Linkedin Eureka!.

Recently I've been engaging more with the Linkedin website and I've discovered many of the poeple I've worked, studyed with or simply I know are on it.
It would be interesting to link more with peers in my course to see where they stand at in their professional lives...so this is my link for anyone interested....altough I'm starting to think I should have 2 different profile, one as a performing arts professional and one for my "normal" job links.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/laura-sinigaglia/16/147/10

While I was navigating on the website I discovered there are discussion boards just like the ones on Facebook that have been recently removed from the web. So I got engaged with the Entertainment Industry discussion and found it very interesting.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Entertainment-Industry-93013?mostPopular=&gid=93013&trk=eml-anet_dig-h_gn-gl-cn&ut=3Y2euyheCEgB01

Does anyone would like to start a conversation there? I've started out my discussion....Get in touch!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Interested-in-sharing-ideas-thoughts-93013.S.82081311

5c:Further reflection and analyzation on Ethics

Ethics: From the Greek work Ethos that means: Character.

The right or good way of carrying an action. (Middlesex University, 2011)


Getting a further bite into the Reader 5 Professional Ethics I got a better understanding on the very delicate topic of ethics in a work environment and moral ethics as a professional and human being.
I here sum up what I gathered reading through the Ethics's reader.

• Consequentialism:

When an act is morally right only when the act maximizes the good.

"Greater happiness for greatest number"= Heart of consequentialism

• Deontology:

In contrast with the Consequentialism dictated by JS Mill.

The motive behind the action determines if it's morally right or not.

Deontology is rule based ( Middlesex University 2010 ).

"The only absolutely good thing is a good will" ( Kant )

• Virtue Ethics:

Greater emphasis on being rather than doing.


Very interesting for me was an induction I recently had for my "pay the bills" job (as I like to call it) I have in a hospitality company.
We had a 2 days induction regarding different areas of the business and today's one was all about Up selling and Ethos of the group.
It was  double the interest for me to participate as not only I was obviously learning about the company I'm part of but also putting an extra attention thinking at an extra study benefit.

This is how the company described their Ethos: The belief, customs, or practice of a society .
And these are some of the points that build their code of ethics.

• Yes, Yes, Yes, 'Can do' mentality
• No problems
• Go the extra mile
• Exceed expectations
• Make a difference
• 100% member/guest/customer satisfaction

Now of course these are purely examples of professional conduct in a hospitality environment, but it was quite realizing what the trainer revealed us; he believed that to succeed on ANY type of business, either owned or the business of ourselves, using these points and having them in mind will always lead to a successful career. 

I totally agreed with what he said as I started to put these points on the prospective of being the employer of myself and applying them them on my career development all of them certainly worked.

Something else that came up quite interesting I thought, was about communication, a fundamental for our job, life and training.

We consider the 3 main ways of communications:

~Verbal

~Vocal/tone

~Body Language

We discussed in which order we believed they are used the most and it was interesting to see how our ideas differed.

In the end this pie chart showed us the actual percentage of how we communicate:

Communicating with the body is the most important and significant way we use to communicate; I found interesting the link to it with dance and performing as it's a very significant part of my profession and to see how much impact and importance what we say with our bodies can have on others.

Fascinating how we CAN control the verbal part of communication, how we CAN control the vocal/tone but it's harder as we tend to control our words instead (an example: if we are tired and angry at work with our boss we tend to control WHAT we say not to come across rude or tired as compared to HOW we say it), and finally how we NEVER have control on our body language when we communicate, that always come across.

The reason that we have two ears and one mouth, is that you may listen more and talk less"

(Zeno, Greek Philosopher)

Campus Session 3 09-11-11

I wanted to reassume with this post the points we discussed in this last campus session.

Paula and Rosemary introduced us to the topic of the third and last Reader 6:

The Tools of Practice

• Observation
• Interview
• Survey
• Focus Groups

We talked about we of them with a useful slideshow that Paula prepared for us and that will soon be up on the Libguides.

Together with our final exam we need to include 3 pieces of literature that concern our general topic of inquiry. In my case it's training within different cultures and its benefit / disadvantages / consequences.

~ It can be a point of view of the author that can agree/disagree from what we originally think of, or that simply gives us a different framework we hadn't considered before, nonetheless the task should aim to catch and understand what the author wants to say.

~We should consider few different points of a literature piece:

1. The author may have a political/moral point of view and therefore could be lead by it.
2. The author can be commissioned when writing an article (journalist) and therefore have to follow certains dictated rules and codes of practice.
3. The piece could be a documents of regulations, code of practice of an organization therefore very strict to that particular work environment  and not necessarily pertaining to our topic, but it can still be further knowledge for the overall chosen interest.  
4. It can be published or un-published therefore have to be handed with the appropriate ethical behavior and understanding.

~Paula showed us come examples of literatures:

• journals (online or newspaper)
• articles
• books
• documents of interviews
• videos
• tapes
• blog
• Government regulations
• TV programes 
• magazines

and how to find them:

• Google documents
• Google search ( Trying to keep the search easy cutting it down to the key words necessary, more appropriate articles will show up.)
• E-books
• Online libraries ( e.g. MDX University )
• Reading Newspaper
• Searching code of practices and regulation at work.

