NeonBlue Dreams
Getting back down to it

in all that time, all the courses I’ve done have had some element of reflective learning in. Teacher training years ago, keep a “learning log” which later morphed into an assignment question. Do practically all of a psychology degree and you’re forever analysing motives and reflecting on something or other. Web Apps certificate, and again you’re using those ubiquitous “study skills”. I can see the value of it if you’re new to university level study, and I appreciate that many students might be doing this sort of thing for the first time, but I’ve had “study skills” and “reflective learning” drummed into me for the last fifteen years, and to be honest, I’m not getting that much out of it now.

T175 seems to have this obsession with the whole “study skills” and “reflective learning” thing though. Take the next TMA (please!) and the first question is looking at your tutor’s comments on the first TMA and considering why you found it helpful and how it will affect what you do in this next TMA – and that little lot’s worth 10% of the marks!

My tutor’s comment on my first TMA overall on the course was, “An excellent start – well done. Drop me a line if you have any questions.” The most detailed of the more detailed ones on the actual paper was, “It is possible to download the course material prior to the study period and then view it offline. This may help you at the time you are ‘laid up’” (in response to my concerns that if I ended up in hospital during the course of the course it could mess up the bits that are done online). Duh! Like I’d not figured out I can print stuff and what a “download” button does! How am I supposed to find something constructive worth 10 marks to say about that? (Don’t answer that by the way, or at least not until after 24th April, as otherwise if I include your suggestion in my answer I could be accused of plagiarism ).

So, the plan for tonight after some tea is to complete the online course forum discussion bit of the TMA question for the T175 TMA, even though that’s the last one due in, as the “online tutorial” discussion of the TMA question’s subject only goes on until Tuesday, so I’d better join in I guess before it’s too late. Probably two days spent debating the finer points of fiction at this point in the plot wasn’t entirely such a good idea as I’ve now got only just over a week to catch up on the M150 reading now and two TMAs to write (though I still maintain that those analytical skills will most probably come in useful for the TMA) but when the Bliss-state strikes, it’s difficult to get out of that mindset, and as they say, “All work and no play…”

The three hours we spent yesterday scouring the web for cowboy hat earrings though is a little more difficult to justify in the current situation, and I can find no academic value in that at all, apart from maybe an investigation of different styles of websites, but that’s just Bliss being Bliss. The main priority now’s got to be getting back down to it and getting them damned TMAs done, although having said that, my most pressing priority at this second is, I think, is to go getting me something for tea!

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