My Format-Neutral Artefact

The Proposal

This poem is, for me, to introduce,

myself however acutely obtuse

And put myself at your disposal,

Thus leading onto my proposal.

At twenty four years of age,

I’m never afraid, to engage,

With hard work or, have a perseverance,

To complete a task with absolute coherence.

A BSc, I have completed,

With First Class Honours; kindly greeted.

An MSc I’m now working through,

And I would like, to try something new.

I wish to become your newest member,

Of the IRG starting this November,

As learning to me brings exaltation,

Which is why I apply without hesitation.

The area I wish, to undertake,

Is resources that need a good remake.

Blackboards are now a thing of the past,

IT in lectures makes a big contrast.

Students immersed, in IT

Are trained in digital literacy.

Allowing them the chance to shine,

In the digital age, that won’t decline.

This is a chance for me to show,

The true extent of what I know.

From experience that I have gained,

As a teaching assistant, I have trained.

IT can aid all types of student

And helps a tutor to be prudent,

Of students unable to access,

The material allowing them to progress.

I have worked, with tots to peers

And easily conversed with no fears.

For simplifying is my skill,

In creative ways it becomes a thrill.

To choreograph, I was given a chance,

Year 6’s had an end of year dance.

When helping peers who found things tough,

Only patience was needed, oddly enough.

For GCSE’s, resources I made,

So EAL students, could improve their grade.

The project was completed 2 years ago

The resources are shown, at the ‘URL’ below.

Web 2.0 technologies, I now use,

A BITE Facebook page, for you to peruse.

Made to help boost, student relation

And engage with material, of tutors creation.

The Engineering School, I’ve had more contact

And this is the group, that to me would attract.

If another area, is more suitable,

You may find our feelings, being quite mutual.

I thank you greatly, for taking the time,

To read my bid like a nursery rhyme.

With this I hope your criteria is matched,

For more about me, find my CV attached.

By Hannah Trott

http://itmbweb1.gre.ac.uk/~th709

www.facebook.com/bitebook

The IRG Recruitment Process

Ok, so this week we have been asked to reflect on the process of applying for the IRG. For me this started when I was in a Postgraduate Teaching, Learning and Assessment Programme lesson with Mark Kerrigan. Had I not been lucky enough to get a place on that course I wouldn’t have found out about the opportunity and ultimately wouldn’t have got a place on the IRG! Anyway at the start of one of the lessons Mark handed out a summary information page about this project and explained briefly about it. We were told about how it would look good on a CV and not to mention the student scholarship would be quite handy. I was straight away attracted to the idea because it meant links to the educational development unit; I enjoy helping people to learn and having been in a business related field for the past 4 yrs I saw an opportunity to return to an educational side of things.

We were told of the 3 recruitment steps; the online application, the format-neutral artefact and then an interview. Unsure of what the format-neutral was, Mark then clarified; we could apply in any way that we wanted, showing that we wanted the position and any experience we felt was relevant. Someone had apparently applied through a picture, I must admit I did wonder how that would work but thought it would definitely show a creative side. Ideas flooded into my mind of how I could best apply and then the deadline was given for applications, we had 2 days. At this point I thought as there was so little time to get something together would it be worth it but decided to look online anyway; what could I lose? Looking online I realised it was just the online application that needed to be completed there and then. This involved a couple of basic questions about why we were applying etc, each with a 200 word limit. I thought at this point, there is definitely time to apply so proceeded there and then to answer the questions. The next part was going to be the tricky one, I think there was about 1-2 weeks between this point and the actual interview and it was at the interview that we would have to bring our format-neutral artefact.

The artefact... As time wore on I realised with studying commitments, I was not going to be able to attempt most of the ideas that I had. Online it had said the format did not count towards or against the applicant, from this I thought maybe it would be best to do a CV style artefact. On second thoughts I felt this was an easy way out and as we had been given the opportunity to present our application in a different way I should try it. I settled on creating a poem, after a few drafts I finally had a poem I was happy with and felt confident about (in my next post). I knew that the format wouldn’t affect the application but I felt that if I could be remembered as the “applicant with the poem” it would help me to be noticed. For this reason I liked the fact that we were able to apply in any way.

Interview day! I travelled to Greenwich in a suit as I wasn’t sure how formal it would be, I thought better to be overly formal than not enough. In the room there were approx 15 people, straight away it was evident that the interview wouldn’t be a formal process. We split into 2 groups and had a little time to chat to the people in our groups. The first task for my group was to come up with a word which we thought represented digital technology. This was naturally a group task and we needed to come up with our separate words through discussion, and then add a sentence with this, giving more detail. When completed we took each other’s photos holding our paper with the word on. The second task was to film a 30 second video of what digital literacy means to us, we had enough time to make a brief storyboard and film it. I found this task a little nerve-wracking as it had to be 30 seconds straight and there would be no chance to edit however I was pleased to have finished it with a video I was happy with. After this we handed in our artefacts and we told we would receive an email on whether or not we had got a place on the IRG by the Friday following. Unfortunately no email was received and there was a delay in getting the decision, I finally got the email that I was hoping for to tell me I got the position.

Thinking back I did enjoy this relaxed application process as I felt I could show myself in a better light than if it had been formal (this naturally brings a little stress), it was seemed appropriate due to the fact we needed to show how we would work together. The tasks took a little bit of working out to understand but the overall concepts were understood. I think on the interview day I wasn’t completely aware of the extent of the project because I had minimal information provided when I was informed of the project; I had a generic idea of digital literacies. By the end of the day I felt I understood the project more and by doing research for an entry in this blog, I gained deeper knowledge as well as creating my own ideas. In hindsight I am glad that I decided to apply and I wouldn’t have done things differently.