Computing and ICT - OU Community Online

 Hi all,

I have a bit of an odd story... I've been working in IT for 5 years. I've been programming in all sorts of different languages throughout this time. The company I used to work for are one of the biggest companies in the world and I was supported up until a certain point with my programming. I am self taught and on the job taught. However, I believe one day without IT qualifications, I will hit a brick wall and won't be able further in my career. 

I have decided I needed to probably get a degree to get on in life. When seeking advice, I have been told due to my 5 years of IT experience in the "real world" (so to speak), it would be pointless me getting a BSc in Computing and IT because I would just be getting an expensive bit of paper that I already know about. So I have decided to look at doing the diploma in Software Development (D69) and probably going on to do a masters. 

I really need some advice on this though. Would I be completely out of my depth? Is it something someone here has already done and can give me some advice on it? I really need to speak to someone who has done the course that can speak to me regarding information. 

Thank you to all help. 

  Hi, I'm new to Open University, I am hoping to do B62- Computing and IT, but its been a long time since studying so i have opted in my path for an opening course first-Starting with Maths (Y182) which starts in March 2012. Then I hope to do My Digital Life which is a Level 1 course and hopefully if all goes well, take it from there.. Just wondering if anyone is doing Starting with Maths (Y182) on their planned route to doing B62- computing and IT (BSC)? Thanks :-)

They include laptops, internships and all-expenses paid trips to New York, South America, Florida, South Africa and Europe and the final ten students in each Award will be invited to attend the Undergraduate of the Year Awards in Canary Wharf, London on April 13, 2012, where the winners will be announced by The Rt Hon Michael Portillo from among the best and most employable students in the country.

There are 12 Awards up for grabs identifying the top undergraduates in IT and Computer Science, Management, Law, Arts and Humanities, Business and Finance, Engineering, Social Sciences, Construction, Engineering and Design, Low Carbon, Accountancy and Economics.

Plus there are two special awards: ‘The Future Business Leader’ Award open to students from any discipline and the ‘First Year’ Award open to undergraduates from any course who have just started their second year.

Enter at the Undergraduate of the Year Awards website

Closing date for entries is 31 January 2012.

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As part of the Gower Street Lecture Series organised by Waterstones, OU Senior Lecturer and philosopher Nigel Warburton, author of A Little History of Philosophy and pod-caster for Philosophy Bites will be in conversation with Eva Hoffman, author of Time and Michael Foley author of The Age of Absurdity. They will be discussing that age old Philosophical enquiry, ‘How To Live’ in this modern age of hyper fast technologies and instant communications, and asking: are we happy?

Time: 7pm
Venue: Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCL, Darwin Building, Malet Place, WC1E 7JG
Tickets: £8 / £5 students, available in-store at the customer order desk or online (follow this link)

About the Author
Nigel Warburton is a philosopher, currently Senior Lecturer at the Open University. He is best known as a populariser of philosophy, being author of a number of books of this genre, but he has also written academic works in esthetics and applied ethics. He regularly teaches courses on philosophy and art at Tate Modern and writes a monthly column 'Everyday Philosophy' for Prospect magazine. He runs a popular philosophy weblog Virtual Philosopher and with David Edmonds regularly podcasts interviews with top philosophers on a range of subjects at Philosophy Bites.

About the Book
Philosophy begins with questions about the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them how little they genuinely understood.

This engaging book introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas about the world and how best to live in it. In forty brief chapters, Nigel Warburton guides us on a chronological tour of the major ideas in the history of philosophy. He provides interesting and often quirky stories of the lives and deaths of thought-provoking philosophers from Socrates, who chose to die by hemlock poisoning rather than live on without the freedom to think for himself, to Peter Singer, who asks the disquieting philosophical and ethical questions that haunt our own times. Warburton not only makes philosophy accessible, he offers inspiration to think, argue, reason, and ask in the tradition of Socrates. A Little History of Philosophy presents the grand sweep of humanity's search for philosophical understanding and invites all to join in the discussion.

How to Live: The Age of the Internet, with OU Senior Lecturer Nigel Warburton