This week has been about putting together the Reflective Report for the 5th December deadline.
Report is reproduced below:
Falmouth University
Creative App Development - App Development Synergies GAM710
Report on Continuing Personal and Professional Development
(Final Submission)
Introduction
I will focus on the following skills where I feel there have been problems in my approach.
Programming, Academic Rigour, Collaboration, Creativity v. Imagination, and Time Management.
I will assess my approach towards each skill, my experience of it during the course of this module, where I feel I can do better, and then finally create an effective strategy going forward as part of my continued professional development.
I’d like to say that I have enjoyed the course so far, and have found the skills and concepts of great use, not just in the course but across my other activities.
Programming
I believe you can equate programming to understanding the DNA of app development. It’s an appreciation of the building blocks that make up apps, how they come together and behave. Clearly an understanding of this is vital if one is to be successful on the course. Even if you franchise the ‘nitty-gritty of the development process to someone else, you would need to be on top of the concepts in order develop apps well, communicate their functionality, and adapt the project to create a successful product.
I was an early programmer, back from when I had my first personal computer, the ZX80, Spectrum, Acorn, BBC Computers. I really enjoyed the process and spent a lot of time working on it, even to the point of obsession. But that was a long time ago, and although in returning to the skill again I recognise the principals and techniques, even some of the language, I can see that it’s a far cry from my baby steps in programming almost 40 years ago.
I have opted to concentrating on learning Python, and looking at development platforms such as Flutter, but have felt overwhelmed by the amount I feel I need to know in order to give this subject justice. I do know that with every subject, you need to pin down the basics, and keep learning and practicing consistently in order to make progress. And that simply has not been happening. I have a particular challenge with my working patterns. It’s definitely not nine-to-five, and one moment work can be total, and the next a famine. While that might seem ideal in that the famine times can be filled with learning, in practice it doesn’t quite work that way. There have been times when I plan to set aside time to focus on a particular subject, or that I’ll start an hour earlier in the morning to really break the back of a topic. But sometimes those times evaporate when an urgent voice-over job, or emergency show cover on the radio crops up. Or maybe, after a run of night shifts, I simply cannot concentrate on the task in hand.
In the past, in similar learning situations, I’ve been able to work ahead. But the compartmentalised nature of the course, with material released on a Friday every week, means that it only takes one week of intense work to put me two weeks behind.
I still understand and enjoy the process of programming. I see the relevance of it to what I am trying to achieve. I want to work at it and get better over time.
However, I do not seem to be managing my time well enough to keep ahead of the game.
An effective approach going forward? I need to define learning objectives, setting weekly targets, which are key to any projects I am trying to achieve, and then define, perhaps at the beginning of each and every week, as best I can, when a certain learning task will be achieved.
Academic Rigour
I am running a business. Bob Jones is a product. Anything I do, I need to make a business case out of, and that extends to anything I may do with regards to training or education. At this stage in my life, nothing can be purely for fun or pleasure – although clearly the ideal situation is that I gain pleasure from what I need to do.
I can see a clear business case for doing the MA in Creative App Development. It’s a useful extra string to my bow, but also, in practical terms, I need be able to use the skills for specific projects that have been waiting around for what seems like an eternity.
Ideally I need to do this quickly and effectively. However, in practice it’s a complex subject that needs time and effort to do well.
But I am often reminded that this course is a Masters. It’s not a short training course. It’s meant to give the student a broad understanding, and appreciation not just of the skills involved in creating apps, but also an overview of the industry, technical opportunities and developments and importantly also the philosophy of the field.
Reading and research is vital to achieve this in order to gain insights into what is currently being achieved, and what the possibilities for the genre are.
Quite apart from reading around the skills needed, and the broader conditions in the market, and the general view among developers, I find the whole subject fascinating. I want to know more.
Having recently returned from China, which is moving forward swiftly in trying to develop a high quality, high value economy, I have seen how app technology is being used far more practically and in a widespread way than in the West so far. I have seen the future in practice with the day to day use of big data and fintech to make lives easier. I have seen the rocky road sometimes faced in introducing some of these technologies.
I would have no qualms about reading widely on anything to do with the course, but again it’s not happening as much as I would like. Inevitably there is competition for my time from needing to get up to speed with skills such as programming, and keeping ahead of the coursework and curating the Creative Reflective Journal – all while having a busy and unpredictable working life.
Luckily, my work already involves a certain degree of research of the subject. Much of the material I am asked to edit from China is about this very subject. But it’s usually journalistic in nature and not academic, or academic enough.
Moving forward, I need to define a reading list for the subjects covered - using the first module subjects as my guide, and create a time table for achieving it. I will be able to usefully use the Christmas break from coursework to get some reading done, and augment by Creative Reflective Journal with the information I have gleaned.
Collaboration
This is a part-time distance MA. As such I recognise that there will be difficulties to overcome that would not be an issue with a full time course, carried out on campus.
I have had recent experience of a similar part-time MA. I recently finished the Crime Fiction Writing course at the University of East Anglia.
There are similarities and differences between the courses.
With the Norwich course there was less interaction between student and course leaders, and yet more between the students. There were about a dozen students on the crime course and every three weeks or so there was an opportunity for a one-to-one tutorial with a tutor, and a critique of work with fellow students – a sort of Show and Tell session. Also, every three months, we came together in Norwich for a week of seminars and workshops.
Even then, I think it was tough not to have those moments you get with campus based courses – the chance to make closer friendships or educational working relationships with other students, but also the ‘downtime’ moments of sitting in coffee shops and mulling over the difficulties being faced in a relaxed way.
