It’s a Miracle!!!

I passed all this year’s modules for my Masters course!!!

(Imagine me running around the room and jumping up and down with the odd whoop thrown in!!!!)

That’s all.

No more news.

Suppose I’ll have to go back next year now and finish it.  Disertaion here I come!!!

(slumps back to reality!)

end of term

Tonight was the last day of term for my Masters in Research classes.  I have a literature review to write and that’s me done for this year.  It seems to have gone very quickly and I’ve done ok (Bs for almost everything).  I’ve got two more modules to do then my research project and dissertation and that’s me done.

I’ve enjoyed this year.  Met some nice people, learned some interesting stuff.  Now all I need to do is refine my research topic and get on with it.

new media

I’m about to have a class on using new media to communicate research findings.  Looking forward to it…

Oh, and I saw Dr Hilary Jones off of GMTV in Buchanan Street!

It’s the weekend!

It’s Friday night and for the first time in a while I’m neither working or leading worship.  The boys are here and there is football and rugby a plenty on TV.  At the moment David is playing Pebble Beach on Tiger Woods.  He looks pleased so he must be playing well!

I think we might go shopping for books tomorrow.

I’ve been very busy over the past couple of weeks and I’m hoping that over the next couple life might slow down to something around about hectic.

Youth Forum went really well last weekend.  We had 22 young people form all over Scotland who came together and had a great time, were very creative and didn’t sleep.

My workshop on Presentation at Synod (same time as Youth Forum) went well and people seemed to enjoy it and hopefully got something out of it.  I talked mostly about how not to do powerpoint.  Nothing beats a rainbow wordart on a red or yellow background!

In the evening I was quiz master for the now annual Synod Quiz.  We found a mobile disco set up in the back of the stage so it was just like old times.  The old people were asking for me to turn the music down and the young people were asking if I had any decent music.  Brings back some great memories of DJing in pubs or at a wedding.

On Sunday night we headed up to Biggar to say happy mother’s day to my mum.  She seemed really pleased to see us and we had a good laugh, mostly at my dad. (isn’t that what dads are for?)

This week has flown in.  I tried to have Monday off but spent most of the day working, dropping stuff off at Christian Aid and Great Big Resources after Synod.  The rest of the week… writing essays, teaching class, going to class, catching up on email, writing essays.  Did I mention I had an essay to hand in this week?

I’m now waiting on Office for Mac 2008 to appear through the letterbox.  I wonder if it still defaults everything to Times New Roman when you delete anything?

In other news… the camera I hoped to get for my birthday is sold out everywhere that had it a sensible price!  Blast!  The search begins again…

Oh, and why do Mac hide the # key?  Took me ages to find it!!!  LOL

recording my research

I’ve decided to use the other blog I’ve had lying around doing nothing for a year to record my research and reflect a bit more on my Masters in Research.  I’ve written a little about it here and will still post things that are relevant to my work but I think keeping a separate blog might help me to focus a bit more on the one area, using digital tools to engage in and enhance learning of young people.

seriously stuck

See below!!!  lol

I’m finding it hard to come up with a research topic that will

A. be of use and

B. be of interest (mostly to me as I have to do it)

So, I’m toying with something to do with church and tech, but what?  Should I look at youth work? (would seem to make sense) But what about it?

I guess what I hope I’ll get out of it, apart from a Masters is some sense of training needs and where we are at.

what shoud I research?

If you read this blog regularly you’ll know I’m doing a masters in research.  I’ve come to the point where I need to decide what I’m going to research!

Any ideas?  I was thinking something to do with church youth work and technology use.  Would that be helpful?  Does anyone care?  What would be the point of knowing if and how churches use technology in their informal education with young people?

Any help gratefully received!!!

When does freedom of speech become oppression?

Tonight saw the Oxford Union surrounded by protesting students.  They were up in arms against the appearance of two right wingers, a politician and and a ‘historian’, at a debate.  So far so good.  But the protesters stopped the debate going ahead.  People protesting against fascism stopped an open, public debate.  I’m sorry but I don’t get it.

You want to stop fascism?  Win the argument.  Have the debate, on TV, and argue the case and let’s get rid of this nonsense for ever.

I disagree with what the two guests stand for (hence no names) but I believe they have the right to be wrong and I have the right to tell them so, but they still have the right to disagree.  That’s called democracy.  It means having to put up with people saying things you find abhorrent because to ban them from speaking is fascism, the very thing the poor misguided smart kids were trying to stop.

The protesters were also trying to stop the debate getting publicity.  Well done.  Gathering a large crowd with placards and banners and megaphones never attracted any attention, right?

back to school

Some 7 years ago I began a Masters course in Applied Social Science.  For lots of reasons I dropped out 2/3 of the way through the first year.  This year I decided to go back and pick up the course and at least get enough credits to get a Post Graduate Certificate.

Today was the day I went back to Glasgow Caledonian University.  I had been away for so long that the course I started no longer exists so I’m now doing an Masters in Research.  The course looks great and I think I might even stay on and perhaps do the research to get the Masters.  It also turns out I have more credits than I thought, 45 rather than 30 so I don’t need to do as many classes to get to the Post Grad Certificate point.