05:00.003-07:002012-08-06T14:10:42.104-07:00What’s involved in creativity? Solo, or Group?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_bTgJMMxLI/UB-xh_rnOnI/AAAAAAAAAqg/WML9GIX_qm4/s1600/individual+or+group+creativity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_bTgJMMxLI/UB-xh_rnOnI/AAAAAAAAAqg/WML9GIX_qm4/s400/individual+or+group+creativity.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Factors involved in Creativity</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>Making an Effort</b>: <span style="color: red;">mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Courage</b>: <span style="color: #0b5394;">to take risks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Stamina</b>: <span style="color: #660000;">not to give up, to revise and redraft many times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Perfect Imperfection</b>:<span style="background-color: #0c343d; color: yellow;"> knowing when to stop.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mentors</b>:<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"> to follow, and to rebel against.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Style</b>: <span style="color: #a64d79;">it’s not just what you say but how you say it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Surprise</b>: <span style="color: #990000;">walking the unexpected, deviation from norms,
serendipity</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Flow</b>: <span style="color: #674ea7;">an intense state of mind when you deliver peak
performance</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Skills and Tools</b>: <span style="color: #38761d;">to build and develop projects</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Confidence</b>: <span style="color: #351c75;">to aspire and to avoid destructive thoughts and
negative outlook</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Team work</b>:<span style="color: lime;"> ability and willingness to collaborate effectively and to respect others </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Solo or Group?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
It is often forgotten that creativity is not just individual, it can exist
within a group or a community. Typically a small group will develop more ideas
than a person working alone. That's why everyone is getting into co-creation
now, from wiki, to games, free source and life hacking. But is there also a danger of group-think compromises and weak statements?<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">On or Off</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Do you have the ability to just turn on the creativity switch?<br />
Yes. It is a kind of skill that can be learned by anyone, in my view. But there is always room for improvement, and some days (and times) are better than others.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Resistance also takes many forms and need to be deconstructed and analysed.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you need a Moment of Inspiration?<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No. That's the myth of romantic genius that appeared in the
late eighteenth century. I don’t want to deny that there is a spark of
inspiration. Rather, you need plenty of fuel to sustain and to develop your
fire in a sustainable and memorable way.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you have to focus and create the
mood for creativity to happen ?<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Focus is good, but if you try too hard for too long you come
up with what has been done before. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you say mood I'd suggest that it helps
if you are contented rather than disabled by the worst kinds of depression.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Or is it out of your control?<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This sounds dangerous. Part of creativity involves a faith
in yourself, the ability to take risks, a sense of playfulness, and the
cultivation of spontaneity. Spontaneity can be developed by doing things that
are unusual or out o character. Again that comes down to confidence in
yourself.</div>
<h3>
Source(s):</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Film, collaboration and creativity<a href="http://cmactivist.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/30-ways-to-put-community-into-film.html" target="_blank"> link</a><br />
The 32 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dangers</i> of collaboration<a href="http://cmactivist.blogspot.com/2011/07/32-dangers-of-collaboration.html?spref=tw" target="_blank"> link</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">General Discussion of the Topic</b><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Books</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mihaly Cskszentmihalyi. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flow</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mihaly Cskszentmihalyi. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Creativity
and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Psychology of Discovery and
Invention</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Notes </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Wallas stage model, creative insights and
illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of 5 stages:<br />
<br />
(i) preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's
mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions),<br />
(ii) incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind
and nothing appears externally to be happening),<br />
(iii) intimation (the creative person gets a "feeling" that a
solution is on its way),<br />
(iv) illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its
preconscious processing into conscious awareness); and<br />
(v) verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then
applied).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Dr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195624104631262068.post-52806254186104983672012-08-05T03:41:00.004-07:002012-08-05T03:41:52.680-07:00The 15-point Exam Self Examination<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img alt="book cover of
The Final Exam
(School of Fear, book 3)
by
Gitty Daneshvari" height="462" src="http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n76/n381807.jpg" width="316" /> </div>
<br />
<br />
I hope that your exams have not been as traumatic as mine were at school. In this blog, I have taken a long hard look at exam success and failure.<br />
<br />
Obviously my research is based on real experiences, rather than irrelevant and dodgy theories.<br />
<br />
In my experience of 30 years of teaching in English, and in the Arts, in
Schools, and in the University sector, these are the most common
reasons for poor results:<br />
<br />
1. Anxiety based on lack of confidence, poor planning and fear of the unknown<br />
<br />
2. Lack of familiarity with past exam questions<br />
<br />
3. Poor memory skills<br />
<br />
4. Failure to produce model answers in exam conditions<br />
<br />
5. Revision that does not edit and select key points<br />
<br />
6. Revision that does not tailor knowledge to the exam<br />
<br />
7. Answers which are too short, or too long.<br />
<br />
8. Poor awareness of what the examiners are looking for<br />
<br />
9. Not answering the question<br />
<br />
10. Not explaining your thinking processes<br />
<br />
11. Poor range of evidence<br />
<br />
12. Weak communication skills<br />
<br />
13. Not understanding how to plan and structure your answer effectively<br />
<br />
14. Too much time wasted on opening and closing paragraphs.<br />
<br />
15. Running out of sufficient time to complete the required number of well-rounded answers.<br />
<br />
The good news is that each of these issues can be addressed.<br />
<br />
By reflecting on them and taking action you will significantly improve your exam performance.<br />
<br />
You might even learn to enjoy the experience, and become an advocate for examinations.<br />
<br />
If you would like to receive further examination tips and advice <a href="mailto:ian.mccormick@hotmail.co.uk" target="_blank">please drop me a line</a>.<br />
<br />
Dr Ian McCormickDr Ian McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15274889508215448048noreply@blogger.com0