Fire and Ice

This is very cool!! Let me know what you think...

As part of an activity for my Design Thinking course (U101) , we had to create a map with markers to indicate the countries of origin of various items of food, clothing and others. This is my map: It was so interesting to look through labels and find out where things come from! I knew we'd end up with a lot of stuff from China but clothes from Hungary? Trousers from Jordan? Books made in Dubai?? I did have a few non surprising items like maple syrup from Canada, a hawaiian print dress from (where else?) Hawaii and toys made in China but it is still very interesting and something to think about... (The full map with details is here.)

Remember that course that I blogged about a while ago? Well, I signed up. I am now the proud owner of my very own U101 box and am on the initial part of what I hope is a journey of discovery. Already I am very impressed with the way the course is presented, the use of technologies like videos and podcasts, and the cool software we can download to share our work with other students. The forums are already buzzing and officially the course hasn't even started! The course materials box has caused quite a stir among the students and there are even reports of some students going out and buying some of the items in the box (like masking tape, metal ruler, pencil, etc) so that they don't have to use the ones provided as they are so pretty... I bet some of those students are also scrapbookers and want to have some U101 stash to stroke :) It's quite exciting to be on a course for its first presentation and I will try and blog about my experiences as I progress. My only worry right ...

I don’t often intersect my blog and my work so allow me the indulgence – because it really is worth it! There is a great new course at the OU that is so good not only am I considering signing up myself but I think everyone that likes design, creativity or thinking in new ways should. Really. I don’t think the OU has ever offered such a cool course and I just want to shout it to the world! The course is U101 Design Thinking and starts in February. It is a Level 1 course (60 points) and looks like seriously good fun, as well as fascinating and engaging. From my point of view, the best part of the course is the course materials offered. If you are at all familiar with the OU you will know that the courses are conducted over distance (“supported open learning” in OU parlance) and all materials are included. For most courses this means a good supply of books, CDs, DVDs and even quirkier things like lab supplies. However, no other course has course materials like U101. They must be seen to ...

I've just had my latest exam results from my Networked Living OU course - and can I just pat myself on the back? I had a 91% in the Computer Marked Assignment (CMA) and an 89% on my Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA). Bearing in mind I'm working on the course at the same time as I do everything else I do, this is a great achievement. These results are for Block 2 which got a bit technical in parts ( electromagnetic spectrum , anyone?) so I'm doubly pleased as my math has never been my strong point. I guess my brain is still working after all!

A month ago I started my OU course Networked Living and so far it's been both enjoyable and educational. It is my second course so distance learning isn't a totally new experience for me, but it is my first level one course (the previous was a short course, 10 weeks only) and it goes on until sometime in September. The past few days I've been working on my first tutor-marked assignment (TMA) and while it's been a pleasure to return to the world of lessons and homework, it has also been a little bit of a shock. I think the way education works here in the UK is different from what I am used to in Mexico and I struggle with concepts such as word counts which I've never really had to deal with back in my student days. But I think I've done a good job on my first TMA and I've now completed it and submitted it too: nearly a week early! I am not sure when I get my results but I'm hoping for a good one... that is one thing that hasn't changed since my days a...

I have a lot going on at the moment. My OU course is going well and I’ve managed to not only keep up but stay a bit ahead which is good. This way, if I have any unexpected delays in the next few weeks it won’t be a tragedy and I should still be able to keep up. The course itself is really interesting as it’s dealing mainly with design principles for the web – although a lot of this learning can also be applied to scrapbook pages! In fact, my scrapbooking experience has helped a lot in this course as lots of the principles presented (like color wheels, golden ratio and rule of threes) I’d encountered them before in my pages. So I’m doing well on the course but I am still worried about the time it will take to put together a fully functioning website for my final exam. The running is still very much happening and I’m aware that the marathon is less than 3 months away. My long runs are getting longer and while that in itself is a challenge, I find that I worry more about fitti...