Backup, backup, backup

I think the recent online access problems just demonstrate that we should all keep systematic backups of ALL our OU work - even the stuff we think we couldn't possibly need.

Below are messages on the subject sent to the forums:


From: Jose Martel Penate 20 January 2009 07:00:56
Subject: Further to: On one week extensions
To: H808 08I ECA Queries

Dear all

This email follows on from my last email (see below) where I stated:

"It seems to me that I am being penalised because I was unfortunate enough to have had very little access to MyStuff and because other students were not prudent enough to fully backup their MyStuff files."

And that:

"I am fine with others being given a one week extension, but in that case, then so should I (and others)."

Are we not all adults here, with years of experience using computers? Are we not students attempting to call ourselves eElearning Professionals?

Then surely our years of experience using computers and our expertise as Elearning Professionals should have taught us that one should ALWAYS backup one's important information. I imagine we would all consider work produced for H808, and stored on MyStuff, as important.

Have we not all been abundantly aware of the continual MyStuff access issues?

Are we not all aware of the option to use Word for the ECA compilation that Helen and Robin have been all but pleading us to use at the slightest sign of problems using MyStuff?

I ask you then, is it reasonable that fellow Elearning Professional students are given a one week extension for neglecting to backup all their MyStuff files and thus being unable to produce the alternative Word ECA compilation?

I, for one, think IT IS perfectly reasonable. But, if it IS reasonable, then it IS as equally reasonable for ALL H808 students to be given an extension of equal length.

And I am curious, how does one prove that one has had problems accessing MyStuff, and how does one prove that one has only one copy of certain files and that that one copy is inaccessible on MyStuff?

Jose

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From: Jose Martel Penate Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:42 AM +0000
Subject: On one week extensions
To: H808 08I ECA Queries



Dear all,

I have just read that those students who consider they have lost time due to MyStuff accessibility problems over the weekend may request an extension of one week to submit their ECA.

At the risk of seeming unreasonable, I feel the need to protest that others may be given an extension of one week to submit their ECA, yet I will not.

Let me explain that I am fine with others being given a one week extension, but in that case, then so should I (and others).

I have repeatedly stated that I usually have no access to MyStuff. Throughout the whole course I have wasted many, many hours - I honestly don't know how many hours, but a lot - trying to access Mystuff without success. For this reason I have not been able to use MyStuff to store most of my work. I have it stored on my computer at home.

However, if I had been able to regularly access MyStuff, (and regardless of the scarcity of access problems) it would have seemed prudent to me to store full backup copies of my work on my home computer as well as "screen-dumps" of relevant MyStuff pages.

It seems to me that I am being penalised because I was unfortunate enough to have had very little access to MyStuff and because other students were not prudent enough to fully backup their MyStuff files.

Jose

When the impossible's finally impossible, you can actually get down to what's doable

Everything's working today and is fast, even Mystuff and the wiki and my OU blog! (But the OU blog is still kaput - I'm sticking with the Blogger blog).

I got my results back for TMA02. I got a pleasing 72%. For TMA01 I got 73% so that makes 36.16% of the final score according to my calculations:

73% --> 16/100 x 73 = 11.68

72% --> 34/100 x 72 = 24.48

and 11.69 + 24.48 = 36.16% of the final score

So, to get a distinction, in the ECA I would need to get 97.68% (!!!) which (thankfully) isn't going to happen even in my wildest dreams, so I can simply focus on trying to ensure I get a pass (40%) and then anything over that is a plus. Actually knowing I can't attain the impossible lets me calmly work on what is achievable.

85% - 36.16% = 48.84% --> 50/100 x 97.68 = 48.84

To pass the course I need to get at least 40% in the ECA.
So that means that the minimum I can get (if I pass) is 56.16%

50/100 x 40 = 20% of the final score (and 36.16 + 20 = 56.16)

Hmmmm, I wonder if it's noticeable that I'm not feeling stressed out at the moment??

More evidence for SA4.2 - HowTo access/use OU resources when using a Mac

19 Oct 2008, 13:16

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 19 Oct 2008, 13:17

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HowTo access/use OU resources when using a Mac
By Jose Martel Penate H808 081

I'll be giving my personal experiences as an OU student in Shanghai who uses mac computers to access and use OU resources.

