OU blog

Personal Blogs

Michael Gumbrell

oh yes, where was i?

Visible to anyone in the world

Thank you to everyone who commented on my moany/ quitting/ why bother post from March....

I have not bothered to blog since then, such was the depth of my disenchantment.

Just stuck to the study planner, kept my head down and got the course materials completed.

Completed they are now, all TMA's submitted and marked, just the exam to do....

Made a decision for next year, after being so frustrated/ bored/ wound up/ pissed off by the last two years, I decided I may as well plough on, after all,

 I am in for a penny, so why not be in for a pound?

Although my student loan balance statement came through this week, so it is more like...

In for £11,000, so why not be in for £18,000.....

Heart stopping isn't it... £ 18,000.....

I have decide to do DD316 for my next module, it is a brand new course, came out this year, and it's set book is George Orwell's 1984.

I thought that after hating philosophy and economics so much, I would do Politics next year as I have enjoyed all my politics modules.


That leaves me with Hobson's choice for my final year, Philosophy or Economics?


At the moment I think I would find a final year of Philosophy tolerable, Economics not so.

That decision is still ongoing, T+C's apply, actual decision may not match promotional material, may not be available in you area, model shown is a May 2018 model.


We will see,

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Children Studying

Visible to anyone in the world

Looking forward to next Saturday.. it is open day at the university of Portsmouth.

Taking number one son to the open day, he is down to start Politics and international relations in September.

I had a look at the course modules... looks very interesting.

He can extend to 4 years and do a one year placement between year 2 and 3... the university has some excellent placement options.

Number one son is very lucky..looks like an excellent course.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Tma 5

Visible to anyone in the world

Tma 5 was done and sent.

One more block 'political philosophy' and the exam to do and thats #bloodya222 done and dusted.

By that point i will be exactly half way through my degree, by moving into the economics module and waiting to see how the new vice-vice-chancallor deals with the challenges facing the OU.

But most important of all..  i will not have to go near another philosophy module..happy days. 

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Not the only undergraduate in the house

Visible to anyone in the world

Hopefully by the time i put #bloodya222 behind me, i will not be the only undergraduate in the house.

My oldest got his ucas application back yesterday.

He has a provisional place at the University of Portsmouth to read Politics and internstional relations.

So that is good news. All he hss to do now is make sure he gets the correct a level grades.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Politics, philosophy and economics

Visible to anyone in the world

On the pathway for a Politics, Philosophy and Economics degree, the last two modules are a free choice.

You can only study two of the three subjects in the last two modules.

At the moment i can quite happily say that philosophy will be my dtopped subject.

I wonder if i will still feel that way after i have slogged my way through this module?

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Politics of Spain

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Michael Gumbrell, Sunday, 1 Oct 2017, 11:40

Such a serious situation in Spain at the moment.

Spain as we know it has only really exsisted since 1974. Just 43 years and now it faces instability and police ( and not the police from the region- police shipped in from outside the region) firing on its own people.

The central spanish government are on a hiding to nothing from here on in.

How much damage will it cause to a country still struggling with high unemployment, low growth and debt repayment?

So today we see a couple of political theories being put into sharp practice.

Politics as violence

And

The legitimste use of force by a central government against its citizens.

I wonder how much more pressure from, the Catalonia country trying to become the country of Catalonia, can the central spanish government can stand?.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Some social science pictures from berlin

Visible to anyone in the world

I have some more pictures from our berlin trip to share, so I thought I would bundle them up here, with how they relevant to the key themes and idea's discussed in my Politics, Economics and Philosophy course...

Marx, the political and economic philosopher, and his backer, Engels.

The Reichstag, power, sovereignty, Legitimate use of violence.

The Berlin Wall, boundaries, international relations, globalisation

Wearing an old soviet republic t-shirt outside the rebranded Russian federation embassy.

