Learning journey

To start off I would like to apologise for the length of this entry. I fear it will be a long one.

During Fridays ICT lecture the group was asked to explain what their short (1 year), medium (5 years) and long term (10 years) learning goals were.

I have been working through this process since last year when I have an earth shattering realisation (I think that is te best way to put it without going into to much detail). The outcome was that I realised just how much I disliked my job and the career path I had chosen and was effectively locking myself into. The next phase of this thought process was to actually decide where I wanted to go from here. So I began to formulate my short, medium and long term plan. Beginning this time last year, here it goes;

Short term goals 1 year.
September last year I saw that I needed a significant change in my life so I hatched a plan to return to education. University to be specific. The course I chose, Forensic Computing. So everything I did was essentially geared towards achieving this goal. Something I am proud to say I achieved. Lastly I have enrolled on two short courses this academic year and plan to continue this every year.

Medium term goals 5 years
Being on a 3 year course my primary goal here is to obtain my Bsc (Hons), and embark on an Msc. However my biggest medium term goal is to learn as best I can from my past mistakes. Ofcourse none of my future learning could be achieved without first finding a stable job. This of course will involve its own learning curve.

Long term goals 10 years
This is a tough one to sit and think about. 10 years in the IT industry is more or less equivalent to 30 'real' years, such is the pace of new technology. Thankfully I recognise the need for life long learning and so intend to keep abrest new developments and take courses in order to keep my qualifications up to date.
Somewhere between the later part of my 5 year plan and the early part of my 10 year plan I hope to have a family of my own. This will be the focus of my 10 year learning plan.

Languages from hell

So it is the start of week 5. I feel like I am really settling into uni life and I finally feel like I made a really great decision when I applied for Forensic Computing. Like pretty much everyone I have spoken to so far I feel like I am struggling a bit in one major area.

..... You guessed it, systems programming. Judging by the mumber of people fervently working on their log books this afternoon and listening to some of the comments being made it struck me that i'm not all that far behind on it. So why do I feel as though I am at the bottom of a very long very steep mountain?

My solution to this problem? I set up a meeting with my tutor to go over what I have so far. I hope that it goes one of two ways.

He either says "no thats not what I am looking for", or "yes you are on the right track, but..."

I don't want a pat on the back for job well done I really want to know where I am going wrong, so I can do better.

Course Rep

Last week I volunteered along with someone else to be a course rep.

Today it was made official I am a joint course rep. I have my first board meeting on Monday which I am looking forward, but also feeling a little apprehensive about it. Mainly because I don't know exactly what to expect, or how seriously our opinions are taken.

I have a fair idea of what people are complaining about but for those in the group don't hesitate to come talk to me.

On a different subject I was reading a court case review on the train yesterday. It related to an anti-terrorist trial. I won't go into the details but one thing that seemed to stand out like a sore tumb, was the fact that the case hinged on getting one of the defendants to give the police a password. My question is, why couldn't the police use digital forensics to bypass it? You could maybe argue that it was because the password was too strong or that they didn't know what was used to encrypt it. But reading between the lines it struck me that it was because they were not allowed to!

Journey begins...

Or alternatively ... Hello World.

I think perhaps I should kick off this blog with a brief introduction to who I am.

I recently left full-time employment to pursue what some would call a hobby. For me it is more than that. It is what makes me tick.

Why a blog? The simple answer would be because it is part of my course to do so. However it is more than that. A blog not only provides an opportunity to reflect on my own learning curve, but it allows me to share it with everyone else.

As you may be able to tell from the title of this blog I am studying Forensic Computing. This will be the overwhelming theme of my blog.