Still no Bernard at College so on my own and had to use my own laptop and inrnet dongle to get any connection. Spent most of the morning figuring out what a new Level 3 unit was all about. Looks like something I can deliver but requires a whole set of materials, assignments and scheme of work which is a drag. Takes a long time! At least this is repeated so it's a bit more worthwhile and, being 2nd years, the students will know me and their first few weeks will be spent getting stuff out of the way from last year on the current proposals.
Not sure whether the others have really thought that through as some of last year's unit tutors won't be around this year and not sure quite what we're supposed to do with those who did complete last year, or who teaches what over that 'catch-up' period! Could be interesting and probably chaotic.
Timetable isn't a disaster - a couple of things I'd like to get rid of but a lot more Level 2 than usual which could be more pleasant as Bernard's their Course Team Leader and easier to talk to. The lower levels I didn't used to like as much but I'm beginning to change my mind on that as, basically, they should be easier to cover and I can definitely do them myself whereas I had serious doubts about some of the Level 3 stuff like Java which I've never used from scratch and even CSS from a blank sheet was tough. It's annoying that some units have to be done the way they are as, in practice, design techniques have moved on and there are so many more ways to build in code on pages and few people need to be able to do this sort of stuff from a blank sheet. So I'm quite pleased to have got out of some of those units this year and can at least feel that I know what I'm talking about. Not that I didn't before - just had trouble with colleagues' interpretation.
Had a long discussion about how we should handle assignment submissions - mainly the late ones - and managed to get some sort of change proposed that might help a bit. The system needs to be more like University in my view. The trouble is the conversation kept getting interrupted with comments about other issues and it was difficult holding my temper back! I mentioned that the VLE was a bit of a mess and lacking a professional look now, or plain wrong in many places, and was going to offer to tidy it up but someone started moaning about the software I'd used for some image effects. All I need is permission to get the job done and none of that is relevant. So frustrating. Then the usual business of how someone else says we all have to use standard this and that comes up and, weirdest of all, we're supposed to be putting some things on a network drive that we can't access from home. If anything, the place is going backwards ILT-wise. I must repeat my offer to make a big difference. I'd enjoy that and the money would be useful.
Got back at a reasonable hour again and so the week's not going as badly as it was expected.
Marvellous TV in the evening with The Hour and Twenty Twelve. It was the last instalment of the former and most impressed all round with the series. Twenty Twelve is just a delight.
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