Exploring the Strategies for Online Identities in an Arts-based Professional Practice Curriculum
Description
The research investigates undergraduate students’ ability to develop professional and personal online identities as they undertake their arts-related and practice-based inquiries. The paper explores the now prevailing use social media and interactive peer networks as flexible learning practice, but also considers the lifelong learning aspects for work-based learners in the arts. There is risk involved in the use of public communication for the students, but the skillset for students to be ‘digital scholars’ (Weller, 2011) in their own right also underpins the philosophy of professional practice.
Takeaway
The presentation will share aspects and research developed to inform the debate about the generation of web-based online identities within professional practice. As the transdisciplinary and practice-centred (Leavy, 2011) aspects of professional practice can sit outside of more traditional disciplinary approaches to learning, this engagement includes the considerations of professional workplace roles, learning identities, and perceptions of personal online spaces.
Abstract
Students on the BA (Hons) Professional Practice in Arts course are part-time work-based learners undertaking their ‘final year’ of undergraduate study. In the process of completing their work, individuals create learning blogs that act as online ‘portfolios’ and engage in peer conversations that underpin the learning process. This online engagement at the centre of the learning journey has been modified from earlier iterations (Bryant, Akinleye, Durrant, 2013; Nottingham and Bryant, 2012) in a dynamic pedagogic process to allow for a robust integration of the curriculum and a greater appreciation of the ethical implications of using online communication.
As the various multi-modal conveyances found in Web 2.0 are underpinned by social and cultural understanding of representation and communication (Jewitt, 2009), learning that engages with social media connects learners to other online professional communities in various ‘digital habitats’ (Wenger et al., 2009). However, it is important to understand the complexity of the public/private online identities being created and shared in order to understand this process. The use of social networking in educational contexts requires time to explore and experiment (Conole and Culver, 2010), so investing time to co-create online experiences and map professional identities is a constant challenge. The learning and teaching for the programme also uses aspects related to arts-based research (Leavy, 2015) and problem-centred transdisciplinarity (Leavy, 2011) as ways to integrate disciplinary perspectives with work-based pedagogy.
Exploring the work of recent graduates is essential for ensuring that the programme retains its understanding of how social media is being used and the currency of its use for the learner. The research is aimed at gaining greater understanding of the meaning BAPP Arts graduates attach to developing virtual professional identities and the role they perceive these identities play in their future professional practice. The research will be presented using an emerging analysis of exemplar archived learning blogs and interviews with graduates.
References
Bryant, Peter, Durrant, Alan and Akinleye, Adesola (2013), ‘Educating the Early Career Arts Professional Using a Hybrid Model of Work Based Learning’, Journal of Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 3 (1) 17-29.
Conole, G. and Culver, J. (2010). The design of Cloudworks: Applying social networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas and designs. Computers and Education, 54(3), 679–692.
Jewitt, C. (2009) ‘An Introduction to Multimodality, in Jewitt, C (ed.) (2009) The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis, London: Routledge, 14-27.
Leavy, P. (2011) Essentials of Transdisciplinary Research, Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, Inc.
Leavy, P. (2015) Method Meets Art Arts-Based Research Practice, New York: The Guildford Press.
Nottingham, P. and Bryant, P. (2012) ‘The BAPP (Arts) Network: Designing and Developing Professional Practice for the Workplace using Web 2.0’, Presentation, Designs on eLearning, London: University of the Arts.
Weller, M. (2011) The Digital Scholar How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice, London: Bloomsbury. Wenger, E., White, N., and Smith, John D. (2009) Digital Habitats Stewarding Technology for Communities, Portland, USA: CPSquare.