Personal Blogs

I haven't been posting here much because it seems that nobody reads it, not even me. But this is something I want to post somewhere, and it may as well start here, possibly getting shared later.

I'm up to Block 3, unit 3, "3.6 Finding and using web-based evidence". It starts by asking us to think about the sources we've used so far. And then it says "As a student, you trust that this module presents you with reliable source materials...."

What????? No, of course I don't! Never even occurred to me that I was supposed to! Good grief, we were beyond that before we left school!

Last night I was teaching "Cookery through the ages" and looking through the quiz for the previous week,whcih was all about sources of evidence and how far we should trust them. 

6) Which of these is a completely reliable source of information, free of all mistakes?

It's been a week full of interruptions, but now, Friday afternoon/evening, I'm doing most of the unit (in between naps).

Note to self on learning - if I'm asked what techniques I can spot, and I can't spot any, that may be because the whole point is that they aren't there! And if they were, and I only saw them once pointed out, good, I'm learning! Don't spend too long looking.

Lots of interesting things, some disabilities and conditions I'd neve heard of before and assorted bits of good advice. I'm a bit doped out, but every time someone recommended a link to something, I opened it in case it was useful,, and I now have a lot of open tabs. Which I will now copy in here and look at later.

https://help.open.ac.uk/making-the-most-of-your-learning-style

https://bionic-reading.com/

https://studenthublive.open.ac.uk/content/tackling-procrastination-successfully-23-april-2024?nocache=673f5f5ac870e

https://www.rnib.org.uk/living-with-sight-loss/independent-living/reading-and-books/daisy-guide/

https://habitica.com/static/home

https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/

https://goblin.tools/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2113850/Spirit_City_Lofi_Sessions/

I was a bit late finishing unit 4 (should have been over on Friday, but I ended up doing the last part today, Saturday). It had mind maps in it. I have confirmed that I do not like mindmaps, and that my handwriting is just as illegible as I'd thought. One part included asking someone else what they thought of two poems I'd just analysed, and the husband says "well, that’s five minutes of my life I won’t get back. What’s the point? What are they for?"

Which I partially agree with...  "How do I love thee?" spends far too long woffling on about religion.

Unit 5 is where we start looking at structure: metre, rhyme, things like that, It seems that the only metre we'll be looking at is Iambic Perntameter. My old friend.... so as an Example to put in my Glossary, I've used the only bit I ever wrote.

The stress must go on every other beat
“Pen-ta-me-ter” should mean I have five feet
I am iambic, that is what I am
In rhyming couplets, roughly, if I can

This is all about poetry, and just the first part reminded me just how much I enjoy it and how many of the classics I've read. I don't know the formal analysis methods (yet), but I've read it, written it, parodied it.

Today, Sunday, on to the second part (and more, pehaps)

Must try not to dive down too many rabbit holes. Yesterday's re-read of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Sir Patrik Spens was quite bad enough. 

And now I remember, let me look those up in the OU library. Yes, the Rime, several versions, and some analysis of it. One of the copies I could download has other poems in there as well, including Kubla Khan, and that's one I was trying to remember, too. In both cases a lot of my reaction is still "what was he on?"

One of the articles makes me wonder something similar. "This article reads Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" of 1798 as a visionary speculation on the ground-breaking technologies of its time-the steam engine and early experiments with steamboats.."

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.

I now know more about Dorothy Parker than I did (greater than zero is not hard) and intend to read more of her work. The comparison that comes to mind is that she's like an American version of Martial. And the fact that I make the comparison that way round says a lot about the lop-sided state of my education.

"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.

I intended to start this today (Saturday) assuming I wasn't too tired after teaching CS A-level. My pupil cancelled, so...

But I have an email from the WEA, accepting ALL the possible talks I was offering. I just need to do overview and description for the seven new ones. (And eventually write the slides and handouts). So that's a total of 2000 or so words of advertising blurb. OK, that's this afternoon, then.

Edit: done by 18:00.

Why was I worrying about the writing for the TMA again?

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....

A couple of rather "bleurgh" days. Good job I'm well ahead of the timetable, I've got very little constructive done.

I've looked at Unit 2 and done the Plan - that was some enjoyable time with Excel macros working out how best to C&P the list of sections and duration.

Thursday morning, a talk at 11:00 (which I  only just woke up for)

"Stepping up from Access to Level 1 (Mixed faculty) "

https://studenthublive.open.ac.uk/content/stepping-access-level-1-mixed-faculty-17-oct-2024

Some recommended links, which I've investigated since to find they're less useful than I'd hoped.

A demo of note-taking, how not to, from a participant who was trying to copy all the text on the slides (which are provided) by re-typing. I suggested a quick screenshot and drop to a Word doc, but I don't think she got it.

All very straightforward. He phoned at exactly the specified time. He'd looked through the "activity 4" I'd sent him, sees no problems.

Time spent on things, energy needed - he reckons the test of if I can cope with 5 hours study is unecessary, nobody would ever do that. I compared to a 7-hour normal working day - no comment.

Those times when I wonder what the question is about, it seems they're testing my ability to express myself in English, and to look a little deeper than "yeah, pretty picture". 

Talking about time avaiable, and how I will have less of it next term, and have sent him the link to the online Cookery course.

I'd said I should do a Plan before I started: and section 1.1 is to make the plan! Done!

1.2 will take 2 hours, starting with a video. All about those banners again (squee!)
It's now 17:30 and Dave is back,  so not a good time to start that. I'll just note tjhat  I'm on page 44, and here's the video: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2384419&section=1.2.1