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Christopher Douce

A335 Journal - January 2026

Friday 30 January 2026 at 10:05
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Edited by Christopher Douce, Friday 30 January 2026 at 10:05

3 January 2026

Happy new year!

My previous TMA result has finally come in. I’ve had a look through the comments, and they are helpful. The big takeaway point is to work harder to integrate everything together – secondary sources, the text that is the focus of the analysis, and my opinions about everything. Also, it is important to make my opinions clear – do I agree or disagree with other critics? All this is good academic practice which I was never formally taught in my study of computing. With this in mind, I do feel as if I’m getting some useful additional academic training from studying English.

I’m looking forward to the next TMA. Over the winter break, I had a short break of a couple of days. During that time, I managed to choose and then read three articles for next TMA. When I got back, I’ve had a go to summarise them for when the TMA 3 discussion forum opens. What I need to do is to go through my chosen set text with a fine toothed comb, whilst thinking about the main essay question.

I managed to get a bit of extra ‘study’ done first thing this morning. Whilst lying in bed, I listed to a podcast by Emma Smith, a fabulous Shakespeare scholar from Oxford University I thought there might be a connection between a topic she raised and the forthcoming EMA question. Without too much messing about, I managed to track down the source, which I’ve now sent to my Kindle.

My final action of this morning is to eyeball the TMA 4 question, which is due in April. I have two immediate thoughts. The first is that it appears to be quite open, i.e. for a couple of the options we get to choose our own texts (if we wish to do so). The second is that there’s a group of texts that I’ve not yet read. I need to restart reading Salih and then move onto Calvino, but I’m a bit intimidated by its length. I have, however, booked time off in leave for the beginning of March, so I might be okay.

5 January 2026

I tried to download a version of the Salih text, but it isn’t available on the Kindle, so I downloaded a copy of Cosmicomics. I have a paper version, but I don’t have it with me at the moment. I don’t like it. I’m nearly through the first 12 stories. I’m not, yet, at the point of wanting to throw it across the room (which I wanted to do with a Woolf text), but I’m not too far from it. I appreciate what it’s trying to do, but from my reading, I don’t think it works. It feels overly contrived. This is the extent of my literary analysis.

The TMA 3 wiki should open soon. I’ve asked my tutor a question, and has kindly responded. My next task is to read over what I’ve prepared and then post my text to the collaborative area. I then have a couple of weeks until I need to put my thoughts in order for the penultimate TMA. In the meantime, my day job is going to dominate.

This is my first day back. I think I need another holiday.

13 January 2026

My contribution to the collaborative literature review has been done. I’m quite pleased when what I managed to put together.

Over the last week or so I’ve been jumping around between different texts. I’ve abandoned Cosmicomics. I really don’t like it. This said, I have got part way through an audiobook version of Between the Acts, which isn’t as bad as I remembered. I got through a few chapters whilst on a long drive. I’ll try to start it again when I have another long drive in a couple of weeks.

After seeing a fabulous play, I was inspired to read Stuff Happens by Hare, another of our set texts. I tore through it in under a day and found it thoroughly enjoyable. Given all the current political insanity, it came across as being unexpectedly quaint.

I’ve just finished listening to a cluster tutorial that was about another drama, The Playboy of the Western World. The tutor was fabulous, and packed in a whole lot of detail that either had passed me by, or I hadn’t known about. I might well go back and give it another listen. We were also given a link to a video recording of the play which I’m going to watch. I’ve already listened to an audio recording of it, which I found through Drama Online, but I haven’t (yet) got the entire sense of the play. I’ll really know what is what when I get to see it at The National at the end of next month – I just wish that I had booked in to see it earlier.

My next steps: I’ve downloaded another secondary source – a paper about modernism, and The Aran Islands by Synge and have sent these to my Kindle. I’m going to take myself off to a coffee shop, get out my virtual highlighter, and perform the role of an English student. (I would enjoy it more if I wasn’t so stressed about editing and writing materials for my day job!)

14 January 2026

I’ve started the modernism paper, but I got distracted. I recently found a copy of Reading and Criticism by Raymond Williams, published in 1955. Williams is mentioned in the module materials.

