Back to study...

After what feels like a very long break, I've been preparing for the second semester which is due to start next week.  I've been taking a look around the Uni website, accessed Module Definition Forms and have ordered some of the books on the recommended reading list.

I received provisional feedback earlier in the week for the work that I completed during the first semester.  I was pleased to achieve a good score and receive some positive comments from my tutors.  However, I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to do better.  Unfortunately my laptop burned out just a few days before I was due to submit my work.  As a result of this, I lost a large amount of work that I had done getting ready for assessment.  I normally back up my work at the end of each day but my laptop broke before I had a chance to do this.  My request for an extension was declined so I had to rush through everything and try to bring my work up to a good standard.

The New Year has started well for me.  I was successful in my recent job application and started my new role at the beginning of January.  I did a lot of preparation for it so am glad it paid off.  It was a very strong field so getting through makes very pleased and proud.  I will be continuing to work within the same area as before but I have taken on some additional responsiblities including work on a high profile policy.  The verdict?  Well, so far, so good. 

I look forward to resuming my studies in the second semester and hope that my learning will continue to benefit me at work. 

Hurrah! Back on track...

I think I've finally caught up with all my course work!  Last few weeks have been really hectic. First I had to go away for a week so lost 5 days of study. Then shortly after that I was invited for a job interview and ended up losing another week as I had to prepare for it! It will be a couple of weeks before I learn the outcome, so fingers crossed... The extra cash will really help with course fees!

I have been feeling a bit down since I started this course, feeling I couldn't cope. I had set aside 10 hours for study each week, I understand that's the recommended minimum. But I am finding that's simply not enough for me. Reading the recommended literature, doing wider reading, contributing to online conversations, writing my essays, providing feedback on the work of other students, writing a blog etc. it just can't be done in that time! I am going to have to find a few more hours somehow but that's not going to be easy. I sometimes work quite long hours, I do a lot of sports, I also have a family with two young boys (aged 3 and 8) who I need to spend more time with. The Missus, bless her, has been really supportive. She's even let me off from doing some of my share of household chores :)

It has been a real hard slog getting up to date with my work. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I posted my latest piece of work, Part B of the IOCT task about participation in online community. I focused on three aspects of my online participation: 1) requesting help, 2) providing help, and 3) sharing information. I found this task really difficult. I needed to write 1800 words for both Part A and B, but haven't got anywhere near the word limit.  Not sure how well I have done. Some comments from fellow students have been quite encouraging but it would also be reassuring if I get some feedback from the tutor, too.

On the subject of feedback, I don't think I have received any feedback at all for some time from my tutor on the Investigating the Work Setting module. In most cases, I think I've submitted my work before we move on to the next task. So although it's within the weekly/fortnightly timescale, I still appear to be too late. If there's a cut-off point for tutor feedback it would be really helpful if this could be made clear. As I feel I am struggling, I think I some form of tutor acknowledgement that I am on the right track would really help.

Still working at it...

Not being able to study when I went away last week has made things difficult.  I began to catch up with things at the weekend and am still working at it.  I looked at the ICOT task first as I consider this to be the more challenging task.  I decided to do this as a magazine article on how online community can support learning.  I have now finished my first draft and am trying to figure out how to put it all together!  I am looking at templates on the Internet and trying to sort something out...
In the meantime I have also prepared a first draft of my work relationships essay but am having a bit of trouble getting my organisation chart up to decent standard (I am a bit of a novice with PowerPoint).  I hope to be in a position to submit both pieces of work soon.

Back in town...

I have been away for the past few days and just catching up with things.  I had hoped to be able to get some of this done whilst I was away but unfortunately it wasn't possible.

I'm preparing my first draft of Work Relationships essay right now and will shortly tackle the Online Community essay.  Further update will be posted soon...

Coping... but only just

For various reasons, I wasn't able to do much study in the early part of the week.  So I spent the best of part of the last two days writing up my essays.  I finished work late on Thursday evening, spent some time playing with my kids until they went to bed at around 8pm and then got down to work.  I kept writing till well past 1am before falling asleep of exhaustion.  I then got up at 7am to get ready for work!

