group-work-esb2022

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After the presentation:

I'm writing this just after finishing the presentation, I'm still shaking a bit. I think it went well!!! I felt very comfortable within the group, we were able to go into great depths on what we wanted to discuss. We wanted to get our messages across in a concise yet entertaining way. Which I think we did! I feel bad as I got a bit quiet at the end, I just felt a bit overwhelmed, but I tried to show I was still engaging in small ways when I could. Our presentation went on for 28-30 minutes! I'm just writing this briefly, but there is more detail in the group document! (linked in the post below)

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Link to our group work folder:

This link should work, it contains extra work and all the group work!

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Bibliography:

Markova, D. and McArthur, A., 2015. Creative Intelligence: Thinking with People who Think Differently (book) http://adcglobal.org/awards/adc-young-guns/winners/becky-joe/ (website) Latham, G. (2020) ‘Exploring collaborative creative writing as artistic experience’, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 28(2), pp. 44–50. Available at: https://search-ebscohost-http://com.ezproxy.uwtsd.ac.uk/login.aspxdirect=true&db=eue&AN=143516305&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 18 January 2022) (Journal) Oxford Dictionary of English http://Iep.utm.edu. 2010. Deleuze, Gilles | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [online] Available at: <https://iep.utm.edu/deleuze/> [Accessed 20 January 2022] (Website) Fantastic Mr. Fox. 2019. [DVD] Directed by W. Anderson. 20th Century Fox Animation. (Film) Hackman, J., 2011. Collaborative intelligence. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. (book)

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Some quick self reflection...

When starting this brief module, I was very concerned about being vocal enough with ideas and concerns, and very anxious in general- I feel like I improved a bit when it came to being vocal about my ideas, thoughts and concerns- as I have been able to discuss things with my group. I was not expecting to feel so comfortable so quickly, I feel like just knowing how brief the module is, and having an end date and goal around the corner did help to push the worries aside a bit (to make room for stress haha) which helped to get work done a bit faster than I normally would within this time frame. From this module, I have learnt that collaboration is not a terrifying thing to be worried about, instead it can be fun and inspiring, especially when working with people from many different backgrounds and skillsets! I think I would be interested in more collaboration in the future, especially with other artists, maybe video game creators? I think that collaboration would be really cool! :) I definitely see benefits with collaboration within other industries, such as book publishing, merchandise creating and maybe social media advertising I think it would be very useful to explore in the future, even in the next module- Explorative Praxis! I'm really worried for the presentation, Friday 21st at 11am. We're going to try and practice at 9:30am beforehand, which I think would help with nerves, I'm just very worried about coming across boring or freezing up as I'm nervous, but I know as a group we have each other's backs, so it will be okay!

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Plan for our presentation:

I am so nervous!!!!!! We had a group call on the 20th at 12:45pm for 2 hours and 18 minutes.

We used this call to discuss our blogs, our group Google document and our presentation. (I was in the call, with the "ES" icon!!!) I find it hard to follow in stressful situations or when I am anxious, so luckily we made a group document with a time table/time frame for our presentation, this is really helpful!

Our allocated time slot is 30 minutes, although if we finish a bit sooner it is okay! We are aiming for the 30 minute mark :) I don't normally do introductions especially in group work so I'm extremely out of my comfort zone, but I didn't want to say no as I want to be a team player, and I feel like I would be able to talk enough about this subject, even if I'm a bit nervous. I feel very nervous talking and I'm worried I come across very boring sometimes- so I'm trying to practice and be a bit more exciting (?) I did write a bit of a script, just so I know what I want to say and avoid getting confused, but I will try to sound more natural when talking! We decided to open our presentation with the seagull video (I shall try put it on my blog, if not- it is in our Google Drive for Group 6!) as it feels like a fun way to open. We are then planning to close the presentation by doing some improvisation inspired by our "A seagull stole my..." poetry!

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WhatsApp - predictive text.

We used our WhatsApp group chat to do a predictive text poem!

This was done before the beach visit, it was quite fun to do, especially interesting to see everyone's different sentences, as the predictive text is often tailored to things you write a lot about, or the most common words that occur when pressing a specific letter.

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Sunday 16th - Site Specific research/ Beach

(Group picture, Andrew, Kerry, Faith on the bench, and then Shada and I joining via Teams as shown on the laptop screen- not sure why this picture is so blurry, it might be my internet?)

