Sunday, January 24, 2010

Spies in the wire

Faroon asked me yesterday about the T175 course that I am doing, and seeing as that is mostly what I have been doing today, I shall oblige.

The full title for the course is T175 - Networked living: exploring information and communication technologies which is a bit of a mouthful, but actually quite a concise summary of the contents. In contrast to the M150 - Computing course that I am also doing, this course focuses more on the social impact of ICT systems. Not just the internet, although that is a major area, but things like how electronic news gathering has changed the way we hear about what is going on in the world, games and entertainment media and also privacy issues raised by things like omnipresent RFID tags in things.

It's a level one course, so some of the material is about learning how to learn. This is things like analyzing academic papers, writing summaries and reports and the bane of my life, correct referencing for quotations. The course material is a mix of books, material on DVD and online activities, including discussions on the OU tutor group forums and one real-time chat. That has been a little bit frustrating, trying to get some of the other students in the group to participate, but there are enough people joining in to make it worthwhile.

If you have the time and the inclination, I'd recommend OU study to anybody.

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