International relations,

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Centrism

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the link to my latest specialistgeneralist.net blog:

https://thespecialistgeneralist.net/2017/05/21/centrists/

The blog deals with the current general election and a fledgling political party in the U.K which hopes to offer a Centrist alternative to the political agenda in the U.K

I hope you follow the links to the Centrist UK page and have a look through their materials.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

getting on with revision

Visible to anyone in the world

So I bundled all my flashcards up by block and published them on my blog:

www.thespecialistgeneralist.net

I included some other musing about the relationship between states and globalisation and Weber theory on the 'legitimate use of violence'

Now I really must motivate to revise from the module books...


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

snap election word bingo card

Visible to anyone in the world

I made this for the local micro news site I volunteer for,

The 2017 snap election word bingo card...

What's your score?


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Thats it for the flash cards

Visible to anyone in the world

I am calling it quits now with the flash cards.

Time to move on to revising the module books this weekend and the website modules after that.

I hope that my fellow students who i shared the flssh cards with found them in some way useful.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Block 5 flsh card 4 transnationalism versus suprainternationalism

Visible to anyone in the world

is it transnational or suprainternational?

You decide... with the help of this flash card for block 5, globalisation.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

block 5 flash card 3 international relations with a thunderbirds theme

Visible to anyone in the world

I think I only have 2 more flash cards to do, then I will just get on with revising from the module books. It might be well time to move on, I gave this latest flash card a thunderbirds theme because it looks at International Relations. My focus might be starting to slip, only two more to go though.....


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

block 5 flash card 2

Visible to anyone in the world

now for the second flash card about globalisation.


Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, 18:48)
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Final Lijphart flashcard: leadership

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is my final flash card for DD211 block 4, this one deals with leadership within lijphart defined liberal democracies.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Lukes and Lijphart

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the flash card that ties Lukes (block 2) with Lijphart ( block 4)


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Creating the infographics for revision.

Visible to anyone in the world

I am really enjoying making the infographics for revision. For me it is a good revision tool, I am able to produce them without referring from the module materials, I only check what I have produce against the module materials to correct what I have produce, so I must be retaining the info quite well.

I am about half way through producing the flash cards, I have 2 more to do for block 4, Lijphart's model of liberal democracies. Then I will move onto 4 cards about globalisation.

That should mean I can take sound knowledge of 4 of the 5 blocks into the exam, and then once there, I can decide on the structure and themes of my short and long answers, depending on my confidence in producing short and long answers to each block themes.

Well that is the plan anyway.......

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Lijpharts model applied to the UK and US systems

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the infographic that applies Lijpharts model of liberal democracies to the UK and US democratic systems.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Lijphart continued

Visible to anyone in the world

Slide 2 for block 4 lijphart flashcards


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Lijphart

Visible to anyone in the world

Onto Block4 of DD211 now, revision on Lijpharts models of liberal democracies.

Here is the first flash card, an overview on Lijpharts themes.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Ideology of Liberalism

Visible to anyone in the world

Ideology of Liberalism. it has a spelling mistake, Liberals usE not liberals us the above. also i am stopping here with ideology, i would only ever carry it forward to the exam as a short answer. i don't have time to do each ideology in relation to welfare, nor make a infographic for feminism or environmentalism. I am moving onto Lipjhart and his modules of Liberal democracies next. so sorry Simon Banks van Zyl but it's 4 flash cards only for ideology.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Ideology: Conservatism

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the flash card for the Conservative ideology, what I made, ideologies on welfare not included...


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Ideology: Socialism

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the flash card for the ideology of socialism (excluding the ideology of welfare).


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Block 3 revision infographics

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the ideology flash card infographic for block 3: Ideology.

Again, just making this was a great revision activity.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Block 2 revision infographics.

Visible to anyone in the world

those of you who follow my blog will know I am a big fan of infographics.

I decided to produce some for my revision study of DD211.

so I have posted them here, if any one is interested, I would be very proud if any one else used them in their own revision program.

Just producing them was a very good revision activity.

Lets start with Block 2: Political concepts.

Freedom:

Equality

Power

I found it very useful to produce these, a act of revision in itself.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Monday, 8 May 2017, 17:25)
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: 516629