Task 1d - 2d Images

As a teacher at a school that I do not own, I am not involved with marketing the school and so I do not need to take photos of the children I teach.  I do however use videography to add to the children's learning experience.

There are two ways in which I use this material; firstly I use video footage to show a child if they are performing a movement incorrectly so that they can see precisely what they are doing wrong.  The second way I use this material is to upload to a locked 'Vimeo' channel (one which I regularly change the password to) so children are able to practise exercises and dances in between lessons.  Before recording a child, I always ensure I have a signed consent form from each child's parent or guardian.  This protects my integrity as a teacher from any allegations of misuse of videography, something which I am extremely cautious of in todays society.

As mentioned in my previous blog, I am currently in the process of opening my own dance school.  With this in mind I have a section on the enrolment form that, once signed by a parent, will allow me to use photography/videography for promotion and marketing, provided it is used in line with the child protection act and my schools child protection policy.

I give permission to allow my child to have photos and/or videos placed on the Beatz & Bluez School of Dance Website and/or Beatz & Bluez School of Dance social media pages. Any photos/videos which are placed by those other than Emma Corboz , Beatz & Bluez School of Dance, its directors, agents, servants, employees, and those acting under its authority, will not be held responsible

However, unlike many schools that I have worked for in the past, I will be keeping the photographs and video footage on the schools marketing current and relevant to the students I am teaching at the time.  I feel this is only ethical practise as a responsible teacher, something I pride myself on being.

For the purpose of this task I have created a flickr account:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127032293@N07/

In this album I have tried to encapsulate the story of my life to date as a performer and display some of the moments closest to my heart.  I have always loved performing and I feel these photos show me at some of the highlights in my life on stage.

I also ran an search on google images on my own name and was not surprised when it returned seven photos of me.  However, I am slightly concerned that the photos that appear first are my old head shots and my new one is only the third in line, as I feel I have changed a lot facially and would not want prospective directors to be put off based on an old photo.  This is something that I am going to look into rectifying and have recently read the following story -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2790326/google-deletes-18-000-uk-links-right-forgotten-laws-just-month-60-europe-wide-requests-come-fraudsters-criminals-sex-offenders.html

I hope to be able to remove some of the links associated with a google search on my name under this legislation so that in future only my new head shots appear.

Task 1b - Professional Communication Technologies

Web 2. What???

Ok so looking at the title of this task initially I thought that perhaps I was reading a handbook for an ICT course and must have accidentally printed off the wrong one! However as I began to delve into what exactly web 2.0 was, I realised that I use this technology every single day and know exactly how it benefits my professional and personal life.

As I understand it, Web 2.0 is the technical term for Social Media; sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ all of which I have accounts with for either business or personal reasons.

Social Media and Performing:

The invention of social media has been life changing in the eyes of the performer, especially thanks to the invention of sites such as Casting Call Pro and Facebook.

Casting Call Pro is a performing arts networking site where auditions are posted daily by casting directors or events companies and artists can send a link of their 'page' (usually containing their CV, photos and possibly a showreel of their work) in response to the advert.  Within seconds the 'postee' of the advert is able to establish whether they think the artist is worth auditioning and if so can directly contact the artist to arrange an audition.

I recently sent an application to a company named Artis Education - A performing arts based company working within schools and delivering workshops.  I received an email alert informing me of a possible job match (based on settings that I have pre determined and can change at any time with a few clicks), quickly viewed the job description (whilst on the train), sent my profile to Artis via a single touch on my smartphone (still on the train) and by the time I arrived at my destination, (around thirty minutes after the initial email alert) Artis had responded, informing me that they are interested in me and including a link to complete an application form.  Brilliant and so easy to do!

The ease and speed of such sites is a double edged sword for a performer however, as often within minutes a casting director could have thousands of CV's land in their inbox and may only need to read the first one to fill the one contract they have to offer.  A clear example of this is on a performers Facebook page - 'The Hustle' - where a job will be posted and within a matter of seconds can have over a hundred comments from artists hoping for an audition.  This makes it very difficult to ever want to put down the phone and switch off from work as social media never switches off.


Social Media and Teaching:

I have recently embarked on setting up my own, all be it very small, dance school.  Although I have taught for over five years now and have a proven track record, the business side of a dance school has always terrified me, especially the worry that I would hire a hall and not have enough people attend because I am not reaching a wide enough audience with my marketing.

After finding a hall at a reasonable price in the right area, I created a Facebook page asking people to share it if they could.  The reaction was fantastic and I now have more than enough people to warrant opening the class, which doesn't begin for another two weeks!

People say that word of mouth is the best form of promotion and in my opinion Facebook is a 'written word of mouth' - people write down the words they would say to a friend, only instead of only one friend hearing it, by clicking post, their entire friends list will see it, with probably at least half actually reading it.  The post can then be shared again, infinite times over, each time reaching a new audience.    

Social Media - Up Close and Personal:

Over the years both as a teacher and performer I have had many friend requests for example on Facebook and as much as I don't mind my real friends seeing the 'fun' times on a night out, I feel it is highly inappropriate for a holiday maker or a child I have taught to see me in this light.  To them I want to remain as Emma the dancer or Miss Emma, the teacher and for that reason, my personal Facebook profile page is locked to only my friends.

Have you met Mickey looking like this….?

It was with this in mind that I created a secondary social media profile on Facebook in 2011, one that I could give out to families that have met me, or children that I used to teach who want to stay in touch for years to come, who for the most part I also like to speak to once in a while also.  This is a half way profile between my social life and my professional CV where I can post photos of new contracts I am working on and updating big life moments (such as if I were to get married), allowing people to keep in touch and be social without judging me if a photo appears that I am less proud of.

Task 1a - Professional Profile

My first impression of this task was that it was going to take me all of thirty seconds to complete…well two weeks and a lot of blood, sweat and tears later, here it is.

I have finally (or at least I THINK I have) uploaded a section to the left of my blog entitled 'Welcome to my life'.  I have aimed to keep it as an overview of my current CV but also include an insight into some of my thoughts, aspirations and even encompass a little of my personality. 

Before uploading this section I actually googled my name and wow…there are a lot of links to me.  Many of these are various drafts of my CV on different sites (LinkedIn, Casting Call Pro, Google etc) and as I read over them I realised there was some conflicting information.  I felt the most important part of this task was to ensure I am putting the correct information out there for potential employers and so I set about the task of updating all of this information, hence the delay in me completing this first 'simple' task.  

I am 99% certain that I am now happy with all of the information that is on the internet and more importantly, it is correct and updated for employers.  However, all of this information takes time to update and so I am currently considering whether to remove my information from some of these sites in the future as I am questioning whether it REALLY needs to be there in the first place? 

An example of one of these CV's is on LinkedIn:

uk.linkedin.com/pub/emma-corboz/19/713/199/

I particularly enjoy the simplicity of this site as it is both user friendly, has a phone app and displays my CV in an easy to view manner for potential employers.  

Anyway, for now I am happy with my updated information and pleased that it is all now accurate.

I am also slightly apprehensive now about the tasks ahead, however in the words of my favourite employer to date (check my CV!)…