~ We then discussed wich tools we may choose to research our topic:

Observation task:
We did an exercise in 2 groups of 3 where one person would be the interviewee, one the interviewer and the 3rd the observer, then we rotated the task and discussed what was noticed.
One of the things that was mostly noticeable and important for an interview was the body language.
When Rosemary "acted" pretending to be a student, her body language was: crossed arms, leaning back on the chair, wandering eyes, thinking a lot before speaking...her attitude showed and made me understand her lack of interest. This is to show the importance of reading body language of who we interview, in order to put the right importance and relevance for our research.

Interview:
It was also pointed out how important is how we approach the interviewee, we need to be aware of the ethical issues that may apply. We have to inform about the purpose of the interview and the privacy needs to be safeguarded when personal information are given.

Another very interesting point was how we formulate questions. We need to make sure we avoid YES or NO questions, as that doesn't give us any material for reflection.
Also leading questions should be avoided as that obviously puts our opinion at front and puts the person interviewed in a restriced situation of expression.

e.g. Why the latest Government's actions are the cause of our financial crisis?


This question clearly puts our particular opinion that the Government's actions ARE the cause of our crisis, it should have been formulated somewhere around this:

       What do you believe are the causes of our financial crisis?


This question keeps the answer as open as possible, letting the person interviewed the complete freedom of expression without feeling judged or under pressured by us.


~ The final information that has been given us at this campus session was a reminder about the submission we should all (students) send in by the 5th of December:

1. Ethical Release form
2. Employer Professional Support Form ( or Mentor, Former Teacher for un-employed students)
3. A Rationale of our Proposed Award Title.

After this session I have definitely a clearer idea on my mind of Part 6 of this Module!
Hope this blog post can give an overall idea of what it's been discussed for those who couldn't make it...I always found it very useful when someone in the past blogged about campus sessions I'd missed so I hope I can pass the favor to others!

:) 

5a: First glance at ETHICS

I found this interesting YouTube video about Etchics.

I wanted to share this with everyone as it could be quite interesting to see, especially for students that are inquiring on teaching dance or professions that has to do with personal interactions with others.

Also I decided to use one my most developed "lenses" of learning (my eyesight ) to mind map a Code of Ethics related to my profession. Hope you may enjoy this.

 From the top left going right like reading:

• Work with coworkers in a respectful environment  
• Keep good health mentally and physically to deliver the best performance
• Listening and understudying roles and tasks given
• Being prepared beforehand to be able to work at maximum levels and with more confidence on the role represented
• Keeping a track of the acquired knowledge
• Learning lines of a script or notes given
• Always a learning approach and attitude towards the job
• Acknowledging possible hazards in the work space being aware of them while working

These are some the most common CODE OF ETHICS I would need to apply while working or approaching a new work environment. It has a lot to do with what's good and bad working as a performer, so when have to deal with others not only of our same field of work but also with external professional linked to us... for instance I would need to get informed on the fire exits and health and safety rules that apply in a theatre I may be working in, something that has nothing to do DIRECTLY with my job.

On a different note I found this very interesting article about learning scripts application for your phone..very interesting for the acting students in the course ... have a look!! :)


References:


Alex, V, London School Of Economics and Science, 2010, LSE Research: Ethics and the Importance of Dialogue [online]. YouTube. Available from:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYSzWJa6kO8&feature=youtu.be [accessed on the 4th of November 2011].


Warner, C, 2010, Rehearsal: An iPhone App to Help Actors Learn Lines [online].  GottaBeMobile. Available from:
www.gottabemobile.com/2010/02/28/rehearsal-an-iphone-app-to-help-actors-learn-lines/

4d: Award Title Proposal

After a Skype session with Paula I started to pin point on my diary where I am at with the course, what I have to do next and to re-organize my tasks and anything that I've missed out to blog about through the course. I figured that's the only way that works for me to make me feel organized and at good point with my study. I know it sounds a bit geeky but that's how it's for me. :P

I've realized that I'd thought about my rationale but hadn't really wrote anything about it therefore there was no records of it at all!

Through my thinking process I considered that I did wanted to stick as much as possible to where I come from with my MT training, yet didn't really wanted to get typecast only as a Musical Theatre performer, especially considering what my inquiry plan is heading to, which is about how a performer can multitask, having gained several abilities throughout his training and career path, giving the opportunity to land on several arts related jobs, compared to (let's say) a student who studied medicine who is most likely going to end up as a nurse or doctor.

After this consideration I got to the conlcusion that my proposal should be :

BA (Hons) Professional Practice In PERFORMING ARTS.


I thought that this title could keep my future career opportunities very broad and not too narrowed down to only one specific dicipline and area of work.

Anybody that decided on the same Award Title? I'd like to compare what took someone else to this decision and see if there are different motivations.

:)