First, a bit about my mac setup. When at home, I typically use a Mac Mini bought in 2007, with 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and upgraded to 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, running OSX Leopard 10.5.5. On my commute to and from work I use an iBook bought in 2002, with a 600MHz PowerPC G3 processor, and upgraded to 640MB SDRAM, running OSX Tiger 10.4.11.

I've designated the iBook as the principal machine where OU work is concerned; it holds the OU working files and folders. When at home I connect the iBook to my ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) via a TL-R402 DSL router. The use of Bonjour simplifies my mac to mac connections and I can then use my Mac Mini to work on the files stored on the iBook - so both machines use the same files. This effectively avoids having to synchronise data (I'm refusing to spend money on a synchronisation solution).

I hold current backup files on both machines in locked folders that I've set Spotlight to ignore. This means that when I do OU related searches the only file/folders searched are the current working OU file/folders on the iBook. I also keep a backup folder of all my OU backups on an external hard drive. When I remember, I also replace the current OU backup folder I keep on my mp4 player (an Archos 604).

I typically use Safari (3.1.2) as my web browser of choice for most things, but for the OU I need to share the workload with Firefox (3.0.3). For simply accessing/reading OU webpages, I'll use Safari, but for editing I'll typically use Firefox. For the blogs - posts and comments - I need to use Firefox or formatting will be ignored. For editing "notes" in MyStuff, I again need to use Firefox because of formatting issues, but to upload files, Safari seems to work better and I recently found out I can write comments while using Safari and formatting is kept intact. For the wiki, it seems that editing can be done from Safari but can't while in Firefox or at least is inconsistent from Firefox. I'm new to the wiki so I haven't had a chance to investigate this further.

Regarding FirstClass, I haven't used their web version since I installed the Mac FirstClass Client (9.106) application in my first week of study. I can't remember much about FC web version, but I know I really didn't like it; it was slow and simply didn't work properly. The desktop version is clearly the superior product and, while not perfect, it is perfectly stable, useful and even has some nice (far more Mac-like than Window-ly) graphics.

Another word about the blogs. I want to browse my fellow students' blogs from time to time, but it's tedious and can be very time consuming having to go to each blog to find out if there have been new postings. So I subscribed to the RSS feeds for each blog. Each blog has a feed for posts and another feed for comments. You need to open the blogs from Safari and click directly on "RSS" (not "Atom" right next to it) - I prefer to right-click to open links in a new tab, but sometimes it seems that these RSS pages only open properly when you left-click directly. When the RSS page opens, left-click on the "Subscribe in Mail" link. If you then go to Mail you'll find an RSS feed that you can rename and that contains the posts or comments of the blog you subscribed to. The blog posts will have the blog poster's name - under the title - when you open each post, but the comments won't tell you where they come from. To find out whose blog the comments belong to you need to click on "Read more..." to be taken to the blog itself, and then rename the feed in Mail. If there is no feed in Mail, check your Mail preferences.

By the way, there is a Mac help website (that I didn't find very helpful). It's at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stephen.mcgann/index.html . It seems to be more geared toward helping potential students identify which OU courses are mac-compatible. Apart from that, it limits itself to briefly commenting on the mac-compatiblity of various pieces of software that students may or may not need to use. I think the site will only be of any use to someone with little practical experience of using macs. The site doesn't actually give current students of OU courses any advice on day to day issues that arise while doing an OU course using a mac.

Jose Martel-H808-CA2.3-Reflection and learning-FINAL DRAFT

4 Oct 2008, 07:00

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Jose Martel-H808-CA2.3-Reflection and learning

Oh dear, I have been pushing myself quite hard in an effort to catch up and be in a position to interact (in a timely manner) on the forums. But that has meant - as Agatha Christie's well known Belgium detective, Hercule Poirot, may have put it, "Mon amie, ze leetel graie cells, zay are in need of ze taim to cogitet!". Reflection benefits greatly from time (Moon, 2001); are we - paradoxically - learning quick time the virtues of careful reflection?

- Moon (2001) affirms that when it is assumed "that reflection has a valuable role to play in higher education", the curriculum designer should have a clear understanding of the desired reflective outcomes and how those outcomes should be brought about; this is especially so if the reflective activity is to be assessed. Moon comments that reflective learning has found particularly strong support in professional-education and development.

