Draft degree title suffix claim rationale

I’ve only been given a few days to work on this, but I’m sure there’s room for improvement.

Requested degree title:

BA Hons, Learning, Technology, and Research: Information Technology

Justify your choice of preferred award title
1. Describe your work context (max 100 words)

I have worked in the IT industry for nearly 30 years, in various fields including Local Government, Commerce, Transport, Print & Publishing, the Voluntary Sector and Education, most recently as an IT Technician and ICT Subject cordinator in a well-equipped Primary school. With an eye on relocation and possibly remote working, I am currently exploring opportunities to develop and deploy my skills and knowlege of emerging internet based technologies.

2. Describe your intended research focus in support of the award title you are claiming. Say what it is that you will do in your studies that is directly applicable to the award title you want. In this you must justify your choice. (max 250 words)

The activities I have already undertaken towards the degree involved:

Year 1

• investigating the role of an ICT coodinator in a primary school.


• researching internet communities.


• experimenting with open souce software


• An action enquiry project looking at the use of net-connected computers in the classrooms.


• Developing my own use of IT to include Flash animation, Java applets, and web streaming video.


• Evaluating the potential for using weblogs (blogs) for school websites in order to encourage wider participation and multi-authorship.


• The use of Social Bookmarking web services ( Furl) to collaborate with others and automatically generate reference lists.

In the PDP module, I identified my most significant learning of year 1 as being that related to the use and implications of weblogs, RSS and blogging software..

Year 2

• A study of Constructivist learning theory and my own practice centered around the book “LOGO – a guide to learning through programming” by Goodyear (1984)


• The use of ‘webnotes’, a globally editable workspace.


• The authoring of a personal multimedia blog with sound video, digital photography, analysis, hypertext links and distributed conversation.


• The development of a Business Plan based around IT tutoring.


• Installation and use of Personal Wiki software ( Wikidpad) to write up course notes and subsequently convert them into an interlinking website.


• Installation to a remote web host of MediaWiki software and the sucessful facilitation of an online Community of Practice to create an extensive collaborative resource using my installation.


• Exploration of the use of collaborative goalsetting web service ( 43things) to drive SMART tasks, peer review progress and publish entries directly to blog.


• use of online photo-sharing web service ( Flickr) to build Communities of Interest, investigate Folksonomy tagging and publish pictures onto blog and Wiki.


• Invention of a markup language in which to author a playscript in a personal Wiki ( VoodooPad) exported and published as a printable pdf file.


• A case study of the introduction of the Wiki to a Community of Practice.


• use of MySQL and PHP to rationalise the MediaWiki database after Spambot attack.

Year 3

My research focus for the final year will be selected according to criteria to which I have added “must have a strong IT focus”

I will continue to publish all of my coursework and other related activities as I go along in the form of a multi-media website, as well as maintaining an online learning Journal, various other blogs and web services.

See more progress on: update my degree title suffix claim rationale