Education - 'tis a wonderful thing!

Well, that's just about that!

After nine months sweat and toil, it's almost over! S104: Exploring Science, is all but over with only the 25 question computer marked assignment left to do. Astonishingly, I achieved a whopping 97% in my final tutor marked assignment, which means that if I manage to get 85% on my End of Course Assessment, I will be awarded a 'distinction'!!!

When I started out on this journey nine months ago, the goals were merely to see if I was up to study again after donkeys years of nothing, learn a bit and see if I can pass an Open University course - nothing more than that really. With all that has gone on domestically since the turn of the year, it's frankly astonishing that I have even a sniff of a distinction. There have been times when I even considered, albeit briefly, to throw the towel in. With so much going on around me, to then sit down and try to grapple with Quantum Physics, was a 'big ask' as Mark Lawrenson would say!

But this course has given me so much that I never even considered beforehand. I now find myself routinely reading the BBC Science web pages, NASA's Mars mission pages and countless others to feed my almost unquenchable thirst for knowledge. But to have this thirst at the ripe old age of 49 is kind of interesting. I can never remember ever having had such an enthusiasm for learning all those years ago in school. Not even in college either! I'm left thinking that maybe one needs to 'live life' a bit, experience the repetitive dullness of employment, before one realises what is truly exciting and stimulating in life. In that sense, education is rather lost on the young. School and indeed further education seems geared to getting 'a job' at the end of it, without thinking beyond that.

Well folks, listen up! THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN GETTING TO THE TOP OF THE CORPORATE LADDER!

There, I've said it! Tar 'n feather me if you like, but that's what I feel. I can assure you, when I get my Geology degree, I won't be seeking employment with another consulting engineers, to resume that climb up the ladder again (not that I ever got above the second rung previously!). Nope, of more interest to me is research. As I've already said, if I can make some contribution, however small to the multitude of questions, asking how Grand Canyon came to be the way it is, I will die a happy man! If I can write a geology book like Wayne Ranney's, that make this wonderful subject understandable to the interested layman I will be very proud indeed!

That's got to be preferable to meaningless staff appraisals, 'taking ownership of your deliverables' and endless corporate 'tosh' surely?

Each to their own, I guess.

Until next time!

Cheers,
Alyn

End of Course Asssessment looming!

Greetings Folks!
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So, the pressure mounts! The deadline for the S104, Exploring Science, end of course assessment is 28th of May! It's a HUGE piece of work and I have to say, I am not at all impressed with the Open University's choice of cut off date! They say we should post off our work at least 4 days before the deadline. Well, that just happens to be a Bank Holiday, so there is no postal service that day! The day before that is a Sunday, so there's no postal service then either! So I will have to look at getting it posted on Saturday 23rd at the latest. However, I'm going to be away for the weekend, so that means I'll need to have everything done and dusted by the end of next Thursday night! Arrrrrrgggghhh!!???!!!

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Anyway, that aside, it's going reasonably well so far and I think I'm on schedule to finish it in time. Just about!?! Progress was hampered by the OU's insistence on including an exercise that requires online discussions and contributions to the course forum. This involves online research and also needs the cooperation and efforts of all your fellow students to spark an online debate! Well, having to rely on ones online colleagues was never going to be that straight forward and the 'debate' has been virtually non-existant. Only 7 people have contributed anything at all, out of about 15 who started the couse in our group! That suggests either a major drop out rate or some students simply sacrificing a few marks in favour of getting on with the rest of the questions without this ill conceived hassle interrupting their flow! Maybe a wise choice, I'm beginning to think!?!
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AND, I've still not received my mark for my final tutor marked assignment, so I don't know at this stage what my final mark is for my course work. My tutor has been pretty excellent thorughout the whole course, taking over at short notice after our original Canadian tutor failed to get her work permit renewed and consequently got shown the door. I've already passed the course work anyway, so it's not that important I guess.
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Oh blimey, somebody stop me moaning! That's something my wife and I are doing way, WAY too much at the moment, but I guess that's just a sign of the stress we are under right now! There's got to be an outlet somehow!
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So tomorrow, Ruth and I are going to have a bit of stress relief by going to watch our beloved Bolton Wanderers play Hull City at the Reebok Stadium in what is the final home match of the Premier League season! It's a bit of an 'end of season' affair with nothing at stake for the Wanderers, but poor old Hull are hanging by a thread to their Premier League status! Should be fun!
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Before I go, take a look at this photo from the BBC Science web site which blew my mind this week!

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Taken by Hubble telescope, it shows a huge cluster of galaxies some 13 billion light years away! S104 has made me think a lot about the sheer scale of the universe and bearing in mind the vastness of our own galaxy, to then consider a whole cluster of galaxies as shown here, just goes to highlight the almost unfathomable immensity of the universe! When I finish my course, I'll have lots more time to talk about this stuff in more detail!
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Better get on - I've got an assessment to finish!
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Cheers for now!
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Alyn

Hanging in there!

Greetings folks!

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Apologies for the deadly silence over the last few weeks! It's not that there hasn't been anything to blog about recently - far from it! But it has been a frantically busy, and extremely stressful time, not just for me, but all of my family too in so many ways. Where do I begin?

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Well as you know, as it stands I am living in our home of five years in Bolton, in the north west of England with our eldest daughter Anna-Ruth who is now in the midst of her GCSE exams. So Anna has a whole heap of stress to cope with and thankfully, so far, she's taking it all in her stride. Meanwhile, my darling wife Ruth and our youngest daughter Aimee Claire, have moved to Loughborough, in the East Midlands. Aimee has settled in superbly to her new school while Ruth gradually gets to grips with her new role in Nottingham Trent University.

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Starting a new job is tricky enough, but with the family split up from Sunday evening until Friday evening each week it obviously means that for Ruth, all the family childcare duties such as taking Aimee to Guides/trampolining/guitar lessons etc etc falls completely in her lap. Ruths mum and dad chip in of course with the school run and stuff like that, but it all leaves Ruth with precious little time to 'chill' or do anything for herself. It's all taking its toll which is heart breaking for me and I feel so helpless, being over 100 miles away!

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So it all makes our weekends so precious. Either I travel down to Loughborough or Ruth travels up to Bolton, which naturally costs a fortune in petrol at a time when our finances are stretched while trying to run two homes, albeit temporarily! And then there is the problem of employment! Ruth has obviously started her new job, but I now need to find an alternative position for myself by mid June. Encouragingly, I've been getting positive vibes from my current employers about the possibility of a transfer to one of its other offices in the East Midlands - either Nottingham or Derby. So hopefully something will come of that and give me one less thing to worry about.

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Now, just for a laugh, throw into the mix the small matter of me trying to finish my Open University science foundation course! I have now done all the computer marked and tutor marked assignments and averaged at about 83%. Only one blip of 60% has scuppered the chance of a distinction! So given the circumstances of my study, I think it's nothing short of a miracle that I've been able to achieve what I have. It has given me a lot of confidence that when I finally start my MGeol degree at Leicester Uni I will be able to achieve great things. Yes folks, after careful consideration, I have deferred my place at Leicester to the September 2010 start, which was a difficult, but necessary decision. That will give me a year to settle in Loughborough and be properly ready to get cracking! Can't wait!!!!

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So there you have it. A brief snapshot of the crazy, mentally and physically draining, mad, mad world of Alyn, Ruth and family! One things for sure - when all four of us are finally reunited in our new home in Loughborough, there will be

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ONE HELL OF A PARTY!!!!

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So, after getting all that off my chest, I'll get back to geology next time, which will be soon - promise!

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Cheers for now,

Alyn.