- I think it is common knowledge that some people (e.g. both teachers and students) are better at reflection than others (Moon, 2001). I take this to mean that the perception of a problem (on which to reflect) can be different from person to person. Some people perceive a particular problem and immediately "see" the solution - with no laboured reflection - while other people - with reference to the same problem - may need guidance and time to reflect. Moon (2001) points out that there are different types of reflection that may be more or less effective when applied to different situations. Within our learning context an "academic" reflective style - characterised by a higher level of structure, formality and depth - is the most suitable. This depth of reflection is enhanced when reflective dialogue and feedback is maintained between students, and students and teachers.

After reading Moon (2001) I now have a greater store of reflective techniques I can apply to situations or problems that arise. Both in a learning or a professional context, I would imagine that I would try to use techniques that seem/are most suitable. As to whether there is a qualitative difference between reflecting on professional practice and reflecting on learning, perhaps a difference could stem from the importance one ascribes to each reflective event.

- At the moment I type this, I think that writing may be the most practical way to reflect (and communicate reflection) on this course. Unless one is proficient in the use of the various electronic media that could be used (recording/editing/conversion/storage devices and types of image/sound/data files) then valuable time could be wasted in trying to produce reflections of a similar calibre to that which could be more immediately/readily produced via a pen and paper or keyboard. Of course, as already mentioned above, Moon (2001) indicates, that the time spent on the reflective activity is, itself, of great value, and so using unfamiliar media/devices can help provide the time factor - and also a new range of tools - with which to interact with/tackle the subject of our reflection. New/different tools can provide new/different approaches and insights, furthering and deepening our reflection. However, when time is a major constraint, one may opt for the familiarity and immediacy of text, eschewing the uncertainty of learning to use a new media sufficiently well (in the given time) to develop reflections of worth. Another concern that comes to mind is that other possible forms of recording reflection (camera, video, sound) are so, or too, immediate and perhaps not expressive or precise enough or lack a common language with which to guarantee communication of a particular reflection. The saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words", but can that apply to our postgraduate learning context where lack of time for reflection (and to prepare for reflection) is an important factor? The "picture" in question would need to be loaded with so much (viewer-perceptable) value that its conception and realisation could take substantially more time than simply sitting down at one's table to write. In an ideal world would I prefer to experiment with multimedia?...Yes. But the realities of my world are such that I think I may not venture far from the tried and trusted.

The above notwithstanding, I hope that the Open University (OU) eportfolio "MyStuff" will prove to be a valuable resource for providing structure to the powers of reflection I have developed over the years, as well as to help produce alternative reflections to those that I may now take for granted.

In my opinion, the OU's Blog and Wiki could be valuable community platforms and resources, but I think the nature of study in the OU may limit their effectiveness beyond the minimum course requirement for use and interaction. At the moment I feel that the OU Forums are the only place with the sufficient sense of community for effective, reflective interaction to occur.


References:

Moon, J. (2001) ‘PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning’ [online], The Higher Education Academy. Available from:
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id72_Reflection_in_Higher_Education_Learning.rtf (accessed 29 June 2007).

CA2.1-eportfolios-my interest

1 Oct 2008, 20:29

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 1 Oct 2008, 20:34

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As already stated elsewhere, my reasons for learning about eportfolios are career related - in that this knowledge/skill will, hopefully, further and broaden my future employability. However, I have no immediate need, requirement, or real opportunity to put my new expertise to any practical use. This means that my interest in eportfolios is purely academic at the moment (no pun intended...but left in).

This, at times, rather laboured intrinsic interest is in stark contrast to the healthier extrinsic motivation that pushes some of my fellow students to enthuse about, delight in, and, more importantly, relate to their studies. Vague, general interest cannot match actual need. But I plod on.

I have hardly started experimenting with our eportfolio, Mystuff. This is mainly because I find it so annoying to use. I keep reading about how it is vital for the individual to feel in control of the eportfolio environment and be able to individualise it, or else they will quickly lose interest. Is Mystuff the OU's attempt to help us deep-learn by doing? Oh, we can intellectualise, we can assimilate the theory, but one learns so much more profoundly if one emotionalises - is there anything quite as effective as actually experiencing the frustration!?

But now that I am reading Stefani (2005) discuss CPD in a higher education context, I do feel that I could use an eportfolio (that does not annoy me) to help motivate myself; help me reflect, perhaps, more effectively; and help counteract the apathy that sets in when working in an education system where, though excellence in teaching is paid lip service, entertainment value rules.

Jose