THD204 - Information Technology and Society Introduction

This was the final presentation for Open University Course THD204 Information Technology and Society. Though enjoyed the technical side of this course, the content of some parts is now somewhat dated, I didn't enjoy the social side of the course. Far too much waffle - in my opinion social scientists seem to have the view - why use 10 words when 100 is far better. The social stuff was also difficult to read since the authors were constantly quoting from other writers works. It took 16 - 18 hours a week of work ploughing through the social science stuff on the CD, most of the articles were extremely long-winded and exceptionally boring. Being a 'techie' I found that this course had far too much social science content and not enough IT content. Some of the material may be of use to those taking T209 the replacement course for THD204.

TMAs

There were 6 TMAs for THD204, each TMA was split into three sections, the first two being technical comprising and the third and essay of the readings. TMA's 4 and 6 were group efforts in which we worked in small groups in the tutor group conference. The final TMA was compulsory i.e. no substitution and was a report on a robot for use by a disabled person. The summary and conclusion were group efforts agreed by all the members of the group and the items for discussion found in the summary were dealt with by the group members individually (one item each).

My TMA's can be viewed by clicking the links to the left. I should be noted that all e-mail and conference exchanges have been removed since these were in a closed group.