ReViewing BlackMountain College 2024

Taking the research on the road

This has been an enlightening, sometimes humiliating and humbling experience. What with the tec, the flow and getting the preparation right. It has been a busy summer since teaching duties finished. Wheelie suitcase at the ready, USB stick in hand I marched forth to meet the tide of conference season.

Weeks and weeks of finely honing my abstract and sending it out willy-nilly to all kinds of conferences and ‘call for abstracts’ call outs I was in a whirlwind of expectation and excitement. As the time grew closer the nerves built up. I stand in front of a class every day, standing up is what I do, and I really love teaching, formal lectures and passing on what I know. In addition to this standing up I also play in an Irish band and of course we are on stage front and centre standing up in front of crowds – entertaining. And one more I dance in an amateur dance troupe, Indian and Persian dancing. So I do a lot of being at the front, speaking, playing and dancing. But the conference paper is a new thing for me and a nervy one.

Get Brother Technology on your side (load up the presentation in the coffee break).

There are so many elements to think about. Brother technology, he is a mischievous one. The kind of questions I need to know a sensible answer to are as follows:-, is it on a USB stick? Is it on the desk top? Have you got the correct wire? Did you bring your own lap top? Just when you think it’s going to be ok, the programme is too old, the version I have saved my presentation is not compatible with the programme on the computer, the cable doesn’t fit, the microphone konks out, the bright heatwave sun overheats the projector. Luckily these didn’t happen all to me or all at the same time.

Getting in the flow.

What do I mean by that? I mean saying what I have to say, remembering all the right words and phrases so carefully researched and gathered together. My first conference – very first one ever in a Northern University, Brother Tech was not kind, being last meant I had plenty of time to work out who in the room could fix it and have a word with them before my presentation. They very kindly got the programme to work after only a small hitch. The room, full of hungry post grad students and professors, the last presentation before lunch, it looked like a hard crowd to please. I had my script but being dyslexic a script is more of a hindrance than a help and losing my place and trying to find it again is not the best. My style can be way ‘off piste’ if I’m not careful. I can spend many a regretful hour dissecting the moment  “why did I say that…”, “why did I say it in that way with that inflection…”. However these are lessons to learn for the next time.

Be Prepared -practice.

Here we were in London for my next presentation of the summer. I had re tweaked the presentation, but it had taken me so long I had not the time to practice it (only a few days between the last one). I was happier with the order and had taken the brave (or foolhardy) decision to dump the script. After all I am used to standing for 3 hours playing the cannon of Irish favourites. At least 50 or more tunes on the fiddle - no music and drastic key changes moments before the performance, all by ear, no script. What was this a 15 minute talk, should be no problem. But wait, oh yes I’ve been playing Irish music since I was 11. I have the tunes but more importantly the muscle memory of the fingering shapes. The moves are not just in my brain, they are in my hand – I don’t even have to think about it, it flows. This presentation is a whole new concept and new neurological path has been walked in my brain and it is slow steps at first, awkward and without finesse or style. In the presentation I have a massive coughing fit mid flow and my nose runs and my eyes water and I feel a total idiot but carried on till the end. Lesson learnt – take a bottle of water up and a tissue, for all eventualities. Apart from the coughing it was a better presentation than the first one.

The third presentation a Midlands University very regal building, everything was very well done here with a practiced and organized hand, vast quantities of student ambassadors and team members abounded to direct and guide and fix stuff. Brother technology was on his best behaviour and the kit was of a hugely high standard and new and worked. The presentation had to be 20 minutes and so I had re written and rejigged the order and flow of the slides and what I would say to each one,  - no script. It is best for me. It went amazingly well, I was very very pleased with it and had good feedback.

Never too late to have a last check.

Last one in this marathon of conferences. An Oxbridge college. Very awe inspiring, the surroundings were like a stage set, all quadrangles and spires and leafy corners and ancient taverns. Staying in student halls – what a luxury, participants scared each other with creepy ghost stories through the Gothic revival cloisters. Despite the lofty surroundings the conference was collegiate and supportive. My talk at this conference was for the last time very slightly reworked, just thinking about the past 3 papers and what did not flow as well as it could and just doing that final bit of adjusting. A really good paper, tec was fine, receptive audience, lots of good questions which could have gone on longer. Fist pump the air, yay last one done and dusted, and I was happy with it.

All in all I have learned so much. About how I perform under pressure, about the honestly weird faces I pull when I talking. About crafting an abstract and getting it in on time. Fine tuning and ruthlessly editing the presentation, making it relevant to each different conference and time constraint. Being comfy yet elegant. Being hydrated and having water. Don’t worry about the hiccoughs, just keep going till the end, everyone there knows what it is like to present and feel the nerves and they don’t mind a little bit of whoops a daisy – up to a point. I’m incredibly grateful to the ETF SUNCETT for sponsoring my attendance at some of these conferences. University of Sunderland customised MPhil in education. And to Leeds Arts University for allowing me to participate and supporting me in my studies and the conferences. It takes a village to bring up a child. And equally I think it takes the collegiality of universities and lecturers to bring on the next wave of research students, who will become the next teachers, practitioners, professors, policy makers, difference makers in education.