In my end is my beginning

The validation was today and the BA in Social Technology was validated. We have a small amount of tidying to do before we can say we're truly finished but the BA in Social Technology will be offered to students in 2009 and our first graduates will appear in 2012.

We were commended for our enthusiasm and for making a course that crosses faculties...

We'd like to say thank you to all those many people who offered support and advice and helped this to fly. We're now thinking MA... so I have no intention of closing the blog just yet.

Thanks again everyone.

The Documents...

Social technology Program Spec
Originally uploaded by xristine_faulkner

Tomorrow is validation day so here is a photo of the documents that have been causing us all so much work.

We had a final meeting on Friday to go through the last bits and pieces. I must admit I feel very pleased and just a fraction emotional about seeing the documents in place and most of all the title BA Social Technology writ large. It's been several years getting there and we're now at the last of the hurdles. There are more to come of course, but they will be different ones.

I'll post tomorrow with the results...

The next phase...

We had meetings last week to put together the final document. Clive went away on Friday saying he would have the document in place for Monday. Nigel also went away with things to do. The units that have to be written have been done and we are now waiting for the validation of the course itself which will take place in May.

We're excited about it. We've put it together using all of the elements we think we need and using expertise that we already have. We're looking at this expertise in a different way for this very different course which I hope will set a new trend. But for all of its newness and sense of innovation we can all see it has firm roots in what we've already done and are currently doing. Perhaps that's what makes it most exciting, that it has grown out of things that we have long held important. We are looking at ways of using the technology in a social context and not just a business or computing one.

I'm writing this blog in an 'exam'. But this is a different exam where the students are word processing their answers and have access to the internet. They are allowed to talk, ask advice, go for a coffee. But they are working to a time limit and to a template. The room is very quiet. The students thought that being able to talk in an exam would be fun but the reality is they just want to get their work done so it's very quiet; like an exam I guess. When they do speak, they speak quietly and there is a sense of industry. There will be two units to use this 'exam' format on the new course. We have avoided formal and tradition exams where we can and we hope to produce something that uses the technology not just to impart the knowledge but to assess it as well. Today is a strange experience for me. I have taught at 'O' level and 'A' and 'S' levels and at GCSE too. I have prepared and seen thousands of teenagers and adults sit traditional exams and to start with I have to admit I had to remind myself that this isn't like that. Now, with half of the exam done I know that this is one of the right ways to assess the new course. It feels right. The students aren't worried. They want to do well but they aren't nervous. They're excited about the conference we'll have when all the papers are written. The new course will take all of this excitement and write it large.

Thanks to everyone so far for all of the work. We've got some great new units and some great established units which will be modified by our tutorial system. It feels like we have a good course. We just need to do the validation and then prepare for the students. perhaps the hardest part is still ahead.

CPC Meeting - March 14th 2008

We held our last meeting of the term today to take yet another look at the shape of the course. Dave had provided some sound suggestions for changes which Lizzie, Clive and I then looked at and made more suggestions and Clive brought order to chaos.

Martin said that we'd filled up his webspace and that the site was more active than he expected. This amuses and pleases me because it means we are actually using the thing effectively though both Clive and I wish there were more people taking an active part. We promised Martin money so that he can continue to run the site for us and update it to the latest version. None of us thought finding the money will be difficult so we'll see. Greg and I wanted Martin to push the update now! button at once. I don't know what Greg's motivations are but mine are that I like chaos.

Clive had produced a very nifty chart to show how all the various permutations fitted into the original document. Nigel showed us how he was putting together a descriptor of the course that would include a rationale and an examination of market, research and so on.

We talked about assessment. The CPC has some inventive ideas for how this might be done and the course could be a very exciting departure; it certainly doesn't sound like the traditional computing course at the moment.

flickr and Blogger still aren't talking... or if they are, Blogger won't listen.

Spreading the word

Clive gave a report on where we are so far to the two computing departments today - SDCN and ISIT. He once again asked for anyone who is interested to join us here at the blog and/or (preferably and) at the internal site.

He also made the first public announcement that the course would come on line in 2009/10.

I guess we're still a little disappointed that not everyone is jumping up and down with enthusiasm at the initiative. But a 2010 start is over a year away and social technology might well seem less of a strange beast then.

I thought we'd have a picture... I can't get flickr to talk to blogger so this is one that has been inserted manually...

Meeting dates

Cut and paste from Clive's post on the other internal site.

More CPC Meetings:

• 7 March 1:00-2:00 pm in L207 - to agree aims and programme outcomes [final aims and draft programme outcomes will be circulated and posted here before the meeting]
• 14 March 1:00-2:00 pm in L207 - to agree on lists of reusable units and new units, to review teaching, learning and assessment strategy and to review the current state of the rationale
• 3 April 1:00-2:00 pm in L301 - to agree the teaching, learning and assessment strategy, the unit proformas, the curriculum map, the timetables for delivery of the units for all proposed courses and to review the draft Rationale and the draft Resources Document
• 18 April 1:00-2:00 pm in L301 - to agree final forms of all documents (they need to be submitted 21 April)

Course Planning - latest

Clive met with John and Sally on the 21st February. This was the initial planning for the validation. They agreed the following:

• the deadline for documents is 21st April 2008
  
• the documents to be produced for that date are
  
• the Rationale,
  
• the Programme Specification,
  
• the Resources Document
  
• the Units
  
• the validation will consider the full-time, sandwich and top-up degrees and for the part-time streams including the top-up stream
• the names of two nominees for external membership of the validation panel

Validation date

We now have a validation date of Wednesday May 21st 2008. The aims have been locked for the time being so that we can move on to other tasks that need to be done. We know that they aren't written in stone though and we accept some changes might be necessary. However, for the time being we're acting as if they are the ones we want.

Social tech units

I suppose I can mention here that two of the units which perhaps one day will be used in the Soc Tech course are now up and running... sort of. One unit - the level 3 unit recruited sufficiently to run and has now a cohort of enthusiastic if sometimes bemused students studying on it. I find myself on a steep learning curve with new technologies popping up frequently or old ones taking a sudden new turn. We're currently trying to develop materials that will be passed on to the future generation of social technology students. We're reluctant to go down the route of developing a text book and instead we're building wikis and blogs to try to keep a history of what is occurring around us and to offer definition where that is now just about possible. And the ideas keep pouring in. I think that finding ways of teaching and assessing soc tech units will be immensely interesting and rewarding.

I ought to mention too that I have now a small grant to help develop some of the ideas that will be used on the Soc Tech course.

Meeting January 23rd 2008

We've been working on the aims of the course for the last couple of months. At a meeting in January which I wasn't present at (exam invigilation!) the aims were discussed at length and a draft version produced for the more public meeting on 23rd. There Clive asked us all to choose the aims we thought were the most important. We weren't asked to prioritise them, simply to put our marks where we thought the main aims should be and to indicate if anything vital had been excluded from the draft aims.

From the list that was drawn up at the evening meeting a final draft of the aims has now been produced and is currently available for comment on the Drupal Soc Tech site. Anyone reading the blog who would like to be involved in the development of the course should contact one of us as the Drupal site is by invitation and registration only :-)

Work is progressing on the course. We are all pleased at the amount of enthusiasm which is being generated by the new course and we feel that we are indeed onto something.

2008

Nigel is in the process of organising an evening get together - more soon. I'm inundated with marking at the moment but will be back...

Best wishes for the new year to everyone.