I have about 3 chapters to go: a chapter on reading drama, a chapter on bringing criticism all together, and a chapter about the role of literature in society. I read one first thing this morning. I’m hoping to get another one read by the end of the day.

16 January 2026

I’ve been to a few more tutorials. I was at the guest lecture about Ford last night, and ended up getting a bit confused. A lot of words were used. Just when I think I’m ‘getting’ modernism, a whole bunch of other ideas about it are thrown my way. I now have the job of picking through them all, and figuring out how the relate to my chosen text.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of papers from a Cambridge Companion, and have downloaded a couple of papers recommended by students. What I’ve got to do now is to read (and understand) everything, which is a whole lot easier said than done.

I keep thinking about the final TMA. I would like to pair Rhys with another text. That text must have been published between the years of 1932 and 1946, but I have no idea which text to choose. I have, however, found two useful resources (albeit a resource that is also trying to sell us books). Both are lists from Penguin. The first is 20 books that defined the 1930s. The second is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Books that shaped the 1940s. There are quite a few I’ve not heard of, and there are quite a few that I fancy reading. I’m sure we’ll be offered quite a bit of guidance when it comes to TMA 4.

19 January 2026

I think I’ve decided what to pair the Rhys text with (spoiler alert: it isn’t Woolf). I’ve ordered a cheap second hand copy of my chosen text from a popular second hand marketplace. If I hate the text, I have a lot of time to choose something else. I hope to have a good look at it next week.

I’m continuing with my reading of criticism of The Playboy of the Western World. To try to make more sense of it, I managed to spend a couple of hours watching something called the Druid production. I watched it whilst reading the Project Gutenberg edition on my Kindle whilst making the occasional set of notes. I now have a lot more of a sense of the play. It is a curious piece. It is completely over the top, and patently ridiculous, but I quite like it.

I have two other things to do. Look up both Synge and modernism in two reference books I have at home. There’s also a tutorial about Synge this evening. I’ll then consolidate my secondary reading. I should be able to start writing either at the end of this week, or the start of next week.

Something else. My tutor has shared an additional resource which relates to modernism and a bit of the forthcoming TMA. I’ve downloaded it and have sent it to my Kindle.

There’s always more stuff to read.

22 January 2026

I’m very nearly ready to get stuck in with my essay. I thought I would have a good old go at it this morning. Before I got cracking, I noticed that a tutor had shared some slides from their Synge tutorial. I downloaded them, opened them, and had a quick browse through. I don’t (yet) think my critical eye is as refined as it could be. I need to sit down with the text, and the PowerPoint slides, and go through them both carefully.

Whilst on a break, I jumped ahead to a bit of the final TMA; I started to re-read the opening of Good morning, Midnight. I really like this text. In the same morning, I received delivery of a text that I think I might pair it with. I’ll have to see if it’ll work.

Here’s my plan: quickly review the additional resource (which I said I would do) that tutors have been sharing, eyeball all the critical articles I’ve downloaded, and then start to pick apart passages from Playboy.

27 January 2026

This TMA 3 essay is doing my head in. I’m finding it really slippery. I’ve finished making loads of notes, but I’m worried that in the process of trying to distil everything down, my chosen argument might be way too complicated. There is a simple reason for this: the more that I have read, the more I see the different ways that the play can be understood. I have some thoughts about the passages that I’ve chosen, but I feel I need to write them down to see if they may any sense. I’m at a point where I feel I need to get this done.

I also feel as if I’m at a similar point in the module as I was last year with A334 - feeling a bit tired and confused. I’ll be really glad when this one is out of the way. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with all the sources I’ve tried to make sense of.

30 January 2026

My TMA has gone in. I think it is as best as it can be. It has gone in way early, simply because I need to manage my workload.

Last night I started to listen to the Rhys audio materials, which I really liked and finished listening to them this morning. I tried to find a recording of the BBC radio play that was mentioned. I wasn’t successful, but I did find a radio programme about Good Morning, Midnight by comedian Josie Long. Her episode of The Exploding Library is really worth a listen. I even found a few minutes to look in the library, and have already downloaded a couple of critical articles which might be useful later. My next step is to go back to re-reading Good Morning, Midnight.

