Digital Native or Immigrant? You Decide

Am I a Digital Native or a Digital Immigrant?

You decide.

Please add your vote or your view as a comment to this post.

I am of a generation where one might automatically assume I am a Digital Immigrant, rather than a Native.  But technology changes and evolves.  I too, like today's Digital Native students, grew up with technology although it used to be analogue rather than digital.  But it still needed to be mastered and 'driven' in order for it to work properly.

 I have worked with technology all of my working life. My very first job was as a telephone operator in BT (then Post Office Telecommunications), and I drove this switchboard technology (see picture above).
 

 

In those days, international calls couldn’t be dialled direct and had to be connected by the operator (me!), and hand-held personal phones were only to be had on Star Trek.

Later on in my career, I worked with mobile phones and networks systems – including assisting the team working on the launch of the UK’s first hand-held mobile phone (the BT Opal) and the first generation in-car cellular telephone and the related network (Cellnet, which ultimately became O2). 

Subsequently I worked on cordless phones, including the development of the first generation digital ones (CT2), and then in organisational change management before making a career change into teaching in 1995 – when I joined UCL.

With the introduction of the PC (we used manual typewriters or pens before then!), I quickly became au fait with the then DOS system and related software, and then Windows-based software. 

In 1995 I left BT, trained as a teacher and joined UCL where I am a senior teaching fellow.  Amongst other qualifications I hold a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and have SEDA accreditation.  I originally joined as a part-time teacher in Project Management, but over the years my course has grown from the initial 70 students to over 500, and is now delivered 7 times in an academic year.  In addition, I run a continuing professional development (CPD) course in project management for delegates from industry, a one-week intensive course (the APMP qualification) which is also run about 7 times per year.

Current Use of Technology

Technology has been vital throughout my UCL career in helping me to continue to manage my continually growing portfolio of courses and expanding student base.  I have always made extensive use of Windows-based packages such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Visio, and I consider myself to be very proficient in their use.  One of my personal development goals for this year is to become equally proficient with MS Project 2010 which, you might think quite surprisingly, I know the least.

As well as Microsoft packages, I also use the following technologies at work for e-learning:

Moodle

I use Moodle for all of my courses, and it has been a real ‘lifesaver’ in particular in helping me to manage the 500-strong course which is run in multiple deliveries and with a combination of different teaching fellows;  in particular, the ‘groupings’ facility which enabled me to treat each delivery as its own entity but on the same Moodle site, where the lecture notes are the same for all students (who have the same exam), but specific lecture materials may differ in terms of how delivered as there are several teachers on the course.

Lecturecast

I use both the in-class and personal recording facilities on Lecturecast.  At present these provide retrospective recordings of lectures and other information items for reference and revision purposes, however I am keen to experiment with other uses, for example, lecture ‘flipping’ and distance learning.

Turning Point

I am new to the Turning Point voting systems technology and have been experimenting with using it to collect delegate feedback on my APMP course.  This is another technology which I wish to learn more about, the issue at the moment being finding the time to play around with it extensively and see what it can / cannot do and what its facilities and foibles are.

Social Media

I use most mainstream social media and mobile digital devices, but these are primarily for personal interactions and I prefer to keep this quite separate from my professional life.  Again, an early adopter and have been on these sites since their early days.  I have been a blogger since 2005 and this is the one personal life technology which I have used for work.  For several years before the existence of Moodle in UCL, I used Blogger as a means of providing on-line support to students on the courses I was teaching at the time.  The blog I am using here is one such example, if you look at previous posts, although it hasn't been used for this purpose since the advent of Moodle.  Here is another example, the blog from a previous Product Innovation course that I used to teach.

Am I Native or Immigrant?

I have always been a fairly early adopter of new technologies, and - whilst I didn't grow up in a Digital world - I use it fairly extensively for someone my age.  The majority of my friends my age (although with a couple of exceptions) can barely drive-mail and don't even use Smartphones, for example, preferring the voice / text only simplicity of the old-style mobile phones.

Based on my reflections here, I suspect am probably a Digital Immigrant rather than Native – I consider myself very trainable, and once adopted I like to develop my knowledge of a technology’s features and ‘push’ some of the more advanced facilities.

Native or Immigrant?  What do you think?

Or maybe I am an Analogue Native who became wedded to Digital (and thus secured my Digital Passport!).

This blog in 2007-08

This blog will not see much action in the future, as we are planning to use the UCL Moodle service to support students enrolled on the Project Management courses MAST3001 and MASTG001.

Effectively, this blog will be dormant. We don't plan on deleting the blog though, so links to articles will continue to function.

Here's a handy link to the UCL Moodle server.

(Moodle is the Virtual Learning Environment software that UCL will be using in the future. It's a bit like WebCT, not so much on steroids, as on healthy portions of hummus and lashings of organic green tea.)