Very beautiful seagull photography by Faith Pound. A written poem in the sand:

(Top written by Faith/Andrew/Kerry, bottom written by Shada, I could not get to a beach so I could not write one) Both separate pictures were edited together, to look more like a finished poem! The beach visit gave a lot of inspiration for our project, such as the idea of filming the seagulls and interviewing them! Which is a video that will be shown during our presentation. :)

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More Group Calls:

Since the last group calls, there have been more- and they have been very useful. One call was used to discuss more ideas, and any future steps we would take for the presentation and a hypothetical end goal. An initial idea we had was a hypothetical website at the end which people could add to forever, or something similar to that, which I think is an interesting idea. There was also a mini group call, which was 5 minutes long the Sunday 16th, at 10:30am, Faith, Kerry and Andrew went to the beach to do site specific research, meanwhile Shada and I joined virtually via Teams (I felt uneasy meeting up due to Covid, and with my disability I find long walks like that incredibly painful so I did not join the beach trip) I'm not sure whether I misunderstood the aim of the call, I was under the impression that we were going to call to practice our poem improvisation, so I stayed up the night before to make sure I would be on time and ready for 10:30am, but it then got pushed to 11:30am, and then noon.... and then it started at 12:30, and the call lasted 5 minutes- to take a photo of the group, which was nice! But I felt a bit confused afterwards because I thought we were going to do more on that day. We then had another group call, with Craig on Wednesday 19th, from 6:30pm until 7:15pm/7:30pm which I really enjoyed, I felt a lot more comfortable with talking a bit more, and discussing our general feelings regarding loosing another group member and our worries for the presentation. At this point, two days before the deadline, we had found out that another group member, Andrew had suddenly dropped out- I'm not upset at him, I'm just sad and a bit stressed as he was quite vocal in the group and therefore would have been very nice to have him there to help with our presentation, especially since it was only two days away, but I understand that he had other things going on. I feel like I sound grumpy or that I'm complaining a lot, but I really don't mean to be, I think I'm just very anxious for the presentation and it's feeding into my writing, sorry!

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Book review: Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently (Dawna Markova, Angie McArthur)

The author states that "intelligence is a verb, not a noun". This means that it is something that we do, rather than a thing that we have. This suggests that it can be developed and refined over time, which is what we are doing as a collaborative group. (Markova and McArthur, 2015) By actively doing things to share and grow our knowledge and skills, we are developing our artistic and creative intelligence. This links in with Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligence. His theory is that there are multiple types of intelligence. Social intelligence is one type of intelligence, which gives people skills to communicate and interact with each other. Collaboration work helps develop this type of intelligence. Visual and language intelligence are also types of intelligence that are being developed and improved upon by doing this collaborative project as we are using language and poems as part of our work. The book Collaborative Intelligence argues that intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) are important, but as collaborative intelligence quotient (CQ) is the ability to work with people who think differently than you, having this type of intelligence can be the difference between a successful group and an unsuccessful one. The book also shows that CQ is not about thinking about who in a group is right or wrong, but what is possible. This resonates with our group because it is not about being right, but just trying out what can be done. The book also shows why collaboration is important because the intellectual diversity of a group of people with different skills can achieve greater results. (reference: Markova, D. and McArthur, A., 2015. Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People who Think Differently.)

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Examples of Collaborative work:

Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling (Becky and Joe) are a collaborative duo who have worked together for over 10 years. They are directors who are on a mission to make the world more fun, armed with an adventurous hand-made approach to animation and an absurdist sense of dark humour. They are most well known for their viral YouTube series, "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared".

Which is a British web series on YouTube, it only consists of six episodes so far- with a new TV series, which has been in the works for over a year, on the way- set to appear on Channel 4 in 2022. ( http://adcglobal.org/awards/adc-young-guns/winners/becky-joe/ )

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Theoretical Research: Collaboration

Why are collaborations important? Ledward and Hirata (2011, p.1) discuss 21st century skills. They state that: Success in today's world requires the ability to access, synthesise, and communicate information; to work collaboratively across differences to solve problems; and to create new knowledge through the innovative use of multiple technologies. In addition, skills processes and experiences deemed to be formally located in the arts are now recognised as vital components in all disciplines in order to drive exploration, creativity and innovation. Cairney (2017) convincingly argues that our complex world requires greater collaboration than ever before. The authors' dialogue is a way for them to think as well as explore ways to learn how to initiate, clarify, defend and generate creative ideas. These authors engage in exploratory talk (Mercer, 1995) or accountable talk (Wolf, Crossen & Resnick, 2006) where knowledge from multiple perspectives is constructed through social interaction. What is collaboration?

(definition taken from: Oxford Dictionary of English) Collaboration is made possible by a group of people engaging in thought and activities together- and can be seen as a few steps: 1. Getting together- an initial period where partners get to know one another, set expectations of roles, and determine goals. 2. Building the foundation- getting the project up and running together. 3. Developing and sustaining the vision- when partners continue to support and solve problems together, but also may make adjustments to initial agreements, as they build a longer term working relationship. Deleuze talks about disguise and removing identity (Deleuze, Gilles | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010). This removal of individual identity is removed when doing collaborations. There is no "I" in collaboration. If one member does not get full recognition, it shouldn't matter. (Information taken from: Latham, G. (2020) ‘Exploring collaborative creative writing as artistic experience’, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 28(2), pp. 44–50. Available at: https://search-ebscohost-http://com.ezproxy.uwtsd.ac.uk/login.aspxdirect=true&db=eue&AN=143516305&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 18 January 2022). -Oxford Dictionary of English http://Iep.utm.edu. 2010. Deleuze, Gilles | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [online] Available at: <https://iep.utm.edu/deleuze/> [Accessed 20 January 2022].)

