OU blog

Personal Blogs

In kitchen, no specs

TMA01, tutorial

Wednesday, 13 Nov 2024, 08:44
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jane Williams, Wednesday, 13 Nov 2024, 08:45

Not a bad mark. 

Points to note, copied from his "red pen" (it was blue)

Did you consider using examples of the two approaches from the Course materials?

No, I didn't. I didn't see any particular reason to to use those examples when life is so full of them! Apparently nor did anyone else!

Two small points here:

-        Please put the questions in bold type so that they stand out from your answers

-        Please use only the Course materials as references

OK, I can do the former easily enough (and he said in the tutorial that I don't need "Question" and "Answer" subheadings)
The latter, I went "you what?"
It seems that the reasoning is that he doesn't have time to check out a reference he isn't already familiar with.
(And to be fair, while the second one of mine was a Shakespeare quote, this first may not be regarded as easy reading.)

Divjak, D., Sun, H. and Milin, P. (2024) “Physiological responses and cognitive behaviours: Measures of heart rate variability index language knowledge,” Journal of Neurolinguistics, 69. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101177.

I must remember: the course materials are intended to be enough! I see them as a starting point to more interesting things, but the TMAs are designed to test that I've understood what I've been given, no more.



Tags: TMA01, tutorials, referencing
Permalink Add your comment
Share post
In kitchen, no specs

TMA01 done

Sunday, 10 Nov 2024, 10:37
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jane Williams, Sunday, 10 Nov 2024, 11:15

A little over word-count on part of it, but close.

Two references in there, mainly for the sake of seeing if I can do it. And yes, I  learnt a few things in the process.

OU library is wonderful. If I want a text, I should be looking there, not Google. Then I can just hit the "cite" button at the top, job done.

If I need help, OU library again. Email them, they'll have an answer, and point me to a page explaining it.

I've been trying to use Mendeley to create/organise references, but there's too much missing. If I have a PDF to upload, great. If I don't, it isn't really doing much. There's supposed to be an add-in to Chrome that will reference web pages, but it doesn't work.

Tags: TMA01, referencing, library
Permalink Add your comment
Share post
In kitchen, no specs

TMA01

Monday, 4 Nov 2024, 16:48
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jane Williams, Monday, 4 Nov 2024, 16:51

Working my way through it. I started with a template to fill in, plus a document with the questions in it.
I've done the factual parts, complete with a reference to a research paper (OK, that was mainly so as to practice referencing! I now have Mendeley installed.)

Reflection part in section 1, done.

Final reflection part, I've selected the two activities I want to talk about.

I have to submit it by Thursday, and this is Monday. Tomorrow morning will be spent mainly at the hospital, and the evening celebrating Bonfire Night. Wednesday includes a talk to attend. I should have plenty of time.

Tags: TMA01, referencing, TODO
Permalink Add your comment
Share post
In kitchen, no specs

Tutorial 2

Sunday, 27 Oct 2024, 14:35
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jane Williams, Sunday, 27 Oct 2024, 14:48

"With the first TMA due on the 7th November, I suggest that it should be the main topic of conversation. Please make a note of any questions that you may have about it.

The purpose of TMA01 is to get you used to working to a deadline, following guidance on the questions including the word count and setting your work out as suggested in pp10-11 of the Assessment Guide."

After the talk about it, I don't expect any problems. I've got it open in front of me, I'll check layout details before I start typing.

Notes afterwards - again, he was spot on time, and we had about 15 minutes.
Hints on TMA - don't submit early, there's no point. Wordcount at end of Q4, not for each separate section.

The Pome, he thinks it's "playful", a parody of the language used in love songs/poems of the 20s and 30s. Which I'm not familiar with, so don't "get". If I want to read more, look up what she has to say about Martinis.


Tags: TMA01, tutorials
Permalink Add your comment
Share post
In kitchen, no specs

Unit 3

Sunday, 27 Oct 2024, 14:20
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jane Williams, Tuesday, 29 Oct 2024, 20:17

Really, this time. Started the day with sorting out dates and times for those WEA talks, then hit the module.

As expected, I'm enjoying formal grammar (though this is pretty low-level). A disagreement with the course material about the use of singular "they" (but the OED is on my side, and I can prove it). I'm up to 3.4, and feeling rather unsure about that "ungrammatical love song". So that was 2.5 hours work in... yes, about 2.5 hours.

3.5 says it will take 1 hour 45 minutes

I have a tutorial in 15 minutes. Supposed to be about the TMA, but I'll ask about the "love song".

TMA, I could do the grammar section now, and might do so while it's still fresh in my mind. The reflection would be better left for later, and the selection of which bits I've learnt most from will have to be after I've done them.


Tags: TMA01
Permalink Add your comment
Share post
In kitchen, no specs

Talk - "Y031 TMA01 Online preparation session"

Thursday, 24 Oct 2024, 14:58
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jane Williams, Thursday, 24 Oct 2024, 15:00

Looked important and useful, and was. I spent time before that reading TMA01 and making sure I at least knew what the questions were, if not the answers. I'm now much more confident about doing this, and have lots of ideas for the "reflection" parts. 

In particular, the question of what skills I have. I hadn't thought of this as a skill any more than breathing, but it looks as if my ability to read the instructions (and the question) is well above average. I'm putting this down to 30 years of "read the spec, spot inconsistencies, implement".


Other than that, it's been a good few days for attending talks, mainly from Cambridge. One physics-based about power storage in the future, one about Stonehenge....


Tags: talks, TMA01
Permalink Add your comment
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 3194