Computing and ICT - OU Community Online

Marion Grenfell-Essam, 28, from Essex, has had ME since she was just 12 years old which means the smallest of tasks leave her utterly exhausted. But she’s found comfort in OU study, the flexibility of which allows her to work around her symptoms, and she plans on “studying for the rest of my life if I can.”

Forced to drop out of studying for a BSc in Applied Psychology at Cardiff University, Marion was overcome with depression. At the time, her mum was (and still is) studying towards a BSc in Psychology with the OU and “decided to bully me into finding an interest,” says Marion.

“She knew I had always expressed an interest in learning more about web design so she pestered me into signing up for T183 Design and the Web. That was the autumn of 2006 and I haven't looked back.”

Bound by the constraints of ME, symptoms of which include noise and light sensitivity, headaches and migraines, short term memory loss and fatigue, Marion sees OU study as her escape; it’s given her purpose and she hopes one day to carve out a career using her qualifications.

“Certainly my intention with the BSc in Computing is to give myself the skills to be able to work from home on computing and web design projects. The BSc in Mathematics and Statistics is mostly for fun,” she says of working towards two degrees.

Support from tutors
“I think the thing I like most about OU study is the freedom; both the freedom when studying a particular course to go at the speed that suits me but also the freedom to choose what to study. I've always been interested in learning almost for its own sake so the ability to choose from numerous subjects is wonderful.

“I've found almost universal support from my tutors. When I've been having problems with the TMA deadlines they are always happy to give advice about my best options and the teaching quality has been excellent both in the year long and short courses.

Marion has had ME (Myalgic Encephalopathy) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) for 16 years and she’s learned to deal with the symptoms.

“The main symptom is fatigue. Joint and muscle pain is common, with visible twitching of muscles being relatively rare. Perhaps the most frustrating set of symptoms are the cognitive symptoms: problems with short-term memory, concentration and maintaining attention. Sufferers often complain of brain fog - the inability to focus properly.

'Perhaps the greatest support the OU gives me is home exams. I simply could never have completed any course with an exam if I had had to go to an exam centre'

“Most sufferers will experience headaches with many having to deal with migraines - basically headaches but with additional components: flashing light or auras, neck pain, light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, nausea even to the point of vomiting and skin sensitivity so that even light bed clothes can feel like someone is gripping their hand hard around your skin. Basically when it gets really bad your only option is go and lie down or lie propped up in a dark, quiet room.”

With day-to-day activities like eating and dressing making her tired, Marion sleeps a lot, but she can be awake in the early hours of the morning. So it’s the complete flexibility of OU study that allows her to work at her own pace and in short bursts if necessary, with support for her additional needs via the university's services for disabled students.

“Because I can't plan my good days and my bad weeks I can't always stick to the timetable. My tutors are always very supportive about giving me extensions if I think that a couple of extra weeks might make the difference between a partial TMA and no TMA. I find reading 12 size font just a little bit too small to be comfortable for me so the ability to read my Unit texts as pdfs where I can zoom to a size that works for me is great.

'Sometimes you just can't talk to your family and friends about what you're dealing with but you need to talk to someone and the other students on the forum always understand what you're facing'

“Where I want to read from the unit but would struggle to hold it open the OU provide me with comb-bound books so that they lie flat on my lap or table so I don't get hand strain keeping the book flattened to read. The use of iTMAs is a big bonus as it means I don't have to try and hand write anything with my sore muscles. At the tutorials my Learning Support team make sure I have a ground floor room close to the entrance so that I can easily walk the distance with the help of my walking stick.

“Perhaps the greatest support the OU gives me is home exams. I simply could never have completed any course with an exam if I had had to go to an exam centre. I can sit where I always sit to study with the light and noise levels set to my preferences and with my body supported to avoid muscle strain.

"I'm allowed 30 minutes of rest breaks so I tend to take at least two breaks of 10 minutes each and sometimes a third of the remaining 10 minutes depending on how tired I am and how the questions work out. I can use these 10 minutes simply to close my eyes and stop for 10 minutes or I can shift my papers and lie down on my sofa and catch 10 minutes sleep if need be.

“Because of the eye strain the OU provides me with large print exam papers on pink paper to avoid the glare off a white page.”

Reassurance that you're not alone
Marion’s an active member of the OUSA and Platform forums, which she finds “an enormous support”.

“Sometimes you just can't talk to your family and friends about what you're dealing with but you need to talk to someone and the other students on the forum always understand what you're facing. Even if they haven't gone through it themselves they usually have some sensible advice and often all that is really needed is the reassurance that you're not alone with having to deal with the consequences of this disease.”

Aside from study, Marion likes to read, watch TV shows from crime to sci-fi and has recently discovered blogging.

“Since January this year I've been feeling more hopeful for the future and felt that my brain state allowed me to at least string some sentences together. So I started by reading some of the blogs listed on Platform and when I felt I'd got a feel for it I took the plunge and wrote my first post.

