Core Unit Critical Evaluation

From the initial “why am I doing this again?” moment to the realisation that actually I am going to enjoy this course took about ten minutes. I consider that I have made fair progress on the unit, given that I have spent my entire professional life ‘giving’ to others and it took a while to get used to the fact that now I was going to ‘take’ from what is being offered and make it my own. Initially I felt guilty taking time out to read, reflect, and discuss – things one never normally feels warrant the time in a busy schedule. I got back into the study habit frighteningly quickly – wallowing in the luxury of so much to discover. By the end of the Core Unit I felt I had opened up a lot of doors and taken a peep over the thresholds – I can see how much there is to learn out there and am acutely aware that I am at the terrifyingly exciting ‘knowing how much I don’t know’ stage.

For me, starting a major course of study represented a significant milestone in my life: I have had substantial domestic and medical problems in the past few years and have felt de-skilled, intellectually frustrated and incompetent. That I even contemplated doing a course of study was a huge improvement; the fact that I am doing it is a triumph. The Core Unit allowed me to get my brain back into gear after lying fallow for far too long. I rediscovered my Arts roots (long since left behind in my technologically-based profession) and was delighted to be back in an Arts environment working with creative people. The Unit has made me realise that I still have an affinity with qualitative, reflective processes and that it is okay (once more) to respond instinctively to something I see, hear or create.

The Unit has not been without its difficulties: the lecture theatre environment was extremely onerous for someone like me with a hearing impairment, especially when there were poorly delivered presentations and splits for group work. Academically, I had some difficulty getting to grips with the many methodologies, practices and theories which were presented to us in a relatively short time, each one of which is fascinating and warrants much greater study. Such is the downside of part time study. I anticipate doing further investigation over the next eighteen months or so.

As an IT professional, information handling goes with the territory, so I like to think I have effectively sought out what I needed to learn (or at least, found where the information lies) and presented it effectively. I am pleased with the five mindmapping exercises I have done but I do feel I could go on expanding each of them as I think more about the topics under consideration. The mindmapping process is a powerful way of formalising and articulating one’s understanding and I think I have done this well.

I have been less successful at recording and analysing what has gone on in the group sessions. This is due almost entirely to my inability to follow the conversations amidst the noise of the lecture theatre venue. I have, however, made sure I followed up each session with others in my group in order to make sure I had a feel for what went on.

I have dredged out of dim and distant memory some of the language and methodologies I encountered when doing my first MA a decade ago, and realised how poorly I must have done my studies then. I have learned lots of new stuff too – so stimulating!

Listening to other practitioners explain their work has been enormously gratifying and has helped me to position my own photographic work in the Arts context.

The most useful tasks have been the ones which required us to marshal our thoughts and articulate them, in my case, via the medium of the mindmaps.