Suddenly my university course is becoming very real. I have a package of books, a link to my own section of the OU website, a calendar of tutorials, and a mail from the tutor.
So today I spent some time setting up the systems. I must say that the computer side of things is messy, inelegant and confusing - and I say that as someone who is tech-savvy and (OK) geeky. During the process I actually wondered if I was doing the right thing attempting higher education. The subject-matter doesn't worry me but, as it gets closer, the actual education process does. Quite a lot. I never did like education. My memory is of tedium, irrelevance, and waiting for it to finish so I could learn things properly.
And ironically, I am learning a lot of the same sort of subject matter in a very different environment - at work. I had thought that some aspects of programming would remain a mystery until I had some training, but by means of real-life requirements and time to work on them, I have made a number of breakthroughs. It's kind of ironic that I am being paid essentially to learn stuff that makes me more valuable as an employee wherever I go, but I'm very glad of it.
So, even more than before, the university course becomes an experiment in the process of learning rather than an end in itself. And that's fine. I will be very interested to see how it all works, and in the meantime I can call myself an undergraduate.
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