I found it hard doing my essay on Tools for Online Learning.  I have used quite a range of tools over the years including Facebook, Twitter, Discussion boards etc.  Since starting my course, I have tried new tools such as Posterous, Google +, and Blogger.

I read the relevant material and considered what tools I wanted to write about.  I had always intended to use Facebook and Google+ in my essay but was a bit put off by the fact that many other students had already used them in their work.  After much deliberation, I decided that I would go ahead anyway.  So what if others have beaten me to it, I will be writing my own thoughts and doing work that is my own so it shouldn't be an issue.

I started by planning what I wanted to write.  I decided to structure the essay so that it sort of tells an evolutionary story of social network sites and my experience of using them.  I planned to include an introduction to give context, then look at individual sites (Myspace as well as FB and G+) and end with conclusion and references.  It was a hard slog but I finally finished and posted it in the VLE.  I have done it but not sure if it's any good!  Mainly due to time constraints I only used plain text whilst other students used images and charts in their work.  I wonder if this count against me...

With the ICOT task out of the way, I needed to urgently finish my Working Life essay.  In my previous post, I spoke of getting the photos done but never got round to finishing my essay.  But I got my head down and got this done as soon as I could and uploaded to Shared Document area in IWS section.  My essay had not been completed when the tutor looked at the work of other students.  But I am hoping that she will maybe still take a quick look :)

I had originally planned to make a video for my Working Life task, something along the lines of Collecting Stories by Jonathan Harris.  I've not made a video before and so needed some time to look into this.  Hopefully this is something I will do for a future piece of work..

I had spent time today catching up post on Posterous and discussion threads in VLE.  I have also done a peer review for a fellow students essay on Work Relationships.  I now need to start thinking about my essay on this and how online communities can support learning.

My photo story

It's generally busy at work on most days, but the last week of the month is always particularly busy.  This is the time to tie up all loose ends and ensure everything is in place before my schools convert to Academy.  It can be quite a stressful time.

I didn't get round to taking photos for my IWS task during the week.  So I went into the office today as I am not in until Tuesday.  It's a beautiful day today, the sun is shining and friends were off to the beach while I headed off to work.  Oh well, it had to be done!

After taking my pics I downloaded them onto my computer and and then tried to add text to the image using Photoshop software.  I've not had much experience of editing images in any way so I was struggling a bit.  I managed to work out how to do it using the text tool but I couldn't make the font bigger.  I played around with it a bit before I was able to do this.  However, in the end I decided that I would just add text seperately rather than the image.

I then pondered about how to link the photos together.  I considered copying the images to MS Word and compress the pictures.  I ultimately decided to use PowerPoint (hope this is an acceptable format) and used the Shrink Pictures website to make the file size of the pictures smaller.  I'm uploaded it to the shared documents section in the VLE.  I just need to write my 500 word assignment on this.

I'm going to try to get as much done as I can in the next few hours before I head out to see Milton Jones, the comedian, in Wimbledon.  I had booked tickets for this some time ago.  It should be good fun, but then it's back to study when I get back.

Another busy day...

It's been quite a hectic day for me.  I left for work this morning after 7am and arrived back home a few hours ago after 8pm.  After a busy day at the office, I went for a game of 5-a side football this evening straight after work.  And I'm feeling pretty knackered right now.  I think maybe I'm getting too old to be running around chasing after a ball!

In terms of study, the past few days haven't been too productive.  But I have managed to read the paper on the Ultraversity model for work based learning and I've made some initial notes.  I will need to go over them again and try to put them into some coherent form...

I've purchased Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide by Bowell and Kemp.  As this is an important work, I wanted to buy my own copy rather than loan it from the library.  I hope to make a start on it later tonight...

I feel I've got a bit of catching up to do, which I should hopefully begin to address tomorrow.  I still haven't got round to taking the photos at work for the Working Life task.  Hopefully if I get some time I will do this in the morning, but not sure as I have a number of meetings scheduled.  I also need to look to at the Tools for Online Learning task.  With a bit of luck, I should hopefully be back on track by the weekend.