Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Moving on...

I had sat down this morning to re-read and to re-write my efforts on task 1b. Professional communication technologies, with a view to feeling like this section was complete, as I felt my first efforts were not up to scratch and with a need to move on feeling satisfied with my work to date.
I have not been able to re-write my work, I have become completely stuck! Reading everyone's blog entries about this subject shows that we have all gained a good understanding of what these technologies are, both positives and negatives, and how we use them on a regular basis. Some have gone on to thinking about how they can use them to promote themselves and their businesses, and this is where I feel like I have failed.
I don't use these sites to promote myself, I don't shout about myself or my work, in fact I hate talking about myself or my opinions and this is where I am struggling both in my professional career and so far in this course.
This has been a stark wake up call for me and the first real insight that I think is really going to aid my Professional Practice. It is funny that I use the term "Professional Practice" in this context as I do not feel like a professional, I teach dance, but I do not feel like a "Dance Teacher", but why is this? and how can I discuss or have opinions on professional communication technologies, if
1. I don't feel like a true professional?
2. I have never really tried to use them professionally or to promote myself?
And finally why would anyone communicate with me (the whole point of web 2.0 technologies) if I don't share my insights or information.
My conclusion, these first tasks have taught me a massive lesson. I have been wanting to move forward in my career for a long time, but day to day work commitments have been crowding my ambition, leaving little time to concentrate on my creative work and I now realise having compared myself to others that I am not taking myself seriously or doing enough. Not using the opportunities that are available to me to get to where I want to be.
So armed with this realisation, and new skills and understanding gained from these tasks. And having been thrown into a community of real professionals, with the opportunity to witness professional communication first hand through the blogs, I have decided not to go over the work I have done.
I feel I have learned a huge amount and now have the tools to begin marketing myself as a real professional, any progress I make using web 2.0 to do this I will now be shouting about on my blog! I hope to be a much more obvious presence in this community in the future.
I may have completely missed the point of the part 1 tasks, and please comment and let me know if you think I have? But for me, gaining new skills in how, and new insight into what I need to be doing along with new confidence to put myself out there for constructive criticism and advice, and to share my thoughts and opinions with others is a massive step forward and my first achievement on the journey of this course.


2 comments:

  1. Hi Danni,

    Thank you for sharing this post it is really interesting to me because I am quite similar to you in my thoughts. The question of when do we become a professional in our craft is a hard one. I do not feel like a professional either I still feel 18 inside but we get paid to do what we do so we are a professional are we not? I'm not sure maybe some one can enlighten us both.

    I sat down to do the same task today and now I feel I have done to much on task 1b and I am worried my blog has become inaccessable. But the further reading helped me so I guess that is what matters. And hopefully it will help others in some way. What do you think?

    Do not beat yourself up about not promoting yourself now you have learnt the tools to do it, you can. From what I understand the BAPP course is about development and you are showing it.

    Keep going!

    Hollie xx

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    Replies
    1. Hi Hollie,

      Thank you for reading my post. It's interesting that I am not the only one wrestling with the issue of feeling like a "professional". I understand what you are saying about being paid to do the work so then we must be... I guess maybe for me it is a mind set and when I feel I have actively worked to improve my practice and further myself then I will feel I have the right to call myself a true professional... I'm not too sure, but I'm hoping somewhere along this journey the penny will drop!

      I have been reading your posts and I understand what you are saying about feeling that it may have become inaccessible, but I don't think I agree. There is a lot of work there and you have been really thorough, to me this can only be a good thing. Your understanding of the subject will be greater than those who have merely skimmed through, and those who use the blogs to further their knowledge and understanding will be glad to come across your posts as they are so in-depth, sharing of knowledge, opinions and experiences is the whole point of us working with a blog isn't it?

      I think your work is really good and you should be proud of what you have achieved so far!

      I will definitely be checking in with your blog and it has inspired me to more reading around the subjects covered so far.

      Danni.

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