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Group Dynamics:

I feel very comfortable in this group, everyone gives the others opportunities to talk and share their ideas which are then discussed after and not cast aside. I think the group work is going well, I am very stressed about it- especially the presentation though, I know we all are, and talking about it definitely helps. It is a bit sad because, someone from our group (Holly) dropped out of the MA at the start of the project, very suddenly... and then, another person has now dropped out of the MA two days before the deadline, also very suddenly :( I think that definitely adds much more stress, as although we are all very capable- we now have to fill the half an hour presentation slot with just four of us, rather than six. I am definitely a team player and I do try very hard to contribute with things, it can be a bit difficult at times as I'm very shy and find it hard to get things done sometimes because of my health condition (Spina Bifida) and the chronic pain that comes with it, so unfortunately I have missed 2 or three calls, which I feel very guilty about, but I have made the effort to catch up. I have had more calls with the group since starting and I feel very comfortable, still very nervous though. I'm not really sure what I would do differently so far.

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Spanish Poem:

-una gaviota me robo la salud

(a seagull stole my health)

-que gaviota muy maleducado

(what a rude little seagull)

-una gaviota me robo la cabeza y la desgasto por un tiempo

(a seagull stole my head and wore it out for a while)

-que gaviota tan egoista, como lo odio

(such a selfish seagull, how i hate him) Another Poem in Spanish: -A seagull stole my foot in the morning and I have to wait for the bus back, (Una gaviota me robó el pie en la mañana y tengo que esperar el bus de regreso), -I hope the bus has enough accessibility! (¡Espero que el autobús tenga suficiente accesibilidad!) - A seagull stole my hands and my face with a gun to help him, (Una gaviota me robó las manos y la cara con una pistola para ayudarlo,) - Ouch. (Ay)

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A logo for our group?

Initially, I was struggling to contribute out of shyness- so I decided I would draw a group logo to break the ice and they liked it :)

I'm not too keen on how this looks, but it was just an initial drawing do push the idea forward- which was met with positivity, so I decided to draw a better one inspired by this idea.

This is a sketch to see what layout would work the best. I knew from our groupchat on Whatsapp, that the profile pictures are cut with a circular border, so I used a circle as a guideline.

After finishing the illustration, I felt like it looked a bit empty, so I decided to add more to it- taking inspiration from the "thief" and boldness of the seagulls portrayed in our group poems.

To emphasise my previous comment, I used barbed wire as my border. I felt like this would portray the "roughness" as our seagull thieves we had been writing about. Then it was changed to be the group's logo. :)

(Screenshot from our WhatsApp group to show the interaction).

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Notes and Thoughts from the first two teams meetings:

I had missed the first group meeting as I was unwell, so I felt quite nervous and anxious to join the next calls. However; they both went well. I'm a very reserved quiet person but I managed to throw some ideas and and my concerns and voice what I needed to at the time. During the first group call, the group filled me in on things I had missed and extra details that weren't in the written examples I had caught up with. I found this very useful and was very grateful that that were willing to help. :)

We also discussed possible ways to experiment with our idea, possibly making a hypothetical website, or things like that. Then, last Wednesday we had our group call with our allocated tutor, Craig Wood. I really enjoyed this call, even though I was very quiet, it was fun and felt nice to discuss, and listen to discussions with Craig regarding our ideas. In regards to our group dynamic, I don't think our group has an obvious "leader" to it, I feel like it's like equal, although I do struggle a little bit as I feel like I'm a lot more reserved and less assertive than the others, that's my own personal problem though. I'm not too fond of the idea of performing, I know I wasn't there when things were initially discussed, so I feel like it would be unfair for me to mention it- or be heavily against it.

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First poem so far: A seagull stole my health and the other stuff that was on the floor,

I guess the seagull noticed my messy room.

A seagull stole my health from my heart and it felt like it would take forever,

He came quickly, he zoomed,

A seagull stole my healthy stuff I had to buy some more,

Maybe the seagull is sick too?

A seagull stole my healthy space for the last time,

Annoying little bird. Second poem: A seagull stole my foot in the morning and I have to wait for the bus back,

I hope the bus has enough accessibility!

A seagull stole my hands and my face with a gun to help him,

Ouch.

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Initial poem bits:

I was practicing poem ideas in my notes app, just using the "a seagull stole my" sentence starters, and the following includes autocorrect inputs.

I think the second one is a bit funny :) I then experimented a bit with the autofill when using Google search:

Not much, but I thought it would be interesting to look at!