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In kitchen, no specs

Not very with-it today

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Edited by Jane Williams, Thursday, 19 Sept 2024, 18:06

Thursday. I got quite a bit done yesterday, and don't seem to be with-it today.

Note to self re. energy levels! A full day's work means not much the next day!

Done: 

  • DuoLingo (eventually)
  • chased prescription
  • checked pub for family meet and mailed them re access
  • set up Audacity for a quick memo-taker.
  • set up a new tag here called TODO, meaning that post needs a follow-up. Also, found out how to make the word ACTION bright red
  • caught up on Porcine Aviation emails: ACTION I should get that forwarded, or available through Yahoo, too.  (Sort of done: it gets there, but into the spam filter)

(Where is the formatting option for a bullet-point list? Ah, that first icon gives me an extra ribbon!)

Waking up a little in the afternoon...

I have a return email about my "too many Outlook 365 accounts" problem, which strongly suggests that they didn't read or understand what I said. Chased...

And following those TODO tags, I could look into mindmapping, or reference organisers. Or how to plant garlic.... (*)

Oh, and I looked at the Freshers Week competitions https://www.oustudents.com/welcome-week/quicklinks/competitions/

To be in with a chance of winning items from the OU Students Shop (worth £100 for first place, £50 for second place and £25 for third place)*, why not take part in our Writing Competition?  

We’re looking for an article, poem or creative writing piece of up to 1000 words on the theme ‘new beginnings’. You could share a story on your study journey, a poem on your experiences or even an article advocating for something you believe in as a result of your story. Interpret the theme how you wish!  

The utter blankness I feel on looking at that shows why I need this course!

(*) It was garlic. Putting my new research skills to good use, checking which sources are reliable

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In kitchen, no specs

Note-taking

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Edited by Jane Williams, Thursday, 19 Sept 2024, 15:45

I'd better learn how to take notes, then I can do so on the other things I intend to study.

https://help.open.ac.uk/notetaking-techniques

Will update this post as I go...

I am reminded that my method in Uni conformed to the adage "a means of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes oof the student without passing through the minds of either."

"Mind maps can be created using Microsoft Word but there are plenty of apps available that may make it easier. .... mind mapping software" ACTION: look for some.

It wants me to write on my textbooks!
But since they're in PDF... I need to get to know how to add highlights, comments, and so on. So I try to do so, and discover I'm logged into Adobe as Dave! ACTION: fix that!

Done. Note to self, I had to change my password, and it's now longer than it used to be.

I now know how to highlight and to add comments. To add text, I need the paid version. ACTION look into that?

 Plans start at £13.14/mo incl. VAT.

Voice notes? Not usually my preferred method, but..  "there are free software packages available on the Internet. A good example is Audacity, which offers the tools for recording and editing your material." https://www.audacityteam.org/  ACTION: find it, test it.
It comes from "Muse Hub" and looks like a very complete program! Will it do a quick voice note? Or would I be better using Google on my phone?

It'll do a quick WAV and "export" it to my OU files area. Good enough.

A good page on notes for languages, mainly about sounds. Since all I plan on doing here is Latin and Ancient Greek, that probably won't be relevant, but might help if I start taking DuoLingo more seriously.
https://help.open.ac.uk/notetaking-techniques/taking-notes-for-languages-students

Overall, not much there I didn't already know, but some tools to look up.

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In kitchen, no specs

Talk on reference managers

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Edited by Jane Williams, Thursday, 19 Sept 2024, 15:52

This might be a good place to keep my notes?

That was yesterday evening. Quite a few possible tools were mentioned, but I'm only looking at the freebies.

https://www5.open.ac.uk/library/referencing-and-plagiarism/bibliographic-management

Here's the  tool I'm thinking of using

https://service.elsevier.com/app/home/supporthub/mendeley/

ACTION: join, investigate



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