In this video I hope to address –
Achievements so far
Some of the difficulties I have encountered.
Where I believe my areas of interest now lie.
My approach to the course in the future.
A SMART approach for moving forward.
Doing this in the form of a Q&A
What have you achieved so far?
The assignment encourages an assessment in relation to the key skills needed for an app developer.
But what are those key skills? I suggest the following:
Enthusiasm, Patience, Ideas, Self-criticism and reflection, willingness to seek criticism from others, openness to adapt and refine ideas, and a keenness to learn from mistakes and failures.
Drilling down a bit -
Enthusiasm - Even after a pretty hectic few weeks, my enthusiasm remains high. I knew there was a lot to learn. Now I have a better idea of what I need to know, and it doesn’t put me off.
Patience – Not just with the process but also with myself. I think it’s hard for someone who has already got a long and complex career in another field to suddenly find themselves at base camp again. I shouldn’t be harsh on myself for not knowing.
Ideas – I have lots of ideas and this feeds into the frustration I feel. Naturally I want to progress them.
Self-criticism and Reflection – is something I am familiar with. I already do some self-help, coaching, self-development work. No always easy to put this into a structure, and a public one at that.
Open to criticism – This is hard. But I know it’s necessary.
Adaptable – Remaining Agile within the development process. I think one of the reasons I decided on the MA was because I was coming up against app developers who were not adaptable or empathetic. They were process driven – they would carry out your instructions even if they were unfeasible.
Willing to learn from mistakes – and failures – Well that’s life. No problem with that. A little success along the way is useful though.
Problems encountered so far?
Starting the course I felt a little like a rabbit in headlights. I was overwhelmed with what I felt I needed to know, and nervous about how I would compare to the others on the course. Also, as I have a totally non-standard career path, trying to make the course fit in with my life has been an absolute nightmare. Breaking it down:
Fear of being out of my depth – No I just needed a few weeks to calm down and get into a pattern of learning
Time Management – two things here. I need to know that I can’t learn everything, research everything, know everything. And that I have a limited amount of time. It’s about relax into dong the best I can within the time I have available.
Isolation – that’s the nature of distance learning. Probably I should have cajoled a friend to join the course. It’s a small and disparate cohort this session. But I do need to find someone to talk to, beyond the weekly webinars.
Over extension – My head is like having too many windows open at the same time on a PC. I need to learn to focus on one thing at a time. That’s a hangover from my radio production days when multi-tasking was the order of the day.
In relation to the App Jam…
- I took a long time to start this – partly because it coincided with a week of night shifts, so actually finding a time for clear headed, focus just wasn’t possible. And wasn’t part of the App Jam lesson aimed at making sure that you ‘care for yourself’ during intense periods of ideation?
- I also misunderstood the task slightly – thinking that perhaps I needed to join an App Jam online to do it. That thought terrified me. But the lessons – clarify the brief. Don’t be scared of the skills and opinions of others. Just do it.
- I enjoyed the process once I got going. I used those around me to act as critics, and got some interesting results.
Where my areas of interest are?
Clearly I need to focus. But also, I need to get into a position where I can see some results. I have a couple of projects that need to be done soon. That’s a good impetus. I guess it’s a twin track. Use the goal of a project to push forward ideation and development, but also take time to understand coding, and read up for the academic aspect of the course, the contextualisation. Hopefully the two tracks will converge later. I should also say that my interest is less about games and more about business apps… although clearly there are interesting possibilities with cross-overs.
How will approach change from here on in? Key areas of practice aim to develop here on in. Further research, personal exploration
Key processes:
- Keep having ideas
- Work towards creating some of the simpler projects
- Better time management
- Engage on more academic rigour.
- Reach out to others for support
A SMART Strategy (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound)
Set a fixed time for working on the course – at least one hour a day, all day Saturday. Prioritise.
Start working on my audio delivery app concept – prototype needed by beginning December
Be less self-critical
Find ways to contact other students, practitioners or friends who can ‘buddy up’.
Read/Watch/Research one subject for contextual research per week.