Furthermore, Project Management is now part of the programme of the new Department of Management Science and Innovation. You might find some links about the place that refer to the predecessor centre (Management Studies). Please report this to us if you can't find what you are looking for.

We love marking!

And you love exams. That's what we all have to keep saying.

One of the wonderful things about marking 100's of exam papers is that we get to know the rich and diverse range of writing styles that you, our dear students, will employ as you struggle to get your points into words.

We are particularly proud of your creativity with the apostrophe. You know, we say tomatoes, you say tomato's. Let's call the hole thing of. OMG, what now. Try this:

Lifehacker brings you How to use the apostrophe, and other top grammatical tips.

The Last Courseworks

The project plans for Group D (Kevin & Elaine's group) are now marked and available for you to collect from the Management Studies Centre Office.

By now, everyone on the course this academic year (all four tutor groups, Terms 1 and 2) should know the status of their coursework.

Good luck with your exam results and final degrees!

Some Courseworks to Collect

The following courseworks are now marked and available for collection from the Management Studies Centre office:

Group B: Assignment 3, Project Plan, although not those students who were given extensions and submitted this week.

Group D: Assignment 2, Quantitative Criteria.

As soon as others become available, we will post further notices on this Blog.

BATNA and Negotiation

Student S asked us:

I wonder, does a person with higher power in the negotition have a higher BATNA?

It's generally thought of the other way round. The individual with the highest BATNA tends to have stronger bargaining power.

Thank you, but what is bargaining power? Do you mean it is less easier to walk away?

That's not bargaining power directly, although it can be related. How easy it is to walk away is usually determined by the BATNA (i.e. do you have other, equally good, or even better options if the negotiation fails).

Bargaining power is more about how far you can push the other side to get what you want. If you have stronger bargaining power, this means that you are in a better position to secure a bigger slice of the pie being negotiated. However, I would always argue that even with strong bargaining power a negotiator should always go for a Win / Win

Thank You!

Student D e-mailed us:

I would like to say many thanks to the entire project management teaching team (Elaine, Matt, Jane and Kevin) for providing the revision classes. I think I speak for everyone when I saw that your time and efforts are very greatly appreciated. The revision session was found to be very informative and helpful (particular thanks to superJane and the EV for dummies!).
PS - even though its not a question, please feel free to drop this on the blog.

Done! Thank you! it's great to receive feedback - and particularly when it's so positive. All feedback helps our forward planning.

WebCT

We've had a few worried e-mails from students who can't gain access to a WebCT that they think we have set up for the course, and who think they are missing out on materials etc.

Don't worry - there isn't a WebCT for the course - well, not a 'live' one anyway.

Several years ago Matt set up a dummy one for us to play around with, but it was never progressed. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about it.

It looks like someone, somewhere, centrally - and without any reference to the Project Management course team - has seen this dummy Web CT and has signed students up to it. Please ignore it.

We are sorry for any confusion or worry that this may have caused.

Case Study Tips

Student A asked us:

I have read through the case study a few times but still don't feel confident about it. can you please suggest any other ideas or tips on dealing with case studies.

This is quite a big question. Obviously I can't discuss any points about this year's case study per se, but can give out some general tips.

You will be given a clean copy of the case study in the exam room, so you're not expected to memorise it. However, make sure that you know this year's case study really well (you will then find it quicker and easier to answer the questions when you're under exam conditions).

The exam questions will generally ask you to apply your knowledge of various facets of project management to the case. The premise is that you will relate your answers to events / issues from the case.

Some students find it helpful to prepare by thinking about what questions we might ask. Of course, there's no guarantee that we'll ask what you thought of, but it can be better to be part-prepared - you never know - you might strike gold!

I set the case study questions, although I don't necessarily restrict them to the aspects of the course that I taught. I may set questions from anything covered in the syllabus.

Case study answers are often about the strength of your arguments, rather than 'right' or 'wrong' answers as such (which tend to be more in the other two sections of the paper). This follows the model of the first two courseworks, which were case study based and expected you to present a reasoned argument for a conclusion / recommendation.

There are - of course - some key points that I hope you will pick up, and some where I'll be disappointed if you don't identify them as issues. But marks are just as much for what you do with the points / issues you identify and not just about identifying them alone. Again - very much like the first two courseworks.

I hope this helps!

How Much Should I Write?

Student K asked us:

for C questions and B how much is appropriate to write, 2 paragraphs?

It depends on the question. The number of marks is a good indicator of size of answer. For example, a question worth 1-2 marks won't require more than 1-2 sentences at most, whereas if a question is worth 10 marks a more substantial answer will be needed. Have a look at the model answers we've put a link to (a few posts ago) - that will hopefully give you an indication of marks and how much to write.

