GDD710 Development Practice Module - Week 5 - Research
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This week covers the journey of Reflection so far. It is always essential to review and look back on the current progress that has been made to analyse whether or not I am on the right academic path. Reflecting enables me to look at my intitial goals, where I struggle the most and how I can make improvement to increase my learning skills. The term itself means a process that assists in grasping a stronger insight in your own professional practices.
This is done by thinking with an analytical mindset (hcpc, 2021). Those stronger insights and lessons learned can be applied to establish good practice which can lead to developments, as well as improvements for both professional and personal gain. Reflection is also classed as a self-taught guide to benefit constant improvement that we learn from previous experiences.
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"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." - (Søren Kierkegaard, 1855)
Figure 1: Søren Kierkegaard Image (Scott Begg, 2018)
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On, In, & For Action
The spark forum for this week was open to discuss and reflect on our own initial, as well as first experiences when commencing the Indie Game Development MA. This was discussed through 3 areas of reflection.
On-Action - The critical incidents that I feel led me to enrol on to this course were a collection of things. One being the impact of Covid-19 and not having a sense of purpose where I wanted to go next. After finishing my undergraudate studies, I felt like education was not done with me yet. This lead me to being in contact on LinkedIn by a course advisor from Falmouth University who was looking for graduates that may be interested in applying for certain Masters courses.
I said to myself a few years back depending where life would take me that I would consider a masters. Before this I attempted to apply for a range of jobs in the gaming industry. Sadly due to only academic experience, I did not stand out compared to the other applicants which was putting me off a career in games development. When this MA course was shown to me, i instantly wanted to apply as I still had a long way to go to be make my own mark, following the professional industry standards.
In-Action - The critical incidents I am currently experiencing on this course is definitely trying to get to grips with this certain style of learning. My workflow and motivation levels have been at an all-time low, even though so many positives have happened since starting this degree. Such as taking on a supervisor role in a new job, starting to learn how to drive in my spare time and getting back into the swing of education through a virtual learning structure. Yet I cannot answer why my levels are so low at these first stepping stones of the course. It could be that I am self-doubting my ability to contribute such an expected amount of work, or that I am stretched thin with all the other priorities going on aside from the degree. I think it is still a weird adjustment starting an academic term during the summer period as at this point in the year, I would be taking on extra hours to make money during the holidays.
These first 5 weeks have had some hurdles. Such as attempting to process each weeks topic and what is being required when carrying out the challenge activities. The lecturers have been quite responsive on both email and study pod sessions, I just wish I had a better response time when researching and writing each blog. I have tended to be more descriptive than reflective in my first few blogs and need to cut down on my paragraphs. This was down to another self-doubt in not enough information was being written by me in the time I had, so I sugges to make up the time by adding extra information. I am still happy with the amount of effort I have put into the work so far and aim cut down on a more critical and reflective pattern.
For-Action - The first two areas are shaping my outlook for the future in a varity of ways. So far, I am enjoying the course as it is a nice icebreaker to see other students eager to learn and progress either through games development, user experience design or abit of both. The most positive part has been a refresher in memory when it comes to technology. Especially jumping back into familiar programs such as Unity and Visual Studio as they are a godsend for me when it comes to working on new projects. I know that in time and effort that my programming will improve tenfold so I am at the point where I can just naturally program mechanics without hesitation.
This will be a long road ahead throughout the rest of the course, but this first module so far as been a good groundbreaker in where I want to excel, as well as how plan to reach them. I am always keeping an eye out on any relevant jobs in my area as the best part of being an Indie Games Developer is having those transferable department skills. I consider myself very design and production heavy, followed by minor expertise in sound, art and programming. I am just hoping for that one opportunity to arrive, in the meantime, I will strive for success throughout this course to the best of my abilities. In order to achieve my goals, I must maintain an effective and reliable workflow to track my own progress as well as meet the neccessary criteria.
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The Five Reflective Domains
A given lecture video covered a useful model for structuring reflection known as the five reflective domains (Alcwyn Parker, 2021) that assist in evaluating how we write our critical reflective journals. These domains are listed as:
Domain 1: Dispositonal - Time management, motivation, general behaviour and discipline.
Domian 2: Affective - Feelings, experiences and emotions.
Domain 3: Interpersonal - Interacting with others, communication, listening, problem solving and decision making.
Domain 4: Cognitive - Strengths and weakness of learning, and approach to their resolution.
Domain 5: Procedural - Identifying where improvements are needed.
