David Quin – PDP May 2012
The Influence and Impact of
My Professional Experience
I’ve worked in Animation for
almost 30 years. My professional experience stretches back to producing tv
series on 16mm film for RTE. Joining my father’s animation company in my
twenties, we were first to introduce many animation techniques into Ireland
(stopmotion and Claymation amongst them). In the 1990’s, I switched from film
production to digital video and then to full Computer Generated Imagery (CGI),
once again leading the way in animation at a national level. I introduced CGI
to Brown Bag Films and became that company’s first CGI Technical Director. Since
finishing with Brown Bag in 2006 I’ve returned primarily to stopmotion,
directing and animating three award-winning short films, and producing a
satirical internet series (‘cutbacks’). Over the next few years, I will work my
way back towards tv production.
Since 1999 I’ve lectured on
the Animation Course, in IADT’s National Film School. I completed a BA (Hons)
in Digital Media in Wolverhampton University in 2002 and AIT’s Teaching and
Learning Certificate in 2010. I have since completed a DCU E-teaching Special
Purpose Award, as well as embarking upon a DCU E-assessment SPA, a LIN DIT PDP
Module and a WIT Mentoring Module. I am currently a Pt. 7 Assistant Lecturer,
teaching fulltime hours on a CID. I am a member of IADT’s Academic Council and
our Teaching and Learning Committee.
All of my professional
experience, from film production to my internet series of today, feeds directly
into my role as a Film and Media lecturer, demanding that I (like my students)
remain very much an active, learning reflective practitioner.
My Conceptualisation of
Teaching and Learning
Like most lecturers,
I started lecturing without having been ‘taught to teach’. At first, I found
that there was great need to engage in basic discipline-based ‘knowledge
transfer’. Since starting on the AIT Cert, my Teaching and Learning
perspectives have broadened, giving me some theoretical base and convincing me
that my challenge now is to guide learners towards their full potentials using
Constructivist, Social Constructivist and Situative Teaching and Learning. I’m
currently making great efforts to get my students to self-assess, peer-assess and
group work as a key part of their Learning.
As David Nicol (2010),
Professor of Higher Education, University of Strathclyde says… ‘If you really want to improve learning, get
students to give one another feedback. Giving feedback is cognitively more
demanding than receiving feedback. That way, you can accelerate learning.’
I see great
opportunities and challenges in the use of eLearning tools, environments,
assessment and feedback. Through our VLE, I use Classroom Assessment Techniques
such as Minute Papers and Process Self Analysis and Peer Analysis to monitor
what students are learning and what they’re struggling with. As Diane Kelly
(2005-1 p.79) points out, the CAT information gathered provides ‘valuable input to all lecturers about what is
working and what needs to be changed in their teaching in order to enhance
student learning.’
Eric Mazur's notion of 'the
better you know something, the more difficult it becomes to teach' may
often be true. However, in many of my modules, I've come to assume that the subject
(especially the students' entry into the subject) remains challenging, fluid and
will always present Teaching and Learning difficulties.
Though I continue to learn, I
am now a relatively experienced lecturer. I do what I can to Mentor younger,
less experienced colleagues, to develop my course and my Institute and to share
Teaching lessons with colleagues from other Institutes and Universities,
through the NDLR, through presentations, workshops and Brown Bag talks. This
activity further broadens my perspectives and feeds back into the development
of my lecturing, as well as giving me a strong sense of our lecturing and
industry ‘community of practice’.
Because our media
environment is mutating rapidly, I make few assumptions about our subject area
and I recognise that it’s a complex, multidisciplinary challenge for anyone to
learn, or for anyone to remain up to speed. As Martin Dyke, Gráinne Conole et
al point out ‘Our technological age,
which Giddens (1999) refers to as a ‘run away world’ is characterised by rapid
change that forces people to respond and reflect on new information that guides
their actions. Such transformation of information is the juncture at which
learning flourishes.’ In our Animation course, we have a high degree of
curricular autonomy. We change what we do in an ongoing effort to make things
better. What are our Key Performance Indicators? We measure the success of our
graduates and alumni – are they working in our industry? Are they making their
own films, starting their own projects? Are they successfully going on to
postgrad study in Film and Media? In short, have we given them the core skills
and the agility to enjoy a lifetime’s work in our discipline?
My PDP targets?
- As
well as continuing to build my weekly internet series, I will continue to produce
at least one short film each year. I am working to get back into tv
production, producing series for children. This will take time to achieve.
In the long-term, I am determined to direct my own animated feature films.
This too will take some time to accomplish.
- I
look forward to my successful completion of my current DCU EAssessment
Module, my DIT LIN PDP Module and my WIT Mentoring Module.
- I
want to continue to develop my Teaching and Learning practice within IADT,
further developing our Animation course and moving towards the creation of
Special Purpose Awards, Lifelong Learning Flexible Access opportunities,
and Post Graduate opportunities serving New Cohorts of learners.
- Beyond
that… I am strongly minded to attempt an APEL Masters based on my
Industrial (Animation) experience. This would necessitate writing a
Critical Analysis of my work, clearly spelling out the learning that took
place through my career. I will need to find a sponsoring Institute. A panel
of peers will need to examine and approve my application. I would set Summer
2013 as my target for this Masters?
- I will soon have earned 40 Level 9 ECTS credits in Teaching and Learning subjects. I would like to negotiate a pathway (again with a sponsoring Institute) to complete a Teaching and Learning Masters, probably conducting a piece of T+L research and writing in Animation Teaching and Learning. I would set Summer 2014 as my target for this Masters. I want my research to feed directly back into my lecturing practice and the development of our courses. It is not enough for me to ‘know facts and to understand relations for the sake of knowledge. We want to know and understand in order to be able to act and act “better” than we did before.’ (Langeveld 1965: 4). As Boyer (1990:15–16) asserts… ‘Scholars are academics who conduct research, publish, and then perhaps convey their knowledge to students or apply what they have learned. The latter functions grow out of scholarship, they are not to be considered part of it. But knowledge is not necessarily developed in such a linear manner. The arrow of causality, can, and frequently does, point in both directions. Theory surely leads to practice. But practice also leads to theory. And teaching, at its best, shapes both research and practice.’
- In
the long-term, I aim to complete a PhD (possibly in Teaching and Learning).
Bibliography
Boyer, E. (1990). ‘Scholarship
Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate’. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Conole, Gráinne, Dyke, Martin (Eds) (2007) ‘Contemporary
Perspectives in E-Learning Research’. London: Routledge.
Crisp, Geoffrey (2007) ‘the
e-Assessment Handbook’. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Giddens, A. (1999)
‘Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives’. London: Profile.
Kelly, Diane (2005) ‘Do you know what your students are
learning? Or do you really care?’ Dublin: Aishe (2005-1 p.79).
Langeveld, M.J. (1965) ‘In Search
of Research’, Paedagogica Europoea: The European Year Book of Educational
Research, vol 1. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Mazur, Eric ‘Confessions of A
Converted Lecturer’ (video 2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI
Nicol, D. (2010a) ‘The foundation
for graduate attributes: Developing self-regulation through self and peer
assessment’ University of Strathclyde, Glasgow: reap.ac.uk
Nicol, D. (2010b) ‘From monologue
to dialogue: Improving written feedback in mass higher education, Assessment
and Evaluation in Higher Education’, 35(5), 501–517 (Abstract text) University
of Strathclyde, Glasgow: reap.ac.uk
Other Sources…
http://cutbacks2010.blogspot.ie/
http://quindpdp.blogspot.ie/
No comments:
Post a Comment