Hello World!

Welcome to my first blog entry! I'm certain that you'll all have had enough of reading blogs, and according to Matthew Parris (PM Programme, Radio 4, Tuesday 6th Jan, 2009), one should record in their diaries not emotions but events - no one wants to know that I've had a good day!

There are two aims to writing this blog: To do my best in this module, and to hopefully continue the blog throughout the course. The initial five posts - for the benefit of those not reading from Bedford College - are to document my progress of learning throughout the first semester.

Ten years ago, immediately after completing my A Levels in Maths, Physics, Theatre Studies and Buttering Toast, I gained a degree in Theatre Design, Technology, Beer and Women, and therefore stepped from one educational establishment to another, because it was "expected" that I would get a degree.

I've met many fab people and have learned loads so far on the Foundation Programme, on many different levels. Undertaking this part time degree challenges me whilst offering a supporting framework that wasn't offered with the Open University modules I'd previously passed (and the one I'd failed!)

Working in a School means I'm surrounded by students, teachers and learning all day, and given a choice, I'd have it no other way. It is a very different world not being "forced" through education, and the decision of choosing to study and better myself is a satisfying one. "Better myself, honey, when you're from Skid Row [there] ain't no such thing!" (The Little Shop of Horrors, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, 1986).

So far, the degree has been split into three units: Networking, Entity Relationship Modelling (ERM) and Oracle Databases, and Personal Professional and Academic Development, to which these posts are contributing. I'm a Network Manager, who can't manage a network(!) and the combination of finding out the "right" way to do things, and the reinforcement of my existing skills has meant that I'm thoroughly enjoying the course.

The networking (NW) unit is paradoxically both harder and easier than the Databases (DB) unit for contrasting reasons: The networking concepts are familiar to me, but with this familiarity comes complacency, and I feel I have to try harder to make sure I understand the whole topic, and don't just rely on my instinct and experiences. The ERM content is completely new to me, and I find that I'm concentrating much harder to understand the new concepts; the SQL side, however, is at a level that I understand through experience already. It is always "nice" (don't use "nice",) satisfying when something "clicks" though, and all of the DB side, so far, has done just that.

This "learning" thing is curious: Unlike at School when I wanted to just pass so I could get to whatever stage was next, the choice to spend two evenings a week (plus the prep!) for the next three years doesn't feel like a burden. Getting back into completing regular progress tests, writing for these blog posts and for my personal statement and "ploughing through it" is now an opportunity, not a necessity. Of course, the butterflies before exams, and the wee-small-hours completing course work don't change!

I've learnt how to learn again. How to focus, how to hold my tongue and let others speak, how to speak up, how to offer assistance, how to take notes! (Well, not the last bit!) I've learnt the arcane documentation style of entity relationship modelling. I've learnt how to subnet correctly and how to encrypt a password on a Cisco Router (sssshh! - it's a secret!) and I've learnt how fully reading the question on multiple choice papers always helps, but I'll probably still not read some of them correctly...

Many things appear to have gone well so far: My NW scores are all above 75% (some even at 100%) and my ERM model was also good, even if archaeological discoveries apparently now have email addresses(!)

On the flip side, I think I should/could have read more around all three subjects, and not float between sessions as I did earlier on: Everyone has work and family pressures, and I'm no exception - this doesn't change that to do better-than-well requires more time and effort from me.

Anyway, one should never end on a bad note, and so on a positive spin, I'm looking forward to handing in my database work, hopefully to be finished this weekend, and to finishing the chapter 11 Cisco test and revising for the Exam next week - watch this space to see if my optimism is misplaced!

A.