Tags: A335, a335, English literature, english literature, Jean Rhys, Synge, drama
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Christopher Douce

Inclusive Digital Economy Network event

Monday 9 March 2009 at 09:27
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Edited by Christopher Douce, Wednesday 28 June 2023 at 10:28

I recently attended an event that was hosted by the Inclusive Digital Economy Network.  The network, led by the University of Dundee, comprises of a variety of groups who wish to collectively ensure that people are able to take advantage of digital technologies.

The event was led by Prof Alan Newell from Dundee.  Alan gracefully introduced a number of keynote speakers; the vice-chancellor from City University, the dean of Arts and Social Sciences and representatives from the government and the funding body: the EPSRC.

Drama

One really interesting part of the day was the use of 'theatre' to clearly illustrate the difficulties that some people can have when using information technology.  I had heard about the use of drama when I have spoken to people from Dundee before but this was the first time I was able to witness it.  In fact, I soon found out that I was going to witness a film premiere!

After the final credits had appeared, I was surprised to discover that two of the actors who played central roles in the film were in the audience.  The film was not the end of the ‘theatre’ event, it was the beginning.  The actors carried out an improvisation (using questions from the audience) that was based upon the roles we had been introduce to through the film.

The notion of drama and computing initially seemed to me to be a challenging combination, but any scepticism that had very quickly dissipated once the connections between the two areas became plainly apparently.  Drama and theatre relies on characters.  Computer systems and technologies are ultimately used by people.  The frustrations that people encounter when they are using computer systems manifest themselves in personal (and collective) dramas that might be as small as uttering the occasional expletive when your machine doesn't do what it supposed to do, to calling up a call centre to harass an equally confused call centre operative.

The lessons of the 'computing' or 'user' theatre were clear to see: the users should be placed centre stage when we think about the design of information systems.  They may understand things in ways that designers of systems may not have imagined.  A design metaphor that might make complete sense to an architect may seem to be completely nonsensical to an end user who has a totally different outlook and background.  Interaction design tools such as creating end user personas are powerful tools that can expose differences and help to create more usable systems.

Debates

I remember a couple of important (and interesting) themes from the day.  One theme (that was apparent to me) was occasional debate about the necessity to ensure that users are involved with the design of systems from the outset to ensure that any resulting products and systems are inclusive (user led design).  This connected to a call to 'keep the geeks from designing things'.  In my view, users must be involved with the creation of interactive systems, but the 'geeks' must be included too.  The reasons for this being that the geeks may imagine functionality that the users might not be aware exits.  This argument underlines the interdisciplinary nature of interaction design (wikipedia).

Much of the focus of the day was about how technology can support elderly people; how to create technologies and pedagogies that can promote digital inclusion.  Towards the end of the day there was a panel discussion from representatives from Help the Aged, a UK government organisation called the Technology Strategy Board, the BBC, OFCOM and the University of York.

Another them that I remember relates to the cost of both computing and assistive technologies.  There was some discussion about the possibility of integrating internet access within set top boxes (and a couple of comments relating to the Digital Britain report that was recently published by the UK government).  There was also some discussion about the importance of universal design (wikipedia) and tensions with personalised design (which connects to some of the themes underpinning the EU4ALL project).

Another recollection from the event was that some presenters stated that although there is much excellent work happening within the academic community (and within other organisations) some of the lessons learnt from research are often not taken forward into policy or practice.  This said, it may be necessary to take the recommendations from a number of different research projects to obtain a rich and complete understanding of a field before fully understanding how policy might be positively influenced.  The challenge is not only combining and understanding the results from different projects, but communicating the results.

Summary

Projects such as the Inclusive Digital Economy Network, from my outsiders perspective, attempt to bridge the gaps between different stakeholders and facilitate a free exchange of ideas and experiences that may point towards areas of investigation that can allow us learn more how digital technologies can make a difference to us all.

Acknowledgements: many thanks are extended to the organisers of the event – an interesting day!

Tags: usability, eu4all, accessibility, drama
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