“It allows me to crow about small accomplishments - like sleeping for nine hours and not two hours or 12 hours. It allows me to moan about the migraines or rave about a new book or TV show.

“With the short-term memory issues that go with ME it is generally impossible for me to remember what happened to me last week certainly not any further back and it is very easy to lose track of time between events. The ability to go back re-read posts to discover what I've been doing for the last three weeks or two months ago is a very useful by-product of keeping a blog.”







 

 

A project to "map" geographical locations referred to in classical texts has received a $50,000 boost from Google.

GAP (Google Ancient Places) is a web application which allows users to search a classical (500BC - 500AD) text for references to ancient places, and get the results in a user-friendly interface.

“A GAP user can not only see how an author’s narrative moves from place to place, but also how a town or city’s relative importance varies throughout a historical text," said Dr Leif Isaksen, Digital Humanities specialist at Southampton University. Southampton is a partner in GAP with The Open University.

GAP is part of a larger network of linked open data on antiquity called Pelagios. By integrating GAP with Pelagios, researchers hope to give users access to more types of data, such as archaeological artefacts or historical documents.

Open University classicist Dr Elton Barker says: "These projects will make it easier for online users to explore ancient texts and artefacts in their spatial, cultural and literary context.”

The grant is the second round of funding GAP has received via Google's Digital Humanities Awards Programme. 

More information

• OU leads project to create ancient world information superhighway

Classics at the OU

• BA Honour Humanities: Classical Studies pathway
• Exploring the classical world A219
• World Archaeology A251
• Reading classical Greek: language and literature A275
• Reading classical Latin A297
• Continuing classical Latin A397
• Myth in the Greek and Roman worlds A330 

 

Photo: Napoleon Vier

 

The Coalition Government's refusal to pardon for Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, is a sad reflection on our capacity for forgiveness and our claim to be a civilised society, argues Dick Skellington…

The news early this month that the Coalition Government had rejected calls for a pardon for Alan Turing, the computer scientist whose work at Bletchley Park contributed hugely to the war effort against the Nazis in the Second World War, is a perverse reminder that while the law of the land changes as our society progresses and matures, as it grows more tolerant in action, anyone convicted of a crime 60 years ago will still have little chance of a posthumous pardon, especially if the conviction was for a homosexual offence. Turing was convicted in 1952 of gross indecency.

Justice Minister Lord McNally dismissed the prospect of a pardon because he argued that Turing was properly convicted at the time of a criminal offence. He was actually charged under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. Following conviction he was given treatment with female hormones as an alternative to prison, a cruel form of chemical castration designed to reduce his libido. He accepted castration via oestrogen hormone injections.

He died two years later in 1954 just before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An apple lay half-eaten beside his bed, and although the apple was not tested for cyanide the inquest determined the cause of death was suicide, though his mother believed his death was in fact accidental. The half-eaten apple is said to have inspired the Apple logo, though some purists believe that is a testament to Isaac Newton's apple that fell from a tree.

On September 10th, 2009, following an internet campaign, the then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Turing was treated after the war. In it he described the treatment given to Turing after his conviction as 'appalling'.

He explained: “Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him ... So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better,” said Gordon Brown.

'I couldn't be writing this post on my Apple computer at home if it was not for Alan Turing'

Turing was a true scientific pioneer, the father of artificial intelligence. He is widely celebrated for his contribution to modern computer science. His work at the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) in Bletchley Park was crucial in the breaking of German ciphers. The historian and wartime codebreaker Professor Asa Briggs, who served as Chancellor to the Open University from 1978 to 1994, explained: “You needed exceptional talent, you needed genius at Bletchley and Turing's was that genius”.  The Open University, not far from Bletchley Park, has a building named after Turing.

He was also somewhat eccentric too. While working at Bletchley, Turing, a talented long-distance runner, occasionally ran the 45 miles to London when he was needed for high-level meetings. He also was a keen cyclist. But his bicycle had a fault: the chain would come off at regular intervals. But instead of repairing it he would count the number of times the pedals went round and would get off the bicycle just in time to adjust the chain by hand. Genius.

In 1945, Turing was awarded the OBE for his wartime services but his work remained secret for many years. Since 1966, the Turing Award has been given annually by the Association for Computer Machinery for technical contributions to the computing community. It is widely considered to be the computing world's highest honour, equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

In 1999, Time Magazine named Turing as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century for his role in the creation of the modern computer, and stated: “The fact remains that everyone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine.” 

I couldn't be writing this post on my Apple computer at home if it was not for Alan Turing, and you would not be able to read this blog.

'What is it they say of people who do not learn from history? That's right, they repeat its mistakes'

And so here we are in 2012, living in a Britain that claims to be civilised. The Coalition Government had the opportunity to follow Gordon Brown's apology with a pardon. It failed to do so. The result is a new petition. It has already gathered over 20,000 signatures.

It argues: “Alan Turing was driven to terrible despair and early death by the nation he'd done so much to save. A pardon can go some way to healing this damage. It may act as an apology to many of the other gay men, not as well known as Alan Turing, who were subjected to these laws.”  If the petition is signed by at least 100,000 people it becomes eligible for discussion in the House of Commons.

