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Oh, for the sake of Saint Eff. You know, I thought I’d done a fair amount of looking into what TU100 would entail. I read the OU documentation, I chatted to a few former students … At one point I said to one, “Sense seems to be a lot like Scratch.”  The response was that it was “similar.”

It isn’t similar. It’s Scratch.  It’s an old version of Scratch which was modified slightly to have inputs and outputs to the Senseboard.  These modifications have changed the structure of the .sb save files significantly enough so that the two can’t load each other’s programmes, but it’s the same thing.

So, if you’re looking to get a tiny bit of a jump on TU100 before the start of the module, head over to Scratch and check it out. It’s pretty cool.  My five year old son loves it.  I think I’ve mentioned it before.  You use drag-and-drop tiles to build a programme using conventional coding logic structures.  And you can make a cat fart.  (Which is where the part about my five year old son loving it comes in.)  You can do a lot more with it than that, but that’s pretty much how far he’s gotten.  It’ll run on just about anything, including a Raspberry Pi. (I’m already talking about the Pi too much, aren’t I? Fair enough.)

(I imagine it will get worse.)

Scratch is a good enough introduction to coding concepts for my son in Year 1, but it’s going to drive me a little batty.

I just think that it’s interesting that the OU is so uptight about making sure its students give so much attribution to original authors, but they’re pretty quiet about MIT’s input to their Sense environment.

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Student Finance marked my student loan application as approved and my declaration form as received this morning, even though it was in the same envelope as my identity and residence evidence.  The student loan process took just under three weeks to complete, and the entire enrolment process took almost exactly a month, even though I had to wait a good while for part-time student loans to open.

Since I applied for the loan, a few more dates have filtered to me from the Open University.  The module website for TU100 will open on 6 September.  The initial shipment of course materials will be shipped out on 9 September.  (I’m fairly close to Milton Keynes, so it shouldn’t be more than a couple of days before they arrive.)  These materials will include the Senseboard, which is a microcontroller with various inputs and outputs which can be programmed using a drag-and-drop programming environment called Sense.  I didn’t realise until today that I could download Sense ahead of time and play around with it.  The rest of the materials (books, apparently) will be shipped out on 25 November.  I’ll be ripping any DVDs I get so that I can load them onto tablets for easier access.

The first group of materials are for use beginning 1 October, which is the module start date.  This being distance learning, I don’t know how much that start date matters.  My initial hope was to have read through all the initial course material once by the “first day” of the module, so that I can focus my actual studies where they need to go.  I haven’t seen how much course material there is, though, but it does seem unlikely I’ll be able to get through it in only two weeks.

The second group of materials are for use beginning 17 December.  As I don’t reeeaaally think they’re going to have us start on a new block the Friday before Christmas holidays, I suspect that means the materials are really for use beginning the beginning of January.

When I look at the six different blocks, I am a bit nervous about how quickly they’re going to move.  It’ll be one TMA to the next to the next, and I hope that I can keep up, even though it’s an introductory module.

I think my next step is to have some fun playing with Sense.  I’m pretty sure that I can use it without the Senseboard to make some terrible games.  I’ve also got a hold of a Cisco switch (a Catalyst 3750) which will help with prepping for the CCNA.  I’ve managed Ciscos quite a bit, but most organisations I’ve worked for have used Netgear.  It’ll be nice to have one in my home lab for testing.

The only thing I regret is that I’d rather be taking the modules which are going to replace TU100 next year, TM111 and TM112.  Though if they also use the Senseboard, then it’s probably not all that different.

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Well, I’m officially enrolled. That step’s over. But my impatience may bite my behind later on.

I signed up for the course and the first module, TU100 – My Digital Life. It’s a requirement for the degree, but it’s being discontinued at the end of this academic year.  It’s being replaced by two 30 credit modules.  (Frankly, the two smaller modules sound more interesting, but what are you going to do.)

At the same time, I signed up for a student finance account.  I couldn’t sign up for an actual student loan, because it’s the first week of May, and apparently you can’t do that until the last week of May.  Because if the United Kingdom’s governmental services are anything, they’re arbitrary. Which I think should be the Civil Service’s slogan. “We’re nothing if not arbitrary.” Because in addition to being true, it’s also particularly difficult to parse. Like them.

Anyway, since I had the student finance account, and it asked me for my student finance account number when I signed up for the TU100 module … Erm … I think they think I’ve already been approved for the loan and now won’t be able to apply the actual loan to the module without a fistful of emails? That’s just how things typically go for me: I do what I’m supposed to do, which is absolutely not what I’m supposed to do.

Long story short (for me) I got an email confirming enrolment from 5/5/2016. Which is great for me, because it’s the same date in English and American.

Oh, one other thing. Since I’m a resident alien with ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain, meaning I’m a permanent resident), Open University wants proof that I’m legally here.  Except they put the requirements of what I’m supposed to send on one page that I can’t find. And I’m not entirely sure who to contact.  I’m just going to ignore it until after I’ve proven identity for the student loan, though, as I’m sure it will require the same evidences.