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Reflective Domains Results
Figure 2 Reflective Domains Pie Chart Results (Kyle Cornwell. 2021)
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Based on these results above, I catagorised each post to match up with a certain reflective domain. This was as accurate I could make it due to my struggles in critically reflecting upon my own critical reflection. Much confusing was drawn like a one person interview was taking place where I could not asnwer questions because I didn't know what questions to ask. Looking at this chart as a whole, I lean towards the Affective domain when writing as I personally do not embrace feelings and emotions. When it comes to writing my natural flow of affectivness comes out in how I describe or explain.
It does tend to show my negative side when working as I attempt to hide it with a multitude of reasons how they came about to swing the blame on myself. Not to say there is not positivity in my learning and highlighting the strongest parts that backup any hardships I experienced. The same goes for Cognitive as I seem to register my strengths and weaknesses in subtle manner each various posts as a reminder to myself and potential peers that when I create something, I want to push myself in every direction with the current skills I am strong in, whilst building upon the skills I am lacking in.
I have not discussed much regarding Dispositional and Interpersonal domains due to the current stage of the module, as well as the course since the material currently being studied has yet opened the avenues to express within those areas. There has been occasional interaction with peers from the course between webinars and discord, but more of a check-in to see how everyone is progressing. I would like this to become a more regulaf ocurrence as having social support keeps me positive and a strong self-motivator. The Procedural domain has had a mixture of mentions in my posts where I aim to head with the course, as well as my current level of expertise and how that could do with some tuning.
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SMART Goals
SMART is a process full of evaluation and reflection to construct achievable goals. Also classed as a series of important results that you aim to carry out. It's structure is to foster clear and mutual understandings of expectation towards succesful and professional development University of California, 2016). There is more to the criteria than the acronym itself. Below are the various factors surrounding SMART.
Specific - What willl be accomplished? What actions will you take? (Essential Detail!)
Measurable - What data will measure the goal? How much and how well? (Assess to success!)
Attainable - Is the goal doable? Do you have the neccessary skills and resources? (No Stress!)
Relevant - How does the goal allign with broader goals? Why is the result important? (Value!)
Time-bound - What is the time frame for accomplishing the goal? (Set Deadlines!)
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My SMART Goals
Taking a look back over my current style and process of writiing, there is alot of dire-needed improvmenets regarding my own academic pracitices. My current hospitality position as well as caring commitments have prevented me to fully contribute my all to the course as starting this just gone new academic year was a chaotic time. I have to say with the small amount of work I have managed to produce and present to others is heading towards the right direction, as well as maintaining the ability to keep my head above water with the course's workload. This was not what I expected from a masters due to being such an online virtual structure and the constant reminder to myself to get stuck in and prioritise that this course I have shot myself in the foot for many good reasons is highly significant and must come first. Through this long reflection about reflection, I have listed some SMART goals below as a guide towards the short-term, as well as long term aspirations in myself.
Time & Project Management - I have to admit that I have not been at the strongest points when prioritising my tasks. Even when I am driven away from study work, I am constantly thinking about the lost time due to life getting in the way and how I will attempt to make up the lost hours. I need to push myself in terms of using a weekly planner such as HacknPlan so I have something to log weekly to check on personal progress and ensuring I am on track for where the level of work needs to be. I just need that motivational spark in myself to construct and plan reliably and effectively.
Dispositional & Interpsonal Domains - I have already mentioned about time management. This goal is more aimed towards the Interpersonal domain to strengthen my communication skills. That is not to say I have not collaborated with other students for feedback on ideas in previous blogs, but to become more involved and build rapport between peers through social events such as game jams or weekly party sessions. This would boost my moral in how I can relate to people in similar areas of interest, one being games development. Doing this sooner rather than later will create a securer bond when it comes to group projects.
Technical Skills - I want to improve on my technical skills, mainly exploring the further reaches of Unity that I am yet to uncover and in a sense, become one with C#. I just want to have that knowledge and freedom is coding something that is based of an idea, combined with physics and maths to result in a scriptable mechanic. It has always been a jealousy to others whether it be a youtube tutorial or someone coding away next to me in class. I want to be a good programmer so that I can fulfill that area for improved transferable department skills.
I aim to work on a cram course during any spare time I can get my hands on, just to give a refresher of my knowledge of C# and how it will aid in my projects to come. I know that with time and perserverce, the skills will come into play and I will be complaining over nothing aside from the constant list of red errors not even the best programmer can avoid.
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References:
hcpc, 2021. What is Reflection? [Online] Available at: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/meeting-our-standards/reflective-practice/what-is-reflection/ [Last Accessed 22/08/2021]
Alcwyn Parker, 2021. Week 5: The Five Reflective Domains. [Online] Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/pages/week-5-the-five-reflective-domains?module_item_id=54107 [Last Accessed 22/08/2021]
University of California, 2016. How to Write SMART Goals. [Online] Available at: https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf [Last Accessed 22/08/2021]
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