Discretion prevents me from writing what I actually think of the good Lord Justice McNally, who concluded in his 'judgment': “A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted. It is tragic that Alan Turing was convicted of an offence which now seems both cruel and absurd - particularly poignant given his outstanding contribution to the war effort. However, the law at the time required a prosecution and, as such, long-standing policy has been to accept that such convictions took place and, rather than trying to alter the historical context and to put right what cannot be put right, ensure instead that we never again return to those times.”

What is it they say of people who do not learn from history? That's right, they repeat its mistakes.

You can sign the e petition here.

 

Cartoon by: Catherine Pain

Dick Skellington
15 February 2012

 

An OU research student has discovered that members of the gaming community - people who play and enjoy games - are older than you might think.

OU PhD student Jo Iacovides, 28, looked at how people engage with digital games and found that the age of gamers is not typically a 20-something playing games like Call of Duty. Rather, hert research found that the demographics are changing among game enthusiasts.

Jo studied how people learn through their involvement with games and carried out a three-stranded approach using email interviews, monitored on-site case studies and questionnaires among a group stretching from ages 20 to 65.

“One participant I monitored in our labs was a 59-year-old mother, who was reluctant to describe herself as a gamer yet she admitted to enjoying digital games on Facebook and playing collaborative games on the Nintendo Wii with her adult daughter.

“She is getting a lot from them. During one of the observation sessions, she did get a bit overwhelmed by the information and the clues when playing an unfamiliar game. This meant she got to the end of the time limit without completing the task, but after a break she realised she may have worked out the solution and would have liked another go.”

The sessions, carried out in The Open University’s technology labs, involved nine people taking part in two hour-long sessions within a specially-created “lounge” with a sofa and a games consoles.

In the questionnaire assessment, 232 people within the 18 to 65 age groups responded to an appeal for volunteers via OU websites, and more than 50 per cent admitted to being “moderate gamers”.

“There seemed to be a bit of a stigma attached to admitting to being a serious gamer and, interestingly, people categorised themselves in relation to the hours they spent playing in comparison to others, including stereotypes of hardcore gamers. Yet it is clear the demographic of who is playing is changing; now one in three adults play digital games and it is becoming just another common leisure activity such as watching TV, going to the cinema and listening to music.”

Her study found that breakdowns and breakthroughs – when people did succeed in the game - were crucial to the experience.

“People generally report positive experiences from playing games. They are learning in ways that might surprise us, such as developing patience and perseverance. It was interesting to see how often breakdowns – such as ‘dying’ repeatedly – happen, yet the players keep on going! Perhaps because failure has fewer consequences in the game world, but it is remarkable to observe and see how learning comes out of that failure. You can see how competence could develop from being able to figure out the game.”

Jo added: “Education could learn something from the world of gaming, in terms of the culture around gaming that supports the activity but also in terms of respecting the impact and influence games can have, rather than relegating them to being simple distractions.”

She also concluded that educational games could pick up useful pointers from the design of commercial ones.

“By looking at how these breakdowns and breakthroughs occur there are potential implications for devising more effective educational games – for instance, by ensuring that the player does feel responsible for figuring out solutions and the consequences of their actions,” she said.

Jo, who is a gamer herself in her limited spare time, has already presented her work at several conferences, while the preliminary findings from the questionnaire study are to be published next year in the Journal of Learning, Media and Technology.

 

Pictured are some of the research participants playing games in the lab.


 

open2.net, formerly the online home of joint Open University and BBC programming, is now closed. 

The good news is that more than ten years of open2.net content has been moved to a new website at open.edu/openlearn, creating one home for all the Open University's free online learning for the public. 

The new site continues to support OU-BBC broadcasts, but also gives access to iTunes U podcasts, YouTube videos, free study units taken from OU modules and topical content, arranged under subject areas relating to the OU curriculum. 

There's lots to do - you can watch Evan Davis exploring the state of British manufacturing; explore the frozen planet; get to know the science and history of the Olympics or have a look at our study units in LearningSpace.

Any existing links that direct people to open2.net content will automatically send people to the relevant pages on the new site.

You’ll find more information at open.edu/openlearn. 

Doctor Patrick Wong, lecturer in Intelligent Computer Systems, has recently been appointed Associated Editor of the British Journal Mathematics and Computer Science.

The open access journal aims to publish original research articles, review articles and short communications, in all areas of mathematics and computer science.

Subject matters cover everything from pure and applied mathematics to artificial Intelligence and human-computer interactions. The journal is a high quality, peer reviewed, open access, international journal.

Find out more:

• British Journal of Mathematics & Computer Science
• Study Maths and Statistics

Interesting video released by Google about the history of their search technology and some hint about the future targets.

The Evolution of Search - Google

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTBShTwCnD4 - 29/11/2011

Related content to "Introduction to searching Google" - TM128 Week 8 Activity