Net Present Value

Student S asked us a couple of questions about NPV:

I'm doing NPV now and I realised i completly forgot your way of working out the discount factor with a simple calculator. I'v bought a normal casio now so i can work it out your way and now i cant figure out how to do it.

The way to calculate the discount factor (DF) using a simple (non-scientific calculator) can vary from calculator to calculator, but usually it's something like this:

Say the interest rate is 5%. To get the DF for each year plug in 1.05 ÷ =

This should give you the DF for year 1, and every time you press = you get the DF for the following year.

On some calculators, you don't need to press = but just keep pressing ÷ to get the DF for each year.

You'll have to play around with your own calculator to see which routine works on it.

Also, having looked at pass papers i realised you dont ask in any of them to work out NPV, apart from in a theorical way. Are we not expected to do this in the exam because we've already done it in the coursework?

I can't tell you what's in the exam. In the past, I have set an NPV calculation as a question, but it was quite a few years ago. You shouldn't exclude this from your revision.

And, Do we need to learn how to apply IRR and AARR as well as NPV? or just NPV?

I expect you to know what these are as far as we covered them in class (an overview). I don't expect you to calculate IRR because I didn't show you how to do that. The worked example in the Studypack is just for information and for your future reference when you leave us.

Read This First

Please can you check out this Blog before e-mailing us with questions. We are beginning to receive queries that we've already answered on these pages.

For example, student S e-mailed me:

I am doing project management this module, I would like to ask you that if its possible for you to give us the suggested solution to the past year papers ?? As I am thinking it will be a problem by just doing past year papers without knowing if the answers we have written down are correct or not. I personally think that this will be very helpful to us on how to tackle the exam quesions as we will know that what kind of solutions the examiners are looking for.

A selection of exam questions with examiners answers were given out at the last session -and there is a link in a previous post on this Blog to them.

I suggest you read through the last few posts on the Blog and you should find what you need.

I see you are in Group D - any reason that you are coming to me rather than Kevin and Elaine?

Which Lecturer Shall I Ask?

A student, that I shall refer to as student R, who is in one of my Project Management groups e-mailed Kevin Kiernan - who is not his lecturer (Kevin teaches Group D) - and who, as far as I'm aware, doesn't know this student - with the following request:

Dear Kevin: hi,i am doing mast3001 this year i did some multipl choise questions from the past exam papers, could you please correct for me?

Student R also didn't sign his real name that we all know him by, and that he usually signs at the end of e-mails and other correspondence. However, I recognised the e-mail address and the e-mail alias name that he used with Kevin, and I know who this student is.

As I have already mentioned in class and in this post, we don't give out answers to the multiple choice questions because this can inform the answers to this year's questions. As I also said in class and in the post highlighted previously, there is a set of practice multiple choice questions with answers on the Management Studies Centre web pages for you to use.

I really do hope this e-mail to Kevin was a mistake and not an attempt to 'play us off' against each other. I know I speak for all of the course team when I say that we take a dim view of any such activity.

As a general principle, it's best to contact the lecturer that taught you the aspect that you have a question about - as that person will be best placed to clarify the points he / she was making in the lecture.

In answer to the final question more generically - with around 300 students doing this course it would be impossible for the course team to try to correct students' revision practice efforts. This is why we give out handouts with some exam model answers - to give you an indication of style and type of response. We're happy to answer queries, but can't mark your efforts - Sorry!

What Shall I Revise?

Student K asked us:

I just want to ask that if you can give us some hints or some directions for revision, like which topic is more important and what sort of theoretical stuff you need us to know, etc.
the thing is during my revision I found found there are too much to look at and every part is written in very detail (it seems that we have to rememmber everything)

That's just about it. The exam covers the whole syllabus, in line with the APM's own exam for its own professional qualification. As we are accredited to the same level, we follow the same principle.

This isn't the type of exam where some topics are examined or are more important by tradition and others aren't. We can ask anything from the syllabus - although not every topic will necessarily come up every year - but we can't tell you what is and what isn't on the paper.

If you are an under-graduate, don't forget that you have multiple choice where we don't use negative marking. If you are a post-graduate, your section A has a choice of 4 from 6 questions. So there is some flexibility.

Look at past exam papers - this will give you a good indication of how we address the range of topics in the exam paper.

Multiple Choice - Why That Answer?

Student H asked us:

For the Section A multiple choice, are we required to elaborate on the answer that we chose? or do we just underline the answer and call that done? please let me know

No - you don't elaborate on your answer at all. All you have to do is select your chosen option by marking it with a horizontal line on the answer paper supplied. The multiple choice section is marked electronically - so no written words are needed from you.

We don't use negative marking - so if you're unsure, it's worth a guess.