T102 - My Introduction to Technology

My 2nd year with the OU, 1990, was spent doing T102 - Living with Technology: A Foundation Course. Some of the course I enjoyed, but some of it I found a bit repetitive from S102.

I found studying that year a real struggle. I could really only study when the boys were in bed or at school and by 9pm I had problems concentrating. I was also working part time, which took up a lot of the time when the boys were at school.

Since it was a technology courses and we were on benefit at the start of the course, the OU lent me a computer for the course. Now I believe they can help with finance towards buying your own computer if you are low income. The computer was a 586 running Word Perfect and seemed high technology at the time. It was the first time I had experience of using a computer and it was something I really enjoyed.

One of the questions I had to answer for a Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA) was to design a house, positioning rooms, doors and windows etc. I tried to be a bit original and in the end my design worked to their specifications. I got it back with some comment about it being a very strange design, but at least I got the marks.

Talking of marks I got my best mark up to then of 89% in a TMA just before I attended that year’s summer school in York. It had been a really easy TMA so when I got it back from the tutor with the comment that it was a very good mark but it had been a very easy assignment I agreed. I did, however, put my foot in it when I remarked jokingly on it to someone at the summer school and got the reply that they had never had that sort of mark in their lives.

It wasn’t as much of a foot in mouth moment however as when I commented to someone that the OU babied us through Foundation courses and that it must be practically impossible to fail a Foundation. Needless to say they had failed one.

The only problem in that Summer school was that I had to get my room moved. It was next to a kitchen and some of my fellow students decided to congregate in it all night despite having been asked not to.

But my main memory is a team project on waste management. Each member of the team had to cover one aspect of selling his or her allocated method of waste management. I got to play with figures in a computer program. We were allocated advocating landfill dumping. Not the easiest of tasks but we did our best. I managed at the last moment to prove that by using and selling the gas produced by the dump that it was possible to run it and have it not cost anything. Needless to say we still did not win the vote of the student body. One of the more environmentally friendly methods did.

York University was another beautiful campus and I enjoyed the summer school even more than the year before because I was a bit more relaxed about leaving the boys with only their father to watch them.

The exam that year was the first and so far only time I have experienced exam nerves. When I first looked at the exam paper I couldn’t even understand the questions never mind answer them. Fortunately I was able to calm myself down and re-read the paper to discover that there actually were questions I could answer. In the end I got 79% for the exam, but I do have every sympathy for students who have problems with exams.
That course was the last course I did for over 10 years. There were a number of reasons for this. I was, as I mentioned working part time so I was earning just enough to get by, but too much to get financial help. There was no way I could afford to pay for another course myself. I also had problems with knowing which way to go with studying. Technology seemed most sensible, but I really had enjoyed the Science course more.