While I recognise that the first term is primarily revolving around coming to terms with the scope of the subject, and that greater collaboration will come a little further down the line, from the second module onwards, I think it’s fair to say that this first term has been a lonely experience.
It should be noted that the cohort for my intake is just three people. I think all three of us are coming at the course with different levels of experience and focus on certain aspects and skills. I have felt this acutely from the weekly hook-up sessions. There have been times when I felt I was skating on thin ice on certain subjects, and not able to contribute effectively to the conversation – much more than admitting that I know little about it and I plan to get up to speed.
I look ahead to the future models, where we are brought into contact with a wider group of course members with interest and also trepidation. It could be that I’ll identify with other students who face the same challenges as I do. Likewise I may find that the feeling of being overwhelmed and under experienced might be magnified. I think my enjoyment and enthusiasm for the course might be damaged as a result.
How best to counter this? I think this is potentially the most serious of the challenges that I face.
From the next module, I would seek to reach out to the larger cohort that we will be merged into, in order to feel part of a larger group in the hope of finding inspiration and help with any problems that I may face with course work of personal or project development.
I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet other course members, as and when greater opportunities for physical get-togethers arise.
Imagination v creativity
In following the course material on Creativity I came to an interesting conclusion.
I have been consistently coming up with app ideas that fill a gap in my personal professional needs. I have a workshop coming up in a few week’s time when I would like to be able to present the participants with an app that shares podcasts of the content. I know I can then use this time and time again with other projects down the line. I have long wanted to develop a similar audio delivery app to use with relaxation recordings which I have developed. Both have clear commercial uses which benefit other aspects of my career. I came to the course in the knowledge that I have some projects which I cannot take forward without coming to understand and develop apps.
Firstly I can see that it’s just not that simple to create a fully functioning, all singing all dancing and useful app – just like that. It takes planning. Ingenuity, listening skills and artistry to do it well.
Secondly, just being imaginative is not enough. You need to move beyond the stage of envisaging the end product and move towards actually make it – the creativity bit.
I think perhaps I a haven’t really moved beyond the imagination side of the process. I feel that I am falling down on the creativity part of it.
Why is this? Some of it comes down to the need to get up to speed on the mechanics of app design, and then applying those skills practically. That can’t happen unless I put in a lot more time and effort into skilling up, and working towards a single goal, effectively and probably with collaboration or perhaps support of some kind.
This skill is dependent on most of the others listed here.
The actually getting my hands dirty with making my concept a reality will need a much better understanding of the skills and processes needed to make an app a reality. It will need a wider appreciation of trends and developments which may challenge my concept, encourage it, or even render it obsolete. It will require collaboration to bounce thoughts around, and then time to work through the results, time to fail, and motivation to keep going until the goal is achieved.
What I have on my side is a number of ideas that I know I need and can be achieved, probably more simply than many other app concepts. At one level it’s not reinventing the wheel, and at the other end, it’s not rocket science either.
I will continue to envisage apps which I feel would enhance the services that I offer, while focussing in on just one of them initially, to stress test among friends or others from the wider cohort, to develop a plan to practically create the app. It’s hard to be time-bound on this one other than to suggest that inevitably this probably has to be achieved by the end of the course as a whole.
Time management
To a large extent, I feel that Creative App Development relies on a bringing together a logical set of actions, within a suitable time frame.
Quite apart from the importance of creativity and technical skills development, project management using such concepts as Agile and platforms such as Trello are crucial to not only making the course actually work, but also to contributing to success once one enters the wider world and begins collaboration with others in a professional context.
I already do make use of certain project management skills in the work that I do already in other fields. I would not be able to do all the things I do professionally without it. As a busy freelance journalist and broadcaster, podcaster and trainer, I need not only to integrate the imperatives of life such as shows and workshops (eating, sleeping) into my schedule, but also the preparation needed for them to succeed, all the while being mindful of the unexpected and immediate needs of certain clients.
I would say that I have been skating on thin ice with regards to the course. I have been fitting in the basics – following the course work and just about keeping ahead of myself with the Creative Reflective Journal. But I have not as yet managed to fit in the more qualitative ‘optional’ elements of further reading, and ancillary skills upgrading.
It’s not enough to give the appearance of coping, or keeping up to speed. At some stage you will become unstuck! I feel that I am very close to that situation.
It’s frustrating but, with all the will in the world sometimes it simply comes down to the fact that the best laid plans tend to go by the wayside, and you just have to concede that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
So what does that mean in practice? There isn’t enough time to do it, or to do it well? Or I haven’t made enough time to do it, or do it well? Or to do it well needs more time than I have available or want to make available?
There are no easy answers to these questions. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this, and talking it over with friends. Having a break from coursework over Christmas will perhaps help bring me up to speed with some of the more time consuming aspects of the course such as close reading and learning programming.
I am uncertain how a SMART approach will help here other than to say that I will consider how effective I am in allocating my time over the recess, and work out if there are ways and means to be more effective.
Soon I will need to make a judgement call. Can I do this course successfully with the time available? Is there a danger that I end up doing it in a half-hearted way, that neither serves my needs, or the educational requirements of the course.
Conclusion
I recognise that the challenges outlined here represent just about the whole skillset needed for the course. Is any one more crucial than another?
There is a simple decision making technique where you score each challenge by how it affects the other, for example, does programming impact on academic rigour? Or creativity? If yes, give it one point, and then add up the totals.
In the end it comes down to time management as the biggest single obstacle.
A final strategy – I must swiftly seriously decide whether to continue, adapt, delay or, in extremis, opt out of the course altogether.
(2700 Words)