Linda's Meta-learning Journal

Stormy Boat Trip

I finally got round to edititng a little video of my boat trip to the Thames Barrier last week. It was quite stormy and you can hear quite a bit of thunder. What I didn't realise till later was that there were floods in West London and torrential rain.
Anyway, it was a good boat trip and I found the barrier itself quite asthetically appealing. The sky and the Thames were wonderful steely grey/blue tones and set it off to perfection. Of course the Dome was a very important thing for a lot of the people at Ultralab and this was the first time I'd ever seen it close to.

Tam O'Shanter

In answer to people's questions in the comments section of the last entry.
This is a poem by Robert Burns (Scottish poet from Dumfrieshire) based on an old legend.
Tam is a drunkard whose horse (a grey mare) takes a short cut home through the woods after the pub one night. Tam happens to see a coven of witches dancing wearing only their "cutty sarks" or short shirts (basically a revealing undergarment like a short loose shirt). The youngest witch is dancing the best and leaping higher than the rest. Entranced by the beaty of this witch Tam cries out "Weel done Cutty Sark!" and thus reveals himself. The witches give chase on broomsticks(!) and Tam's mare flees for her life. The youngest witch is also the fittest and catches Tam's mare's tail but the horse pulls away and the witch is left holding just a tail whilst Tam and his horse escape.

If you want to hear it in all its Lalands glory try this link here where you can download someone speaking it in a broad Dumfrieshire accent. I don't recommend you try to make sense of it by reading it. Too many dialect words! But if you insist the text is available here. (glossary provided).
For myself I prefer his more political poems like In Honest Poverty with its disdain for title or position and its call for a brotherhood of Man.
Though Holy Wullie's Prayer is an old favourite. Burns had no time for hypocrites.

I saw this famous ship yesterday and wondered how many of the people looking at it knew the story of Tam O'Shanter and what a cutty sark actually is - or for that matter that the figure head is a witch and what she is holding is the tail of Tam's "guid grey mare".

I've been trying to find out exactly why the ship was called Cutty Sark but so far have only established that she was built in Dumbarton and her first master was a Scot.

I didn't cheat - honest!!

This lovely little garden is tucked away behind the Storey Art Gallery near Lancaster railway station

I have managed to work out how to get the digital camera videos on to my mac. Turns out you have to use something called Image Capture, then drag the clips into iMovie.
Here's my first effort, a memory of a lovely day. Funny how relaxing it can be sitting in someone else's garden. There was a warm wind and just total peace.

July 31st London

So it's all planned and people are starting to say they are coming! The idea that started in November with me asking"When's the social then?" is finally going to happen. And of course it's not just for JellyArt, the rest of the Ultraversity Community, and anyone from Ultralab that fancies it, are all welcome
Find the details here
JellyArtSocial
Itinerary
or the wonderful Visual Itinerary
Thanks go to Andy R for those:-)
Oooh I'm all excited at the thought of it!

So here I am on a library computer, on holiday, and finished Report 6.
What did I learn from the self-assesment?
That it is not my strong point! I got into this cycle of identifying what was wrong with the first 6 sections and instead of writing about it I went back and fixed it - 6 times in some cases!!
A cry for help to a fellow researcher and to my LF later both had given the same advice.
"Stop- hand it in, forget about it!"
Good advice:-) So I did.
But it is still spinning round my head. I think I may have learned something really significant this term, despite not enjoying it much. Delightful? Not at all!! Painful? Definitely!!
I am still trying to put it into words, hence this blog entry. OK so what I learned was that my weaknesses are:

long term personal planning

self-assesment

perfectionism

rigid interpretation of guidelines/learning outcomes etc.
Ok so the perfectionism and the tendency to be pedantic came as no shock but the unwillingness to self assess and long term plan are new to me. They might go some way to explain why I started things and didn't finish them in the past. They just might be the key to making sure I really do get the degree this time.
So there you go- it was nasty, uncomfortable, and I didn't enjoy the process at all. So what are the implications for delightful learning? And creativity? OK it reminds me a bit of the story from another entry about the pain of the creative process. The change in perspective was painful but what has been delightful is knowing that I had the support of fellow researchers (including LFs). The other thing is that I now feel much more optimistic about the rest of the course. Over the summer at some point I'm going to look at what might get in the way of my finishing, scary but it needs to be done. And then I'm going to look for some strategies to deal with the problems!!
Oh yes, the other thing I learned was how important my blog has become to me as a place to work things out, plan and share work, - vital in fact!
I'll let you know how I get on:-)

OK I am more than half way through report 6 and 5 is more or less done. It has been quite a slog this term and delightful learning has been a bit thin on the ground!! Still, nearly there.
Furl has been a invaluable resource for these reports- especially the ability to save a quote so I instantly know what site it is I'm looking at. I'm going to explore the search facility a bit more as I can see the categories might become a bit of a pain over time. It has certainly made doing my Harvard resouce list for the reports much easier!!
I'm off for a few days well earned rest so I am hoping to be almost finished by tomorrow. Still a fair bit to do but I'm getting there:-)
While I'm away I'm planning to meet up with at least a couple of other researchers - f 2 f at last! Should be fun!!
Then back here for a few days and away again, first stop The JellyArt Socialon July 31st in London and hopefully lots more researchers to meet. It will be great to put faces to names and I'm sure a good time will be had by all.

I find it so hard sometimes to keep to this mantra. I try not to assume bad intent, which is not quite the same thing.
First of all this is not just about one posting or any one person. A scenario:
Someone posts to a community in good faith trying honestly to be helpful or to state their opinion on an issue. They state and make it clear that they are explaining how thing appear from their point of view

A person in authority then takes it upon themselves not to just disagree but to imply the original poster is either not posting in good faith or is just in some way incompetent. The posting they make says that the first person's view is invalid, that they have no right to express it. That it is just not true, factually inaccurate.
How does the original poster respond?
Taking advice from the discussions with Nancy White in the Hotseat

Read it in a variety of tones including a comedy voice (Donald Duck, Basil Brush etc)

If not laughing yet turn off computer and do something else.
OK so this is good advice. It is possible that some people's writing style just gets under your skin, rings your bells, maybe yours does that to the other person. However, not responding is not going to change the way this person reacts. They will just carry on reacting in this way if unchallenged and you will go on being upset by their responses. Not only that but other people may be discouraged from posting in case the same thing happens to them.
So what are the other options?

Write a reply that explains that you were posting in good faith and further explains your position. Risky as you may over-react and make things worse. Misunderstandings can then multiply

Write a reply that restates the other person's position and asks for clarification if one has understood what is being said. Might be worthwhile for a major debate but seems too much for something more trivial.

Write a reply and put it in your unsent messages file for a short time then look at it again. Do this too often and you end up not posting anything and lose confidence.

Write a reply and check with a fellow researcher if it is OK. People are busy, may not have time, or just not want to get involved.
So where does the original poster go from here?